Giftcertifactes.com is a website where people can purchase gift cards from a variety of stores or purchase “super certificates” which recipients can redeem on their own for any of the gift cards the site sells. I have been using giftcertificates.com for a while now and find that, in some ways, it’s a very useful site, but I do have a few cmplaints. Here are some thoughts on Giftcertifcates.com.
I first encountered Giftcertifcates.com when I began being paid “Super Certificates” as compensation for a job I was doing. To use these “Super Certificates” I’d simply go to the GiftCertificate.com site and redeem said SuperCertificates for gift cards to any of the stores the site works with. I was pleased right away about several things. One, the exchange is simple and there’s no loss for me: you get a $50 Super Certificate, you can redeem it for a $50 (or five ten dollar, or two $25, etc…) gift card to a participating store of your choice. Second, Giftcertificates.com does business with a large variety of reputable stores, giving me good options. Third, “the redeem and get your card” process was easy. In general, I have to say, the several months since I’ve been redeem SuperCertificates and getting gift cards to cool stores, I have been mainly satisfied with all transactions.
I won’t list all the stores GiftCertificates.com works with here; just go to the site and see for yourself. I will say there are major retail outlets like Macys and JC Penney, services like Merry Maids and ChemLawn, smaller stores that have specific products like Lids and Bath & Body Works, restaurants, movie chains. You can even get gift cards for airfare, hotels, and rental cars. There are also cards for purely online stores like Drugstore.com and Overstock.com. There are a lot of high end companies, famous names like Staples and PetCo. You really do have a large variety of stores to choose from. As mentioned, you don’t have to buy someone a card to a specific store. You also can buy them a SuperCertificate and they can choose their own store to redeem it for. It’s sort of like giving someone a gift card for a mall.
Using the site is easy. Click on any of the stores you might want a gift card from – you can buy gift cards with regular money, by the way, not just these SuperCertificates. Once you click, you’re brought to a page for that store, with information on when and where you can use the cards, how they’re sent (email or snail mail) and what denominations are available. Some start at $5, some at $10, etc. Then you can either check out their official website to see if this is really the store you want a card for, or you can just go ahead and order the card. A fairly simple check out procedure follows, pretty much like what you get ordering anywhere online. And then the card is on its way.
And this is where my main complaint comes in, or maybe it’s just a warning. It’s very nice of GiftCertificates.com to not charge any shipping or fees (at least I haven’t been charged any yet.) But their mailing service is very slow. The order seems to be processed and shipped out pretty quickly, but it usually takes me about ten days to 2 weeks to get anything from them, which is weird, since it’s just a gift card in an envelope. I’m not sure where the process breaks down- between GiftCertificates.com and specific stores, or what, but, that’s the way it is. The main reason this is a problem is, if you want to send a gift card as a gift, (you can have cards shipped directly to third parties, of course…) you really need order it well in advance of the occasion. You need to plan even further ahead if you’re going to use the card yourself to buy the actual gift and ship it somewhere. This is obviously not a big deal in the grand scheme of life, but it’s sort of a bummer, and if you don’t know ahead of time, you may end up short. You can expedite the order for about $17, but if you’re sending a $25 gift card to someone, that seems pretty extreme, and a waste of money. And if you’re redeeming SuperCertificates someone else gave you, it defeats the purpose by turning “free” into “free plus $17 dollars shipping.” Again I ask “for a gift card?”
Another option is to get gift cards that ship to you via email. The problem here is relatively few of the stores have this option, and many who do have this option only email certificates which can be used online, not in their stores, which isn’t always helpful.
I guess another another complaint is about the store selection. Yes, there’s tons to choose from, but a good percentage of the stores offered are high end, or at least, medium end. I always have to debate whether I want to use my SuperCertificate on something I know I can get on Ebay or some cheaper retail store for a lot less- CDs, dvds, books. Sure, technically the item will be “free” since I used a gift card someone gave me, but, on the other hand, is that item really worth that much, even in card money? Could I be spending the gift card money better somewhere else? I guess that’s why it’s good there’s a big selection- you can opt to only buy cards for places not selling stuff you could find somewhere else for less.
Additionally, I guess it would hurt a lot of the smaller stores who do business with them if GiftCertificates.com offered cards for Amazon.com or Ebay or Target or something, but, other than Overstock.com and maybe TJMaxx of they don’t really have those “all under one roof” type stores a lot of people like. And there aren’t any toy stores. Some stores like JCPenney and Barnes & Noble do have toys, admittedly, but who wouldn’t find a use for gift cards for a Toys R Us or even a smaller boutique toy store around the holidays. Also, they don’t have toy stores or a really good Best Buy or Circuit City kind of store (no offense to TigerDirect or Crutchfield…).
All in all though, GiftCertificates.com does have a huge array of stores to choose from and it’s a pretty easy site to navigate. It’s a good browsing site, too. So, slow shipping aside, I have to say I recommend this business.
