44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
holding a card is not as important as using the card number <=]
I *highly* recommend the electronic versions of the Amazon gift cards as well as the ones you can print on your own. I have never had a problem with either of these methods, nor have any of my card recipients.
Although it is theoretically better etiquette to give a physical card, I've found that because Amazon is an online vendor and the cardholder is going...
276 of 305 people found the following review helpful:
Horrible experience
Bought three $50 gift cards as gifts, received them and mailed them out. One week letter Amazon emailed me that the cards could not be activated and were no good and they were so sorry. I contacted Amazon and they could not explain what happened but again they were "sorry". So I had to contact recipients and explain their gift was worthless. 7 days later I'm still...
This review is from: Amazon.com $50 Gift Card (0109) (Paper Gift Certificate)
Bought three $50 gift cards as gifts, received them and mailed them out. One week letter Amazon emailed me that the cards could not be activated and were no good and they were so sorry. I contacted Amazon and they could not explain what happened but again they were "sorry". So I had to contact recipients and explain their gift was worthless. 7 days later I'm still waiting for a refund to my credit card.
Don't order these-the same thing could happen to you. How embarrassing to give these as gifts.
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Gift Cards are the truly personal gift. My only problem is after I received it and could have given it away as a gift I got an email from Amazon - whoops we forgot to activate your card. Be sure your card is good before giving as a gift. Amazon is very good about notifying and doing refunds but this could leave a procrastinator in the lurch with a bad gift which really will be good when Amazon knows the problem. Kudos for the quick second card and I've checked it and it's fully loaded. Thanks!
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This review is from: Amazon.com $50 Gift Card (0109) (Paper Gift Certificate)
I am a dedicated Amazon.com shopper, and, am almost always happy. That being said, please note the top of the page should you be an Amazon Prime member. I NEVER thought that Gift Cards from Amazon.com would be subject to additional shipping and handling... The charge to me for two cards? Over $13.
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Amazon gift cards are now prime eligible, allowing Prime customers to enjoy FREE two-day shipping. As always, standard shipping is FREE for all customers.
After I ordered a gift card as a present for someone, it wasn't until after I had already given it to them that I found out the card was never activated. I got a refund, but it was just an annoying situation.
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This review is from: Amazon.com $50 Gift Card (0109) (Paper Gift Certificate)
If you've never had a problem shopping from Amazon.com, then you really are not experienced enough to be giving the "gift" of Amazon to someone else. Wait until you've experienced your first screw up, and then evaluate.
I received a gift certificate, but have had trouble using it, because Amazon.com's outsourced customer service does not handle issues well. They are apparently scripted to say that an appropriate person will contact you within 48 hours, but in my experience, follow up contact is not timely. When contact is made, it has been to tell me that the issue was not well documented by the prior agents and to start over explaining my concern once again. After that, I was told, once more, to wait 48 hours for follow-up that did not come. Rinse and repeat.
The problem is that Amazon.com has apparently fire-walled these folks in Bangalore (or some other asian town) from the rest of the company. Therefore, there can be no quick responses to customer concerns. For me, after five contacts, I spoke with a "team lead" who indicated that prior agents had not documented the subject matter of my prior calls (even though I was promised a pompt resolution by those agents).
Add to all this the fact that during the recent holiday season, Amazon.com raised the price of the item I wished to purchase more than once, at the same time that the item's manufacturer was offering it for considerably less. This makes having my "gift" money tied up in an Amazon.com account less than ideal.
Do not expect that the person to whom you intend to give a gift will not have to deal with the customer service department. Try to be forward-thinking enough to consider that a problem might occur. If it does, the recipient will likely have a very negative experience, regardless of the variety of products offered by Amazon.com.
When I asked an Amazon.com customer service agent why Amazon.com was charging 150% of what the manufacturer was selling the product for directly, I was told that the additional expense should be considered to cover the expert customer service available at Amazon.com. This is terribly amusing, considering that the only thing that the agents tend to do is instruct the customer to wait 48 hours for someone else to address the problem (which, in my experience, does not happen).
If you are set on letting someone choose their own gift, you should consider a pre-paid Visa or Mastercard. That way, the recipient could use the funds at Amazon.com if he or she so chooses, and is still free to purchase something locally from a person who could not avoid responding to a customer's concerns.
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I purchased a GC to be mailed on Dec 16th and it still has not be received by Dec 28th. On Dec 28th, I called Amazon customer service and switched the GC to email and I received in less than 2 minutes. As background, I sent this originally via regular mail so the person had something to open for Christmas. As an fyi, the customer service people do not appear to have a clue, as they told me it will take 12 to 48 hours to receive an email gift certificate, but I had it in less than 2 minutes. In short, I should have listened to the other negative feedback before ordering.
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I purchased 4 gift cards that were supposed to have a personalized gift message. There was no gift message on any of the cards and the envelopes did not identify who the intended recepient was. First item that I ever purchased from Amazon that I was not satisfied with.
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The cards are worthless. The activation codes don't work, then "customer service" intentionally gives you the runaround. It's a total scam and Amazon should be embarrassed. I previously posted a 1 Star review about the gift cards and Amazon didn't post it. The positive reviews are posted by their own employees - don't believe them.
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This review is from: Amazon.com $50 Gift Card (0109) (Paper Gift Certificate)
Received the card in a timely manner, but would not work. Kept getting a very uninformative "We're working on the problem, try again in a few minutes" message from Amazon. Two days later and two phone calls to barely understandable customer service I was told that it was active and applied to the account. But it wasn't. Guess it's time for call #3.
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My bosses gave me a $50.00 gift card a couple of years ago and I could never use it. I got the run-around from so many people online that I finally gave up. I told my bosses and they replaced the gift with a Borders card. The one that ordered it had to fight with her credit card company about reimbusement. I still order from Amazon but merchandise only. I would never, ever buy a gift card from them or suggest to anyone I care about that they should do so either.
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