The Gift Exchange

I was reading an article the other night about an urban legend that was actually true, and how from it arose an expression we still use today. The urban legend goes like this: Some poor soul has been pronounced dead and has been laid to rest in a coffin even though he is actually still alive. Later on during an exhumation, there are scratch marks found inside the coffin lid as well as other desperate signs of someone trying to escape. Creepy huh?

Apparently it happened so often back in the days of yore, that an invention called the “safety coffin” was offered to those wealthy enough to afford one. It allowed the person inside the coffin to pull a string that was fed through a long tube up to the surface of the ground, and ring a small bell that was attached on the other end. It signaled to the outside world that someone was buried alive, and hopefully a rescue would follow. Thus the expression “saved by the bell” was born. Fascinating stuff! Do you know of any urban legends that turned out to be true?

Dedral Laudermilk - Customer Service Representative

It’s that time of year, new season, new challenges and harvesting. I seem to enjoy the cooler temperatures offering crisp morning air as a sign of parting with the old and preparing for the new. Most of us probably remember a seasonal story. As a child my sister and I enjoyed going out to chop firewood. There were neatly stacked piles out back and my sibling and I would head out, wield an ax and chop away with no thought of possible danger. Then we’d bring the firewood in next to the fireplace.  I miss that old fireplace that we were allowed to paint brown and white to resemble bricks.

Every now and again I go back to the place where I grew up. Most neighbors have passed, they were mature adults when I was a child. My last trip to the area gave me the feeling of being in a storybook. The streets were narrow, barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass. There were new houses that replaced old ones and some newly built where open lots once stood. I was in awe knowing I once lived there. Thinking of the past makes you appreciate the old and welcome the new.

Have you made a trip back to the neighborhood where you lived as a child?

At GiftTree everyone wears a few different hats. Here is some insight into what we do in the customer service department. First and foremost is taking care of our customers needs. Anything from taking their orders, fielding their complaints, incoming calls and answering customer service e-mails or just answering questions for them. Sometimes the questions really aren’t something we do here or have the answer to, but Google is a miraculous place to go. We also man the online chat service, handle returned packages from the warehouse or delayed packages.

Some of our customer service agents are part of our Corporate Sales Team. Corporate Sales is not very busy until about October, then it’s crazy until December! We take care of any customer service issues that arise for our affiliates and resellers. We also have to make sure all floral, fruit basket, and balloon orders are going to be successfully delivered by local design centers that we do business with.

Since we are a nationwide company we are here rain or shine, and since we deal with such an array of issues and questions we work closely with almost every department. IT is always updating our systems so we can work more efficiently. We are in contact with our phone dude, Rick, often. Shipping, receiving, design, pretty much everyone. That is one of the many reasons I think Customer Service is the best job at GiftTree. You get to help people all day long and that really makes the day go by fast! I am sure there is so much more, I just can’t think of it right now. Gotta get back to work!

Here at GiftTree we are already gearing up for the Christmas Holiday. This goes for our corporate sales department as well! The types of things we are doing now to get ready for the Holiday rush include, familiarizing ourselves with Holiday specific products, discussing the possibility of discounts and getting last years list of customers together so we can remind them of the upcoming bustle. If you happen to be in charge of the corporate gifting for your company or boss this year, here are a few tips:

• Check with your company about gift caps. Your company may have limits on how much you can spend on each client or customer.
• Get your budget together and number of gifts required before inquiring with gifting companies.
• Find out if you should be putting Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or just a simple thank you on the gift cards.
• Don’t forget to inquire about bulk discounts. Some companies offer them, some don’t. It never hurts to ask!
• Last but not least, don’t wait until the last minutes! Lots of companies run out of stock or have limited quantities later in the season. Don’t let your competitor get all the good stuff.

If you are in the market for Corporate Gifting this year check out our Corporate Gift Page. We are ready for you!

I still remember what I was doing the day our World Trade Center was attacked. I had just walked through the doors of a local grocery store where I worked at the time, and all of the employees were gathered around the dozen TV’s we kept on display in the electronics section. All of the pictures were showing a scene of two towers and one had smoke billowing out of it. I quickly tried to figure out why everyone was watching a movie at 6:30 in the morning, and when a co-worker whispered that it was a live feed from New York City, it still didn’t register. “What?” I thought to myself. “This is really happening?” We watched the plane crash into the second tower, and we watched the towers fall. It was one of the most surreal days at work I had ever experienced in my life.

That day and for many days after, it was as if the whole U.S. was in a state of shock. I didn’t know that it would affect me on a personal level, or bring out any kind of patriotism in me but yes…there it was. I found out that I was definitely a proud citizen of the United States of America and that perhaps I had taken what that meant for granted. I looked at my husband who is a disabled veteran, in a whole new light as his disabilities came as a direct result of defending the very freedoms I took for granted. I began to notice my neighbors a little more, and got a little more interested in what was going on around me. Many people I knew seemed to live their lives on auto-pilot, almost as if there was nothing to be concerned with if it didn’t affect them directly. I saw 9-11 change that. Read the rest of this entry »

7 years ago today we experienced the biggest national tragedy of my life. I’m not sure how you remember that day, but I will tell you how I do…

I was an unemployed 21 year old living at home. Of course, sleeping when it happened. I woke up to my mom shaking me awake, telling me over and over we had been attacked by terrorists. My parents, being pranksters, were an unreliable source. I told her that I thought her joke was not funny and rolled over to go back to sleep. I could hear her just standing beside my bed and could feel her staring at me. When I rolled back over to tell her to get out she had the most serious look on her face I have ever seen. I got up immediately and went to the TV just in time to see the breaking news about the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. Read the rest of this entry »

Normally I don’t care much for chain letter-like emails, but I received one today from my brother-in-law that made me smile. If I promise not to make you send the information on to 6 other people, will you read it?

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN…
All the girls had ugly one piece gym uniforms?
It took five minutes for the TV warm up?
Nearly everyone’s Mom was at home when the kids got home from school.
Nobody owned a purebred dog.
When a quarter was a decent allowance?
You’d reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?
All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels? Read the rest of this entry »

I was hanging out with my family this weekend, and my four year old son was on the floor playing with one of his many trucks. And of course being a four year old boy he was smashing it, banging it, and jumping it over his little sister’s head. His father who was mid sentence trying to have an adult conversation , ask him not to be so loud and to treat his truck nicer so that he wouldn’t break it.

Cody continued on playing, keeping an eye on his father to see if he was paying attention. As he played he took each movement bigger and bigger and a little louder each time, the whole while watching to see what dad would say. He was basically seeing how far he could take it with out getting in trouble. I was getting a kick out of it, Chris my fiancé wasn’t finding it so funny, so I asked him, “Cody, how come you have to push it?” I meant his father’s patience, he looked right at me, and very matter of fact said, “Because it doesn’t have batteries.” Love it!

Most afternoons I head down the street to our corner Starbucks to get a little afternoon pick-me-up. Ah, a steaming hot Americano – it’s nectar of the gods here in the Pacific Northwest. Lately I’ve noticed a small board hanging where you wait for your coffee that reads “Get to Know Your Baristas.” Each week I read the newest question and I get sucked into reading each and every answer, even if I already have coffee in hand. So I’m totally borrowing, ok blatantly stealing, their idea.

I know GiftTree employees read this blog so I’m throwing a question out for you all to answer, but anyone can join in. I’ll ask a new question each week. The first question…What’s the most embarrassing song on your iPod, your mp3 player, or in your CD player right now? For me, it’s Brittany Spear’s version of My Prerogative. Hey, it’s got a good beat! Oh man, why do I have a feeling this sudden burst of honesty is going to come back and bite me at my next conference room meeting?

Yes, it’s true. I have an embarrassingly large box of chili lime pistachios under my desk. We will be using the pistachios in one of our upcoming holiday gift towers, and the sample we were originally sent to taste was, well, 25 lbs. After tasting a few bites of these nutty, spicy, salty concoctions, I promptly decided to hoard said sample like a caveman or perhaps somebody preparing for the apocalypse.

These things are delicious and despite my best (half) efforts to share, I am overcome with sheer pistachio greed. Every day around 10 AM, I eat about fifteen of them, ever so slowly cracking away at their sheer volume. Then I decide I should probably share with the other employees. They are nice people, after all.

I start to think about how long it will take me to finish the box – at least a year – and it makes me feel odd. Once I even took the box out to the common room and left it there for five whole minutes. But, in the end, pistachio greed took over and I returned the box to its former home under my desk. I mean, do you know how much pistachios cost? Aren’t they heart healthy, too? These are the thoughts that prevent me from relinquishing my precious box of chili lime pistachios.

That being said, customers: our food is good. GiftTree employees: if you would like some pistachios, you know where to find me.