Lessons Learned 2004

[ADPi Conniebama]

If you are going to re-gift make sure you know what is in the box.

My husband got a "cooking for christmas" potpourri gift from one of this customers (he is a barber) and he thougth maybe is was a gift for him to give to me from one of his older clients.

Anyway his aunt invited us to her house for dinner the wednesday after Christmas and we decided to regift the wonderful Christmas potpourri to his aunt.

(keep in mind we never opened the gift to check it out)

She opens the wrapping and says "oh how wonderful, i love potpourri." She loves it so much that she opens the box to check it out and what does she find?



FRUIT CAKE

It took everything I had not to breakdown.

OK so the question is do we:
A) go get her another gift and tell her the truth
B) go get her another gift and tell her we made a mistake after wrapping the gift
or
C) Laugh it off and forget about the whole thing . . . giving her a great gift next Christmas.

[speckledpup]

Here's a good one. I received a lovely gift from my step-mother in-law this year for Christmas. What was it? Partially used Bath & Body Works shower gel and lotion! I was like "What in the world is she thinking?" She could have at least filled the shower gel up with water so that I could not tell that it was already used. At least try to cover it up or something. Even so just give it to me if you don't like it - don't wrap it up as a gift for crying out loud! Now I know I might not sound nice telling you all this but last year I got a Gap shirt from her that was way too small and when I went to exchange it the item wasn't even on their inventory.... Meaning pretty much that it was an item from the year prior, so obviously I could not exchange it for a bigger size I had to take the value of it which was $2!!!! Hopefully you see the humor in this... I can't wait for next year to see what odds and ends I get.
Happy New Year!
Laura

[scho5148]

My in-laws like to reuse boxes a lot, so I've learned to open them before I make any assumptions. Before, though, it left for some pretty funny and awkward situations. Oh, I could tell stories about regifting...
Well, all situations are different and w/o knowing the Aunt's personality or what transpired after she found out what the gift really was it is difficult to offer advice. I did wrap things incorrectly and ended up getting 2 gifts mixed up. I just apologized and made sure to get the gifts to the right people. One suggestion could be that you tell her that you re-used some boxes, wrapped them, and then labeled them. You "apparantly labeled them incorrectly" and were embarassed when she opened her gift only to find that it was the wrong one. You didn't say anything at the time b/c you were too embarassed but you do want to give her the "right" gift. This would be a gift that you purchase before talking to her that would be about the size of something that would fit in the box or a box of similar size (hence supporting get them mixed up after wrapping). I would do this as soon as possible. All this said, not knowing if you've handled the situation since your post.

You can always go with the "gag" gift excuse. The fruitcake was a gag gift and present her with the "real gift". I wouldn't recommend this, especially this long afterward. It would also depend on her personality.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

[ADPi Conniebama]

Well, my husband and I went to Target and bought her a beautiful towel set and tupperware stuff set.

We told her that we had made a mistake and mixed up the already wrapped gifts.

She was kind and said she hadn't noticed. (but, I think it had "To Ken thanks for being a wonderful barber" written on the fruitcake itself :P ) So, alls well that ends well.

Thanks for the advice.

Lesson learned. (no more regifting unless I KNOW what is in the box)

Have a wonderful 2005