American Greetings Will Eat Your Words
Written: Sep 11 '00 (Updated Sep 12 '00)
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American Greetings.com is a service that provides on- line greeting cards, gifts, and a few other services. It joins the long list of internet service providers that give procrastinators a last- second chance to send a greeting card to a friend or family member.
Features:
This service has a large selection of cards to fit most any occasion. It offers cards for birthdays, get well, holidays, weddings, etc., just like most of the other internet greeting card service providers. It also lets you select font and color, and you can add a photo, if you wish. Most of the cards are animated, and most of the animation is colorful and interesting. There is also a feature that lets you include a gift certificate with your card.
If you don't like the impersonal nature of sending cards via e-mail, American Greetings.com has other options. You can create and printout your own card, or you can shop for a card and then have it sent to you by regular mail. The disadvantage of this latter method is that it will cost you some money.
Besides greeting cards, this site has a few other things to offer, like a games and comics section, and a place to shop for gifts. This gift feature is nothing more than a page with links into other web sites. For example, if you want to order flowers, it will simply link you into FTD, or some other web site that specializes in the product you want to buy.
If you want to keep track of your cards, there is a place in the site to establish your own personal page. With your own personal page, you can setup an address book; a scrapbook containing all of the greeting cards you have received; reminders of important dates; and a history file containing copies of all the cards you have sent.
What's Wrong With This Service:
American Greetings.com does have a few flaws that should be pointed out. The number one problem I have with this site is that it often will cut off sentences. I will receive a card from someone, and only the first part of their message is displayed. What's worse is that, when you're typing your message, it never warns you that you have exceeded the limit! You won't find out until the next day, when you get an e-mail from your friend or family member, wanting to know what the rest of your message was all about. I contacted American Greetings.com about this problem, and they replied: "that's just the way it works".
Another bad feature is that there isn't any notification option, to tell you when your card has been picked up. Practically every other greeting card service has this feature. American Greetings.com does let you send a copy to yourself, but there is no option to click to get notification of a successful delivery. It's supposed to notify you automatically, but this service is unreliable. Sometimes it works and I get my notification; other times, it doesn't work.
One more thing to watch: When you are about to send your card, there are two boxes that are automatically defaulted to "yes". If you don't click these boxes to change them to "no", you will receive the American Greetings e-mail newsletter, along with special promotions and offers. These really should be defaulted to "no", but American Greetings doesn't want to miss any chance to send you a little spam, so they default to "yes".
Final Thoughts:
American Greetings.com is an ok service, and it does an adequate job of getting a card to someone when you're in a pinch. But the negative aspects that I mention above are inexcusable for this type of service. I recommend sticking with Yahoo Greetings, Blue Mountain, or some other service that doesn't limit your message without even telling you that you've reached the limit.
Recommended:
No
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