topic Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective? in Home

should I tell my children their gift is defective?

lilypadfrog — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 05:55:06 GMT

My children saved their money to get me a down comforter. They knew I had a Northern Nights one years ago and really liked it. So they bought me one from QVC. Not at the now clearance price of 109 but at the original price of 169. Several of the "boxes" have virtually no down in them. This is an extremely poor imitation of the NN comforter I had years ago. Should I tell them so they can return it? Or use it? Or just buy one I want, put it in my duvet and donate this one?

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

Colonel Meow — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 06:00:30 GMT

At $169 (plus S&H) I would absolutely return it. You would be doing your children no favors by wasting their money keeping a defective (and expensive) item simply to spare their feelings. I would tell my mother to do the same thing if she was unhappy with the quality of any gift I purchased for her.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

PeterDM — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 06:03:14 GMT

Tell them. They would want you to enjoy the gift, and they deserve to get their money's worth. All they have to do is print out a return label for you, and you can do all the footwork to pack it up and return it. They will understand.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

Sister Golden Hair — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 06:04:11 GMT

I would call customer service and tell them about the comforter. Maybe you just got a lemon and they could send you a replacement. Ask them for a return label so you don't have to pay for shipping.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

VaBelle35 — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 06:04:32 GMT

You can call QVC and ask for a replacement, have them send you a pick up slip and then they will send you a new one. If it's still defective, then you can tell your kids.

You may luck out and get a good one and then not have to ever tell them you exchanged it.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

jaxs mom — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 06:04:51 GMT

I would want and expect my parent to tell me if a gift was defective.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

Cookiequeen — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 06:16:13 GMT

I would try to leave your kids out of it and call the Q. Tell them the situation, I would hope that their customer service department would take care of it. Just let them know what name they can find the order under but that you received the item as a gift and don't want the purchasers to know about the "defective".

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

PeterDM — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 06:40:48 GMT

On 12/26/2014 Cookiequeen said:
I would try to leave your kids out of it and call the Q. Tell them the situation, I would hope that their customer service department would take care of it. Just let them know what name they can find the order under but that you received the item as a gift and don't want the purchasers to know about the "defective".

I would be curious to see if this worked. I would guess that this situation is common over the holidays, and it would be very trusting of QVC to resend an item without the original item's order number or tracking number. Suppose your neighbor or coworker purchased a nice item from QVC. If you had their email address and home address, could you not just call customer service and say they bought it for you as a gift and you didn't like it, and could they ship a new one to your home address, and not tell them? I think the purchaser needs to be notified via email to ensure that fraud isn't taking place. It seems like, in the end, the kids will find out.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

ROMARY — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 07:12:40 GMT

First call QVC and find out what exactly they can do for you. I'm sure that there is a packing slip in the package. All of the info would be on that slip. Or maybe even the shipping label.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

gabstoomuch — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 07:35:06 GMT

PeterDM, it is her kids. Most likely one of them has her same name? They can find order info on order just by name of kids, and address they might have shipped it to.

QVC is VERY good at exchanges and returns at Christmas. Defective is defective, & if there are any in stock, they will send exchange. Now, they might just do an even $ exchange, but they might also bill LillyPad the current price, and immediately credit Lilypad upon defective return.(on her own card)

Other times, I have had them just ship out the replacement (especially if Lily is a current customer in good standing) for 0.00, with the caveat of the return needing to get back to QVC within 10 days from receiving replacement, no chg for return shipping.

I have had them do it all sorts of ways, but me personally, would try to exchange it without telling kids, unless the item is out of stock in the item she needs.

Kids, even adult kids, are always so happy when they get Mom a gift that they know is a winner, and get pleasure in Mom being excited and happy. I think they would be bummed out to find out it was defective and needs to be exchanged.

Now, if Lily just doesn't want that particular one as an even exchange, and wants a totally different comforter, then it would be time to tell kids.

Just my own opinion. I love it when my kids are so pleased with themselves when they 'get just the right gift' (my kids are 27 through 39, and they still get that 'little kid, we did it!' look on their face when I am very happy with their gift.

I always hate to pop bubbles, so my personal choice would be to call SC/S and check out what the option is before I told kids. Maybe that is just me though.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

Desertdi — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 08:28:00 GMT

What are the chances they will ever SEE it?

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

10grands — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 08:49:36 GMT

I feel like you should definitely tell your family. To return it to QVC wouldn't you need to know whose account it was purchased unde, etc. The return policy is until Jan. 31, and they would want to know. I always tell my family if something isn't right to let me know or even if they do not like something. and it can be returned. They need to know, it might be different for a less expensive item but that is too much money.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

Still Raining — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:26:59 GMT

I would tell them. It is information they should have about a product. It is not a criticism of them, just a fact about the product. This happened to me and DD/SIL last year about my gift to them. In the end she exchanged it for a model more to her liking and we were all good with the process.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

colliegirls — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:37:38 GMT

On 12/26/2014 Cookiequeen said:
I would try to leave your kids out of it and call the Q. Tell them the situation, I would hope that their customer service department would take care of it. Just let them know what name they can find the order under but that you received the item as a gift and don't want the purchasers to know about the "defective".

I agree. No reason to tell the kids and have them feel bad that there is a problem if you don't have to. Call the Q and see what your options are. After you send it back you may upgrade to another comforter. All's well that ends well!!

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

Sunshine Kate — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:39:51 GMT

On 12/26/2014 Colonel Meow said:
At $169 (plus S&H) I would absolutely return it. You would be doing your children no favors by wasting their money keeping a defective (and expensive) item simply to spare their feelings. I would tell my mother to do the same thing if she was unhappy with the quality of any gift I purchased for her.

I totally agree with the above.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

Campion — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:48:51 GMT

It depends on the gift giver. Some people take things entirely personally, even if it's not justified. So if you were to say "These Northern Nights Comforters didn't turn out to be made properly, though I certainly appreciated the gift"--the hearer might hear "Oh, Northern Nights isn't so good anymore" but they might instead hear "I am inadequate because I somehow chose a bad gift, so I'm a bad person and I need to defend myself and get angry!"

Depends on who you are dealing with. Only you know that! Some people cannot take objective criticism of a thing that they had something to do with. Weird, but true! You have to just smile and say "It was PERFECT!" so they feel good, and you can return it and do what you like, and keep mum about it.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

Sunshine Kate — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:51:27 GMT

On 12/27/2014 Campion said:
It depends on the gift giver. Some people take things entirely personally, even if it's not justified. So if you were to say "These Northern Nights Comforters didn't turn out to be made properly, though I certainly appreciated the gift"--the hearer might hear "Oh, Northern Nights isn't so good anymore" but they might instead hear "I am inadequate because I somehow chose a bad gift, so I'm a bad person and I need to defend myself and get angry!"

Depends on who you are dealing with. Only you know that! Some people cannot take objective criticism of a thing that they had something to do with. Weird, but true! You have to just smile and say "It was PERFECT!" so they feel good, and you can return it and do what you like, and keep mum about it.

The O/P's gift giver is her children.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

NickNack — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:54:06 GMT

I would doubt that it was defective but that all of that particular comforter was like that. I would return it and buy a different one some place else. I would do like others have suggested and call QVC first, but I'll bet your children will have to be told.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

VaBelle35 — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 16:05:43 GMT

Even if they put it in all new packaging, the tag on it should have the item # that you can use for an exchange.

Re: should I tell my children their gift is defective?

insomniac — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 17:28:36 GMT

Oh, send it back. Explain the situation. Tell your children you love it, but that QVC probably has one that's better (let's hope so!).