GiftCertificates.com: Now, Give Even the Right Gift Certificates
Written: Jan 06 '05
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I'll be perfectly honest; I'd never heard about GiftCertificates.com until just this past holiday season. I recently joined Upromise and was trying to do as much of my online holiday shopping through them as I could. I know how much my father loves NetFlix, and a quick search told me the only way to get Upromise credit for a NetFlix certificate was through GiftCertificates.com, so I decided to give it a try.
::: The Perfect Perfect Gift :::
GiftCertificates.com sounds like a fairly basic site, but there is more to it than initially meets the eye. In addition to providing a centralized location to almost any major online retailer you can think of, they also offer SuperCertificates that can be redeemed at any of the stores GiftCertificates.com offers gift certificates to. SuperCertificates can be ordered in advance, and GiftCertificates.com also provides a reminder service for special dates you might want to shop for.
The site has a clean design, and is well-organized, allowing you to shop for a specific gift certificate by merchant, occasion, category, monetary denomination, or location. Most merchants allow for their gift certificates to be sent via mail, FedEx, or email, but some merchants provide email-only gift certificates. GiftCertificates.com also caters to business needs for volume gift certificate purchases. Methods of payment accepted are Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, as well as SuperCertificates, which makes me imagine a huge circle of people giving gift certificates as gifts that they pay for with their own gift certificates, like the Circle of Cash.
Fees and shipping charges are spelled out very simply, with no charge for email certificates or USPS mailing of SuperCertificates. A nominal fee is charged for the purchase of emailable and physical SuperCertificates, with no additional fees charged for merchant certificates, no matter how they are sent. In addition, you can also purchase American Express Gift Cheques, which have their own schedule of fees associated with them.
::: A Little Extra Work for a Little Extra Money :::
It might have been simpler to go to NetFlix directly, but I'm a daring girl, and I figured that not only would I get to try out a new online service and earn money for my children's Upromise accounts, I'd also get to write up my experience, so it was a win-win-win situation for me. NetFlix gift certificates were only available in two denominations: three months for $55.00 or five months for $90.00. I chose the five month option (an incredible idea on my part since my mother ended up breaking her leg), and went to check out.
As it turns out, NetFlix does not provide physical certificates, and all gift certificates have to be emailed directly to the recipient. This wouldn't have been a huge deal if it didn't mean I was going to have to buy my father's certificate Christmas morning so that he wouldn't receive the email before opening gifts Christmas Day. I ordered the certificate at about 10:00 AM Christmas Day, assuming that the certificate would be in his inbox by the time we arrived at their house for lunch. I was able to personalize the subject line of the email (to make sure he didn't think it was junk mail and delete it) as well as add in a gift message. I received email confirmation of my order, as well as another email at 1:00 PM to say that the gift certificate had been sent.
Christmas Day came and went and no email arrived. My father checked again before we left my parents' house that evening, and still no gift certificate had arrived. He checked again on the 26th, and still had no gift certificate, so I emailed GiftCertificates.com the first thing the morning of the 27th. I received a very prompt response with directions to double check the recipient's address (which I had already done) and also to make sure that it hadn't been filtered as spam (it hadn't). They also promised to send out another email certificate immediately, and my father had his NetFlix certificate that same day.
::: Repeat Business? :::
As I stated, I had more than one reason to go the roundabout way to get a gift certificate through GiftCertificates.com, and in this instance, I felt it was worth it to get the additional dollars from Upromise. However, it was a bit frustrating that I couldn't schedule a gift to be sent in advance for the merchant I chose, and I would have liked to see more options from NetFlix for denominations.
While I did experience a bit of a glitch in the delivery, I'm giving GiftCertificates.com the benefit of the doubt since I'm sure they were operating at maximum capacity Christmas Day, and Customer Service was very prompt at getting the situation resolved.
I'm not sure that I would use GiftCertificates.com again for a specific vendor, but I really liked the idea of the SuperCertificates. There are so many times when you want to send a gift certificate, but aren't completely sure what people might like or what brick and mortar stores are in their area if they aren't online shoppers.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? NetFlix gift certificate
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About the Author
Reviews written: 1186
Trusted by: 184 members
About Me: Divorce seriously cuts into the amount of time for reviewing.
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