problem sending gift certificates to a family overseas

usignuolo

I have relatives overseas in the USA. There are several children scattered around, some at home, some at college, some working away. I wanted to buy them gift vouchers this year and found a website for an organisation which offers them in the right area of interest.

The first thing is that you have to give the name of the person who will receive and use the certificate. OK I can see that, to avoid theft. Then you have to give their home address. OK. Here is the problem, each certificate can only be sent to the named user at their home address.

The family are collecting together from around the US for Christmas in a rented farmhouse. I agreed with my friend, who is their mother, to have all the certificates sent to her and she would hand them out on Christmas day for me.

No can do. It seems each certificate must be sent to the name and home address of the individual recipient and nowhere else. Anyone else got any experience of sending gift certificates to a group or family either here or overseas? Have you had the same experience?

safesound

So use the name of the recipient as normal but substitute the address of the lady who is happy to hand them out, that way they know which is which but they still get them all at once.

usignuolo

It's worse than that - the certificates are non transferable, issued in recipients name and have to be sent to the current valid street address of the recipient. Their name and address will be cross checked when they present them to use them. No match and it is invalid. You can't even send a joint certificate to a couple as all gift certificates are issued according to US credit card regulations and can only have one named person on the card.

I know there need to be safeguards against fraud but this is daft.

Mr_K

I've done the same thing for relatives in the USA using Amazon, its easy. If you're set up for the UK Amazon you can use your log in details get into the US site, Amazon.com. Buy a gift voucher (in US Dollars) and it can get emailed directly to the recipient in seconds, no messing around.

usignuolo

Thanks I had thought of that, in this case I wanted to hand over an actual certificate (or get someone to do it for me). What seems to have happened with gift certificates - in the uS at least - is that they are now issued on credit card type cards. This is useful for the issuing organisation, and to some extent the recipient, because they do not need to use the full amount at one time but can have just the actual amount spent deducted. And the store etc does not need to hand out change so it keeps the full value of the gift cert.

However it seems by by making gift certificates into money holding smart cards, they also fall under credit card legislation which, in the USA at least, means they can only be issued to a named individual person at their official current address in just the same way as a credit card.

This is daft really because they are not credit cards, you are not going to be invoiced for spending them and also it means of course that they are not transferable.