Gift Certificate Question...

[RocketFoot]

I have a question...

I set up a Gift Cert and all is working fine. The question is, when I use check/money order as payment on the test I did, it still sent the GV to me even though I didn't mark it processed or anything. I have removed the queue option. I didn't try, but would I not have been able to redeem the code until I marked the sale processed? Or should I just leave it on admin release queue? I just wanted customers to get instant gratification if they purchase a Gift Cert...

Please advise...

[haredo]

I have a question...

I set up a Gift Cert and all is working fine. The question is, when I use check/money order as payment on the test I did, it still sent the GV to me even though I didn't mark it processed or anything. I have removed the queue option. I didn't try, but would I not have been able to redeem the code until I marked the sale processed? Or should I just leave it on admin release queue? I just wanted customers to get instant gratification if they purchase a Gift Cert...

Please advise...

Ro,
HOW DOES IT WORK THEN ?

After the Administrator has approved the Gift Certificate (There's a "release" button in admin area if someone buys one), THEN the Gift Certificate funds are made available to the customer.

Upon release/approval, they are sent an email with a redemption code. When they redeem that code either by clicking on the link or by keying in the code on the checkout-payment page (or the gv-redemption screen), then the customer will have GV funds available to them for use in that or future transactions.

The customer can then USE those funds for themselves, OR they can email them to friend(s) via the links provided automatically in the store (esp shopping cart sidebox). They can email as much as they want, to various people, up to the amount they've purchased. Whoever they email it to will receive a new redemption code and will follow the same redemption process ... and can email the funds again if they wish.

How do I sell Gift Certificates?

1. Create Gift Certificate products as described above
2. Enable the Gift Certificate order-total module, as described above
3. Draw attention to gift certificates on your store, perhaps by creating a home-page graphic with a link to your gift-certificates category. Sometimes people will create a new sidebox just for drawing attention to this sort of thing.
4. When Gift Certificates are purchased, be sure to log into your Admin area and release them if you've configured it to queue them rather than auto-release them.

[RocketFoot]

Thanks for the reply, I did read that in the tutorial section, but It still doesn't tell me if the funds are instantly available to check/MO customers (with the queue turned off) I assume that it does, so I am just going to turn the queue back on.