When is "instantly e-mailed" not instant?

[A_Wilson]

When it is an EGift Card. 

So, I had a disappointing experience and am posting here so that others may learn from my experience.  I was so excited to learn about the Egift Cards you can get from B&N.  You mean I can buy a gift card from my armchair and have it e-mailed to myself you ask? Why yes you can.  But it seems there is a little catch.

As the story goes...I purchased my giftcard, sorry Egift Card, on Saturday.  So excited that I can load up my NC with a bunch of books and Pre-Orders that I have been dying to get.  Saturday day goes by, no Card and no confirmation email.  Late Saturday night I did finally get an e-mail from B&N saying that my order is processing.  OK, me thinks I will have the Gift Card in my inbox on Sunday AM, right?  No such luck.  After calling in a couple of times I found out that my order was flagged due to the address of the purchaser (attached to my B&N account) and the e-mail address of the recipient are the same address.  After a little work, they finally released the Egift Card (prior to the May 2 date that was given) and I was able to get my books, too late to do much reading but they are on my NC finally (hurrah), but was a little disappointed in the whole experience.  I think that I will just pick up the cards at those kiosks that they have in the Grocery Stores from here on out to avoid this issue in the future.  So Sad. 

[kathybaug]

Interesting.  I have had the same problem with purchasing ecards online for myself, but it never occurred to me that sending to myself was the issue.  I never called Customer service because the ecard arrived before I got too anxious about it.  Thanks for the info.

[bklvr896]

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A_Wilson wrote:

When it is an EGift Card. 

So, I had a disappointing experience and am posting here so that others may learn from my experience.  I was so excited to learn about the Egift Cards you can get from B&N.  You mean I can buy a gift card from my armchair and have it e-mailed to myself you ask? Why yes you can.  But it seems there is a little catch.

As the story goes...I purchased my giftcard, sorry Egift Card, on Saturday.  So excited that I can load up my NC with a bunch of books and Pre-Orders that I have been dying to get.  Saturday day goes by, no Card and no confirmation email.  Late Saturday night I did finally get an e-mail from B&N saying that my order is processing.  OK, me thinks I will have the Gift Card in my inbox on Sunday AM, right?  No such luck.  After calling in a couple of times I found out that my order was flagged due to the address of the purchaser (attached to my B&N account) and the e-mail address of the recipient are the same address.  After a little work, they finally released the Egift Card (prior to the May 2 date that was given) and I was able to get my books, too late to do much reading but they are on my NC finally (hurrah), but was a little disappointed in the whole experience.  I think that I will just pick up the cards at those kiosks that they have in the Grocery Stores from here on out to avoid this issue in the future.  So Sad. 

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I ordered and eGift card and sent it to myself yesterday.  Normally it shows up in less than an hour.  Yesterday it took about 4 1/2 hours for it to get to me, but there was no issue with me sending it to myself.

[akaCat]

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bklvr896 wrote:

I ordered and eGift card and sent it to myself yesterday.  Normally it shows up in less than an hour.  Yesterday it took about 4 1/2 hours for it to get to me, but there was no issue with me sending it to myself.

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And you sent it to the same email your B&N account is linked to?

I had the same problem A_Wilson experienced. The CS rep couldn't tell me why my order was being delayed, so at the time I assumed it was because I had used a new credit card that I'd only just added to my account. (Ironically, a B&N branded credit card.) It wasn't a huge problem, I just cancelled the order and bought a gift card on the way home. But I'd been hoping to buy a new book and start reading it on my lunch hour.

I'd love to know a sure-fire way to avoid the four day delay in the future!

[KingAl]

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bklvr896 wrote:

I ordered and eGift card and sent it to myself yesterday.  Normally it shows up in less than an hour.  Yesterday it took about 4 1/2 hours for it to get to me, but there was no issue with me sending it to myself.

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I've had the same experience. Normally it comes within 30 minutes to an hour, though once it took about 2 hours.

[BN_AlexG Administrator]

Hi A_Wilson,

I'm sorry you had such an issue getting your eGift card, would you be able to send me your account info (email address, serial number). I would like to take a look at what happened.

Same goes for anyone else having an issue with eGiftcards. 

Thanks,

- Alex

[bklvr896]

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akaCat wrote:

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bklvr896 wrote:

I ordered and eGift card and sent it to myself yesterday.  Normally it shows up in less than an hour.  Yesterday it took about 4 1/2 hours for it to get to me, but there was no issue with me sending it to myself.

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And you sent it to the same email your B&N account is linked to?

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Yes, I the to and from email addresses were the same.  I got all the emails to the one address, the one saying I sent a card, the one saying my gift card to the receipent was delivered to them and the ones with the gift card information.

[BN_AlexG Administrator]

Hi bklvr896,

We're currently taking a look at this, but need more examples of the delay. Would you be able to PM me your order number?

- Alex

[A_Wilson]

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BN_AlexG wrote:

Hi A_Wilson,

I'm sorry you had such an issue getting your eGift card, would you be able to send me your account info (email address, serial number). I would like to take a look at what happened.

Same goes for anyone else having an issue with eGiftcards. 

Thanks,

- Alex

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Hi Alex.  I just sent the information to you via PM.

[Hypatia1]

This still seems to be happening - ordered on 1/6 - told will be delivered 1/10? Rather defeats the purpose of having e gift cards....