We thank you for your interest in the Gift Certificate system we offer.

All maintenance and interaction with the Gift Certificates occur within your existing Admin program so the activity is seamless. The Gift Certificates are added as a product in the usual fashion, and then marked as a Gift Certificate in a separate area dedicated to servicing Gift Certificates. You can offer as many Gift Certificates as you desire.

From the clients' point of view, they will select the Gift Certificate just like any other product and it will be added to their cart. Even though you may accept "Email" payments we made the decision not to accept this payment method for Gift Certificates, and note this in the product description. This payment method will not be available to the client whenever a Gift Certificate is in the cart. Once a successful payment is made the "Thank you" screen will appear and the Gift Certificate amount and unique code will appear. Likewise, the same information will be emailed to the client. We disable our handling fees, tax and shipping on Gift Certificate purchases. To comply with various U.S. state laws, we have the certificates set to expire in two years from purchase date.

The recipient of the code will shop in the usual fashion and will see an entry box right below the existing "discount/coupon box" in the checkout. In this box they will enter their Gift Certificate code and proceed to the final checkout screen. Coupons and discounts can also be used in tandem. The value of their cart will be subtracted from the Certificate and all this information will be shown to the client on the final checkout screen. The standard error messages on an invalid coupon/discount will be displayed for Gift Certificates and discounts/coupons (or both) as required. Should the client spend more than the Certificate's value, they may pay the difference in the payment methods we accept. Upon clicking the final "pay" button (and successful authorization if additional payment is required) the certificate will be updated and the transaction is complete.

The recipient has the option to check their Certificate balance within the checkout and also from a "check certificate balance" tab located on all of our pages. We elected to have our entire checkout on HTTPS as well as the "check balance" activity to protect the integrity of the Certificate information. We feel the Gift Certificates should be treated as if they were cash or a credit card.

The system will not allow a Gift Certificate to be used to buy another certificate. We consider this "re-gifting!" Clients are advised on the remaining balance after purchase, or told "your certificate is exhausted of funds."

View our demo of the GC mod at http://demo.hcsdesignit.com/aspgc/cert.asp

From the Admin side you may:
http://demo.hcsdesignit.com/aspgc/vsadmin/login.asp

• Review all purchased Certificates including date purchased, current value, expiration, and original purchasers' email.
• Modify the expiration date or amount if necessary. For example, if you had a client that purchased the wrong item when using a Certificate, you could cancel the transaction and adjust the Certificate balance.
• Delete a Certificate entirely.
• View all activity for each certificate which is quite handy if ever you have a dispute regarding a Certificate's current balance, or questions regarding its use.
• New feature added in ASP version 5.2.4 and PHP version 5.2.2
  • allows the store administrator to provide a custom html email to the recepient.
  • added a recepient email address and name field