Giftcertificates.com Frustration!
I thought I'd post my unfortunate experience with them this week as I know there have been some recent issues there when they launched their new web site. And for those of you who use them, just beware.
I ordered an e-supercertificate a couple weeks ago as I had several gift cards to get and figured it would save me some errands. The certificate was emailed to me very promptly, but we were leaving on vacation for a few days so didn't get around to cashing it in for the individual gift cards until this past Tuesday. Figured I might be pushing Christmas delivery - my fault - so winced and paid for 2-day Fed Ex. They require signature on delivery and DH would be home Thurs and Fri, so good there, too.
When nothing had arrived by yesterday I checked online and saw no FedEx tracking number yet. Called their Customer Service, waited quite a long time to get through to someone and was told:
One or more of the gift cards I ordered is not in stock even though every single one I put in my shopping cart specifically said 'in stock'. The CS person said they know it's a problem that needs to be fixed on their web site. I did receive a confirmation of my order but never an email that anything was out of stock.
What she told me next really floored me - if one card is out of stock, they hold up the whole order until it's all there. OK, so I'll cancel whatever is out of stock, so the rest could ship. Good idea, except she didn't know which ones were out of stock. They all show 'waiting for inventory' even though she doubted that 10 gift cards were all out of stock - it was probably just one or two but no way to tell which ones. Just the way their system works.
I finally asked 'Am I going to get this order by Christmas?' and was told probably 50/50 chance - although they restock very often this time of year they don't know specific receipt dates for each gift card. So if the order will come by the end of this week, I realized no one would be home to sign for it so asked to have the shipping address changed. Nope, they can't do that when an order is waiting for inventory. She offered to cancel the order for the individual gift cards and refund the FedEx fee to my cc. But they will not accept returns for the supercertificate because 'it can be used anytime and never expires'. That doesn't help me pay for gift cards I'll have to run around to purchase this week, but 'that's their policy'.
I could tell the girl felt bad, and frustrated as I was, I felt badly for her as she really had no acceptable solutions to offer me. Compared to my own employer, the policies and communication of this company leave a lot to be desired. I understand that backorders happen, but we would never hold up available items and backorders are shipped as they arrive, even if that means several separate shipments. Whatever it takes to get the order out - especially at the holidays!
I will be calling gc.com back tomorrow, and won't plan to ever use them again which is too bad - because it could really be a convenient service. And it was the way they used to run it.
