Emails - Why Many Providers Use 2 Different Emails for Work Correspondence & Gift Cards
“Hmm, I’m having trouble with the gift card going through. I’m on the phone with customer service.” Has this ever happened to you? If it hasn’t, consider yourself lucky! The use of emailing gift cards isn’t always so smooth for everybody. And there’s a few reasons in this industry I can think of as to why it matters and why it happens. Let's hit best practices!
First. CLIENTS
Please always ask ahead of time if your provider-of-choice has a separate or preferred email for gift cards. She may not want to or may not think to volunteer the information ahead of time. And a well-intentioned gift card will go unsent and monies tied-up if you don’t ask and the provider’s main email is not the one she uses to receive gift cards. We don’t want to spoil any upcoming surprise and gifts, for sure, so best practice is to (copy and paste this into your intro email!) ask the provider early on: whether you use the same or different email for gift cards?
Second. Why it Matters
As stated above, a well-intentioned gift card will go unsent and monies tied-up and the hassle of trying to deal with the bank or the gift card issuer.
This can cause problems if the gift card is supposed to cover a purchase that is time-sensitive. For instance, if you’re booking a FYTM (Fly-you-to-me) with me, I typically book the flight myself with an airline gift card in the exact amount of the flight from my client. Or if you want me to have a Honey Birdette set and it’s selling out quickly - it takes time for the gift card to be issued and that is without issues! A third example is if we’re in a last minute same date booking and you’re giving me a gift card to cover the cost of the hotel. These are all time-sensitive gift card instances in which we want to avoid hassles!
It can also cause problems if the gift card is an alternative payment for online services like premium snapchat or custom content. Delayment of payment means delayment of content creation or delivery.
Additionally, it can cause problems if the gift card is intended to be a deposit for a current or future session. If deposit is not received, there is no appointment. Some providers are more strict on that last one than others. But you don’t want to be caught up trying to do the right thing and you send it to the wrong email. Bad things happening to good clients. *Shakin my head.*
Third. Why it Happens
One - Some emails are can become blacklisted by the customer service for fraud. Looking at you Am@z0n. (My wishlist is still active on that account but I can no longer accept gift cards to the account. How rude.)
Two - Some email types can be blocked by the gift card issuer. For instance, my email is Heather@HeatherRileyXO.com. It is privately owned and operated by me. It’s a purchased business email tied to my domain, that I also own and operate. It is often not accepted by gift card issuers because it’s a business email. That is why I use an @gmail.com email for gift cards. @gmail.com emails are considered personal emails, compared to the afore mentioned business email account. Personally, I use hbabykc1991@gmail.com for gift cards. But you may not be aware of that until after you make a mistake! I would hate for that to happen to you. And to me. It can result in such a headache.
Three - Private companies can reject email types or accounts for any reason. Not even the industry’s precious @protonmail is always allowed. Emails can be denied for any reason. But luckily, you can always make another free email pretty quickly. I have used a million emails for my ever-getting-suspended-Snapchats! (I do not have a @protonmail and I am not interested in it.)
Best practice: Ask Ahead of Time!
Heather Riley's Official Contact:
Official Contact: Heather@HeatherRileyXO.com
Official Giftcards: hbabykc1991@gmail.com
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