Gift certificates -- you're doing it wrong.

I like Britain's Sorted, on YouTube. If you're not familiar with it, the series features several lads -- a mix of professional chefs and "normals" -- doing food-related projects in the kitchen, from product testing to trying trendy or silly foods to surviving cooking or eating challenges. The Poker Face challenges, where they will eat or drink something horrible and have to keep a stiff upper lip, are particularly hilarious.  The show is lots of fun, and much better than anything Food Network is putting on these days. 

Many subscribers 

I was honored to be given a gift certificate to the channel, a code that could be used to unlock a subscription for their premium content. Many successful YouTubers have a feature like this. 

But I ran into a snag. Maybe you've encountered something similar. 

In order to activate my gift certificate, I had to give them a credit card number. Why? Because they would automatically renew my membership at the end of the year unless I told them not to. 

I thought there might be a mistake, as this was a gift and so I had no financial obligation involved. But no, after some back-and-forth with customer service, I was told that they needed my credit card or I could not use the gift. Refunding the giver was also out of the question. 

To me, this goes against the whole spirit of a gift certificate. First of all, it craps on the altruism of the "gift" part, forcing an obligation on the receiver. Second, gift certificates are encouraged because they expose the recipient to the joys of shopping or subscribing and thus are good for business on their own. But I told the customer service I would not be renewing even if I loved the service, and in fact I wound up never using the gift. 

Am I old-fashioned about this, or just wrongheaded? A gift is a gift, right? It should have no strings attached, either from the giver or any third party. 

It's too bad, because I probably would have enjoyed the subscription, but the hell with it. Bad way to run a kitchen, lads.