[Re: Loose Cannon: Pushing The Envelopes, Direct Newsline, Monday, January 7, 2008]:

Your point about the gift cards was very well taken. They are a desirable gift, but as you said in your article, some people hate to give them because they are a cop-out.

Elsewhere on the Internet, it turns out that much of the profit from gift cards comes from unredeemed cards. It should be illegal for a company to hold anyone's money on the ground that the expiration date has passed. This would become pure fraud if I sent $100 for my daughter's gift certificate, and then a company refused to redeem it because the expiration date has passed.

These gift card buyers have deposited $50, $100, or more real dollars into their ACCOUNT for use by a future customer. Out West, we would have regarded [failure to honor this deposit] in court as "grand larceny over $100" and there would have been many months in the slammer for company executives.

Fred Morath
Fred Morath Direct Marketing
Natick, MA