Well, you don't have to ruin the surprise by asking for their address 'cause it automatically gets shipped to them when you add it to your shopping cart through the wish list.

I think what you're suggesting is interesting, but if you buy someone something off their wish list, you definitely know they'll like it.

Maybe what would work better is an option to suggest a product to a person, then.

But then isn't that just an isolated incident that really wouldn't necessitate a feature like that? Just keep your wishlist up to date?

And there are situations where this would be weird and creepy. Getting random toys from people I don't know (with the sole exception of the folks who ask me to review them - love that!) would make me pretty damn uncomfortable.

If it's a specific situation, such as the one you described, I don't think a whole new feature is warranted. In fact, the problem sounds a lot like it's been resolved.

I really don't think that would ever happen.

Should they know -something- is being sent?

I'm a little confused, then, obviously. Sounded to me like you wanted a feature that would let users send gifts to people without having those gifts be on the recipients wishlist. That scenario would freak me out.

Obviously, I'm misunderstanding what you're suggesting. Perhaps you could clarify?

I can understand how it was frustrating that Saraid couldn't send the lube as a surprise for you Epiphora and I hope you got that resolved. However, I think the wider implications of such a feature are unreasonable and too difficult to manage.

I would hate to think there were things I didn't know about or hadn't approved coming in the mail from anonymous people. I think most people here have fairly expansive wishlists anyway that others could usually pick and choose from with relative ease. It would have to be a fairly unusual situation, like the one you got stuck with, where a wishlist wouldn't suffice.

I could see a feature like this working. But first, I don't think EF would need to give the gift giver the recipient's address. But I think they could set it up so someone could check a box on an item indicating they wish to send it as a gift to someone on EF. In turn the potential recipient would receive an e-mail alert stating that someone wishes to send a gift, but I think the giver would need to at least provide their EF ID (as in Saraid's case) or some sort of identifying name so the potential recipient could make a decision whether or not they wanted to receive a gift from that person.

If the person declines, then EF could send a form letter stating something like, "We're sorry but the person you wish to send [name of item(s) here] is not open to receiving gifts at this time." Or something like that. Just a thought.

I figure EF has to weigh how beneficial a feature like this would be in the long run against the time and effort it would take to create it.