Design Crafters

In the situation where the Christmas gift is broken and it was shipped from the sender and not from a store, then things get a little trickier. You are then faced with the dilemma “should I tell them or not?”

Some people would tell you to simply tell the giver thank you and not mention it was broken.  This is for a few reasons. First of all, this can be a little awkward if you’re not extremely close to the giver.  Second of all you (the receiver) are risking offending the giver or making them feel obligated to send another gift, when that wasn’t your intention at all. Depending on how you present it, they may even feel you’re being ungrateful.

Now on the flip side, other people would feel that it’s bad manners to let someone’s money go to waste like that, especially when they could have had it replaced at no additional cost. A perfect example of this is when my friend Sarah received a defective Christmas gift she chose not to tell the giver because she felt it would be too awkward.  A couple years later the gift giver found out and was extremely upset that Sarah didn’t say anything. The giver had apparently spent a lot of money on that gift and could have exchanged it for another one within 90 days from the time it was purchased. She felt like all of her money went down the drain.

As a gift giver, send a gift receipt whenever possible.

Thanks for reading our photo Christmas cards blog.

Have you ever received a broken or defective Christmas gift and you’re not sure what to do? One scenario may be that you feel awkward telling the gift giver because you fear they may feel you’re being ungrateful. Or perhaps you don’t want them to feel bad and make them feel obligated to send you another one. Or maybe you just simply don’t know how to go about resolving the problem.

If you want to avoid awkwardness and try to resolve the problem without involving the sender, here’s what you may want to do…

Assuming the item was shipped from a store or warehouse, there should be an invoice include in the parcel. This invoice should include a customer support number and possibly instructions for returns and exchanges. Simply contact the customer support number and see what the options are. In most cases it would be an exchange for the unbroken version of the same item. It doesn’t take much time, just pick up the phone and get it done.

I recommend making a special file for all those receipts and hang on to them for at least a year. Even if the item arrived fine, it may end up having problems down the road within the return policy period. 

Be sure to take care of it immediately while you’re still within the return policy period. If you wait too long, you may miss out on the time frame that company allows exchanges or returns.  Please be understanding of the stores or manufactures policies. In order for companies to keep their doors open, they must put some limits on things like this. Otherwise you get people trying to return things many months, even years after.

Stay tuned in out photo Christmas cards blog for a continuation on this topic.

There are so many different combinations of gift baskets or “gift
basket” type of ideas that can be assembled for Christmas gifts, that you can
really customize almost anything and the recipient will feel very special that
you have gone to the trouble to put something together that is so perfect with
their taste and interest.

Do you need to buy a Christmas gift for someone who is into gardening? What you
can do for them is to buy a nice flower pot (look for a sale); half fill it
with crumples tissue paper or straw. Then arrange some packets of seeds, an
inexpensive hand trowel and fork, plant labels/ties, a notebook, green string
and a budget gardening book or magazine. Stick a Christmas card in
there and wrap it all up with cellophane and tie with a crinkly ribbon and you
are all set.