Gift Certs

[compunerdy]

I would like the system to Email the customer or better yet the recipient with a printable gift cert when the gift cert is activated.

[Shopping Cart Admin]

Hello,

We've resisted this request in the past, as you're effectively emailing with no security 'cash'. However if enough people feel comfortable with this and more requests come in for this, we'll reconsider.

[compunerdy]

Not sure exactly what you meant by that. Once the order is paid we still have to go in and manually activate the gift cert. Thats when I am asking for the E-mail to be sent.

[Shopping Cart Admin]

Hello,

Email is NOT secure. It would be pretty darn easy for someone to watch the emails sent to intercept your gift certificate codes. Sending an email to the user placing the order (upon activation), which required them to login with username and password to retrieve the gift certificate would be ok.

[AbleMods]

Not sure exactly what you meant by that. Once the order is paid we still have to go in and manually activate the gift cert. Thats when I am asking for the E-mail to be sent.

I didn't think AC7 actually "sent" the gift certificate does it?

I thought it just sent a notification that the gift certificate was available and instructed the recipient to return to the website and retrieve it?

I think Tim is just asking for automatic activation that triggers the email notification, not sending the actual gift cert itself.

[compunerdy]

Kind of both actually. I see a couple areas that could use improvement.

First when one is purchased it changed status to completed. I dont know about the rest of you but I dont keep a eye on orders in the completed status. This makes it easy to not notice the order and therefore no go in and mark the gift cert as activated. If its paid for why does it not auto activate?

Second it could be more user friendly. I had a customer purchase one but then had no idea what to do after that. She was wondering how she would get the gift cert to her son. I had to explain to her to just give him the long number to use. Without allowing the gift cert code to be sent in a E-mail I am not sure how to make this easier. Maybe a more descriptive print out cert?

[Jaz]

Maybe you can keep the code separate from the email. When someone buys a gift certificate, they want something present to people. It would be nice if there was a certificate, or at least an image that could be emailed to the recipient that makes it a bit more personal.

~Jaz

[ZLA]

It seems to me that for gift certificates to work, you need some way for the intended recipient to log in and download their certificate. They should be tied to an email address and given passwords that the customer can tell to the recipient.

It seems like a physical gift certificate would work well and you just need a way to easily print off the guide on the cert.

The real issue seems to be the status to completed. For a physical certificate, it shouldn't be complete until shipped.