I think I've come to accept that my gift cards will expire at some point. I'm not sure I'd be horrifically broken up if I went to use a card after a year, and it was no longer active. In fact, if the card worked, I'm not even sure I'd notice to appreciate the company's noble efforts.
Granted, a great user experience should be so seamless that the customer never even considers it, but I'm sure that there are some great brands out there that allow their gift cards to expire. I doubt their image has struggled enormously. Can anyone name examples or give stories?
I love the spirit of the article, though. Arbiters of the truth, indeed.
Same thing in germany. Shops can put an expiration date on their cards, but that just means they have to pay a full refund in cash from that day on (they have alredy benefited enough from the interest free credit extended to them by the giver of the card). So good consumer protection laws are not only just, but also beautiful, as they discourage bad web design :-).
Not exactly. Sure, non-expiring giftcards are good (I think they are allowed to expire after five years in Denmark, which makes sense, since that is the amount of time companies are required to keep detailed bookkeeping records), but that won't keep people from forgetting they have them, or just never getting around to use them. And it doesn't mean companies can't make it difficult to check the balance.
Granted, a great user experience should be so seamless that the customer never even considers it, but I'm sure that there are some great brands out there that allow their gift cards to expire. I doubt their image has struggled enormously. Can anyone name examples or give stories?
I love the spirit of the article, though. Arbiters of the truth, indeed.