Ruby Lane Gift Cards, how will that work?

I did not see an ongoing discussion about this, so here it is.

I'm hoping Carol can explain how this is going to be paid to the shopkeepers. Will it be a Paypal credit? I do hope it will not be a shop credit; I'd rather have my money go to Paypal where I can use it as I see fit, than to have my money tied up in a shop credit that may or may not be needed for each month.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on February 15, 2012 at 4:10pm

Hi Dexter, I think you should select the countries you will ship to instead of world wide. Carol

Dexter Grass said:

In a recent Ruby Lane email they said

"The Gift Card is not a shop opt-in or opt-out program. Cards can be purchased by anyone around the world, gifted to anyone worldwide and can be used in any shop worldwide that is selling on Ruby Lane in USD. (Exception: If you do not ship to a part of the world where the buyer lives.)"

A question occurred to me just this morning. I say in my shop info that I will ship worldwide, with some exceptions. But I don't have those exceptions listed. So what happens if someone from a country I do not ship to places an order and applies their gift card? Do I politely tell them that I don't ship there? And then cancel the purchase order? Will cancelling the purchase order take the money out of my shop and put it back on their gift card?

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on February 15, 2012 at 4:12pm

Right, we are not going to charge you anything to keep your gift card funds in your account. The fee for PayPal is the usual PayPal fee, not a fee from us. (for those who were not clear on who charges the fee).

Mary Ann Docktor-Smith said:

Carol, my comment was about applying the gift card proceeds to my shop fees. In that case, there is no reduction of the gift card amount applied, correct?

Thanks,

Mary Ann

Ruby Lane - Carol Augustine said:

Hi Mary Ann,

If you 'cash out' your gift card credits and request the money be sent to your PayPal account then you will be charged a PayPal fee. If you opt to receive a check then you will not be charged a fee. Carol

Mary Ann Docktor-Smith said:

I am late in catching up on this discussion, but did not see mention of one huge advantage to receiving Ruby Lane gift card payments. If you use the proceeds to apply to pay your shop fees, you have not paid a PayPal transaction fee on the payment, i.e. you are getting full credit for the gross amount of the gift card payment. Nice!

Best regards, Mary Ann

Permalink Reply by CheriShops - Admin on February 15, 2012 at 4:19pm

???

I have never received any interest from PayPal?? And I do leave the money in there as I then use it for shipping and for use with my PP debit card

They do pay us a tiny % whenever we use the debit card as a credit card , so is that what you are referring to?

If not I would love to know what account they offer that pays interest? Not seeing it when I look at the options, but maybe I am missing it
Graceful Shops said:

Since PayPal pays a small interest on the money I cannot imagine RL would charge us to leave in their account or our acct.

Permalink Reply by Helen Welsh on February 15, 2012 at 4:39pm

I think the gift card is a great idea if you can cash them into pay pal. Why would you wait to cash them in ? I wouldn't want to send an item before finding out if the gift card is real and I actually have the money.

Helen Welsh

Permalink Reply by The Old Grey Mare on February 15, 2012 at 4:45pm

Sorry Carol, I just don't think that's practical, considering how many countries there are world wide. Have a look at the list of countries in the USPS menu....I once shipped to the US Embassy in a country I would not normally ship to, there are so many variables in shipping. And even if I did list the countries I would ship to, which would be quite a laundry list, that presumes that the buyer will look at my "about me" page to find out where I ship, before placing a purchase order. They don't always even read the item description totally, otherwise we wouldn't get questions about size and condition, when they are clearly stated in the description. When you add an item, it gives you the option of "will not ship Internationally" or you will. I have Determined after Checkout as my default, since I use different methods for different countries, for example, I would not ship by USPS to Italy.

So I still have a question about this and I will refer it directly to Ruby Lane. Thank you!

Ruby Lane - Carol Augustine said:

Hi Dexter, I think you should select the countries you will ship to instead of world wide. Carol

Dexter Grass said:

In a recent Ruby Lane email they said

"The Gift Card is not a shop opt-in or opt-out program. Cards can be purchased by anyone around the world, gifted to anyone worldwide and can be used in any shop worldwide that is selling on Ruby Lane in USD. (Exception: If you do not ship to a part of the world where the buyer lives.)"

A question occurred to me just this morning. I say in my shop info that I will ship worldwide, with some exceptions. But I don't have those exceptions listed. So what happens if someone from a country I do not ship to places an order and applies their gift card? Do I politely tell them that I don't ship there? And then cancel the purchase order? Will cancelling the purchase order take the money out of my shop and put it back on their gift card?

Permalink Reply by Graceful Antiques on February 15, 2012 at 5:30pm

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2011/6/130896...

Shows how much I pay attention. Sorry Cheri. They did away with it July 29, 2011.

Permalink Reply by CheriShops - Admin on February 22, 2012 at 3:57pm

in case anyone has not yet seen it...there is an email from RL today saying that the Gift Cards have been scrapped.

Seems that

Less than half of shop owners felt the Gift Card would drive traffic to their shop.
Less than half of shop owners would purchase a Gift Card as a gift.
Shop owners did not feel comfortable about when they would be paid from a Gift Card transaction.

I wish they had surveyed us first before launching this.....I sure feel for all on staff who put a lot of work into it.

but

am pleased to see that the views of their primary customers, us, are taken into consideration this way. Had hoped maybe they could just tweak things a bit to make it more seller friendly but I guess the survey response showed a loud enough negative reaction to warrant shelving the idea.

Permalink Reply by The Old Grey Mare on February 22, 2012 at 4:11pm

Hi Cheri, I had posted this, in a new discussion, which I deleted, your putting it here is much better. I too wish they had surveyed us first, but like you, I think they deserve a great deal of credit for listening to the majority of shop owners, who as you so rightly said, are their primary customers. I was not in the majority on the survey, I think the gift card had potential, I would have purchased them, as client gifts and for friends, and I was very comfortable with how my gift card purchase went down. But I can see potential issues and I congratulate them for listening to the concerns of their shop owners.

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on February 22, 2012 at 4:26pm

Hi folks,

One of the reason's we decided to add a Gift Card program to the site is because in Past Survey's shop owners and others requested one.

But, as you can see, you spoke ... we listened.

Carol

Permalink Reply by San Marcos Art Glass on February 22, 2012 at 4:41pm

I am sorry to see the idea was scrapped and do not understand the shop owners' response to a new source of potential sales. I thought it was a wonderful idea, and I appreciate the staff at RL for trying to make it available.

Permalink Reply by Marni Bakst on February 22, 2012 at 5:01pm

Just a guess, but I think shop owners wanted a card they could issue for their own shop, not a general RL gift card.

Ruby Lane - Carol Augustine said:

Hi folks,

One of the reason's we decided to add a Gift Card program to the site is because in Past Survey's shop owners and others requested one.

But, as you can see, you spoke ... we listened.

Carol

Permalink Reply by Gardenartus Antiques on February 22, 2012 at 5:06pm

I loved the idea of the gift card, would have bought one and would have suggested others might purchase one. I think it would have generated sales. I didn't like the international shipping without PayPal or being able to get the money upfront to pay for shipping. Otherwise we don't use the money until we know the customer is satisfied anyway but the cost of shipping can add up quickly and not everyone can afford that. It would have been nice since shipping isn't' normally refunded in case of a return had we been able to have the amount needed for shipping and insurance and left the rest until we knew there would not be a return. I also would have liked to see a bit more of some type of guidelines as to what would happen in case of a chargeback or other problem that might arise. But I think the issues I had could have been resolved fairly easily and I do believe once things were straightened out as best as possible it would have been a great hit.