I received a call today at the mall Customer Service desk from an elderly woman asking for the number for our Discovery Channel store. She explained she'd received one of their electronic chess games for a Christmas present and had a question about it. I had to break the news to her that we don't have that store, nor does any other mall in town.
The woman started laughing and guessed that the person who'd given it to her must have had the game in their closet for a while or had received it and regifted it. I suggested that perhaps it had been ordered online (a process which seemed foreign to her), but she was positive she was correct. The woman was a good sport about the whole thing, and thanked me before she hung up. Her biggest concern seemed to be how to write a thank you note that wouldn't reveal she knew the background of the present.
Later in the day I was curious, so I went to the Discovery Channel Website and searched for "chess". There were no matching results. According to Wikipedia, the Discovery Channel closed all its retail stores in 2007.
The woman WAS right!
Wow... they had to dust that puppy off before wrapping! LOL
ReplyDeleteYes, they did!
DeleteHow sweet. It does make a great story for blog land.
ReplyDeleteEverything's fodder for blog land :-)
Deletehahaha....love these re-gifting stories...I can almost guess when I've been re-gifted to these days. And I'm sometimes guilty, but I try to think if the people would appreciate it better than I do and rationalize that it's good for the environment. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI have a box in my closet that holds a supply of new gifts as well as things I've received that other people may want more than I did.
Deleteooops! haha.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Discovery Channel stores. Sure miss them, although we never had one in Fresno. As for regifting, about 35 years ago, I gave my husband's grandmother a very expensive perfume that I had been given by a client. I knew it was one she used as I had seen it in her bathroom. Perhaps that bottle had been a gift because she called and wanted to know where I had purchased this bottle so she could return it. I was aghast that she would be so forward. I told her an upscale store in our town, but I knew there was no store in Fresno that would carry such an expensive perfume. Even if I receive a gift I might not like, it would never occur to me to return it.
ReplyDeleteWow! She had a lot of chutzpah. I've only returned gifts of clothes if the size wasn't right (sometimes with the giver's knowledge, sometimes secretly).
DeleteThat's funny. I had forgotten about the discovery channel sstores. They were fun stores. (Were - lol)
ReplyDelete