Do You Want My Money, Or Not??

I need a gift certificate for a family member.

Generally, I dislike gift cards, but in this case I'm 99% sure the person needs new underwear but I do not want to go buy it for them.

Ding! Gift card!

So I try Hanes.com. Hanes.com doesn't even have any search matches for "gift card" or "gift certificate." Hmm... that's no good.

Jockey! Jockey accepts gift cards. Jockey lets you check the balance of a gift card. Jockey does not, however, sell gift cards.

Finally, in desperation, I purchased a certificate from Joe Boxer. It's not as good a solution as I would have wanted (a Hanes card, in particular, could have been used at a Hanes store), but I'm limited in my options by this point. I want the person to know they are getting underwear, but pick them themselves.

So here's my problem, mostly with Jockey.com... why build up an e-commerce interface, why build up a way to check gift-cards, why build up an entire FAQ around gift cards, but not sell them? I would have happily paid $2.95 shipping and handling (on a side note JJill.com calls this shipping and processing, which left a site-leaving bad taste in my mouth. Processing? Processing is electronic. I'm not paying for your stinking processing.) to have the card shipped. Jockey would have made $2.54 on that alone!

But, no, I guess they don't want my money.

Someone at Jockey/Hanes would probably say, "we never get complaints about that..." Yeah, I don't complain, I just go shop elsewhere, then blog about how much you stink. Lack of complaints logged does not equal perfect service... but I think that's another entry for another day!