November 23rd, 2018

If activation of your gift card lasts more than four hours, consult a physician immediately

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

I received a gift card. The instructions which accompany the gift card include the following:

To activate, sign the back of the card. In some cases, activation may take up to four hours.

What, you think I write that slowly?

Bonus chatter: Yes, I know that the reason is that it may take up to four hours for the purchase to propagate through the system, and if you sign the card immediately after purchasing it, you may still need to wait up to four hours. That didn’t apply in my case because I received the gift card in the mail.

Category
Old New Thing
Topics
Non-Computer

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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