We want everyone in the Plastic Jungle community to believe that when they sell a card to us, or buy a card from us, their account information is safe, and their transaction is completed as promised.  We work hard to keep bad guys from taking advantage of you when you transact with us.

Imagine you were buying a gift card from someone you never met.  What would you do to make sure that the seller really owned that gift card and that the balance was what they said it was?

What if someone you never met was buying a card from you – what would you do to make sure that they would honor their promise to pay you?

These are things we worry about every day – because we stand in the middle of people selling cards and people buying cards, work to get the sellers their money fast, and to guarantee the buyers that they will receive the value we’re selling them.  We strive to be better at these things every day.

We solve these problems in ways very similar to those that credit card companies and other payment companies like PayPal use.  We ask you to register with us, and to confirm that it’s you doing the transaction.  If we’ve only just met you, we limit the amount of buying or selling we do with you until we know you a bit better.  And overall, we limit the size of transactions depending upon market conditions.  These limits change every day, as do the means we use to verify your identity.  We make these frequent changes in order to keep you and your transactions safe – to do everything we can to ensure that you get what you pay for, to ensure that our site isn’t used to make illegal payments, and to be able to say that we’ll honor the value of every sale we make.

Sometimes being safe is a pain in the neck – sort of like putting on a seatbelt when you’re just driving a quarter of a mile to the store, or being forced to obey the speed limit.  Every now and then, we’ll stop a transaction if it looks like it might be an unsafe transaction – most of the time we end up stopping the bad guys, but every now and then we’ll stop you.  Your order gets cancelled.  We hate it when that happens to good people like you.  Judging from some of the emails you send us, so do you!

We’ll get better at slowing down the right people, but we’re always going to make you wear a seat belt!  We hope you’ll value the work we’re doing to make it safe in the Jungle.

Thanks for your trust,

-Margaret

Margaret Mackenzie
CEO
Plastic Jungle

To the PJ faithful,

You probably noticed when visiting PlasticJungle.com that we have a brand new website. In fact, it’s part of a major overhaul of the entire Plastic Jungle service. Unfortunately, as part of this changeover, you may have experienced some hiccups. Customer service is hugely important to us, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. We certainly understand the frustration when things get delayed, and the team here has been working around the clock to ensure your experience is a positive one. 

The good news is that our new website and web experience are just the start of a whole new array of PJ services designed to make it simpler and more convenient for you to transact with us.

If you have any issues in the meantime, we’ve got you covered with the Plastic Jungle Guarantee; please contact us at customerservice@plasticjungle.com. We appreciate your patience and continued loyalty.

As always, if you have thoughts on how we can make your experience a better one, send them to us at feedback@plasticjungle.com. We’ll read them all, and will use them to improve Plastic Jungle even more.

Thanks,

Bruce

CEO, Plastic Jungle

Ernst & Young recently reported that gift card sales in 2010 grew 4% over 2009.  That’s good news as recent trends have been flat, even down.  Choice, and an increased acceptance of gift cards as a meaningful gift gesture, continues to fuel the gift card market.  Online sales and the use of gift cards to offset a tough economy have also been significant trends in the gift card economy.

According to EY, “the gift card market doesn’t just include physical cards. Website and virtual gift cards are two growing trends that retailers need to keep an eye on.”

We agree.  We’ve firmly established ourselves as the leader in making gift cards even more valuable for consumers and merchants, and we work hard to make them more easily available to you.

Nearly everyone agrees that mis-gifted gift cards just don’t do anyone any good.  But every gift card has a home, and we view it as our job to bring those cards back into the stores and the hands of motivated shoppers.  Remember this video?  It’s as apt today as it was when we put it together more than 2 years ago, and probably more so.

Check out this video:

Plastic Jungle: We Can’t Draw but We Can Sell Discounted Gift Cards

In 2011 we’re pushing the envelope even further.  Our business has grown so fast that we’ve had to adopt new platforms to support the scale.  We’ve created new technology and new operations, expanded our customer service focus and enabled faster delivery. We are now offering better deals and even more ways to get great bargains and real value for cards that go unredeemed.

Here are some cool facts from Plastic Jungle (based on data from January 1 through March 31, 2011):

As always, your feedback is most welcome – please send your thoughts, ideas and criticisms to me at ceo@plasticjungle.com.  I read them all, and every day will make sure that we continue to build our service to best meet your needs.

Valued members of the Plastic Jungle community,

Customer Support is hugely important to us – it’s a core principal that we serve you our customers as best we can, and as you deserve.  We talk about it all the time.  It is a really big deal to us.

The truth is that we wince when we’re not as responsive as we could be.  We are certainly wincing now – and copping to it.

We are receiving an extremely high number of inquiries from you about all the new business we’ve generated together.  This is the result of a very-much appreciated surge in transaction recently.  First and foremost, thank you for that surge.

What we need to do now is keep up with all your inquiries and speed up our response time. We are currently adjusting our customer support experience to make sure we meet your needs as best as possible.  Here’s what we are doing to ensure your experience is a positive one:

First, we are asking that, if you do have a customer support inquiry, you please visit us at www.plasticjungle.com/contact-us and complete the online form.  Doing so will allow us to better serve you, as we will better understand what your needs are in advance of contacting you.  We will respond to all inquiries within 2 business days, and we will work hard to do so even sooner.

Second, we’re hiring some more customer support folks to help us through this surge, answering more phone calls even if we have to tell you we will get back to you.

Third, and most importantly, it’s back to the drawing board for us.  We now know that we need to come up with a better approach that allows us to meet our commitments to you.  It is an enormous priority for us, and our best people are on the job.

The good news?  Well, the significant uptick in business means that there are more gift cards on our site available for purchase than ever before.  We are also purchasing cards from you at a rate that’s almost 10x last year and continuing to pay out top prices.  That’s all for your benefit, and we are happy to be doing so.

We ask that you please bear with us as we work to make your experience as excellent as possible.  We promise we will.

In the meantime, your feedback is absolutely appreciated.  We always want to hear from you if you have ideas for making Plastic Jungle even better.

~Bruce

Bruce Bower, Plastic Jungle CEO

Resolutions are a New Year’s tradition — as much as breaking them is… usually less than a month later in my case (at least the diet ones)!  However, there are some resolutions that Plastic Jungle has made and won’t break – I wanted to share these with you so that you know what you can expect from us in 2011.

Always best value.  We will pay out the most for your qualifying gift cards.  And we’ll give you the best discounts.  Every time, everyday.  24/7.

100% transparency.  Plastic Jungle will always show you exactly what we’ll pay out for your gift card, and exactly what a gift card from us will cost.  No need for you to hope that your cards will be fairly valued by sending them to some anonymous processing center (btw, they probably won’t).

No hidden fees.  We know that when you sell us a gift card, you are already doing so at a discount.  That’s quite enough for us.  We won’t charge you any additional fees, like mailing or transport, and we won’t pay you less for a card if you sell it to us one way as opposed to another.  That’s just not fair.  And nothing when you buy from us either – your discount, your way, no fees.

Fast, fast, fast.  We’ll pay you fast, in many cases within minutes, when you sell us a gift card.  And we’ll deliver it fast too, especially if you select an eCODE.  We know you live life in the fast lane – we want to be right there with you.

Great customer service.  We like you.  A lot.  We guarantee that your experience with Plastic Jungle will be a great one.  We’ve built our business one customer at a time – we know how important it is that every customer experience be great.  Try us!

Those are our most important 2011 resolutions.  We won’t cheat, we promise, but hold us to these.  After all, our business is only possible with your participation – and we’re so happy you’re part of our success!

It’s been a busy time for all of us at Plastic Jungle. Busy as bees, busy as elves – you pick.  Thanks to you, our business has grown tremendously this year, and we’re working feverishly to deliver outstanding value to you this holiday season, and always.  We are smoking!

We’ve also grown our team and now have more smiling faces at Plastic Jungle working on everything from customer support to operations.  We’ve even added a few more ‘secret sauce’ creators back in our PJ lab.  They’ve been cooking up some cool new things for you – instant payout via PayPal when you sell us a gift card, the ability to exchange gift cards for Facebook Credits, easier ways to find the gift card you are looking for, and more.  Even our finance folks have gotten into the spirit, ensuring that we pay absolute top dollar for the gift cards you want to sell and that we maintain the best possible discounts for the gift cards you wish to buy.

2010 has been a great year for PJ.  I’ll share my thoughts on 2011 soon, and give you some idea of what you can expect from us in the next year.  All good stuff — and all intended to provide you with the best possible service and the greatest value possible, helping you to live life to the fullest!

Until then… Happy Holidays to you and yours, from all of us at Plastic Jungle!

Well gee-whilikers! I didn’t expect to be writing this so soon after our Series B round, but …

We closed a Series C round of $10 million.

Gary mentioned in his blog about the B round that this is just a way for us to measure our progress along some sort of an education path – I don’t know where exactly that puts us (high school?), but I will say that it’s really great that smart people like Jeb Miller at Jafco Ventures thought enough of us to come knocking, and then were persuasive enough to convince us and our existing investors to top off the tank.

So we did.  It’s quite full.  But it won’t change the way we operate our business.  We like being a startup, acting with urgency and purpose, running lean, ensuring we control our own destiny, being entrepreneurs.  That’s fun stuff.  What we can promise you is that these proceeds, all these proceeds, will go to delivering the best possible experience to you, across all our services.  And it will help us bring out a few things we’ve been working on even sooner – really cool, so-far secret stuff, so stay tuned!

So, thanks to Jeb and the whole Jafco team (and to all our existing investors who keep stepping up to invest more in us).  Thanks to our business partners from all corners of the gift card, retail and payment industries for supporting us.  And thanks to you, our customers, for making us the web’s largest and best place to get the most possible value from gift cards.  We at PJ like you all a real lot!

If you haven’t seen it already, check out Mint.com’s great infographic exploring the gift card industry (The Gift Card Minefield: How to Get Your Money’s Worth).

As you’ll see below, the numbers are astounding: The gift card industry totals more than $87 billion a year, but we at Plastic Jungle estimate that $30 billion of those gift cards go unredeemed. With such a valuable asset, it’s a shame not everyone is getting their money’s worth.

The good news is that there’s an easy solution. With the use of Plastic Jungle, you can sell gift cards you aren’t planning to use. So before you forget about those gift cards lying around your house, and instead of navigating their complex rules and fees, check out Plastic Jungle and start thinking of gift cards as cash!

Budget Planner Software – Mint.com

Bruce Bower and I met thirty years ago as incoming freshmen at college.  Just writing that sentence is pretty staggering to me, not just given the length of time.  We became fast friends and shared many common interests.  It is still incredible to me that we reconnected again years later over a business idea.

Nearly two years ago, over burgers at The Counter in Palo Alto, Bruce and I got together and agreed to take an active role in building Plastic Jungle (PJ) from where it was to where it could be.  I had joined the Board in June 2008 and had stepped in as CEO that November.  As we were out raising our Series A financing, Tod Francis from Shasta Ventures reintroduced Bruce and me, after we had lost touch through the years of different grad schools, several moves and starting families.

We both knew that there was a market need for a set of solutions that would help both consumers and customers benefit from getting the “trapped money” of unspent gift cards moving again.  In the past two years, we’ve had great success in building a strong foundation for the company and growing rapidly.  In fact, PJ is now growing 10-15% every month with great consumer loyalty.

Today, we announced that Bruce will become the company’s CEO, effective October 1, as I return to the Board, this time as Chairman.  I am very happy that Bruce has stepped into the role of CEO to take Plastic Jungle to new heights.  Bruce’s background has been perfect for PJ and he has a strong combination of vision and tenacity to run the company.

I am excited to go back to a role – in addition to my active Board role at PJ – that is more focused on marketing.  I have a strong passion to help lead a marketing organization again and greatly appreciate the counsel and support from the PJ Board in supporting my decision.  I have greatly enjoyed building the PJ team, forming a great Board and driving our results to date.  I will continue to work with Bruce and the entire PJ team to build our relationships with customers and grow PJ.

Finally, as Bruce and I have been essentially running the company together for the past two years, I know our fellow PJers and customers will not miss a beat.  After all, after thirty years as friends and two years as colleagues, we’re just getting started.

Earlier today, the founders of Mercardi announced the decision to close down their marketplace.  We are completely delighted they have chosen to recommend and endorse Plastic Jungle as the best way for you to buy, sell, exchange, and donate gift cards online going forward.

Welcome Mercardi Buyers and Sellers!

At Plastic Jungle, savvy shoppers find savings on gift cards up to 30% off.  Use discounted gift cards like a coupon and save even more when you shop, dine, travel, and more.

For those who have found themselves with gift cards you cannot use, we’ll offer you top dollar (we pay up to 92% of your gift card’s unspent balance).

The PJ team is here for you!  You will continue to receive excellent service and free shipping when buying and selling gift cards.  And all transactions on PlasticJungle.com are guaranteed.

Please take a moment to learn more about buying gift cards on Plastic Jungle or visit our Seller Learning Center for more information.

If you have any questions about our services, please contact us, and our team will be happy to assist you.

If you have a large quantity of gift cards, please contact volumesellers@plasticjungle.com … we want to make it easy for bulk sellers to liquidate your gift card supply.

Welcome Mercardi Nonprofits!

Plastic Jungle is honored to help you tap into the $30 Billion unredeemed gift card economy.  We have a variety of fundraising solutions to offer donors a whole new way to support your organization, and it’s absolutely free to join our program.  Contact us at fundraising@plasticjungle.com to learn more.

Thank you in advance for your business!

We are so pleased to have been selected as the company to serve you and your ongoing gift card needs.  Please let us know how we can help you make the most of your gift cards, now or in the future.