Gift Certificate and Donations

[Guest]

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[granite]

I gave my brother a 25 dollar gift certificate for Kiva.  He decided to double the amount and donate and extra 25 to his cause.  He clicked ok for a 1 donation to kiva and proceeded to the paypal log-in stage.  He got confused by the 26 dollars and attempted to abort but instead accidently clicked "remove this loan".  He then got freaked out because Kiva had already removed the 1 dollar donation and his kiva credit was $24.00.  He then thought he got screwed over for using the gift certificate.

I got it worked out for him, he's still eager about the idea of kiva but the experience was soured a bit.  My suggestion is to take the donation after the money for the loans has been taken -- or at least after the entire transaction was completed.  It would have caused less confusion but also wouldn't have made it seem like it came out of the gift certificate.  My intent of the gift certificate was to give my brother a free way for people to make their first loan to sell them on the idea.  I'd hate to think that if he wasn't planning the extra 25 dollar top-up that it'd be trying to hit him up for money during his first experience. 

I also wonder if people realize when they click donate this amount it is immediately taken out of their credit.  I had always assumed it occured at the time I got my final confirmation screen.  In theory... if I got to the paypal screen and decided to add another loan... rechecked out I could end up accidently donating twice.

I guess the ultimate suggestion is to have the donation taken when the process is "finished" when they get the final confirmation page.  Not when the log-in paypal option appears.

[wthepoo]

My intent of the gift certificate was to give my brother a free way for people to make their first loan to sell them on the idea.  I'd hate to think that if he wasn't planning the extra 25 dollar top-up that it'd be trying to hit him up for money during his first experience. 

I agree! As long as we cannot buy gift certificates for $27.50 (10%) or $28.75 (15%), I explicitly tell all recipients of GCs (if they are new to Kiva) to ignore the donation request.

I hadn't noticed at which stage Kiva takes the donation - so thank you for this warning, too.

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[granite]

Next time I go to make a transaction I'll be sure to test this theory to see it with my own eyes.  Unfortunately I think I've gone through my budget for things like Kiva this month.

[granite]

As fate should have it, I got a Kiva refund for an error in one of the loans.  So I got a new loan and every step of the process I tried to step out.  However... My kiva credit remained the same.  So what I said above isn't accurate.   After talking it through some more with my brother, what I figure out happened is that my brother opted for the donation.  He then accidentally removed the loan but then COMPLETED the transaction which was only the kiva donation. 

The behaviour I directly observed in my attempt to replicate is that the kiva donation is added to your basket until the process is finished.

I guess I would like to modify my suggestion to: "Don't ask for donations on gift certificates or don't allow donations to be taken for gift certificates unless explicitly permitted by the gift sender." 

[wthepoo]

I guess I would like to modify my suggestion to: "Don't ask for donations on gift certificates or don't allow donations to be taken for gift certificates unless explicitly permitted by the gift sender." 

That would be great - but it probably won't work (or at least not without a quite sophisticated system). Why? Because you don't pay "with the Gift Certificate" but with Kiva credit. This Kiva credit is one big pool of deposits, repayments, refunds, and redeemed GCs. So Kiva would have to track where the credits for each transaction come from (using a certain order of charging) and then adjust the donation amount accordingly... and explain that to the lender - or Kiva would have to keep the GC amount separate and ask the lender whether he wants to use the GC credit for this transaction or not.

That's why I settled for my "include the donation in the GC" suggestion which is not ideal but would be something.

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.