[sweetpeas]

Hi, I'm new to this WAHM thing, am just starting a website selling candles. I'd love to offer gift certificates but I'm trying to figure out the logistics of it. One of the advantages (as I see it) of gift certificates is that someone can order one last minute & I can e-mail it to them for them to print out. (so, say someone suddenly realized they need to get a Christmas gift for great aunt Sally, they can order it from my site today, I can e-mail it to them tomorrow and they can print it out & have it to give to Great Aunt Sally when they meet her for lunch on Tuesday. KWIM?). But . . . here's what I'm wondering about (& maybe I'm overthinking here). If I e-mail them a printable gift certificate, it's going to have a "coupon code" on it that Great Aunt Sally will use to redeem the certificate. BUT . . . what if they decide to print one for Great Aunt Sally, one for Cousin Sue & one for their neighbor. So the day after Christmas, Cousin Sue hops online & uses "her" GC. The following day, Aunt Sally tries to use her's & I have to tell her that it's an invalid coupon code because it's already been redeemed. Logically, that should make Aunt Sally mad at the giver who gave her a counterfeit GC, but human nature being what it is, isn't it more likely that Aunt Sally's going to be mad at the stupid woman at that candle website who wouldn't let her use the GC that her dear sweet nephew gave her for Christmas?

Like I said, maybe I'm just overthinking this, is this something any of you have run into &/or how do you avoid it?

Thanks,

 

[Izzybee]

What about a paper gift certicate that you would snail mail?

 

[bugmomma]

You'll find that 99.9% of your customers are totally awesome and completely honest. I offer GC's. I mail the actual gift certificate to the recipient. Though, if a customer needed it emailed I wouldn't hesitate to email them one with the coupon code...call me silly but I don't think you'll have to worry about anyone but the recipient using it. If you received an order with the coupon code and you weren't sure it was the recipient you could always throw the customer a little e-mailing letting them know that you received the order and wanted to confirm that 'Jane Doe' was the person she gave it to.

just my two cents.
Lacey

 

[sweetpeas]

Thanks, I would offer paper/snail mail gc's as well, but somehow with a website it seems to make sense to be able to e-mail the GC (for the last minute shoppers LOL).

Someone I was talking to suggested pre-printing the recipient's name on the GC, so that I could check name & code when I received the order, so I may go with that approach. But any other suggestions, feedback welcome

 

[CarrieMF]

You could make it so each GC has their own coupon code that can only be used once.