Gift certificates?

Not currently. I've considered it, but I didn't think anyone would be interested. I'll add it as an enhancement request in our trac.

Thanks,

-Chris

Bumping a really old thread here to say that yes, i would love this feature.

I occasionally have some customers who simply cannot pay me by any means - for instance, they can't use paypal in their country, or their paypal account was hacked, or i can't process their credit card, or my bank won't convert from their currency. I know it's not Linode's business to become some kind of money transmitter, but in a last-ditch situation if my customer could hand me Linode credit on a gift certificate, i would gladly take that as some strange sort of payment.

Anyways, i hope that this feature gets implemented one day.

@mappy:

for instance, they can't use paypal in their country, or their paypal account was hacked, or i can't process their credit card, or my bank won't convert from their currency.
And Linode would want to take on that challenge/hassle/risk why?

If they can't pay you, how would they pay Linode to buy the gift certificate?

@vonskippy:

And Linode would want to take on that challenge/hassle/risk why?

I said, "I know it's not Linode's business to become some kind of money transmitter". I realise that Linode takes an additional risk on every unknown new customer or payment method, and that using a certificate system in this way would possibly be going against the spirit of the service.

But in this case it sure would increase my attraction to them as a supplier. Competitor AWS do offer gift certificates through Amazon's infrastructure.

@vonskippy:

If they can't pay you, how would they pay Linode to buy the gift certificate?
Linode use a different CC processor, a different bank, different currency conversion infrastructure in a different country with different currency controls to me. To paraphrase John Gilmore, we detect failure and route around it.

It's only a suggestion, my use for it would be rare, although it would be a welcome convenience in the occasional difficult situation. I'm not interested in arguing further.

Wow old thread. I think there are more important things to work on than this. Besides this would add a lot of extra overhead and risk that I doubt Linode would be comfortable with.

Linode already has gift certificates:

~~http://www.chfi.com/files/202.jpg" />

They call them "Dollars"~~

@Guspaz:

Linode already has gift certificates:

~~http://www.chfi.com/files/202.jpg" />

They call them "Dollars" Hey now, unlike a coupla years ago, one of those would leave you a little short these days.~~

@glg:

Hey now, unlike a coupla years ago, one of those would leave you a little short these days.

Nevertheless, I don't believe Linode accepts shiny drawings of Scott Thompson as payment for services.