website thubmnail of Elfster
How would you rate Elfster?
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Ohio
1 review
5 helpful votes
Follow ROBIN T.
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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.

Date of experience: December 2, 2012
New Jersey
1 review
7 helpful votes
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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.

Date of experience: February 5, 2015
New York
1 review
1 helpful vote
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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.

Date of experience: March 12, 2021
Charles C. Elfster Rep
over a year old

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.

Arizona
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow William M.
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Im sort of disappointed.
December 28, 2020

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..

Date of experience: December 27, 2020
GB
1 review
1 helpful vote
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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.

Date of experience: November 18, 2023
New York
1 review
3 helpful votes
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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 ‍

Date of experience: September 10, 2020
Illinois
1 review
3 helpful votes
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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?

Date of experience: August 25, 2015
New York
1 review
9 helpful votes
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It is very frustrating to use. The help function is useless. I am so frustrated.

Date of experience: December 5, 2010
Texas
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
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I really botched up my Elfster account and Elf Holly was fantastic. She took care of all my issues with great patience & professionalism and a great sense of humor. So happy with excellent customer service.

Date of experience: December 9, 2021
Massachusetts
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow lindsey k.
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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!

Date of experience: November 17, 2018
Texas
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow Cayce B.
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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.

Date of experience: November 24, 2018
Illinois
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Great Customer Service
December 1, 2018

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.

Date of experience: December 1, 2018
Canada
1 review
2 helpful votes
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Best Secret Santa Ever!
November 30, 2018

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.

Date of experience: November 28, 2018
New Hampshire
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow Gayle M.
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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

Date of experience: December 28, 2019
Texas
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Merriest bunch of Elves!
November 17, 2018

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!

Date of experience: November 15, 2018
California
1 review
0 helpful votes
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GREAT Customer Service!
November 19, 2018

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!

Date of experience: November 17, 2018
Pennsylvania
1 review
0 helpful votes
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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

Date of experience: November 30, 2021
California
2 reviews
3 helpful votes
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Online gift Exchange...
December 1, 2008

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.

Date of experience: December 1, 2008
Maryland
1 review
0 helpful votes
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They save our tradition!
November 22, 2018

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.

Date of experience: November 21, 2018
New York
1 review
0 helpful votes
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AMAZING
November 19, 2018

This is an amazing website to help you get your secret santa organized and just wonderful! I am so pleased with customer service that has amazing and very sweet helpers. I would totally recommend this!

Date of experience: November 18, 2018

Overview

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.

service
13
value
8
shipping
4
returns
4
quality
10