ebay gift certificate
Buying and Redemption Guidelines of eBay Gift Certificates
In this era of e-commerce, the eBay gift certificate is a further step towards free and easy commerce.
Ebay the online seller has come up, through eBay gift cards, a way to send electronic gift vouchers to a recipient who can then proceed to use them. The recipient can use these certificates to buy items in eBay auctions or while Internet shopping on eBay, provided that the transaction follows certain conditions imposed.
How to Buy or Redeem it?
The three parties involved in each transaction, i.e., the buyer, its recipient, and the seller of eBay items must have Paypal accounts. This makes the individuals under 18 years of age ineligible to receive these certificates. It is a known fact that an individual under 18 cannot open an account with Paypal. However, on the other hand, involvement of Paypal ensures secure transactions.
Here is how one can buy or redeem the gift certificates.
- One can purchase it even when one is not a member of eBay, although, s/he must pay for it by using credit card or debit card that are approved by Paypal, by using U.S. checking account or existing Paypal balance.
- At the time of purchasing it, you may enter and submit sender's and recipient's name, email address of the recipient and a message, at the most of 200 words.
- Providing sender's name is optional for the buyer and so is the recipient's name.
- They can be e-mailed or printed by the sender, which one can do by choosing the mode of delivery method and this opens two avenues of actions for him.
- If s/he is going to email it, then entering recipient's email is a must. This email address is linked to the certificate sent which is very useful if, somehow, the eBay code is lost or hacked by someone.
- Additionally, one can choose to email it to the recipient on the same day or within 30 days of purchase.
- If the email address is different from the one associated with the Paypal account, then the recipient, while logging in with Paypal, must add this new email address to facilitate the redemption of the gift card.
- Giving this email address is optional, if the sender intends to print the certificate and personally hand it over to the recipient, or use it for himself. However, it's best to provide email address, for security reasons, as it is linked with each purchase.
- S/he can choose to immediately print it after the purchase has been made.
- If s/he is unable to do so at that time for some reason, s/he can do so later on, by opening Paypal confirmation email or from the 'transaction detail' on the Paypal account. Both options provide links for the printing.
- If by mistake, sender mistypes the recipients email address, then, within 60 days of the purchase, one can cancel it by going to his/her Paypal account.
- If a recipient finds that his email address is mistyped, he cannot redeem the gift certificate. He must call the sender and ask to cancel it and purchase another one depicting recipient's correct email address.
- The recipient can cancel it by going to his Paypal account and the funds will be refunded to the sender.
- The sender can buy these gift certificates for recipients living in the United States and Canada only and has to pay in the U.S. Currency.
- The recipient has the option of using them for buying items that are priced in U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, British Pounds, or Euro.
- There is no expiry date associated with them and they stay active, although, Paypal sends as many as 5 reminders to the recipient to redeem them.
- If it is used and if the value of the item purchased is less than its value, then the rest of the amount can be used for later day purchases.
- On the other hand, if the purchased item is of more value than the certificate, then it must be paid for using a payment mode acceptable to Paypal. Alternatively, such an item can be paid for by combining a gift certificate, coupon, multiple certificates, or eBay anything points, and it won't affect the amount received by the seller who has things to sell on eBay.
- A word of precaution about a minor scam. While using this option on forums or websites, if you pay someone using this option then it won't be a buy from him, rather it will be a gift from you to him.