Square's eGift Card is ridiculous, makes Sellers look terrible, makes customers jump through hoops

[BrendaMcFarlane]

There is a major flaw in the Square eGift Card system, which is unacceptable; it actively disrupts my business. Square is actively hiding this glaring flaw

I was told it would work but it doesn't and leaves me embarrassed. To test the non-working system, I purchased an eGift Card myself and imagined what would happen if a customer didin't bring in a copy of their email. I live in a small town and my customers would expect me to be able to help them. I discovered that it was impossible to look it up. So, I did as Square suggests used the “resend via text” option. What Square sent was:

• A link to a receipt,

• Showing only the dollar amount and my business address,

• No gift-card number,

• No redemption code,

• And — worse— a button inviting me to “rate the business.” which I imagine, a frustrated customer might express their frustration at my business and not Square who is at fault. 

There was absolutely no way to redeem the gift card from the information Square sent. No barcode, no long code, and nothing identifying the card itself.

So, it leaves me with only two options, forcing my customer to learn how to get emails from their text or manually record the transaction. Unacceptable! The gift card is almost totally unusable, without putting unnecessary strain on the customer.  

I can't beleive anyone want to be in such an embarrassing positions at the register when customers cannot access the original email, and Square provides no method for merchants to view the full gift-card number, resend the actual card or redeem the card.

I also want to stress this: relying on email for gift-card redemption is laughably old fashioned. Square better get with the modern age because it won't survive AI.
As everyone but Square understands, customers under 35 do not use email anymore, they text. Many older customers do not know how to retrieve an email from their phone. And we all know many people who could no more access their email from their phones than train a lion. 

Square says that you can text a customer but that is an untruth since a text only sends a useless unredeemable receipt with no way to access the gift card code. That leaves both merchants and customers stuck, frustrated, and unable to complete a simple redemption.

Merchants should be able to access this information somehow, perhaps with a:

1. Secure, PIN-protected way to view full eGift-card numbers in the Dashboard or POS.

2. Reliable text-delivery option that sends the actual redeemable code

Square should not try to hide their inability to provide a usable system with misleading statements. I must suspect that they prefer to make is difficult for vendors so they can sell and make money on other over-the-top systems.  Please  provide the full gift-card number for the card I purchased so I can redeem it.

Square must answer this simple question:
What exactly is a seller supposed to do at the register when a customer cannot open their email and the text message contains no redeemable gift-card code?
There must be an answer. If the answer is “nothing,” then the product is not functional and should not be sold to merchants as a redeemable gift-card solution.

[SVLFever]

HI @BrendaMcFarlane .   I have been using Square EGift cards for a couple years now, and have never personally had an issue, but....

I just went through and looked at the transactions/history from a couple sold today and I believe you are correct, there is no way to re-generate the code from the dashboard.   My immediate reaction was that does seem strange, and then it occurred to me that it might be viewed as a security feature.   I don't know if that is the case or not, but you are absolutely right...it won't help Grandma with the flip phone as the recipient of the card.

I'm wondering if as a "workaround", you could "clear the balance" of the gift card, and then just "comp" the same value of the card on a purchase., or....comp a physical gift card for the same amount after clearing the balance.  I have never done that...but maybe another reader has???

Any other egift card sellers with experience on this????

[BStoneMassage]

@BrendaMcFarlane @SVLFever 

I agree we have been having the same issues with gift cards. We have customers purchase the gift cards as gifts. The gift recipient is not receiving a text letting them know they have the gift card, nor are they getting barcode, QR code etc. This makes all of us look bad to our customers. 

My work around has been to go into the transaction on website not the app,

• resend the gift card notice to my email
• Using my phone click on the email link to open the gift card online.
• Then forward from my phone to gift recipient via text message

Not idea but it is working. Wish Square would at minimum respond to this, and fix it.

[SVLFever]

Your timing is amazing @BStoneMassage !   I actually had our very first call today from someone claiming that the recipient didn't get the gift card text.  We can see that the text was sent, but there does not appear to be a great way to resend it.

I did not think of your solution, but came up with a different one.   We contacted the customer and are mailing them a physical gift card(which I will "comp"), and then I'm going to "clear the balance" on the e-gift card.    This should do a similar trick.   Fortunately, it was a "regular" customer, so they were very understanding. I don't know if this will help @BrendaMcFarlane , but I'll throw this out there for you too.

I also think I might have found a "search" bug involving egift cards, and am going to try and duplicate it in the next few days.    If I do, I think I'll report it here and tag accordingly.   

We also probably need to move this discussion to "ideate" get some traction on an improvement.