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The company has garnered a mixed reputation, with customers frequently praising its customer service, particularly highlighting quick and friendly support. Many users appreciate the concept of wish lists and gift exchanges, finding them useful when functioning correctly. However, significant concerns arise regarding the website's usability, with numerous complaints about technical glitches, account management issues, and a confusing interface that hampers the user experience. Additionally, there are reports of inadequate responses to customer complaints and problems, leading some users to reconsider using the platform for future exchanges. Overall, while the service has potential, substantial improvements are necessary to enhance functionality and user satisfaction.
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Elfster is an amazing website to use for every occasion! I love our family and friend gift exchanges, but I also use my wishlist for birthdays and special occasions. I even love to save links for future use on my private wishlist! It is so versatile and easy to use! Best free website hands down!
I have found Elfster to be the best gift-giving website I have ever used. Its user-friendly interface and easy-to-navigate app are wonderful. I especially appreciate that my family and friends can participate in gift exchanges regardless of our locations.
Someone has signed my email address up to this service. When I first was contacted by Elfster requesting I register I did not.
Since then I have been continually receiving emails for a Secret Santa I am not part of. I have tried turning off all notification, as unsubscribe is not an option. But the emails continue.
Reading some forums it appears the only way to stop the emails is in the group settings. As it does not notify who created this group I cannot do this.
I have had to block the elfster domain for our corporate email
I already disliked the holiday. I tried to eliminate the stress of it all with this app but someone was picked twice and Justin didn't have a secret Santa. Very disappointed, ruined Christmas.
Jan.
I created my account, and it refused to log me in— I tried every password variation that I have ever used, and it just kept saying "incorrect username or password." So I clicked "forgot password, and it sent a reset link to my email. The problem was, the link didn't send me to a page to reset my password. It just sent me to the login page. So I decided to keep trying different passwords, and it eventually locked me out of my account completely. I feel bad for my cousin because I guess she won't get a gift for the exchange…
I love Elfster. It is fairly easy to organize a gift exchange as well as get to know coworkers. I have used this for 3 years now and will continue!
Only 1/2 of the people receiving the invitation could join. It says 9 accepted but that's 9 invited. Many of us could not accept or go beyond this screen. So much trying and trying to make it work. A complete waste of time. And thanks for all the spam that you get once you make an account. I can see the invite but can't join or see who's joined. Below it says I'm not participating. All the clicks and trying never got it to work. And the admin had no luck either.
Despite accepting an invitation to a gift exchange it tells me "You are not participating" and then says at the bottom of the page "Your other account is in this exchange" with a button there that says "manage" that doesn't work. I don't have 2 accounts- I have a single account with a single email. Such a ridiculous glitchy website. I would give zero stars if possible.
Last year, Elfster worked just fine. I logged in again this year--and everything seemed fine. Had been waiting on the last person to accept the RSVP to begin the Draw. I received an email that person had accepted but when I tried to login: nothing. Did not recognize me...the owner. Had to recreate an account. All empty. Ba Humbug, Elfster.
Hate this site/interface. Family sent it to the wrong email no way to link unless I create a new account and link. Not even getting into managing and switching lists and all the junk it sends and advertises.
I'm a 24-year-old software developer and I struggle to navigate this convoluted website. Now imagine my 80-year-old grandparents trying to figure it out. Literally one of the most poorly-designed websites I've ever been on. All we want from Elfster is to anonymously shuffle and assign names, as well as see what our assigned person put on their wishlist. Instead, we get a company that adds the most random, redundant sections and subsections that do nothing but confuse older generations who aren't computer savvy. It's truly embarrassing how bad the user interface is on this horrible website. Please try and get better, Elfster Team. I understand that anyone skilled enough to help you wouldn't want to work for your loser company, so try and improve from within.
It's supposed to take the hard work out of our secret Santa,but just didn't work at all. We'll just draw names out of a hat and keep it simple.
Husband's family decided to use this app/site/whatever it was to do a secret santa. I was thinking ok, great, streamline Christmas shopping. NOPE. All it does is give you links to click on to go buy more crap through more random online stores, where you still have to enter all of the shipping info, billing info, etc., manually. In my case, half the links were to out of stock or unavailable items, and the one I did manage to purchase is now backordered to the end of January - some Christmas gift. I guess the appeal is that you don't have to go through the "hassle" of picking names out of a hat, but seriously, was it that hard? We have all agreed, we will not use again.
I've used Elfster (desktop and mobile version, not the app) for 11 going in 12 years, and I'm sticking by it for now, but each year brings changes to the site that make it less and less intuitive slash user friendly. The interface changes and features get moved around, shuffled, recategorized or disappeared altogether. I find it's much more time-consuming than in years past, and seriously, I just wish they'd return to the original (ca. 2011) version. I'll keep using it for now only because it's slightly less aggravating than starting from scratch on another platform.
Love it! No better way to do a virtual exchange. Use it every year but DON'T join any exchanges where you don't know the organizer personally.
We will be using Elfster again - it's incredibly easy and replaced hours of mental wrangling - usually done after we've all had our wine - with a complete and accurate exchange! As our family grows the politics of these things require finessing - Elfster took the guesswork out of the process! ALSO - their customer service is lightning fast and pleasant to work with!
Noel from Elfster was able to get back to me super fast! For some reason, the creator of the gifts exchange event made me a child account under my main account. Noel was able to merge the accounts and now we are back on track! Thanks so much for all you do!
I accidentally deleted my name draw and Holly helped me restore it with kindness AND humor! Thanks Holly, you restored the magic of Christmas!
Sprinkles the elf assisted me today and was able to correct my issue in a matter of seconds. They kept me laughing and even sent some jokes to continue my amusement. Hands down the best online customer service I have ever encountered. Keep it up Elfster!
Resolving my issue with cs was fast, easy, and fun. My agent even gave me virtual candy while i waited lol
Answer: No they don't. Their privacy policy states they don't sell your info.