**Holiday DRAMA** (b/c of budget or otherwise ;)

[mamaLori05]

Maybe it's time to just accept her gfts and move on. I can imagine that she is probably feeling like you are all pretty ungrateful right now. It seems that you are kind of making drama where there could have been none had you just accepted graciously.

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I have to agree here. I was thinking the same thing when I read the post. If someone did that to me I'd be pretty upset. In fact if the person was as persistant about it as the pp, that would be my last year giving that person a gift. I think it's rude to tell her that she has to send you the receipt, but I think it's beyond rude to get upset with her because she didn't want to at first. Maybe she made up a price because she thought you'd be upset with her if you found out she didn't spend as much as she thought you wanted her to. I'm sure the MIL wasn't trying to find something you would absolutely hate.

If I receive a gift that I don't care for and it doesn't have a gift receipt it gets donated to goodwill. If it does include a gift receipt I exchange or return the item without the gift giver knowing. It's not worth hurting someones feelings over, and you never know how much time and effort the gift giver put into purchasing that gift.

 

[spacemountainmom]

Thank you MissBritt!

tyniknate - I hear ya. I could shield my kids from gma's obvious preference for their cousin for years. Now, it's just become impossible. Gma spends about three hours a year with my dd (much less with my ds) and pretty much spends the whole time tell my dd how wonderful her cousin is.

And she can't figure out why my dd isn't chomping at the bit to hang out with her???

Actually....the person I feel most sorry for is my nephew....he's spent 22 years being told how incredible his sister is or just flat out ignored. I don't wonder why he lives across the country from the family............

At least my kids didn't have to grow up with it in their face all the time.

 

[spacemountainmom]

I have to agree here. I was thinking the same thing when I read the post. If someone did that to me I'd be pretty upset. In fact if the person was as persistant about it as the pp, that would be my last year giving that person a gift. I think it's rude to tell her that she has to send you the receipt, but I think it's beyond rude to get upset with her because she didn't want to at first. Maybe she made up a price because she thought you'd be upset with her if you found out she didn't spend as much as she thought you wanted her to. I'm sure the MIL wasn't trying to find something you would absolutely hate.

If I receive a gift that I don't care for and it doesn't have a gift receipt it gets donated to goodwill. If it does include a gift receipt I exchange or return the item without the gift giver knowing. It's not worth hurting someones feelings over, and you never know how much time and effort the gift giver put into purchasing that gift.

Well coming from a person who incessantly tells me (and usually loudly and in front of my fil's entire family) how she is so unhappy with each and every gift we have given her...I guess I've become rather unconcerned with hurting her feelings.

Yes, I also felt the situation escalated past where I wanted it to go. However, I really did not want her sending my dd additional funds. It also is not right for Kohl's to give my dd less than 1/3 of what the price tags said. I am sure that is not what mil paid, but she surely paid more than what Kohl's offered and I know mil would not be happy with that either.

I'm in a no win situation and just wanted to vent.....sorry!

 

[DaniB]

One comment about giving gift receipts. Has anyone else run into this situation. I've twice included gift receipts for clothing I've given. When the item was returned to the store with the receipt the full amount I paid was not given. Instead the item had been clearanced since my purchase and the person was only given the clearance price. When I found out I dug out the original receipt and headed back to the store with it and the refund slip the gift receiver was given. What a racket! The full amount was then refunded, but not without a hassle. I no longer do gift receipts. If the item doesn't fit I simply give the original receipt.

Wow, that's not right! The way gift receipts have been explained to me (when stores first started doing this) was the person would still get full value of the item... this is (was) suppose to be a discrete way of exchanging/returning a gift without knowing the price spent.

I would kick up a huge fuss if that happened to me or someone. Hmm... I wonder if it has happened to anyone I know and they never mentioned it. Guess I will be double-checking the store's policy for a while now to see if they have changed it.

 

[angierae]

My brother bought my stepdad an air pistol for Christmas (pistol b.b. gun, basically.)

Except he wanted to "try it out first" so he wrapped it LOADED. So my stepdad is taking a LOADED BB gun out of a box and waving it around and looking at it, etc, and finally my brother says "You know how they say to always treat a gun like it's loaded? Do that, because it is."

Everyone in the room SCATTERED in different directions, freaking out.

WTH?

 

[spacemountainmom]

My brother bought my stepdad an air pistol for Christmas (pistol b.b. gun, basically.)

Except he wanted to "try it out first" so he wrapped it LOADED. So my stepdad is taking a LOADED BB gun out of a box and waving it around and looking at it, etc, and finally my brother says "You know how they say to always treat a gun like it's loaded? Do that, because it is."

Everyone in the room SCATTERED in different directions, freaking out.

WTH?

whoa! That is just scary!!!

So......is brother crazy???

 

[angierae]

whoa! That is just scary!!!

So......is brother crazy???

We were all yelling at him and he kept going "Well, the safety is on!"

He's not even my crazy drug-addicted brother. THAT one doesn't come around anymore, making my holidays a LOT less drama-filled.

 

[tyniknate]

Exactly my point about the gift receipts. Unless it is someone close to you and you talk about it - no one would ever know they are pulling this kind of thing. Probably happens in a lot more places than anyone realizes.

 

[FarmDisney]

Wow, that's not right! The way gift receipts have been explained to me (when stores first started doing this) was the person would still get full value of the item... this is (was) suppose to be a discrete way of exchanging/returning a gift without knowing the price spent.

I would kick up a huge fuss if that happened to me or someone. Hmm... I wonder if it has happened to anyone I know and they never mentioned it. Guess I will be double-checking the store's policy for a while now to see if they have changed it.

I've had this happen with me at Kohls. We had a gift receipt and we only got $2 and change for a sweater because it was clearanced. We had just wanted to exchange it for a bigger size but there wasn't another, so we just returned it. What a shock that they can do that!!! We discreetly found out later that the giver had paid full price for the sweater $20plus, but we didn't bring it up since we had long since returned it.

 

[dodukes]

I think it happens way more than we think. I think its pretty customary to give the lowest price on gift receipts, which brings me to question why we need them anyway, if you take back without a receipt they give you the lowest price so why do that to a gift receipt when they can clearly see that the original purchaser paid full price.

 

[luvthemouse71]

My brother bought my stepdad an air pistol for Christmas (pistol b.b. gun, basically.)

Except he wanted to "try it out first" so he wrapped it LOADED. So my stepdad is taking a LOADED BB gun out of a box and waving it around and looking at it, etc, and finally my brother says "You know how they say to always treat a gun like it's loaded? Do that, because it is."

Everyone in the room SCATTERED in different directions, freaking out.

WTH?

I could so see this being a scene from Christmas Vacation.. Our holidays can be drama filled- this year, they were relatively peaceful.

 

[2Kds2K9]

My brother bought my stepdad an air pistol for Christmas (pistol b.b. gun, basically.)

Except he wanted to "try it out first" so he wrapped it LOADED. So my stepdad is taking a LOADED BB gun out of a box and waving it around and looking at it, etc, and finally my brother says "You know how they say to always treat a gun like it's loaded? Do that, because it is."

Everyone in the room SCATTERED in different directions, freaking out.

WTH?

I just envisioned a room full of people "hitting the dirt" and taking cover!

(note to self. Don't drink Diet Coke at the computer anymore!)