Debenham's Wedding Gift-list Service (Debenhams)

Member Name: mindy

Product:	Debenhams
Date:	18/07/02 (5246 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Efficient service, Free vouchers, Can purchase gifts via internet

Disadvantages: See bottom of op

Myself and my husband got married on 2 June this year and we held our gift-list at Debenhams in Oxford Street, London. This isn't actually the nearest Debenhams to where we live but it has a larger selection of items to choose from.

This is a brief run-down of how the procedure works:

1. Make an appointment, usually 3 months in advance of the wedding date, with the store to have a consultation and to book the hand-held scanner.

2. Go along to the consultation, with an idea of the items you would like, have a chat with a member of staff from the wedding service dept and receive a hand-held scanner and a clipboard for items that will not scan. You are given a locker to put your belongings in so that can walk around the store freely.

3. Walk around the store with the hand-held scanner and clipboard. You 'bleep' the barcodes of the items you would like on your giftlist and the item name appears on the scanner. You enter whether this is 'ok' and enter how many you would like of the item. You then proceed around the store. Some of the items will not scan for some reason so you make a note of the barcode number, item etc on the clipboard.

4. After about 2 hours (you can make another appointment if this is not long enough) you then return to the wedding service dept with your scanner and your clipboard. The items held in your scanner are uploaded onto their computer and any items written on the clipboard are manually entered onto the computer. You are told if any items are discontinued etc. You also need to indicate if you would like the option of gift-vouchers to be added to your gift list.

5. You are given a printout of your giftlist and also asked how many little cards you would like - these are the cards which you put inside your invitations with the giftlist number on (guests can use this number to find your list via the internet or instore).

6. You will be asked whether you would like
your gifts delivered one week before or three weeks after your wedding. These are the only two options for some reason. We chose to have ours delivered three weeks after as we were away on honeymoon for two weeks and didn't want our pressies to be left in the house whilst we were away.

7. And off you go home (completely exhausted!!).

Once guests have received their invitations with their little cards they may then buy your gift in any number of ways i.e. via telephone, internet, or instore using the monitors provided. If the guest forgets to take the card along with the gift list number on, this does not matter as they can just enter your surname or wedding date.

Guests can choose either to take their gift away with them (if they go to the store in person) and to bring it along on the wedding day, or to pay £3.50 to have it delivered and gift-wrapped.

Some of our guests bought their presents with them to the wedding but most chose to have them gift wrapped and delivered. The gifts are delivered in huge boxes and large blue sacks and each present (if the guest has requested gift-wrapping) is individually wrapped in silver paper with a gold bow. You get about 7 or 8 parcels in one cardboard box, depending on the size of the gift. Each present has a gift tag on (which has been written by a member of staff from Debenhams) with a message from your guest (this is an option on the website). You are also given a printout of everything that has been delivered which you must sign, once checked and return in a pre-paid envelope.

You are also informed whether any of the items on your list have been specially ordered in for you (if they were out-of-stock) and whether any item has since been discontinued. If this is the case you may select gift vouchers as an alternative.

Just for holding your gift-list at Debenhams you are given 5% of the total value of your list in gift vouchers. You need to make an appointment to
collect these from the 'home' store (i.e. where you set up the list). The only little gripe I have is that you are not allowed to collect these from any other branch of Debenhams so we cannot collect them from our local store. However, the whole gift-list service worked brilliantly and I haven't any complaints.

I hope you find this helpful, if not a too lengthy op!

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