Premium Gift Certificates

[+C3GPS]

Is there a way to buy a Premium Member Gift Certificate that doesn't require mailing me an actual card or signing the person up for a free membership first? I just want to print a certificate and put it in a Christmas card. They should be able to sign up and put in the certificate number themselves to start their premium membership.

[RuideAlmeida]

20 minutes ago, C3GPS said:

Is there a way to buy a Premium Member Gift Certificate that doesn't require mailing me an actual card or signing the person up for a free membership first? I just want to print a certificate and put it in a Christmas card. They should be able to sign up and put in the certificate number themselves to start their premium membership.

 

I guess you can ask the seller to send you the code by email, sms, etc.

[+C3GPS]

I want to buy one for someone else. I don't want to sign them up first and I don't want to pay shipping for a card to be sent to me when I should just be able to print one out and put it in a Christmas Card. So, I suppose Groundspeak is the seller and I would like for them to send me a code so I can pass it along.

[+Max and 99]

16 minutes ago, C3GPS said:

I want to buy one for someone else. I don't want to sign them up first and I don't want to pay shipping for a card to be sent to me when I should just be able to print one out and put it in a Christmas Card. So, I suppose Groundspeak is the seller and I would like for them to send me a code so I can pass it along.

I would think this is a popular thing but the way it's set up in the Shop Geocaching site you only get free shipping if you spend $35, and the cards are $30. I know you don't want it shipped to you, but there's no way to purchase it without paying for shipping even if you're going to ask them to send you the code and don't want the physical item. They really should offer this option for gift cards!

I believe your best option is to contact them. They are really nice and will help you if they can. I would do it ASAP with the holidays approaching and this being a Friday.

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Max and 99

[+C3GPS]

11 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

I believe your best option is to contact them.

Hence, this post.

[+Max and 99]

7 minutes ago, C3GPS said:

Hence, this post.

We on the forums are just regular folk, well mostly. You need to contact shop geocaching for this issue. They will never see it here.

I sent you a PM.

(In case anyone's wondering I meant private message not premium membership!) 😯😁

Edited December 17, 2021 by Max and 99

[+kunarion]

On 12/17/2021 at 12:07 PM, C3GPS said:

Is there a way to buy a Premium Member Gift Certificate that doesn't require mailing me an actual card or signing the person up for a free membership first? I just want to print a certificate and put it in a Christmas card. They should be able to sign up and put in the certificate number themselves to start their premium membership.

 

How do you know that someone abroad who doesn't even use the Geocaching free features would have any use for Premium features?  If they have any interest in the hobby, wouldn't they at least have signed up already?

[Darwin473]

I would have thought that a code-only PM would be a cash cow for GC. If people can buy a code to give Premium to someone else, there'd be a good percentage of people who receive it and never claim it. And I'm not all up to date on the laws over there, but a quick Google search suggests that it's okay to have an expiry date on there, so long as it is clearly displayed both on the point of purchase and on the gift "card" (though I suppose here we run into trouble if person A buys for person B, but person A only gives the code and not the extra information from the original email / pdf / image). Wouldn't be that hard to give it a one / three / five year expiration so that someone can't buy a $30 Premium today, then have it claimed in X years when Premium costs $60.

 

On 12/18/2021 at 4:07 AM, Max and 99 said:

We on the forums are just regular folk, well mostly.

 

Hey, who you calling regular? I'm a small, thank you very much! 

[+kunarion]

19 minutes ago, Unit473L said:

I would have thought that a code-only PM would be a cash cow for GC. If people can buy a code to give Premium to someone else, there'd be a good percentage of people who receive it and never claim it.

 

That makes sense.  I doubt that the OP's situation occurs very often.  "You know that game that you know I play, the one you're not interested enough to even sign up for?  Here's a code to upgrade to the site subscription after you go sign up and verify your email address!" 

 

On a completely unrelated topic, that's almost exactly what I was considering with a couple of gifts to "Steam" online gaming, and decided it was super tacky to make the recipient perform all that "signing up", including the various other complicated actions they'd need to do.  Plus they'd have to go find the game that I was "giving" them, and fingers crossed, try to play it on their device.  And they never did any of it on their own, so as far as I know, they don't have the time nor inclination to play a game I bought them.  AND "Steam" likes it's "subscription plans".  It likes them a lot.  So a "gift" may be more like the gift of unending payments.  And forever Spam.  Tacky.

 

But OK, sure.  Suggest it.  

 

I prefer a physical item to remind me that I have a gift.  And a "gift" a nothing but an online code to work on?  I can't imagine gifting that, ever.  But I do have a few good solid plastic Gift Cards that I received and never claimed.  

[+C3GPS]

On 12/18/2021 at 4:57 PM, kunarion said:

 

I doubt that the OP's situation occurs very often. 

I've actually had several people over the years that I could have given a gift card to. However, since they were made more difficult, I usually ended up just getting something else. This year, however (just a couple of weeks ago), I specifically had someone tell me that they were thinking of signing up because they like to go hiking and had heard of geocaching. So, a gift membership is perfect for her.

 

Whether a gift card is "tacky" or not is in the eye of the beholder. She'll get to try the full game for the first year on me. After that she can choose to keep going or not.

[+kunarion]

53 minutes ago, C3GPS said:

Whether a gift card is "tacky" or not is in the eye of the beholder. She'll get to try the full game for the first year on me. After that she can choose to keep going or not.

I was talking about a specific “gift” example that would be tacky, not gift cards in general.

And I said to suggest it.  While you wait, there exist many ways to send money to people.

I will again remind people to not take an out of context clip of what I type to beat me over the head with.  It’s tacky.

 

Edited December 21, 2021 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

On 12/18/2021 at 5:20 PM, Unit473L said:

I would have thought that a code-only PM would be a cash cow for GC. 

 

When I click on your name, which sends me to your public profile, to the left is "Gift Membership" in a bright green box...

It's the same with all basic members, so I'd think simply making the OP's "giftee" a basic member first should alleviate any issues they feel they're facing now.

We've given basic members PMs before, and believe it is a cache cow for Groundspeak.

A PM has cost pretty-much the same since we started, so "60" seems a bit stiff for a part-time hobby.   

[RuideAlmeida]

Try this.

[+kunarion]

26 minutes ago, RuideAlmeida said:

Try this.

 

That's a great way to send a gift!  A person signs up and "verifies the email address", tries Geocaching for a while and likes it, and now wishes to go to the next level.  Send a gift membership to that user, and all site benefits open up, and it helps keep the free part free and keep prices down.  Sounds like a plan.