Gift Returns Becoming More Difficult

Traded in a gift once...I was given a rather dreadful sweater which was also 2 sizes too large. After looking over my list of people who might be able to benefit from my generosity of this sweater as their gift from me, I realized there was but one choice. The following day I went to the store where the item had been purchased and handed it over for a store credit. With the store credit I then bought a different sweater...and still had a dollar or two left over. Aside from that I never returned a gift...re-wrapped them and gave them elsewhere, yes; but, no other returns.

I only returned gifts when I had my bridal shower and we got married -- not so much because things were not liked, but because people didn't pay attention to where we were registered and/or the registry messed up a few things (e. g. we didn't need 2 sandwich presses, that sort of thing). Otherwise, I regift.

Not lately, but when I was a teen, I returned my older sisters present to me EVERY year for 6 years in a row.

She would buy me clothes from the SAME store every year, (the Deb Shop, remember them Jespah? Are they still around?) and every year I'd have to ask her for the receipt, so I could exchange them.

She'd buy me horrible things like yellow shirts with orange polka dots (I have pale skin, so picture that), that had to be buttoned to the neck so the 25 inches of ruffles around the neck wouldn't look out of place, and would match the ruffles around the wrists and hem of the shirt.

Still an open sore with me I guess.

My personal experience with receiving gifts like that is that I'm supposed to be thinking "It's not the gift but the thought that counts"

Well, maybe they should have thought a little longer.

ROTFLMAO, Chai! You should have saved that shirt for a white elephant gift!

I return things, but not often. The return desks are always busy, and I don't like standing in line. It's too much trouble, and I usually don't have a receipt. Funny thing, though. They never give my husband a hard time about returning things without a receipt. I guess they don't expect men to be as organized. (Not fair!)

I have never had trouble returning at Target. If you don't have a receipt, you just get store credit, which is fine with me since I shop there all the time.

Really? Target is the place that ALWAYS turns me down without a receipt! It must be different there. Lucky you!

It's been a while so maybe they've cracked down.

Don't know 'em. Do you buy debutantes there?

Actually, seriously, I have no idea, but I've only lived here since '95.

Yeah, I think that's exactly where they got the name. Back in the 70's when I lived in NJ, we used to call girls who hung out with, I guess you would say today, gang members.

The ones with the really big hair and overdone makeup. Adriana from the Sopranos was the perfect Deb.

The Deb Shop must be out of business, the clothes there were actually cool for the time, my sister had to look really hard in the clearance rank for the beauties she picked out.

I think it was her way of saying I was a slut, and should change my ways, and she was just doing me a service by showing me how I should dress.

BTW - I wasn't a slut.

I'm not an impulse shopper, I'll usually think about buying something for a few weeks before I finally decide to make a purchase. So it it doesn't work, I'm taking it back. Unless it was something cheap, under $30.