Seemed to work OK for the adult gift exchange, until it sent out a 2nd set of drawn names for no reason. Never did get child accounts and wish lists to work for their own exchange. Declared Bah Humbug! After 3 weeks of effort. Help pages are way too general. I do half my job on the internet with a wide variety of government web sites all set up differently and have NEVER had so much trouble getting set up. Am curious if this works much better if only used for social wishlists? May try that next time. Cool in theory but VERY hard to use.
Terrible experience in the end. Started out very hopeful. In the end, one member of our group didn't get assigned someone. She tried to find someone to help and didn't. One of us got two gifts. It was a mess. Forget this.
Customer service is pretty one sided. I was constantly being harassed by a few exchanges I joined. These people even came out onto public social media, and into my personal email. It was reported to elfster time and time again, but their response was instead of taking care of the harassers, to deactivate my account. All my gifts were sent and received by my gifters with proof, and even the maker of the exchange saying so.
Definitely only do this with friends, and don't expect help if you choose to enter in with strangers. Learned the hard way and was scammed multiple times. Shame.
You have a great website elfster! I love it and changed me, but it removed my stuff! I had a bunch of stuff on my wishlist and it all disappeared? It may be an issue through the website, if so they need to fix it soon. Plus, they aren't against gender roles. The mens section was filled of stuff i didn't like. It may just be me but PLEASE fix your website..
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.
Went thru a fb group to do an exchange. There needs to be better protection for gifts given then gifts don't get received. GOT ME FOR $60, lesson learned
Why doesn't Elfster remember me? I have been using it for years. Geeesh! Are idiots in charge? Why should people have to jump through hoops to use Elfster again?
It is very frustrating to use. The help function is useless. I am so frustrated.
THE F?!*"'! ORGANIZER PICKS and PAIRS UP WHO GETs WHO., BEWARE!... this is pathetic... pick names in front of the organizer
Hi Nunya, We are sorry to hear you had difficulty drawing names. Our elves work hard to make it easy for you to organize Secret Santa gift exchanges so you have more time for fun. By default, our Secret Santa generator will automatically draw names on a date you specify. As a gift exchange organizer you can also manually assign people if you like. We’re here to help, so if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at help@elfster.com.
Our group of friends have been using Elfster for over 5 years now doing a Secret Santa. Its a great place to post your gift lists and make sure we don't get duplicates. Great online chat for any help you need.
Great idea for the holidays especially for those who live far from one another. There is even an option to make a wish list and you can secretly follow people as well. I even see what left from a holiday wish list to buy birthday presents some time. I was also able to add wish lists for my children and everyone can still see them even though they don't participate in the exchange. Their customer service "helper elf" is awesome too. They walked me through changing someone's email. Lovely website and experience using elfster!
I'm starting to do gift exchanges both on an international level and a personal family level. This. Is. Perfect. It offers anonymity as well as conversation and just more than I thought of. So amazing.
I organized a gift exchange for 150 people. There were a few kinks with the website. Some people didn't receive notifications of secret messages and quite a few times I got "bad gateway" loads. However, with this issues all the customer service elves have been extremely helpful. I wish it was a bit more user friendly, though. Many of my people had issues figuring out how to use the wish list and find their recipient. I also wish it had a questionnaire feature. This was a major issue for my exchange. We had 24 questions I needed post within Elfster and it was very hard to enter them into the system.
My family lives in multiple provinces. I was able to invite them all by facebook and email where they could sign up if they wanted to join in. You set the draw date and the site doe the rest! You can even post items on a wish list for the person who picked your name (including sites like amazon). I was even able to add people after the draw date. Their live customer service helped me two days in a row promptly and were very courteous.
The Elfster app is amazing and my family LOVED using it! It's super easy, you can check in anonymously with participants, and I even got alerts when wish list items went on sale! Everyone was VERY happy with their gifts. Highly recommended 5
I love when you send a Chat for help, they are always in character. Always willing to elf you! A few small issues, wish it would remember my email list, and had to merge accounts from two years, but they're quick to resolve, and it's fun!
I was having issues with my account this evening. The person on the online chat help was terrific. They stayed with me through the whole process and got me all fixed up. Best service I've had in a long time. Thanks Elfster!
Short stop was patient and courteous and hung in there with me until we reached resolution... i wish more reps were like him... he needs to be cloned... it did take a while but the situation was complex... he asked the right questions to get to s solution. I hive him 10 stars
Online gift Exchange... perfect for the holidays... - I was trying to figure out an easy way to do a Secret Santa for my office. I actually found this site by fluke [GOOGLE is fantastic] and it is an electronic gift exchange site. You can create a profile, including a wish list, best of all it allows you to anonymously email your Secret Santa instead of filling out useless forms. It reminds me of Evite when you are trying to get your group together. This is an extremely user friendly site. I can't wait to use this in the future.
I went on to set up our annual (25 years) gift exchange to find the site had been changed/absorbed by Elfster. My history was not there, many of my participants were missing? I was near tears. OK, I cried. I clicked on the elf and explained what had happened and Tricia and the head Elf were able to restore most of my information so the name exchange could go on tomorrow, Thanksgiving, as it has for 25 years. Thank you so much Elfster. This is what the season is about, helping others, family and traditions.
Answer: No they don't. Their privacy policy states they don't sell your info.
Elfster has a rating of 3.1 stars from 125 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. Reviewers satisfied with Elfster most frequently mention customer service, gift exchange and wish list. Elfster ranks 2nd among Christmas sites.
Hi There Nyk. Sorry you have had issues with the organizers of your past exchanges. We'll have one of our support team members reach out to you for details to get this resolved. Thank you for providing us with as much information as you can.