Elfster

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

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.

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.

Invitations sent, check. Enormous problems with RSVP. I suspect the email address has to match but this is an unreasonable requirement. Email address should be blind.

Affiliation with Facebook is a red flag straight away.

It should just work. It doesn't. This suggests a lack of oversight and possible backyard operators.

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.

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 ‍

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!

THE F?!*"'! ORGANIZER PICKS and PAIRS UP WHO GETs WHO., BEWARE!... this is pathetic... pick names in front of the organizer

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.

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.

I have to say, I think after quite a number of years of struggling with this site, I will look for another or go back to the old fashioned envelopes. Once all the information is fed up and it does the exchange, its fine, but have now struggled on several occasions to amend the members of the group, and today I cannot even access the group to see if recent amendments are correct etc. There is such a lack of information and help, and what should be a simple job take hours. Shame!

Ruined our gift exchange. One member had a problem receiving the email because of spam filters at work, but then when we tried to fix the problem one of the members became him as well. So it got all messed up and 2 people ended up giving to my husband and my sister in law got nothing. Totally useless site, use an old fashioned paper draw instead and use technology for other things.

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.

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.

I love the fact on Elfster you can make a wish list of things from all over the internet and add notes as far as size, quantity, etc. It even has a place to add notes, or add a gift even if it's something you'd buy in person at a store. I would really think adding the feature of viewing a public wish list could be done with just a link and not starting an account would be useful. My father refuses to sign up even thought this allows me to add great details

I have used it in the past for exchanges and it's great, but I'd love to share it as just an in need of wish list that anyone can view if I give them the link. I could be an option just like the public/private option of who can see your wish list. (private, public to those with an account, public to anyone with a link)

Great helpful customer service! The elves are super helpful and quick as well. The only thing that would make this better would be some guidance videos or how to guides, I ended up having to make a bunch up for our group and since I was participating it meant I had to black out portions since it listed who I was paired with. But otherwise convenient and fun!