Wishzilla FAQ

Wishzilla is the easiest way to manage wishlists for all occasions, from the holidays to birthdays, graduations to Arbor Day, we've got you covered. Simply add items to your wishlist and share it with others. Invite friends and family so they can add their own lists, too. When the time comes for gift-giving, you don't have to ask anyone what they want or need because they'll have added it to their wishlist!

Adding wishes to your wishlist is simple. You can either add a new wish manually from your home page, entering as many or as few details as you like, or use the wishzilla wish getter to automatically add a wish from your favorite online retailer. Remember, wishes don't have to be from any particular store. They don't have to be from any store! You can create wishes for world peace or cookies from mom just as easily as a wish for a new Wii game!

When it's time to buy gifts for one of your friends or family members, go to that person's wishlist, decide what you want to get them, and lock the wish. Locking the wish makes that item invisible to everyone except you and the recipient. This way, you can remember what it is you're supposed to buy and nobody else can see the item, eliminating duplicate gift purchases. The recipient doesn't know when his/her gifts have been locked, so they'll still be surprised.

Since its inception back in 1995, Wishzilla (and the Giftbox Server) has been about making sure it's super easy to get your friends and family members the gifts they want in the easiest possibly way, while still preserving the fun and surprise of giving and receiving great gifts.

So unlike many other registries there is a strong family and friends component. Not just anyone can go see your list, but if you are a member of a family you can automatically see everyone else's wishlists without individually "friending" them.

If you are a family manager, you can also add child accounts for members of the family who don't have email addresses, and you can quickly switch to them to manage their wishes once you're logged in as yourself.

Wishzilla is also a "universal" gift registry, meaning we are not tied to any particular store. You can add wishes from anywhere! Make them up! Your wishes don't even have to be something that needs to be bought. A romantic dinner. A hike in a favorite spot, a day at the beach. You name it. In fact, when Wishzilla first started you couldn't even buy things online, so users would put the physical address of where the particular gift was available. Of course now you can add the URL of an online wish, but really, the sky's the limit!

Finally, there's the surprise. It may seem strange that you could be surprised by something you added to your wishlist, but it's possible! We just make sure you never know who has locked your wishes (and conversely, nobody knows when you have locked another user's wish). So you really never know what you're going to get!

These are some of the reasons why many users have been using Wishzilla for, well, a decade and a half! That's like an eternity in Internet time. And we keep adding great features to make gift giving even better.

Yes! You can be a member of as many families as you want, and access all of them from a single login. Your wishes can be seen by members of all families that you are a member of yourself.

You must contact the person who originally set the family up in Wishzilla and ask to be invited. At Wishzilla, we take your privacy very seriously, so members of the public cannot simply search out families and family members. Make sure you give your current email address to the family manager so they can send you an invitation. Once you receive the invitation email, simply click on the link in the email to be added to the family.

Unfortunately, you cannot merge two accounts (yet). If you run into this problem, feel free to contact us and we can merge the accounts for you.

To create a new family, simply click on the add family button under the list of families on the right side of your screen. Then, just follow the directions!

Only family managers can invite or delete family members. To promote a family member to a manager, first open the family manager page (by clicking “manage” next to the family name on the right panel), then check the box corresponding to manager next to the lucky person's name. Make sure you click “apply family changes” when you're sure everything looks good.

With our new Fast User Switching, it's easy! Simply create a new family (or manage an existing one) and enter your child's name in the Nickname field. Leave the Email Address field blank. When you're finished, click add family (or submit changes) and you're all done! To switch to your newly created child account(s), just click "switch user" at the top of the page and select the name of the account you want to access and start adding wishes!