GV invalid coupon code

I have an issue with a client and have searched the boards for days for a fix but have drawn a blank. I hope someone can help me. This is the problem she's having...

A customer bought a gift Certificate and then emailed it to her mother, that part worked fine and the gift certificate is showing up in the mother's shopping cart account. But when the mother went to use it to pay for her order, it would not let her and it says the code number is invalid. In her account in admin, the coupon code is there... but when I type it in the front end - or copy and paste it there, it says it's an invalid number.

I ended up telling the customer to just put the order through and to choose Internet transfer as the payment... but it means that she has the $100 credit still showing as valid in her account.

Can anyone please help??

A Gift Certificate has a redemption code when:

1 sent from the Admin

2 sent from one customer to another

Once the GV redemption code has been redeemed, there is a GV Balance, which you will see in the Customer listing ...

Once the GV has been redeemed and you see a Balance, then you need to Apply an amount to the Order on the checkout_payment page ...

You do not need to reference the GV redemption code as it has already been redeemed if you see it in your balance ...

Thanks Linda. This makes sense!

You should practice with your own Customer Account(s) and see how purchasing Gift Certificates, sending to a friend, sending from the Admin etc. works to become familiar with this ...