+1 to Amazon gift card purchasing, screw a few other places

[SteveLord]

Why do stores advertise instant gift cards to your email when they do not arrive within a few hours or even within a few days?

Yet Amazon let me purchase, receive in email and print via PDF all within a few minutes?

-Toys R Us. "Please note that the eGift card should be received within several hours of ordering. However, if the order is delayed in the review process, the purchaser will be notified via e-mail to contact customer service and it could take up to several days to be received."

Godfather of my oldest, bought 4 Toys R Us gift cards for the kids to be delivered via email on the 22nd. I received 1 of them on the 23rd at 12:58AM. The other 3 have yet to hit my inbox.

-Newegg. "A gift card purchased on our website. Emailed in 1-2 business days or by the delivery date you choose."

-Gamestop. "Digital Gift Certificates are delivered via email within 48 hours of processing (excluding major holidays) and can also include a gift message."

I figured being almost 2013 now, holidays or not...these other popular stores could operate a little quicker. If Amazon can do it, why can't others? Thank goodness Amazon has more than just books.

 

[Robert17]

You would think that most of these places would have some pretty sophisticated software running these back office activities. But if my experience is any help, 1) credit card verification 2) bean counters sneak in a lot of layers of verification, accounting and tax code into the system before 3) they tell the printing/emailing department, 4) who also has to properly cross-check the emails, 5) for the automated-as-all-git-out system to spit out your chit.

Remember that the biggest retail shopping period of the year also yields the most retail financial fraud.

 

[freakdiablo]

You would think that most of these places would have some pretty sophisticated software running these back office activities. But if my experience is any help, 1) credit card verification 2) bean counters sneak in a lot of layers of verification, accounting and tax code into the system before 3) they tell the printing/emailing department, 4) who also has to properly cross-check the emails, 5) for the automated-as-all-git-out system to spit out your chit.

Remember that the biggest retail shopping period of the year also yields the most retail financial fraud.

That makes some sense. I mean, there's a lot of fraud protection that goes into these things. I used to work as a cashier at a grocery store that also sold gift cards. Any time someone bought more than $20 worth, I had to call over a supervisor who had to check ID and punch a code into the register, turning what would have been a 30 second transaction into a 5 minute one.

Now, imagine that type of load spread out across potentially thousands of separate transactions at any given time, most likely more during this time of the year. I suspect Amazon just has developed a way to send out a code while validating it and still managing to cover their own ***.