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25.3. Redeeming Gift Certificates
After processing a payment for the gift certificate, it will have an available balance the customer can use towards any purchase either online or over the phone with you. The gift certificate can be used on purchases for the exact value of the gift certificate, a value that is less which will leave a remaining balance on the gift certificate, or a value that is more which will mean the customer will need to add another form of payment to completely pay their invoice. If the customer uses the gift certificate to pay an invoice that is for less than the value of the gift certificate, Arctic will keep track of the remaining balance available for the gift certificate on the "Browse Gift Certificates" page as shown here:
The available balance is also tracked on the "View Gift Certificate" page along with the invoices to which the gift certificate was applied.
The "View Gift Certificate" page is a great place to be able to find when/if a gift certificate was used and for what it was used for should a customer ever have questions about how it was redeemed.
If the gift certificate has a remaining balance after being applied to a purchase, as long as the customer uses the available balance before the gift certificate expires, they will be able to apply it to additional purchases.
Note: The gift certificate payment option only appears on the online checkout screen and the backend payment screen if there are active gift certificates in the system.
If the customer is making a reservation for a rental or a trip online, they will be able to use their gift certificate to pay for their invoice.
On the checkout screen under "Payment Method" they will be able to select "Gift Certificate" as the method of payment for their transaction. Once they select "Gift Certificate" as the payment method, Arctic will add a field for them to enter their gift certificate number.
The gift certificate numbers that Arctic generates are not case sensitive. As long as your guest accruately enters the numbers and letters that make up the gift certificate number they will be able to use their gift certificate. If they mis-enter their gift certificate number, they will get the following error:
Once the customer has correctly entered the gift certificate number and checked the checkbox agreeing to the terms and conditions, they will be able to click "Complete Purchase" to finalize their reservation.
If the customer calls to make a reservation over the phone, when it is time to process a payment for their invoice, if the customer has any unused gift certificates, Arctic will display them at the top of the "Run Transaction" screen.
Arctic includes the gift certificate numbers and the available balance of the unused gift certificates as well in this message box. This comes in handy for keeping track of open gift certificates and will give you the opportunity to see if your guest would like to use their gift certificate for the purchase they are making. To apply a gift certificate as payment, choose gift certificate as the "Payment Method" and enter the gift certificate number in the gift certificate field as shown below.
Hint: When entering a gift certificate as payment via the backend you do not need to include the random letters at the end of the gift certificate number, which may save time and decrease the challenge of entering a gift certifcate code provided over the phone. For instance, if the gift certificate number is GC5WRMSX, you can enter "GC5" (excluding all letters after the numeric part) and Arctic will accept this number for the gift certificate number.
Once the gift certificate number has been correctly entered in the gift certificate field, you can click "Submit" to process the payment.
If the available balance of a gift certificate is not enough to cover the total amount due, you must choose "Custom Amount" for the payment amount, then enter the amount of the gift certificate in order to be able to process the payment successfully. If you try to use a gift certificate as payment and the amount is more than the available blanace of the gift certificate, Arctic will display the following error:
If a customer tries to use an expired gift certificate as payment online or over the phone, Arctic will give the following error:
If a customer tries to use a gift certificate as payment online or over the phone that has been previously used and has zero available balance, Arctic will give this error: