Concering TRS with My MacBook Pro Purchase Involving Gift Cards

HungryFrog4120 on 08/05/2025 - 03:35
Last edited 08/05/2025 - 15:10

Hello Ozbargain,

I am asking for your guys wisdom with my upcoming purchase. I have crunched the numbers and I plan on buying a Macbook at officeworks using the price match and also with a large amount of gift cards, 56 gift cards to be exact. After this, I want to claim it at TRS when I go overseas and I'm wondering if me doing this will stuff up the TRS claim.

Does anyone know if I do this it'll be fine to claim at TRS? Will i be claiming the full price and be getting how much I would get normally if i I just paid for it without multiple gift cards? Another question is will I have just one receipt with multiple gift cards used or 56 receipts from Officeworks to claim at TRS? that would be a nightmare. Thank you very much for the help!

EDIT 1: I got 50 gift cards and was able to buy the MacBook successfully. I am currently the record holder for Officeworks most gift cards used. Please contact me if you would like my signature!

Electrical & Electronics Tourist Refund Scheme

Comments

  • stirlo on 08/05/2025 - 04:33
    +2

    They will provide a GST refund based on the invoice price which will show the GST amount. They don't care that you paid with giftcards.

    I have no first hand experience but normally you'd get a single receipt with each giftcard payment being in the bottom section where your credit card details normally are.

    Remember your name must be on the receipt if the purchase is for more than $1000.

  • MS Paint on 08/05/2025 - 06:22
    +7

    56 gift cards to be exact.

    They are going to love you at checkout

    • mapax on 08/05/2025 - 06:25
      +3

      ADAGCHS in 3…2…1…

      • mskeggs on 08/05/2025 - 07:42
        +4

        I never understand the hoops people jump through to save a couple of percent.

        • McMaferMur on 08/05/2025 - 07:46
          +2

          New ozb members mentality… after 10+ years they wont

        • Stewardo on 08/05/2025 - 08:25
          +3

          Hand in your membership

        • HungryFrog4120 on 08/05/2025 - 11:28
          +3

          this was $250 off a 2800 purchase so i consider that a pretty worth it ordeal for an hour of work

        • Drakesy on 08/05/2025 - 17:49
          +1

          I mean it can work out to be $200 for 2 hours of buying giftcards and redeeming them.

          But then again a lot of Ozbargainers are on $250k a year so it doesn't really matter to them

    • HungryFrog4120 on 08/05/2025 - 06:54

      HAHA they indeed will :P

    • boomramada on 08/05/2025 - 07:53

      This could be the new record ? lol

  • mskeggs on 08/05/2025 - 07:39

    I think the trouble will be the number of giftcards.
    Imagine the guy programming the POS system in 2005. “I need to set the variable for maximum giftcards, i’ll just set it stupidly high at 25. Nobody will ever be so inconsiderate to tie up a register for a hour trying to use more.”

    I bet there will be some sort of work around that involves invoice irregularities that then make the TRS claim harder.

    • McMaferMur on 08/05/2025 - 07:48

      Yep saw many times people with invoice longer than person height, and one full suitcase for the items, at trs counter

  • HungryFrog4120 on 08/05/2025 - 07:53
    +2

    My operation is 50% complete, I have the MacBook on hold at an Officeworks and am currently spawncamping the Big W for it to open. I have told the worker at officeworks about my plan and they said it's fine! Also it's gonna be one very long receipt!

    • MS Paint on 08/05/2025 - 07:55
      +2

      Set a stopwatch at checkout. Genuinely curious how long you tie up the register for.

      • HungryFrog4120 on 08/05/2025 - 09:09
        +2

        OZBARGAIN I HAVE SET A NEW RECORD OF 50 GIFT CARDS USED will make a post of evidence and the spoils. Calm waters never made a tough sailor

    • bargaino on 08/05/2025 - 09:37

      How much are you saving with the giftcards? And how does that compare to minimum wage per hour?

      • HungryFrog4120 on 08/05/2025 - 09:39

        The best climbers know how to fall

  • dahax77 on 08/05/2025 - 08:13
    +1

    There's a $900 TRS limit so if travelling on your own - you'll be over that.

  • tenpercent on 08/05/2025 - 09:50

    What's the cheapest overseas flight I can get so I can claim TRS on some things? Do I need to be out of the country for more than a day to receive the TRS GST refund?

    /s

  • Xetrok on 08/05/2025 - 09:50

    Will you keep it sealed in the box when you go through TRS?

    • HungryFrog4120 on 08/05/2025 - 15:04

      I would like to take it out and use it, I will inform you of what happens when I go to TRS.

  • spal on 08/05/2025 - 10:16

    I have first hand experience, paying with gift card or eBay discount code to not matter. Refund will be based on the GST shown on the invoice and the total price. Yes, eBay coupons is a hack, as they do not reduce the price, but get reflected as a payment received by the seller.
    However, the issue I see is that 56 gift cards would make the invoice super long to scan and claim via the TRS app. You might need to use the manual method and prepare to spend some time in the TRS queue. Also, I see Wokie Monster (OzB giftcards expert) saying the limit is 44 cards for OW for in store purchase.

  • 7ekn00 on 08/05/2025 - 10:18
    +1

    Prepare to lose all those TRS saving when busted bringing it back into the country :P

    • Drakesy on 08/05/2025 - 17:50

      Just did it with 2 iphones, never got caught.

  • joka on 08/05/2025 - 10:29

    Are you a Nigerian prince?

  • HungryFrog4120 on 08/05/2025 - 11:18
    +9

    Hello OzBargain,
    I am very proud to share that I have conquered the OzBargain record of 44 gift cards used at an Officeworks check out with 50 gift cards used. I will now recount my experience and the process in extreme detail.
    So anyways, my day starts with checking Officeworks for the item that I want which is the Macbook Pro 14-inch M4 Pro in Space Black. In my area, there was only a SINGLE macbook left in a store nearby. So I immediately pack my stuff and proceed to drive over there in haste. The store opens at 7am and I was not taking any chances of anyone getting this singular precious MacBook but me. I go in and get the MacBook and ask a worker about my plan and if there was a gift card limit and they said it was all fine and there was no limit. I would like to preface this story by saying that each worker I spoke to had varying accounts of the limit so I remain unsure about what the hard limit is and if there is one.

    Anyways, I ask the worker to leave the MacBook for me and that I'll be back, I proceed to my nearest Big W and spawn camp them as they open. When the gates finally raise, I go over to the gift card section and I am unsure if there is a limit of gift cards that I can purchase and I ask the worker who replies that there isn't one. With this newfound information, I proceed to grab 50, $50 gift cards, varying between Ultimate For You and Home. I was very apologetic to the worker for the hassle but deep down I was smiling at the money I was saving. Anyways, from my experience, at Big W they can only check out 10 ultimate gift cards at a time. There is no limit though on the amount of gift cards you can buy at Big W which I thought was crazy cause whats stopping someone from buying all of them. This was a tedious process as they had to peel the back and scan each one however after a short while the job was done. I had secured 50 gift cards and $2500 in value. I said my sincere thank you's and left. As I left, there was actually quite a few people doing the same thing of buying gift cards which was cool.

    After completing my objective of acquiring the gift cards, I drove back to the Officeworks where I saw my pristine Macbook sitting on the counter waiting for me, I whispered quietly "just a little longer, I'm coming to get you". I would like to point out that at this time, it was around 8:30AM and the officeworks was extremely dead. I was the only customer, I would never do this when it was busy. At the checkout I present to the worker my gift cards to which they are surprised, not that surprised though because this is actually a pretty regular occurrence. I was told that this has been the most gift cards they have seen and that yesterday, a like-minded individual was here and used 30 gift cards for an iPhone. Anyways, I've never used these gift cards before and was unaware I had to remove them and scratch them off. So having to do that for each gift card was pretty tedious, thankfully another worker helped out and they shared some information and stories about using gift cards.

    This worker that appeared to help said that there is no limit but after a certain point, it becomes very laggy and slow. They mentioned that it was probably in the 50s but they are unsure because no one has used that many and it is reliant on the POS, they also told stories of individuals doing this same thing and one card not working and then having to sift through all the gift cards again to determine what went wrong. Hearing that story was refreshing because it gave me room for error if I accidently swiped a card wrong or whatever. Regardless, I was determined to pull off this plan smoothly and I locked in and swiped the cards and slammed in their respective PINs.

    I wanted to go for my initial 56 gift cards but I was worried about it not working and decided to play it safe. I'm glad I did that because around the 45-48 gift card mark, it froze for like 3 minutes and I was shitting bricks because I did not want to go through that process again. On the worker's side, the most recent card that I swiped didn't seem to register but when I swiped it again, it said that it was used. We disregarded this and continued powering through the gift cards and when we finished, it all added up and each gift card I used was registered. I was euphoric in happiness because I had just dropped 2.5 bands on these gift cards and if they didn't work i would've been absolutely cooked. Thankfully, the stars aligned and I was able to pay the remaining amount and walked out with an incredibly long receipt and a smile on my face. I had entered the Officeworks a boy and stepped out a man. Thank you to the two Officework Workers who were very funny and every more so patient. Thank you OzBargain and Thank you Wookiemonster.

    Also to user Ms Paint, this ordeal from the moment I stepped in and stepped out took 30 minutes and 22 seconds. Everything went smoothly and this was not another gift card horror story. Will I ever do this again? definitely not :D

    This is my evidence, proof of it being 50 cards

    TLDR: Used 50 Gift Cards at office works, would not recommend more but it is definitely possible.

    • jv on 08/05/2025 - 12:29

      I had just dropped 2.5 bands on these gift cards

      Were they heavy duty bands?

    • mskeggs on 08/05/2025 - 12:51
      +1

      Nice write up, and I'm glad it worked!

    • mapax on 08/05/2025 - 14:05

      Congrats on dodging ADAGCHS, this time.

    • Drakesy on 08/05/2025 - 17:51

      You deserve a medal.

      Did they not have the $100 denomination?

      • WookieMonster on 09/05/2025 - 09:15

        BIG W sells Ultimate Home gift cards in a $100 fixed denomination, but those are excluded from the current promotion. I scanned a $100 Ultimate Home gift card at a checkout yesterday and it was not discounted.

        BIG W does not sell Ultimate Just For You gift cards in a $100 fixed denomination.

    • Deridas on 08/05/2025 - 19:48

      Thanks so much for the post, it was good reading :).

    • tenpercent on 08/05/2025 - 19:53

      I had entered the Officeworks a boy and stepped out a man. Thank you to the two Officework Workers

      Bow chika wow wow!

    • stirlo on 09/05/2025 - 00:51

      I love this image of 50 gift cards sitting on top of the "Stop" scam warning poster on the counter

  • jv on 08/05/2025 - 12:27

    TRS will pay you back with gift cards.

  • CodeXD on 08/05/2025 - 19:52

    I am currently the record holder for Officeworks most gift cards used.

    I would like your source on this.

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