Parcelgenie is a free app that even I can use (on my Xperia X8!). It can be downloaded from the Android market, Google Play Store, iTunes, and you can even get it on your Windows phone, or Windows 8. It’s the perfect solution to gift-giving when you want to make someone in your life’s day a little bit brighter (or when you forget an important date!).
I got in touch with Parcelgenie for ‘in-app photos’ that I wanted to include in our Parcelgenie review (just to show the process better), and they kindly provided me purchase photos, in addition to codes for free items of my choice. This hasn’t changed my opinion of their app, as I was intending to write the same view, but it has enabled me to include more details about the process as a buyer and recipient.
Buying a Gift
If you haven’t purchased a gift before, you’ll be asked to VERIFY your phone, this requires a simple reply to a text message with the word ‘VERIFY’.
Receiving a Gift
If a gift is purchased for you, you’ll get a text message stating:
“A friend just sent you a real gift via Parcelgenie.com. Reply for free to this Text, starting with the word DELIVER, followed by your NAME and ADDRESS”.
I was initially a little worried because I didn’t have any credit, but as it says it’s free to reply! No cost to you, just an extra bit of excitement about getting a gift. After replying, you’ll then receive a text letting you know when your gift has been dispatched and the message that your sender included.
Then all you have to do is wait for the Postman to call, and then rip open your parcel (easily identified with little Parcelgenie stickers), and inside you’ll find a pretty purple and red packaged gift.
My Gifts
My first experience of Parcelgenie was receiving an adorable little box of the most delicious fudgy cake balls! These arrived in a brown and mint green box with a little brown ribbon tied in a bow around it. The little card attached to the box also led me to the brand my Honey Bunch, who are the makers of these delightful little treats.
Inside were six fudgy cake balls, half covered in white Belgian chocolate, and half covered in (I think milk) Belgian chocolate, and many of them had some sprinkles on top for detail. My favourites were the white chocolate ones, and they were heavenly!
I think I would always love to receive those as a gift (obviously not every day or I’d be the size of a house), but if you don’t know what to order for someone, I don’t think anyone would be disappointed with these. The only downside is the ‘eat-by-date’, as this was only a few days after receiving.
My second experience of Parcelgenie was ordering ‘Hello Cupcake’ as a gift for my little sister, this was completely received with open arms, and I even had the pleasure of editing the message to direct it to 'our little Princess'. The box was wrapped in the usual Parcelgenie packaging, but unfortunately this one had a tear in it. I just removed the packaging, as the box (holding the cupcake shaped chocolates) was nicely decorated with a little silver elastic bow. I didn’t get to try any, because she devoured them (and of course the first one to vanish was the cupcake with the pink detail). I’d considered ordering her ‘Sweeties for girlies’, but I didn’t think it was special enough for a birthday; more like a little surprise treat.
Bottom Line
Parcelgenie is a free app which currently has a reasonably small inventory of gifts (many being food or sweet related), and I think it has great potential to be something that’s hugely successful (mainly by adding some more gifts).
Although I’ve seen some people complaining about the prices, I feel they’re reasonable. I think what people forget is that they have to include Royal Mail postage costs in their pricing. And I don’t know about you, but I’m always willing to spend more on a gift for someone else than on something for myself anyway. But what I like about this app is the huge benefit of convenience. You order, they wrap it (very handy for Christmas) and send it out in the post, and you can order from anywhere (providing you have internet access).
The only thing I’m not entirely comfortable with is paying by PayPal with my phone, it’s probably just me, but I feel like phones are less secure (especially if you use WiFi hotspots regularly), and although you can pay by Premium SMS; that comes with extra cost. I would really love it if you could buy gift vouchers online (outside of the app) to use in it.
Super Savings
Parcelgenie would also like to offer you all a very nice 30% off! Simply enter: F9E1G4 to see a hefty 30% reduction in the price of any gift!
-Naomi
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