buying gifts » Forum Post by Xapati

After you add the game to your cart there is an option to give this to a friend. You will need their email address.

FYI- as soon as you give it as a gift, the person gets the e-mail right then. I've e-mailed sales to suggest an option to delay sending the notice and/or the ability for the purchaser to get the e-mail to send at their leisure.

If you provide all of the account information for BOTH accounts we can set it up so that they do not get an email for the gift. This all has to be verified through sales@stardock.com. Simply purchase the item twice then contact sales with this information and it can be handled from there. Account validation is still required if they gift recipient is not yet a Stardock.net member.

Good to know there's a workaround in the interim. Thanks as always, Seabass.

Lord Reliant

reply 4

Good to know there's a workaround in the interim. Thanks as always, Seabass.

Seabass

reply 3

If you provide all of the account information for BOTH accounts we can set it up so that they do not get an email for the gift. This all has to be verified through sales@stardock.com. Simply purchase the item twice then contact sales with this information and it can be handled from there. Account validation is still required if they gift recipient is not yet a Stardock.net member.

Will one purchase then be cancelled with the other purchase associated to the friend's email with no mail sent to that address?

In the case of the "sneaky gift" it would either work with a canelation, or more likely we manually move the recent purchase. That was it can be linked with out creating a Stardock.net account. So the serial number would be tied to the email address then the gift reciever could create/validate the account. Obviously working inside the system is a much better idea but if you needed the gift to be a suprize I'm certain we could accomidate you.

Edit: please note that all of this is handled on a case by case basis so that the system cannot be abused.

Seabass

reply 6

In the case of the "sneaky gift" it would either work with a canelation, or more likely we manually move the recent purchase. That was it can be linked with out creating a Stardock.net account. So the serial number would be tied to the email address then the gift reciever could create/validate the account. Obviously working inside the system is a much better idea but if you needed the gift to be a suprize I'm certain we could accomidate you.

Edit: please note that all of this is handled on a case by case basis so that the system cannot be abused.

Seabass- I assume this is just a temporary measure until a more permanent fix can be in place, right? I'm not clear if your response about it being handled on a case by case basis is just to accommodate this function now or if that will be the solution.

There is no clear fix on this at the moment. We are just providing good customer service for sales requests. It is something that we are looking into though. Since it involves account information, the gift giving I mean, it requires personal attention and a automated system would fall flat if it was not elaborate enough to avoid abuse. It would also have to be secure enough to protect information. Since there are so many things on the plate right not to work on in Impulse I imagine this is midway down the list.

I don't know for certain in this regard so do not take this as the letter of the law, but an educated guess.

Gift giving deserves to be more straightforward than it is right now. Just for the marketing value alone would make it worth to have an "Add as gift" (with graphic icon) right next to "Add to Cart". Or even a separate but clearly visible Gift purchase method (if it makes it easier or better to implement).

Not all customers are going to be that adept in understanding those easier-for-the-publisher technical solutions. Not so long ago, I would think twice on clicking the "Add to Cart" button for fear of buying a game for myself a second time, instead of offering it to a friend. I needed to peruse the forums to discover that.

Buy as gift should be more intuitive or else it's mostly lost for less dedicated customers and a missed opportunity for those who couldn't ignore a shinning gift wrap right in front of their eyes.

As for not sending an immediate email to the lucky person, it wouldn't be that difficult to delay a Stardock email for no more than 48hours. But what do I know? I'm just a lazy customer looking for Impulse to be as easy and convenient as possible.

[e digicons]:grin:[/e]