Gift Certificates?

[Nidaba]

There are a number of generic wishlist sites you can use. I am considering doing so myself.

 

I personally like:

 

Gifttagging

ThisNext

 

Both are semi-/pseudo-social as well.

 

Is there a way to tag a specific bottle of BPAL though? I want to put a bottle of Zarita on my wishlist, but I can't figure out how to not put the entire CD list on. =/

[Nidaba]

Bumping this because I am still looking for a way to put specific bottles on a wish list. =]

[angharad]

As far as I know, there's still no way to have a link go directly to a specific bottle. I think you just have to link to the page it's on, name the specific scent you want, and let people find it from there.

[Morrighana]

Or, if the scent you want is available on Amazon.com, you can use your Amazon wishlist!

[femmefatale]

I tell hubby all the time that I wish they did gift certs. It would make it so much easier when my parents ask me what I want for bday & xmas. They don't seem to like ordering things online. LOL

[mazikeen]

I tell hubby all the time that I wish they did gift certs. It would make it so much easier when my parents ask me what I want for bday & xmas. They don't seem to like ordering things online. LOL

Same here. This year I was really specific at Christmas and told everyone that I wanted BPAL. Rather than complicate things with a detailed wishlist, I suggested buying me a Visa giftcard that I could use online at BPAL.

 

No dice. I got everything I wanted this year (lucky me!)... except BPAL. No one wanted to buy online (from a place that wasn't Amazon) or give cash.

 

Since wishlisting individual bottles in a way that clueless in-laws can understand sounds like a complicated undertaking, simply offering BPAL gift certificates would be a welcome alternative!

[Morrighana]

Again, if the scents that you want are available on Amazon, you can use Amazon.com gift certificates.

[femmefatale]

The ones I wanted weren't.

[errosenzweig]

Gift certificates would make me REALLY happy, is there any chance it will happen...maybe before Christmas!

[mazikeen]

I was spreading the gospel of BPAL to my friend's new girlfriend. He wanted to buy her a gift card rather than try to guess what she'd like and was really disappointed to find that BPAL doesn't sell any. I offered a list of suggested imps, but he ended up buying her something else instead because it was too complicated.

 

I'm just sayin'. If there were gift card/certs, BPAL'd get a lot of business from well-meaning but clueless gift givers!

[Kayah]

That'd be awesome.. but.. just from an accounting pov.. a pain in the behind.

 

Gift certificates are a pain for the larger retailers, just imagine what it'd be like for a small business.

 

Once you sell a gift certificate, that money is considered a liability - that means you must present it as such - prepaid orders, unfulfilled. So now your well meaning relatives bought some gift cards.. what if not all of them get cashed? Do you put an expiry date on that money, at which point BPAL can finally claim it liability-free? At what point is it fair to the customer and the company to do so? Are you even legally allowed to put an expiry date on this money? If you're not, it just drags forever-and-ever as a liability in the books because you are not allowed to zero this amount - you as a company are outstanding monies to a customer somewhere out there.

 

That's the accounting angle.

 

The actual gift card angle:

 

What will they look like? How do you email a gift card? Is it going to be a jpg like a coupon or is it going to have some sort of "code"? What if you share it? How does the lab determine which one is genuine?

 

The lab isn't a retail store so they do not have the capacity to read magnetic stripe cards. The set up for electronic gift cards looks waay too complicated. Since most of the lab's business is online, I am not sure this is a very viable solution.

 

Now here's something else... the lab could potentially get a sort of "member login, with wishlist" program on their website, a la amazon. However this requires programing, making sure the setup doesn't break copyright laws of other etailers, etc etc etc.

 

 

I wish there were gift certificates because I would ask everyone to give me BPAL money...

but I realize how complex it is.. and probably right now, unrealistic

[Caerphilly]

I agree with everything, Farenath. BPAL's a small business and this would be a liability.

 

However...I would love to get gift cards or even give them. My family who don't use BPAL are not going to order from anything but Amazon, as others have said. And they thinks a visa giftcard is just as impersonal as cash. So they give gift cards to stores i don't go to. And it's a waste of their money. I'm just ranting now...

 

Bit, it would be nice to have gift cards!

[mimers99]

I don't usually receive money with Paypal (sadly, my money usually goes out, not in...) but what about gifts via Paypal? Would that work at all? I'm not sure if that helps with US buyers, though (I always buy BPAL with Paypal because I'm in Canada).

[Pepperminx]

I don't usually receive money with Paypal (sadly, my money usually goes out, not in...) but what about gifts via Paypal? Would that work at all? I'm not sure if that helps with US buyers, though (I always buy BPAL with Paypal because I'm in Canada).

 

I came here just to say the same! Is there a way to buy Paypal gift cards? I'm pretty sure the lab accepts paypal from anywhere, even that they prefer paypal over credit card payments because it costs them less, or something.

[meaganola]

I don't usually receive money with Paypal (sadly, my money usually goes out, not in...) but what about gifts via Paypal? Would that work at all? I'm not sure if that helps with US buyers, though (I always buy BPAL with Paypal because I'm in Canada).

 

I came here just to say the same! Is there a way to buy Paypal gift cards? I'm pretty sure the lab accepts paypal from anywhere, even that they prefer paypal over credit card payments because it costs them less, or something.

 

You can just send your recipient money via PayPal and pick "gift" for the payment type, and that would be like sending money to, say, your friend for a convention registration she bought for you or your brother for your joint Costco membership (or maybe that's just me...), but the money wouldn't be specifically earmarked in the PayPal system as something to go only to the Lab. It looks like gift certificates are considered a merchant thing with PayPal. BPAL would have to register as a gift certificate-issuing merchant, and we're right back where we started. Then again, if you just got money via PayPal not restricted to things ordered directly from the Lab, you have other buying options, like eBay, decants, Dark Delicacies (if you get a PayPal debit card), etc.

[vanilla323]

If someone buys you a BPAL gift certificate to you get that email immediately?

[Soupy Twist]

If someone buys you a BPAL gift certificate to you get that email immediately?

within a few hours, at least from my experience.

[Superfictious]

Question about gift certificates.

I was gifted one, and redeemed it to my account after setting up a shopping cart. Very excited. 8] I haven't checked out yet, because I cannot figure out how to apply the gift card.

 

I've already redeemed it to my account, and it says it is not an active code when I try and use the code again at the gift card spot during checkout.

My total doesn't have my account balance subtracted from it, and I can only select my payment option (paypal or authorize.net) to move forwards.

 

Will the lab automatically refund the gift card amount after my initial full payment? Or will my account balance automatically be deducted from the payment if I make it?

[Sakura Tsukikage]

Question about gift certificates.

I was gifted one, and redeemed it to my account after setting up a shopping cart. Very excited. 8] I haven't checked out yet, because I cannot figure out how to apply the gift card.

 

I've already redeemed it to my account, and it says it is not an active code when I try and use the code again at the gift card spot during checkout.

My total doesn't have my account balance subtracted from it, and I can only select my payment option (paypal or authorize.net) to move forwards.

 

Will the lab automatically refund the gift card amount after my initial full payment? Or will my account balance automatically be deducted from the payment if I make it?

 

I actually had this same issue. In the checkout screen, at the very top, there's a button that says "apply account balance" and should have the gift certificate amount. You have to click that button to get the gift card applied to your order, and after you do, it should show up on the screen as a credit to your order down near the checkout button. Hope that makes sense!