Buyer Beware when Ordering Online
My initial encounter with Hey Dude, specifically trying to purchase an e-gift card through their website, has been incredibly frustrating and disappointing. What should have been a simple process turned into a series of errors, culminating in a complete lack of customer service resolution.
Here's a breakdown of the issues:
Cart Quantity Glitch: As I proceeded to checkout, the system automatically added a quantity of two to my $50 gift card, despite me only selecting one. When I manually corrected the quantity to one, the cart then updated to show two separate $50 gift cards, each with a quantity of one. I had to manually delete one of these to finally get to a single gift card. This is a significant bug that could easily lead to accidental overspending.
No Order Review: At no point during the entire checkout process was there an opportunity to review the critical details of the e-gift card order. This includes the recipient's email address, the delivery date, or the personalized gift message. This is a fundamental flaw in any e-commerce checkout flow, especially for a digital product like a gift card where accuracy is paramount.
Gift Card Sent to Sender: Unsurprisingly, given the lack of a review step, the gift card was emailed directly to me (the sender) instead of the intended recipient. This completely defeats the purpose of an e-gift card and required immediate intervention.
Unresponsive Customer Service: I immediately reached out to customer service to rectify the issue. Their response was a generic, stock answer stating, "after the order has been placed, it will be processed as quickly and carefully as possible, and unfortunately cannot be cancelled or modified anymore." There was no indication that my specific concern about their website's errors had been reviewed, no attempt to offer a solution, or even an apology for the inconvenience caused by their system's failure. This is unacceptable customer service.
This entire experience has left a very sour taste. A company's website should be intuitive and error-free, and their customer service should be capable of addressing issues, not just dismissing them with canned responses. I would strongly caution anyone considering purchasing an e-gift card from Hey Dude to be aware of these significant problems.
8 July 2025
Unprompted review