January 16, 2008
-
Well, that really stinks. What a lousy policy!
A friend of mine in New York kindly sent me a Lindt gift card for Christmas. This morning I decided to see if there are any Lindt shops in the area, but sadly, there weren't. No problem, though, I thought....there IS Lindt.com/USA.
Ha.
Turns out that to ship their product to Texas, Lindt requires either next day ($24.95) or Saturday ($49.95) shipping! That's more than the value of the gift card, for pity's sake!
I called their "customer service" line - using the term loosely - and was informed by a bored voice (who called me "sir") that she's sorry, but that's the company policy and there's nothing she can do about it.
This creates a sticky wicket. What to do with an effectively unusable gift card? It could be used where there IS a Lindt shop, or within their ground shipping distance, but neither of those conditions pertain to Fort Worth. Should I send it back to the giver with mingled apologies and gratitude?
I really hate to have it go to waste, thus giving Lindt the full value of the card without them ever having to fork over the chocolate. Pure profit for them, in that case! Certainly don't want that.
Comments (11)
Well, I think that if I were the giver, I'd want to know the score on that one. Obviously you liked and appreciated the gift, it's just that you can't obtain it. So, if the giver is someone who would understand the situation (I would, for instance, and it would make me mad at Lindt, not you) then give them a call or email. They might want it back so they could go to a Lindt store, get something, and mail it to you. If it's someone you don't know, then don't.
I agree. We used to live 5 miles from a lindt shop. Yummy. We can buy them at Sam's now. Ooh, you could also regift it to the person next Christmas or her birthday especially if she lives up north. You could send her a bag from the lindt site.
You could also look over your list of fellow chocolate freaks, find one who DOES have a Lindt store (not I, alas) and re-gift, as Heather suggests.
But Eleanor's suggestion is really the right thing to do.
Alas...
me<><
I had the same problem with a Sees chocolate gift card my husband got me. It is expensive to send items that need to be kept cold. So, after months passed I went back and got a couple things on their site that did not need chilled. lol. I suppose we could have gone to Chicago to get something.
There's a cookbook, but it's $35. Other than that, the site only sells chocolate requiring (to THEIR mind, anyway) next day delivery.
It's JANUARY, for pity's sake! It's below freezing here. Darn corporate bureaucracy...it's about as easy to maneuver as an aircraft carrier.
I like Heathers suggestion and the first one. Just keep in mind that gift cards sometimes have expiration dates and that they can start charging you fees for not spending it. So waiting until next Christmas may be out of the question. Hope it all works out. Thanks for the many heads up on the front of shoppers everywhere.
Wait, I missed this before -- SIR?!?!? I've heard your telephone voice, and it's hardly contralto, let alone masculine. It reminds me of "The King and I," where the Siamese women only knew "sir" as an English term of respect and so they called Anna "sir."
BethNagle, where are you from, if I might ask? In my experience, it's only we Western Pennsylvanians who say things like "need chilled" and leave out the "to be." Even though I grew up "knowing better," when I married a Pittsburgh-area native and moved out this way, I picked it up and rather like the construction, technically inaccurate though it is.
Yup...."sir".
I was not pleased. >:^<
There is a gift card swapping website somewhere. I'm sure you could find it quicker than I. You could swap it out for a Godiva card and head to the mall
Is there really, Beth? What an excellent notion! I'll check it out.
Comments are closed.