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What to do with bad gift-giver?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Unibomber, Dec 27, 2007.

  1. Unibomber

    Unibomber Member

    Help me give advice to a coworker.
    His dad is the worst gift-giver of all time, at least to him. Dad works and does OK, but is on wife numero cinco. But it is not as if cash is an issue, this guy's brother got a nice gift certificate to an electronics store.
    But coworker got an extrmely cheap gift that looked like it came from a dime store. Wife got a gift in a box that looked to be at least 10 years old. Together, they were given antoher gift that is not only obsolete, but that was opened and had a sample packet missing from the inside! His kids got OK gifts, but they were paired with some ugly Goodwill artsy do-dads that the kids would not even want.
    Last year, coworker got another odd giflt that looked like it came from a dimestore and wife got some tiny collectibles from an antique store and she doesnt even collect them.
    So, coworker would rather just not get anything than get this crap, and won't fake that he likes the crap when he opens it. He also wonders why in the hell his bro is getting a good gift.
    What can he do?
    I know he may sound snobbish, but I don't really want to get into details too much on what the gifts are. But take my word, it is dimestore crap.
     
  2. three_bags_full

    three_bags_full Well-Known Member

    Upper-decker

    Seriously, though, we just told our parents that we wanted to stop giving and receiving gifts a couple years back. Now, we cook for them, and they get us some very small gifts (like socks) and we call it even.
     
  3. Flash

    Flash Guest

    I say 'thank you very much, mommy, the gifts were lovely.'

    Then I regift everything and send the rest to Goodwill.
     
  4. Dyno

    Dyno Well-Known Member

    My office is like one big gift exchange and one of my coworkers gives horrible gifts, even though he and his wife are pretty wealthy and can definitely afford to give decent gifts. A few years ago, I got a box of stationery that reeked of mold. His former assistant really got slighted, though. The bad gift giver and his wife made a really big show of giving the assistant a necklace from Nordstrom - nice box, etc. The necklace was OK, but not the assistant's taste. There was a gift receipt, so she went to return it. Retail price of said necklace: $7.50 (must have been on super sale). Other assistants in the office got gifts worth hundreds of dollars and she got a crappy $7.50 necklace.
     
  5. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Has he ever, you know, offered suggestions about what gifts he would like? If he has and Dad still buys cheap five and dime crap, then there's nothing he can do but ask to not get gifts.
     
  6. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    I enjoy shopping for gifts and family tell me that I'm good at it. Some years ago, though, my mom told me that I shouldn't spend much on a certain cousin and her kids because they have no taste and wouldn't be able to tell the difference between something nice and a POS anyway and wouldn't appreciate it even if they could tell the difference. I kind of resisted that idea at first, then I realized that my mom is right. So the challenge became to buy a cheap POS that didn't really look like a cheap POS. And some years that really is too much trouble, I finally say fuck it and buy them something decent. This year, though, I got really lucky and spent no more than $10 each on my cousin and her two kids and yet they weren't bad gifts, they look like they cost more and they were bought in little shops and so you can't really go to the mall and price them, I don't think.

    My point is -- and I'm just throwing this out there because obviously I don't know the people involved -- maybe the guy isn't a bad gift-giver, he just thought they were ungrateful and and at some point he just kinda said fuck you, you get dime-store shit (thus the disparity in his gift giving). By your description it doesn't seem like they're especially gracious in how they accept gifts. I don't know that I'd break my ass trying to make them happy, either.
     
  7. Trouser_Buddah

    Trouser_Buddah Active Member

    I find it funny that a poster named unibomber started a thread about bad gifts...
     
  8. Mystery_Meat

    Mystery_Meat Guest

    I find it funnier that he doesn't know what to do with him.
     
  9. I'll never tell

    I'll never tell Active Member

    I honestly haven't gotten a Christmas gift from my mother in two years. Not a birthday gift either.

    She sends me a card, but I feel like shit asking "WTF?" I we don't want to exchange, then that's fine. But the last two years, I've bought her stuff on Mothers Day, Christmas, her Birthday ... only to get nothing in return.

    I just don't get it. Especially when she goes all out (Like $500-plus gifts) on my sister (we're her children; not from a different marriage or anything).

    Yet another reason why I don't deserve my life.
     
  10. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    or the people who give them.
     
  11. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    maybe she just doesn't like you. ever ponder that little fact?
     
  12. I'll never tell

    I'll never tell Active Member

    Oh, yeah, I got that. Problem is tell me this shit, don't let me guess. Also, would be nice to know what I did.
     
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