I was digging around the other day and came across an envelope from my daughter. I opened it up and in there was a gift certificate for $50 to a garden shop near our house. Now she gave me this last Christmas for a gift and in the middle of the hustle and bustle it got put away securely (too securely!). I was excited to find it! It's like getting a gift all over again! However.... it had an expiration date on it for one year from date of purchase- which means that is NEXT month! Holy cow - so I start making plans for what I could possibly by at a garden shop on November 1st (the day I found the envelope) - when I go to the website to look at things - I discover they closed for the season on October 31st! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ----- so what do I do? Do I have a right to ask them to take this gift cert? The expiration date hasn't gone by and it will go by before they re-open! Man --- this stinks. I have to call them (oh but they are closed - so now what?). I think it's awful that gift certificates have expiration dates on them. I understand why some places want them - but doesn't that mean that they should refund the money? C'mon - my daughter spent 50 bucks of her hard earned money and now it's like she just threw it in the trash. It's my fault - no doubt - but I am going to try to plead with the shop to help me.
I used to think giving gift certificates for presents was a cop-out - an "easy mans" way of gift giving - but as I have grown older and seen so many gifts that were not used - not really wanted and re-gifted - I began to believe in gift certificates. I used to be bothered by the fact that someone would know how much I was willing to spend on them (after all wasn't that saying how much you thought they were worth?) - but now... now I think gift certificates are the BEST thing to do for the holidays. Why not let people get what they want? Why not show them that you want them to actually enjoy what they have - not get them something that will sit on a shelf until put out in a yard sale or given away to a thrift shop. Check out all the gift certificate options I have on my website - the Gift Certificate tab on the top of the page on my website (http://brendasabin.com - OR click on the title of this post and that will show you lots of ways to give "anything" - some gift certificate are valid for a variety of stores - even better! Have fun this holiday season - give with your heart and your head! Don't spend money on things people don't want - spend money by giving people what THEY want - the opportunity to "shop" for their own personal preferences..... And then - be nice and send them a reminder every month or so to USE IT!! And if you receive gift certificates, take my advice - put them somewhere you will SEE them all the time! http://brendasabin.com - Happy Holidays!
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