issue with gift certificates not working

I've explored the forum to no avail. I have a cart that gift certificates is not working.

here are the details.

The version is 1.3.9h
The gift certificates module is turned on and showing as active.
I've insured that the cart is using the ot_gv.php for 1.3.9h and in fact, reuploaded it in case it was corrupted or something.

The site has no addons or customization.

When someone buys a gift certificate it goes thru as a normal order, meaning the shipping page is present. It records the order but not as a gift certificate.

I don't know what else to do or to look at.

When the customer buys the Gift Certificate, does the Product have the products_model starting with:
GIFT

in upper case?

Do you see, after the Order is complete in the Admin that there is a Gift Certificate queued for release?

If you release the Gift Certificate, after confirming payment, does the balance get added to the Customer's account for later use and does an email get sent to them that the Gift Certificate is now available in their Gift Certificate balance to either send to another person or use on a future order? :unsure:

1. No the product model does not start with "GIFT" in upper case. However, is not the product model arbitrary? If it is not and has to start with GIFT then that might be the problem but if so, where is this pointed out to a person when they create gift certificates in the admin? (However, upon reading your answer I went and changed the product model to say GIFT but it seems to not make any difference on the cart recognizing it as a gift certificate because once in the order form it still tries to apply shipping.)

2. No, once order is complete it is treated as any other product and nothing shows in admin queued for release nor otherwise.

3. last question n/a since there is no gift certificate showing in admin to begin with.

Products that are Gift Certificates need a products_model that starts with:
GIFT

anything after that is up to you ...

In addition, they need to be marked as:

Product is Virtual: **Yes, Skip Shipping Address **

Now the Product will be treated as a Gift Certificate ...