As I mentioned yesterday, Drew’s big update on his first call home was that the Tim’s cards aren’t accepted in Kandahar.  This weekend I’ve been driving and calling all the Timmies in my area looking for the old style paper gift certificates since the Timmies in KAF is accepting them.  We don’t live anywhere near the base so I tend to only go up there when I have to write exams. Most days I forget there’s even a Timmies up there. Instead I drove around to the 10 closest Tim’s near where we live only to discover that none of them sell the old paper gift certiciates anymore.  They’ve all switched to the plastic gift cards. I’m sure using the gift cards makes sense locally, but since they’re useless in KAF I have no interest in buying any these days. After driving around like a loon for a day I decided to spend the rest of my time calling the other Tim’s in the area to determine if they sell the paper certs before driving to them.  Saving on gas and being all eco-friendly and all that.  Mostly just saving on gas and avoiding having to go back out in the freezing cold!

Finally I broke down and called the Timmies on base.  They do still carry the paper certs but they’re currently locked up in the manager’s office and she won’t be in until 6am tomorrow.  I’ve got to get up crazy early to drive across town and pick up bunch to send overseas. I figure it’s best to buy in bulk since many of my friends and co-workers with adopted soldiers also live quite a distance from the base.

My search for Timmies paper gift certificates got me to thinking.  Since the local Timmies are all switching to the gift cards and there aren’t very many bases across the country, how will our friends and family, or complete strangers find paper gift certificates to send to soldiers overseas?  Apparently, you can order them from Timmies’ Head Office customer service department.  According to their FAQ:

If you cannot find paper gift certificates at your local Tim Hortons store, you can purchase them by contacting our customer service department by email at customer_service@timhortons.com, or by phone at 1-888-601-1616. You can pay be either Visa or Mastercard and the gift certificates will be shipped directly to you.

If you’re interested in contacting them to order the paper gift certificates they’re open from 8-5:30 EST M-Th and 8-5 on Friday. Closed Weekends.

Mystery solved.

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