Want to spend money but Groundspeak doesnt want it?

[+Geo-Johnson's]

I'm currently organizing a geocaching event for the Prescott Daze Festival in Prescott Wisconsin. I need to come up with some good prizes, and I have a little bit of a budget. I thought that a free one year membership to geocache.com would be a really good gift. ( One that I would really like), but That's not possible with Groundspeak. You have to have a name and address etc. to register for a one year membership. I thought that was kind of a bummer, but I didn't give up. I figured I would get some $25.00 gift certificates for the Geocaching.com store. Unfortunately, they cannot provide paper or electronic gift certificates without a name or what not.

 

I'm just thinking that with all of the new small town festivals that are now featuring geocaching and with all of the events with prizes involved. Perhaps Groundspeak can come up with a credit card type gift card or an email gift certificate with a code number or something?

 

I want to support Groundspeak and actually promote them at our geocaching event, but it's getting kinda tough. Any ideas? Seems like they are losing out on a little profit here............

 

Thanks much!!!!

[+mtn-man]

Actually, I think all you have to do is pay for a membership. When they send you the activation code, don't use it. Give the activation code to the person who wins the one year membership, and you have given away the gift of a year of Premium Membership to someone else. They won't see your personal information since they create the profile and just apply the activation code to that profile to bump it to a Premium Member status. Next year, they will have to re-up the membership themselves though.

 

I am not totally sure if that is the procedure, but maybe Michael can confirm the exact steps to make this happen. I do know that it can be done.

[+Geo-Johnson's]

Thanks guys. They don't really make that clear, and when I emailed customer service, they just told me they couldn't do it. Would be nice if a "gift membership" was an option. Maybe something to think about?

 

As far as merchandise goes though, it would be nice to be able to get gift certificates.

 

Thanks again!

Edited August 8, 2008 by Geo-Johnson's

[Keystone]

Buy your gift certificate at "Shop Groundspeak."

 

To get to "Shop Groundspeak," click on the "Shop for Gear" link in the navigator pane on the left hand side of most any page on the website.

 

And, here is an article in the Groundspeak Knowledgebase about giving a premium membership as a gift.

[+Ambrosia]

Yup! My first premium membership in 2004 was a gift from another geocacher.

[+paleolith]

Buy your gift certificate at "Shop Groundspeak."

 

And, here is an article in the Groundspeak Knowledgebase about giving a premium membership as a gift.

Note that those links do not address the OP's question, because they appear to require the beneficiary's name and email address. What mtn-man is saying is that these are not really the beneficiary's name and address but simply a delivery point, and that the gift membership (and perhaps the gift certificate?) can be used by anyone.

 

If in fact they can be used by anyone, then all that's needed is to make this clear on the web site. (And in that case it needs to be made clear anyway, since it's important to know that you need to protect the code you receive, as anyone can use it.) However, it most certainly is not clear now. I looked at those pages, and I found it quite clear that the gift was being purchased for a specific recipient only, just as the OP did.

 

Edward