Williams-Sonoma wants my money, not my gift certificate

Just to let you know, you can go into any Williams-Sonoma store and
place a catalogue order there. You pay for the items in the store with
your gift certificate. They will fax it to the catalogue and then the
catalogue sends it to you. You still have to pay for shipping as with
any online order but you don't have to go through the hassle of
mailing in a gift certificate. Also, Williams-Sonoma gift certificates
are also good at Pottery Barn too.

Excellent letter -- your complaint is valid and it pertains to so many
of us. I remember getting a gift card that was redeemable only
online, not in the store, which I thought was a bit silly but I'd
prefer that over the other way around!

Williams-Sonoma certainly is a big enough company that they should be
able to figure this out, as other companies have a handle on how to
use gift certificates in a variety of ways.

And I think your daughter should have been informed when she picked up
the certificate that was redeemable only in the store.

Good luck!

I get my W-S certificates through our school's SCRIP program. The
SCRIP program does not provide any such information about the
certificates it sells. The only exceptions I see on the order form
are that some places will allow me to pay my bill with these
certificates/gift cards(Kohl's,JCPenney) or not(Sears).
And not every store that sells SCRIP indicates this info on the form.
So I don't know if I can use cards purchased through this program to
pay off credit cards at some other stores.

For those not familiar: The National SCRIP program can be used to
raise funds for schools.

Here's how it works: Let's take W-S, as an example. I can get a $25
W-S gift certificate by paying our school $25. W-S donates 8% of
sales to the school, so the school sends in $23. The school keeps the
other $2.

Our local order form includes grocery stores, national and local
chains, restaurants, amazon.com, airlines--lots of places.
Percentages here range from 2% to about 20%(usually local bagel
shops).

If I know I want to get something from W-S, I'll order a gift
certificate and then shop when it comes in the following week. W-S
has paper certificates, and I honestly don't recall whether or not
there's anything on the certificate that limits it to in-store use.

OP's daughter may not have had the opportunity to get this info. BUT
this is something that should be clearly written on the certificate or
gift card. Customers shouldn't have to ask a cashier, who may not
know the right answer.

It is astounding that a company like Williams-Sonoma couldn't have
found a way to work around this. Could they not have allowed you to
fax the gift certificate as proof that it was in your possession? Or
offered to have the items you wanted shipped directly to a store,
where you could pick them up and purchase them with your gift
certificate at your convenience?

My heart goes out to your daughter, who thought she was giving you a
present that would be greatly valued and enjoyed, but which turned out
to be a complete disappointment. I can imagine she is no happier than
you are in this situation.

Do keep us updated on whether or not this company every chooses to
acknowledge your complaint - and thank you for sharing your feedback!

This is great to know, sorry you are stuck dealing with it. They do
not deserve your business if this is true.

However, with that said, how are their gift certificates given to
people? Are they serialized with their own number? There are some
hurdles to cross for that type of implementation.

I find it maddening when a situation like this arises. I'm with you
in that I wouldn't want to send it to them since it could get 'lost.'
Every gift card/certificate I've either received or bought, has the
strong admonitions: 'treat as cash,' 'cannot be replaced if lost,'
etc.

I'm surprised Williams-Sonoma doesn't operate the way J. C. Penney
does in my area. I can order from the catalog requesting the item(s)
be shipped to their location nearest me. I make a short drive, pick
it up, and the best thing is: No shipping or handling charges.

I hope they resolve this problem to your satisfaction.