Amazon.com idea: Easily send someone a gift they don’t have on their wish list 28 Mar 2005

17 comments Latest by ERE

A few times in the past couple weeks I’ve wanted to send various people books via Amazon.com. I know I can add something to my cart, and then enter their shipping address, but 1. I may not know their shipping address (and I don’t want to ask them as that might ruin the surprise), or 2. I don’t want to store their address in my account since this is a one-time gift.

What I’d like to be able to do is pick the gift/product and then just send it to their Amazon.com wish list address. I know they have a wish list, but I can’t send them something that isn’t on their list. I wish Amazon.com would make it easier for me to send someone a non-requested gift who already has a wish list set up. Is this already possible? If not, how about it?

17 comments (comments are closed)

OweBoat 28 Mar 05

Add something from their wishlist, then add the item that you really want to send. When it comes time to review the order, remove the wishlist item, but keep the item you want to send.

OweBoat 28 Mar 05

To be a little clearer (I went back and checked), when you “proceed to checkout” it should still ask for the ship to. The first option should be the person who’s wishlist you used. Their address should be “hidden for privacy”. Select them. The next step lets you review your order. Do that, set the wishlist quantity to “0”. It will go away and keep the shipping address (still hidden).

Alan Francis 28 Mar 05

Isn’t sending unsolicited stuff through someone’s mailbox, whether you think they might really appreciate it or not, spam ?

I know why you’re doing it, you know why you’re doing it…even the recipient knows why you’re doing it, but it seems that letting you send me something I haven’t asked you for (explicitly, or implictly through a wishlist) opens a legal door Amazon might not want opened.

Of course, you could go for a permission system…

Amazon could send me an email saying “Jason wants to send you a gift. Is this okay?”. Again Amazon might be forced to tell me what that gift is in order to avoid being “unsolicited”, but the email could give me the option. “Do you trust Jason or would you like to see what the gift is in advance before agreeing?”

A.

Jemal 28 Mar 05

Sounds like a wonderful way for stalkers to send sex toys and pornography to their stalkees. Maybe it’s best to just get their address by asking.

Izzy 28 Mar 05

Now why aren’t I getting more of this kind of spam?

I had been wondering about this very thing a while back…thanks for the workaround OweBoat.

OweBoat 28 Mar 05

it seems that letting you send me something I haven’t asked you for (explicitly, or implictly through a wishlist) opens a legal door Amazon might not want opened.

I can’t imagine why this would be illegal. I get a mailbox full of stuff everyday that I haven’t asked for. Not just paper either, I get promotional giveaways which could be argued to have value.

If someone really doesn’t want something, they can throw it away unopened, return it or give it away. Amazon still isn’t giving up addresses, many of which can be found through the white pages or google anyway.

Joe Grossberg 28 Mar 05

I’ve noticed the same thing — I’ll want to buy a friend a gift without ruining the surprise (“Why do I want your address? Um, well, uh … I’m just curious, or something.”)

Have you tried contacting Amazon directly? I’m sure there’s a rationale behind this design decision.

Secret Admirer 28 Mar 05

I just mailed this to Alan Francis, I hope he doesn’t mind…

Andy 29 Mar 05

You can “hack” the checkout to get the functional equivalent of this feature.

1. Add an item from the receiving user’s wishlist to your cart.
2. Add the intended gift item to your cart.
3. Click “Proceed to Checkout”
4. In the “Choose a shipping address” screen, select the “hidden” address of the recipient.
5. In the final confirmation screen click on the “Change quantities or delete?” button, and delete the item that you added from the wishlist.
6. Complete the checkout.

than 07 Jun 05

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