Thanks.com Gift Certificate
I ran into your site while looking for a way to sell a useless gift: a $50 certificate to Thanks.com. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s this evil thing that companies use to say “thanks” to employees after a project is done. Instead, it wastes the employee’s time looking for something to spend it on - there’s nothing in their catalog worth $50, and not much anyone would want or need.
For example, I could buy the Hamilton Beach Icy Treats Maker with my $50 certificate, or go to Amazon.com and get it for $29.99
Or perhaps I should get a HoMedics 5-Motor Back Massager with Heat? Oh wait, instead of my $50 thanks.com certificate, I could get it for $24.99 at Circuit City.com
Or how about Harry Potter book 7? Surely that’s worth $50, right? Oh wait, you can get it for $19.94 at overstock.com.
See their catalog of crap here.
Last project, they gave us $50 Visa cards. Unfortunately, if you don’t spend them within 90 days, the money starts disappearing with non-usage fees. The company also had to pay a $5 activation fee for each card, so they spent $55 to give us each $50. That seemed pretty stupid, but thanks.com is much worse. The company pays $50 to give us an average of $25 worth of stuff we don’t need.
I’d be so much happier to receive an envelope with cash in it. Is anyone ever disappointed to receive cash? Why do corporations insist on doing this stuff?
June 16th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I say just buy whatever you want anyway, even if it’s not actually worth it (like the Icy Treats Maker)… You can buy it with YOUR $25 or THEIR $50, so you’d essentially still be getting something free out of it, lol. Or, you can find something that is worth about $50, even if it’s something you don’t want, and then sell it on eBay and get “real” money for it that you can use on something you DO want somewhere else (that’s what I would do)…
Is there somewhere you could make an anonymous complaint about this system? Say you’d rather see that $50 in your paycheck rather than some rip-off website…
Good luck!