What's the story with gift certificates from S7? A family member tried to get me one for Christmas in a substantial amount, and was told that the store has never offered them, and still won't. When she then mentioned that a little card or piece of paper to present as a certificate was not necessary, and that she could just leave a credit card number on file with a maximum spending amount for gift credit, she was then told that there was no way to reconcile this with the inventory in the store. Toward the end of the conversation she was flabbergasted when staff were basically saying 'no, we can't take your money,' and then subsequently referred to Kid R0b0t and Rotofugi for gift certificates. I don't know who she spoke with, but she apparently asked to speak with the manager at some point.

Well, now I have certificates from both of those other stores, when I would rather have received one for S7, and there is a prospective customer shaking their head at a very inconceivable retail experience that they had. No matter how many potential options she proposed for trying to solve the situation, they all were shot down.

Maybe there are some logistical issues in offering store credit that are not coming to mind for me, but you guys might seriously consider finding a way of making gift certificates available without referring people to other shops. I think that it would also be more conducive to a business model for long term success.

umm, we have had gift certificates for the entire time we have been open, and had even more made for the holidays. Secondly, I really doubt that anyone would cuss at anyone from our store. There are only 5 people that work there, and I have made sure all of them are nice, down to earth people, I don't want retail snobs. None of this makes any sense. Are they sure that they called our store?

There was no cussing involved. This board is set so that you can't write "Kid R0b0t," normally without it being deleted as an expletive.

I am at a loss to figure it out as well; I've had nothing but exemplary experiences with you guys every time. She has been to the store in person in the past, and I had written the S7 store phone number on my wish list, so it is hard for me to imagine that she wouldn't have known if it had been a different store that was somehow contacted. Similarly, she spoke with Devon in the distant past when ordering a subscription for me and raved of superior customer service. It doesn't make sense to me either.

I'll try to get more information, but am simply relaying the experience as it was told to me...

UPDATE: I now determined that she was told that gift certificates were available, but that they must be used physically in the store. Since I live in another state, she tried to find out out if there was any option for getting a gift certificate that could be redeemed for online or telephone ordering, and was then told that this was not possible, at which point she was referred to both Kid R0b0t and Rotofugi for gift certificates that could be redeemed other than by in-store sales only.

I will find out more info as soon as I can, and then get back to you.