Help regarding Kiva gift certificate

[Guest]

.

[Mike]

Got a message from a friend to whom I had sent a gift certificate about a month ago. Today she sent me an email saying she had changed computers and did not use or transfer the gift certificate. Is there a way she can recover the certificate?

Mike in Wauwatosa
msalick@gmail.com

[abc]

Mike,

My understanding is that the GC is specific to her, not to her computer.

Do you have a record of her GC in your portfolio?
Find the GC number listed there and she can use it.

Am I right, fellow KFers?

[Diane R]

Mike, in your My Portfolio view, there is a link at that top that says Gift Certificates.  Clicking on that will bring you to a view of all the GCs you've purchased and given to others.  All she needs in order to redeem the GC is the Code and the Kiva-associated email address which you used when you purchased it.  You should be able to see the GC in that list, and give her the necessary information for her to redeem it.  She does not need the actual certificate itself, nor the original email sent when you purchased it for her.

I hope this works smoothly for you both!

--Diane.

[Diane R]

Ann, the GC isn't even specific to its recipient!  The only thing "specific" about a GC is its code and the email of the person who purchased it.  Giving those two items to ANYONE will give them the keys to the GC kingdom, for that particular GC. 

--Diane.

[abc]

Thanks, Diane.

In another week or so I'm going to, um, "re-direct" (ahem) the GCs that our senior class graduates
didn't use to another school project. I sent out a kindly "end of August or else" message and
prompted 3 of them to act. I'll wait until the first week of September, give one more Last Call and then
start claiming them. (And I'm still glad we did that project... got way more participation than
I expected.)

Sorry to de-rail your thread there Mike. Glad Diane was able to give you better advice.

Ann

Edited to add:
Hey Mike, I checked out the photos on your webpage. Looks like you've sorta kinda been in our
neck of the woods, back in 2007, in Maritimes Canada and way Downeast Maine!

[Mike]

Thanks to DianeCharlie & Ann for guidance regarding gift certificates. I've notified my friend of the certificate number so she can make her first investment.

Ann, my wife and I have been to Maine and the maritime provinces twice -- '06 & '07.
Beautiful country. Loved lobster night (Thursday) and baked bean & brown bread night (Saturday) in Maine.
Glad you checked out the website.

[abc]

Mike,
Let me know if you ever wander over this way. We'd love to meet you.
Anyone who has the good sense to come to New Brunswick and
way Downeast Maine is okay in my book.

[fistfulofKIVA]

First of all...  Hello Kiva Friends. I'm a recent member of the group since the big update to the Kiva site.

I also have a bunch of GC that are outstanding. I gave them to my nephew and 5 others to kids in his circle of friends for high school graduation. so far only 1 has redeemed...  

The note I included on the GC said:

"Congratulations! Class of 2008! I figured you didn't need this $25 right away. By loaning it out; you can change a life. Then, after you get paid back, you can blow it on hookers and booze. Have fun at college and study hard. Mike"

I hoped to stir their awareness of the over-all struggle in the world to live a decent life. I haven't reminded them thru email yet, but that day is just about at hand. I'll send a couple reminer/encouragement messages over the next couple months, then failing that... I'll pull these back and invest them myself.

I gave my parents (who want for nothing) each a GC for their birthdays... they redeemed but haven't choosen any loans yet. They are a little non-computer-ish and I need to find some time to walk them through it.

well... that's my experioence.

[abc]

Hi Mike,
Yes, you remind me (as long as we are taking off our PC hats for
just a teensy moment) what Dorothy Parker used
to say, "You can lead a horticulture but you
can't make her think."

Let's see.... how can I reword this (badly): You can give a Kiva
gift certificate, but you can't make the little #$%*^&#@ use it.

We've had that same glitch. On the other hand, my husband still
carries a major book store GC card in his wallet that my mama
gave him 10 years ago, so it seems to be a universal problem.

Add our inborn hoarding tendencies to giving a gift to someone for
whom Kiva is a foreign concept, and you and I have the same
problem. How do you nudge without nagging? We have given
a bunch of GCs to folks, all with different situations and with
different results.

I waited until now, the end of their first summer of "freedom"
(ha, wait until they find out), to send a reminder email with
a one-month deadline to our new high school graduating class.
I'll be a wimp and send out one more (since the deadline is
tomorrow), and then I'll start re-claiming them for another
Kiva school project.

The GC for the grandson's birthday? I'll just shower him with
reminder emails, but I won't take it away.

David's brother, to whom we gave one for his 70th BD? Well,
I took that one away last night. He'd come over to visit yesterday
and, when asked why he hadn't used it yet, said, "Oh, you know,
I just blew that off." Ah hah. Well, the dust hadn't settled in
the driveway behind him before that one got taken away and
put our church's Kiva account! (Hey, he used to attend. He just
doesn't realize he made a contribution. Yet.)

We'd given one to said brother's lady friend who had thought
she'd loaned but turned out she had only established an account,
so it was easy then to just walk her through the lending part.

For my best friend's wedding, I went ahead and set up the account,
loaded the credit in, even made one loan out of a bit of the credit and then
I turned the keys over to her. That worked really well.

All of this is to say that GCs can be a vexing gift. Unlike cash,
sometimes you have to show someone how to use the dadburned
thing and/or you have to motivate them to lend. I have learned
many lessons from these past months of giving GCs. The thing I have
to get better at is explaining Kiva waaaaaay before I hit someone
with a gift certificate, to give more meaning to the gift.

Good luck with your project. Let us know how it progresses.
(Um, except for the hookers. You can leave out that bit of news,
thankyouverymuch.)


Ann
who is reaching to put her PC hat back on, even now as she types