by Heading into the holiday season, I feel it’s my duty to once again share the importance of giving gift receipts when you give someone a gift. Here is a reminder of something I wrote a couple years back after the holidays. I’ve realized that sharing it before the holidays is much more helpful. So here is the story:
Christmas is over, I’ve finally put all the decorations away and I’m reflecting on the season while trying to figure out what we’re going to do with all this new stuff. I’m a little frustrated by something that happened last night, so I’m taking a risk here and sharing my thoughts that might make me sound a little bitchy/greedy, but hear me out. I’m beyond grateful for all our family and friends, and it is so sweet of them to be so thoughtful and give my kids presents. That being said, I just HATE when my kids are given a gift without a gift receipt.
Let me start by telling you about last night. After getting the boys ready for bed, we took out one of my sons new toys. It’s a night light projector that he was super excited about. Just the struggle to get it out of the package was a work-out. What’s with toys now-a-days being packaged like the priceless crowned jewels are inside? Beyond frustrating, but for the millionth time this season, it was about to get worse.
I finally get the toy out, figure out the battery situation, find the screwdriver, turn it on and…. nothing. Take out the batteries, double check they are in right, put the cover back on, tighten the screw and still… nothing. The damn thing is broken, I tried for 10 minutes and I could not make it work. Now I have to explain this to a super excited child that the toy is broken and there is nothing I can do about it. I promise him I will buy him another and after 20 minutes of discussing it, he is on his way to sleep. Super disappointed.
I’m not sure who gave it to him, but even if I did, I’m not going to be rude and ask them to get a replacement (I actually tried that once and learned my lesson). It doesn’t look like it was expensive and the package has no information about where it came from.
There is a tiny bit of residue where the price (and I’m guessing store barcode) was pulled off. So, like the 3 other broken toys before it, it went into the trash! If this was a rare occurrence, I wouldn’t even be writing this, but it happens too many times to count. I know that a lot of my husband’s family likes to shop at marshalls/homegoods/tjmaxx and similar bargain stores. I don’t mind bargain shopping at all, but why remove all evidence of it? It’s such a waste of money when this happens. At least leave the barcode on so I can try to exchange it for a new toy.
Last week, it was a Buzz Lightyear toy gun (which I think was actually from the Disney store, but no gift receipt). It was pretty cool, it lit-up while making crazy noises, and was supposed to shoot foam balls. Except that it didn’t. The foam balls would never actually leave the barrel. When this happens, I try everything I can to fix it. After trying it a bunch of times, the whole barrel fell off. I even glued it back together, waited for the glue to dry, and then it was the same problem from the beginning; the balls still got stuck in the barrel. So, not long after opening it, when my sad little boy wasn’t looking, it went in the trash.
If that isn’t enough of a reason to give a gift receipt, consider this: Even if I know what store it came from, they will only give me the lowest sale price if I try to exchange it. My son actually received 4 play-doh sets for Christmas (plus one from Santa). He loves play-doh, so it’s a great gift, but one of the sets was duplicate.
It was a Target exclusive, so there was no mystery about where it came from. I saw it retailed for almost $20, so I figured I would try to exchange it for one with different cutters. Nope! Guest services said the exchange value was $4 because I didn’t have a gift receipt. First off, when is play-doh ever on sale for 80% off? Second, the people that gave it to him never bargain shop. I’m 99% sure both paid full-price or close to it. If just one of them had thought to give a gift receipt, we could have exchanged it for something my son didn’t have yet. Whatever, for $4, we’ll just keep it.
The same thing happens with clothes, we constantly get clothing gifts that are the wrong size. If you ask me what size the kids are, I’ll give you a general answer because going into detail makes me sound insane. My boys are tall and thin, so some brands I have to size up, other brands my boys can’t wear at all because to get the proper length, we have to size up too much and then the clothes are too baggy and don’t fit in the waist. In pajamas they are a different size entirely, because they cannot wear skin tight pajamas due to their sensitive skin. We do get some clothes we can use, but for the most part, I end up trying to exchange them. If I can get an equal or decent exchange, I’ll take it and consider myself lucky.
With no gift receipt though, most of the time, they offer me next to nothing. If it’s the end of the season (which really means half-way through the season), they will offer me $2. At that price, I won’t let the store win lol. I keep the item and then donate it. No joke… if you don’t believe it, try it. Buy something, wait a few weeks and then try to exchange it with no receipt. They make gift receipts for a reason, is it such a terrible inconvenience to include it with the gift? Even if the gift was on sale for $10, exchanging it for a $10 credit is better than $1 or $2.
I try explaining this to our family and friends, but it’s just in one ear and out the other. Our older family thinks it’s rude to request a gift receipt or to even suggest we are going to exchange it, so they don’t include one out of principle now lol, I’m not sure what lesson they are trying to teach me. It’s really just their money being wasted. Aside from me getting slightly frustrated, it doesn’t really change things for me. I mean it would be nice to save money on clothes by being able to use what we are given, but I never expect it. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but if you’re someone that doesn’t include gift receipts, hopefully I’ve just convinced you of why you should.
