How would you rate Elfster?
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Australia
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Unsolicited Spam
November 21, 2024

Someone has signed my email address up to this service. When I first was contacted by Elfster requesting I register I did not.
Since then I have been continually receiving emails for a Secret Santa I am not part of. I have tried turning off all notification, as unsubscribe is not an option. But the emails continue.
Reading some forums it appears the only way to stop the emails is in the group settings. As it does not notify who created this group I cannot do this.
I have had to block the elfster domain for our corporate email

Date of experience: November 21, 2024
Washington
1 review
1 helpful vote
Follow S M.
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Terrible - doesn't work
December 4, 2023

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.

Date of experience: December 4, 2023
Canada
1 review
2 helpful votes
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Doesn't work at all
December 3, 2023

Despite accepting an invitation to a gift exchange it tells me "You are not participating" and then says at the bottom of the page "Your other account is in this exchange" with a button there that says "manage" that doesn't work. I don't have 2 accounts- I have a single account with a single email. Such a ridiculous glitchy website. I would give zero stars if possible.

Date of experience: December 3, 2023
Massachusetts
2 reviews
1 helpful vote
Follow Mark R.
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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.

Date of experience: November 30, 2023
Colorado
1 review
2 helpful votes
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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.

Date of experience: November 28, 2022
Texas
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Fast and Friendly
December 15, 2021

Sprinkles the elf assisted me today and was able to correct my issue in a matter of seconds. They kept me laughing and even sent some jokes to continue my amusement. Hands down the best online customer service I have ever encountered. Keep it up Elfster!

Date of experience: December 13, 2021
Connecticut
1 review
0 helpful votes
Follow David S.
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We will be using Elfster again - it's incredibly easy and replaced hours of mental wrangling - usually done after we've all had our wine - with a complete and accurate exchange! As our family grows the politics of these things require finessing - Elfster took the guesswork out of the process! ALSO - their customer service is lightning fast and pleasant to work with!

Date of experience: December 29, 2021
Virginia
1 review
0 helpful votes
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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)

Date of experience: December 10, 2021
Texas
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow Kaitlin S.
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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.

Date of experience: January 18, 2023
New Jersey
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Super fast response!
December 21, 2021

Noel from Elfster was able to get back to me super fast! For some reason, the creator of the gifts exchange event made me a child account under my main account. Noel was able to merge the accounts and now we are back on track! Thanks so much for all you do!

Date of experience: December 20, 2021

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