It just came to my attention that a new law was recently put into effect in Massachusetts regarding Gift Certificates with a specific clause to electronic gift cards & electronic gift certificates. Since I'm in Mass our company is subject to this law.

To whom must the receipt go, Robert? To the buyer or to the receiver?

To the buyer... however, I don't know if an "electronic receipt" would be considered valid as it does specifically state in the law "a printed sales receipt ". This is why I think a great solution would be a simple ASP page that asks for an email address and the GC code to email all the details to (issue date, original amount, remaining amount, expiration date, etc.) This would also deter people from "fishing" for valid GC codes, as a email address would be required.

Ultimate,

I agree. I think the Gift Certificate process needs to be upgraded with more options and control such as expiration date..etc.. It would be nice if you can print it out through the site as well (gift certificate editable image with your logo and such on it.)

Great idea MineralBeauty! I'm in the process of creating an image for physical gift certificates to send out as promotions, merchandise credits, etc. It would be nice if it was viewable as you mentioned. Maybe instead of an email with all the details it would be an encrypted URL which is only valid for x hours (48 hours for example) that displays the information. Afterwhich they would need to resubmit a request for a new URL to check at a later date.

My only concern would be making it too easy for people to "play around" with codes until they find "other customers" gift certificates.

The code generator must include a good number involving combinations of characters and numbers to eliminate any hacking or tampering. (maybe similar to SSL). Having Both an Email version and a printible option would be beneficial for many reasons. In addition having a ready made template that can include your logo, To/from, maybe a message from the person giving the gift for an occation, or an advertisement...it can be utilized to its full capacity. Hope we can explore these ideas...Great topic Ultimate!

I thought the GCs only expiration date would be when the customer used up the entire amount of the GC as it was intended as developed by MC? And aren't the PINs selected at random? Is there that much fraud happening with people trying to "fish" (as Ultimate posted) for PIN #s? As I currently have no customers utilizing online GCs I am only asking.

I have my current GC page set up whereby the person buying a GC for someone else (for whatever occasion) is notified that GCs are circulated online but should they choose to have it snail mailed, they are asked to put the receiver's info in the "Special Instructions" text area, along with their message. Once I receive this in Admin, I would go through and manually enter the info/message, etc. on a hard copy to mail out. I too, created a custom GC for manual purchases, but would not know how to generate a PIN # that the system would recognize once the customer comes to use it online. Unless we were able to key in this info from the backend; but then we'd need to know the recipient's email address (and password?) or do we have the exisiting capability to enter in a "first use" password code until the customer logs in and then can change their password?

I believe I am getting off on a tangent but in writing this thread, you have spurred more questions. Again, I have not had any experience in the GC issues so I am just adding in my 2 cents worth, on a "penny for your thoughts".

Thanks for the space, and hope everyone had a very happy and safe 4th of July!

Beverly

To answer the hacking GC's question, in V4.0 we have a random generated number which will never be close to any other gift certificate number, the minimizes the chances of the user trying to figure out other GC's numbers.

About the new law and exp of the GC's we will have to make a new section inside "My Account" to allow the user to view their GC's. We can also add an exp date to the GC.

I use a 'yucky' work around in the current version to generate gift certificate codes so I can have some pre-generated gift certificates.

I actually go in and 'buy' my gift certificates in whatever denomination. But the 'yucky' part is that I have to unhide a custom payment method that is essentially junk. Use that instead of a credit card, and then go back and hide it immediately after the sale. Not the most elegant of solutions, but I'm then able to have gift certificates that I can use both in-store and online.

I've used this method a lot for gift certificate promotions where a customer spends $100 in our store location and receives a $10 online only gift certificate. This drives people to our online store, or they're able to send the gift certificate to a friend.

I'm hoping that in version 4.0 we can generate gift certificates/merchandise credits through the admin panel without going through this type of workaround.

DetailsArt

Actually DetailsArt, the ability to manually generate a Gift Certificate from the admin panel is already implemented in 4.0 beta. I too use a similar hack like that to get GC pins for promos

As Robert kindly pointed out, this feature is already in V4.0.
Thanks for the help Robert, having you around makes my job easier