Hard copy Gift Cerificate

Hi Guys

I am wondering how I can give the client an option of having a gift certificate sent either through email or have it sent as a paper based printed professional gift certificate if at all possible?

Or even have the graphic of the certificate attched to the email to be printed up with the persons name , code and value.

Michael

Add to email:

For your Snail Mail Gift Certificate ... send the amount of each individual Gift Certificate along with the address you wish to have it mailed to and any message to appear on the card to:

GiftCertificates@your_domain.com

And we will send our beautifully designed Gift Certificate to your favorite friend, teacher, business associate, mom, dad, kids, blah blah blah

Now, you have the money passed back to you to "collect" and can generate a new code for the SnailMail account ...

Or have them send that code ... but it is hard for a person to manage this ...

Or take the time to build a nice handy add-on for SnailMail it!

Playful:

Hi Guys

I am wondering how I can give the client an option of having a gift certificate sent either through email or have it sent as a paper based printed professional gift certificate if at all possible?

Or even have the graphic of the certificate attched to the email to be printed up with the persons name , code and value.

Michael

I'm working on this right now. I need to test it but here is how I am tentatively planning to do it.

1. Have Gift Certificate option in Products area (maybe as an Gift Cert attribute, not sure till I test).
2. I'm designing a Gift Certificate hard copy.
3. Generate a coupon & coupon code for the Gift Cert amount with no minimum purchase amount required, redeemable once only.
4. On my "hard copy" GC, type in the coupon code so the customer's recipient can enter it at checkout.
5. Take this "hard copy" and turn it into a PDF; then email this to the customer to print out and give to their person.

I don't want to deal with mailing it myself, etc. But, if you wanted to, you may be able to use the same process I am working on here simply print it on whatever paper you want and mail it.

When i get through this whole thing, if there is interest, I will post the results. Right now, i don't see any reason why this will not work, but you never know till you test it. Hopefully within the next few days.

oh, I guess you could make the PDF a downloadable file after purchase but I want to be sure the $ goes through okay first.

I am looking for a similar mod. I have many repeat customers that come back regularly and I want to be able to use the Coupon Admin to create a coupon as a reward. I am wanting this to have a unique redeem code of course and be able to either print them with the information on the coupon or email (my choosing) to the customer. I have one today whose package is going out and wanted to find something to include in her purchase that she could redeem on her next purchase. Ideally I wanted it to look like the banner I use for my store which is close enough in shape to look like a dollar bill size and print the code where a serial number would be on a dollar bill.

For a coupon code, you could create the coupon in the Admin, select your own code. Then create a hard copy design, plug that number into the hard copy and send out. Be sure to state that it is a COUPON rather than a gift certificate.

The only way I can get the hard copy GIFT CERTIFICATE to work is thusly:

1. Buy a GC for myself for say $100.
2. When someone buys a hard copy GC in say $25, send that amount TO ME at a second email address and get the** redemption number** out of the email.
3. Put the GC redemption number into the hard copy.
4. Turn the hard copy master into PDF and email to the person.

It has to be a gift certificate IN CASE the person does not use the whole value. Coupons do not support a credit balance where the gift certificate does.

Sorry, but i'm really pissed with how the Gift Certificates are supposed to work. Apparently, i CANNOT make a hard copy and send to a customer because i cannot get the "code." This is so dumb and i'm so frustrated right now.

Why would a customer spend $100 on a gift certificate to keep in their account? Who buys a gift certificate for themselves? Who wants to hassle of sending emailing a GC to their friend, isn't that MY responsibility, as the store owner?

I was planning on having customers buy gift certificates and i thought it would send them a code to use, and i'd be able to see the code as well. And i thought i could print a hard copy WITH the code to send to their friend/mom/dad, etc, whoever they bought the GC for. Apparently, this is not the case, so i'm currently DISABLING the GC feature on my site! This is the most ridiculous thing i've come across on my website :-(

Mary Ann
www.madebymaryann.com

Grandma loved the fact that she could go online and by $100 of Gift Certificates and send $50 to Tiny Tim then $50 to his brother Tommy ...

She didn't even need to worry about getting them in the mail or mailing them out and arriving late for Christmas ...

Then, she really wanted to send little Cindy Lou Who a snail mail Gift Certificate ... and the Store owner was such a smart little elf that she had set the Gift Certificates up that when sent to SnailMail@smart_elf_domain.com with a nice note for the snail mail address that the smart little elf would then send that off snail mail to little Cindy Lou Who ... and when Cindy Lou Who redeemed that same code ... voila!! She could buy a new light for that tree and the tree itself for all the Whos down in Whoville ...

So perhaps get creative and chill out a bit ...

Nice working with you and look forward to more Zen Cart adventures with you ... :smartalec:

I have to say,
the Gift Certificate capabilities of Zen Cart are one of my favorite things and I thought were a great bonus when I investigated the Admin after install. So, it really is personal preference. I think the fact ZC will keep a credit balance for the Gift certificate is SUPERB.

I dinked around a bit and I now have hard copy Gift Certificates, too. Since I don't sell a whole lot of them, this work-around is fine. If I sold like 100 a month, it might not be so convenient. But hey, I'll trade the potential inconvenience for the maintaining a credit balance for someone when they shop with it rather than have to refund money.

I'm delighted.