Ever gotten so angry that you wanted to return a present?

Post by **Zaia** » 2005-12-22 05:37pm

Because I'm thinking of doing just this to one of my housemates, who left yesterday for Massachusetts and turned the heat that she and I share OFF. Not down, OFF. It was below freezing last night. The pipes froze. I froze. Literally. I've never had a better understand of how incredibly wretched it must be to be homeless in the wintertime as I did trying to sleep (thankfully still in my bed under a roof) with no heat whatsoever on such a cold night. To bed I wore three pairs of flannel pj pants, three pairs of socks, a turtleneck (with the neck pulled up over past my nose), two sweaters and a hoodie sweatshirt with the hood up over my head. Then, under all the blankets I had (4). And after all that, I was still horribly cold. When I woke up at 6:45am, after the sun had been up to warm the world a bit, the thermometer on my clock next to my bed read 1.2ºC. Right next to my bed, in my room! That's ridiculously cold!

And what did she say when my other housemate asked her about the heat, you might ask? Was it a mistake? No. Was she sorry she'd turned it off and left me frozen upstairs? No. Didn't understand what was the big deal about it. So what if the pipes froze? So what if the plumbing is now completely fucked? So what if I could barely sleep because my body was literally freezing cold all night? She shrugged it all off, saying it wasn't a big deal.

So now, as the bitter and annoyed person I am (who, incidentally, has already spent too much money for Christmas and has been having financial troubles anyway), I'm considering taking the presents I bought her (about $35 worth of things) back to the store. She's gone now to Massachusetts and won't be back until the 30th, when I may or may not be here for New Year's anyway. And she's moving out after that; going to Ireland on January 5th for the semester, and she's not moving back in because my other housemate and I were mean and said her mentally-unbalanced, manipulative and suicidal ex-boyfriend couldn't lease her apartment with all her things in it while she was gone. As Mary J. says, no more drama!

So...*exhales* Any of you ever been in a situation where you wanted to (or did) bring back a present for someone because of a falling out? Or am I the only one? I don't know yet that I'll actually do it...but goddamn do I want to right now. *growls*

Bertie Wooster · Post by **Bertie Wooster** » 2005-12-22 06:00pm

Yes. A girl for whom I had purchased Christmas presents pissed me off for being a shitty friend, and I knew I didn't want to be friends anymore, so I gave the two CD's I bought for her to another girl with whom I was friends for her b-day, which is shortly after Christmas. (The two CD's were the Frida Soundrack and Lujo Iberico by Mala Rodriguez a sexy Spanish-rapper chick)

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2005-12-22 06:04pm

I've never wanted to return a gift, but I have turned off someone's furnace (in the Canadian winter) before. In the course of helping a friend install a humidifier it was necessary to turn off the furnace, and, well, I just forgot to turn it back on. No pipes were frozen in this incident, fortunately, and frostbite was avoided.

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-12-22 06:12pm

I say return the presents. Someone as thoughtless as that doesn't deserve reciprocal feelings.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2005-12-22 06:19pm

Nope, for the simple reason that my GF and my platonic friend are the only 2 people in the world who get gifts from me, and the gifts only sometimes come on Christmas.

But hypothetically speaking, if I had a roomate on my gift list who dicked me over, let's just say say his present will now be a lengthy verbal abuse session filled with compound complex cuss words. And whatever I did buy him will now be kept for myself, given to another friend, or returned.

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2005-12-22 06:37pm

Don't give them to her. It'd be one thing if she apologized for it. But from what I can tell from what you have up there, she's a stupid bitch who is leaving for good soon. And if she gets on your case about not getting anything for her you can reply that you did get her something. But they were frozen when she turned off the heat.

Post by **Kuja** » 2005-12-22 10:38pm

Zaia wrote: And what did she say when my other housemate asked her about the heat, you might ask? Was it a mistake? No. Was she sorry she'd turned it off and left me frozen upstairs? No. Didn't understand what was the big deal about it. So what if the pipes froze? So what if the plumbing is now completely fucked? So what if I could barely sleep because my body was literally freezing cold all night? She shrugged it all off, saying it wasn't a big deal.

That is unbelievable. I'd take them back in a New York second.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2005-12-22 10:43pm

Just return them. Anyone that inconsiderate, even without prior history is not worth trying to reciprocate in any form with gifts in any manner or form.

muse · Post by **muse** » 2005-12-22 10:55pm

Roll her in a blanket, then zip her into a sleeping bag and mail her to Zimbabwe.

The only present she deserves is a kick in the butt to help her out the door. Return her present & pocket the cash. Then if you feel like sticking it to her, show her the receipt after she's safely out the door after saying "oh, by the way, I got you a Christmas present but since you such a clueless inconsiderate bimbo, I figured you didn't deserve it and returned it. Have a nice life!".

Post by **Zaia** » 2005-12-22 11:11pm

Kuja wrote:That is unbelievable. I'd take them back in a New York second.

Yeah, I thought so. Took me a few hours to calm down. Still bothers me when I think about it, but the heat's back on now and I have a space heater for back-up so that horrible freezing-cold night won't happen again.

Thanks for the support, though, guys. It's much appreciated, especially now that I can smile again.

WarScarab · Post by **WarScarab** » 2005-12-22 11:25pm

It's pretty much been said, but I'd just like to point out how heavily such actions as these tip the scale of the naughty:nice ratio towards the naughty side. So, yeah, return them...or do what some guy in Kansas City I heard about is doing, that being selling off his kid's Christmas XBox 360 (because the kid's being a little shit and throwing every tantrum imaginable because he's not getting the present early) and instead giving him the box filled with charcoal

.

Lusankya · Post by **Lusankya** » 2005-12-23 02:48am

When I broke up with my ex, I sold a necklace that he'd given me to a pawn shop for $27 and bought anime with it.

ROAR!!!!! says GOJIRA!!!!!

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2005-12-23 02:55am

I was going to get an ex a 200 dollar painting before we broke up, but cancelled the whole thing when I found out she'd fucked this other guy. It was for her birthday, not for christmas, but the same basic idea applies. For that, I didn't feel one bit bad. Wasn't obligated to give her jack shit after that.

As for your situation, it sounds like she was just a clueless bitch about the whole deal. But at least you had the roof, the bed, and the blankets. I remember how fucking cold I got when I fell asleep in the snow... but yeah, you shouldn't feel like you have to give her a damned thing.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-12-23 04:47am

Not to ask silly questions, but why couldn't you just turn the heat back on?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2005-12-23 06:33am

Darth Wong wrote:Not to ask silly questions, but why couldn't you just turn the heat back on?

If the pipes froze solid wouldn't that cause issues?

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2005-12-23 07:12am

Ace Pace wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:Not to ask silly questions, but why couldn't you just turn the heat back on?
If the pipes froze solid wouldn't that cause issues?

Not with the heat, unless we're talking about a boiler/radiator arrangement.

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-12-23 07:52am

Darth Wong wrote:Not to ask silly questions, but why couldn't you just turn the heat back on?

From what she told me the controls were in the part of the house that belonged to her roommate and were thus behind locked doors.

Mrs Kendall · Post by **Mrs Kendall** » 2005-12-23 08:49am

Well Zaia, after learning that the heat controls were behind locked doors fuck her, take the stuff back and keep the money, like you said you're having money problems anyway. She does not deserve shit and if you give her anything she will only learn that she can treat people badly and still get rewards. Please don't give her the gifts, take care of yourself, she does not deserve them at all.

I know you may feel bad cause at one point you were good friends (maybe, maybe not) and if not you were living in the same house so you did talk to her more than a stranger and all that but I think that if you give her the gifts she'll only learn bad things. You teach other people how to treat you Zaia. She'll only come back and think it's ok to get her boyfriend to do that to you for some laughs or something. In fact I would say don't let him rent the room.... wait, it's her ex boyfriend... well, it still applies, if she gets back with him or has any kind of control over him she may try to do this out of revenge because you didn't give her the gifts. Now of course if you have already promised the room to him you can't very well turn him away just be aware of this possible outcome.

Oh and as my hubby would say (who has experience in surviving the cold outdoors, learned from the ARMY) use only one blanket because the more you wear the more you sweat the colder you get

Ubiquitous · Post by **Ubiquitous** » 2005-12-23 09:10am

What a bitch. This reminds me of my friend at uni who shares a house with a particually anal girl who just has to save every penny at the expense of living a normal life. She always turns the heating off even on the coldest of nights in order to save a few pounds on the heating bill. So what if everyone in the house gets a cold and cannot sleep because it is freezing? If someone turns the heating on and she is not in the help, then expect an inquisition when she returns: you best have a good reason for heating the house up, and 'it was cold' is not considered good enough!

Anyway, take the gifts back. Or keep them for yourself. That can be your particular payback.

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2005-12-23 09:44am

Take the presents back, kick her out of the house, and beat her mercilessly if you get the chance.

Mr. T · Post by **Mr. T** » 2005-12-23 09:47am

I agree with everyone take the present back, she doesn't deserve it. As for ever wanting to return a present, well I wanted to take my present back when our class was doing a secret Santa in grade 9 and whatever fucker had my name didn't bother getting me a present

lol

avoidingthepo · Post by **avoidingthepo** » 2005-12-23 10:23am

i would say that simply taking the present back really wouldnt matter to her

instead, get creative!

for instance, if what you had gotten her was, lets say, a piece of jewelry, give the actual jewelery to someone else, and put a piece of dog poo in the box, or if they were cds, burn her a cd with songs that may be demeaning or just bad. i would go with 'i wanna fuck a dog in the ass' by blink 182, or just give her "NOW that's waht i call music 19!"

hopefully youd be able to get a laugh at her expense

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2005-12-23 10:23am

If you both are renting, report her ass to the landlord for causing the frozen (and potentally very expensive to repair if busted by the ice) pipes.
I guarantee you that he'll be less than pleased.

Mrs Kendall · Post by **Mrs Kendall** » 2005-12-23 10:38am

Good Idea Glock. Although I'm sure Zaia is smart enough to do that on her own it doesn't hurt to mention it and make sure she doesn't get screwed over for having to pay for the repairs.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-12-23 12:51pm

Don't take the gifts back. Instead, carefully put a large piece of dogshit into each and every one of them, seal them up thoroughly and spray them with perfume to mask the smell, and then give them to her with a smile.