Regift

2/14/2008

Posted by BJ
I’m guessing many of you will be familiar with the term “regift”. The term is used when a gift that has been received previously is then given to someone else and presented as a new gift.

I wasn’t familiar with this term until this past holiday season, during which I’m fairly certain I received a couple of ‘regifts’. I received gifts which had obviously not been chosen with my taste in mind and/or had obviously been given to someone else. One appeared to have been rewrapped in the same paper, which was quite crumbled and ripped when I received it. (Since I know you’ll ask, one was a “TacoMan Tortilla Maker” and the other was a “Hot Cocoa Set”.)

When I received these so-called gifts, I felt like I didn’t really matter to the people who gave them to me. I viewed their giving them to me as purely perfunctory and I felt that they had put no energy into thinking about what I liked or what I’d hope to receive. To me, they had expended the absolute minimum amount of energy necessary. The affect of receiving these gifts was such that I would have felt better had these people said, “Sorry, I didn’t get you anything.”

I can’t help but think a customer receiving a proposal that presents no value or benefits, is non-customer specific and largely cut and paste feels the same way.

11 Comments

Barbara Esmedina

3/26/2016 04:25:14 am

Even worse if the cut and paste still has the previous company name. Yeah, I’ve seen it happen.

Roisin

3/26/2016 04:25:23 am

Agree with Barbara – like getting a ‘regift’ with the previous recipient’s name still on. My mum got one once!

Barbara Esmedina

3/26/2016 04:25:32 am

The worst regift? Fruit cake! It could have been circulating for years. The worst proposal regift? A handful of tired, outdated brochures with a poorly written form letter from the sales rep.

Jon

3/26/2016 04:25:45 am

Damn, I knew I shouldn’t have sent you that hairbush and comb set…

BJ Lownie

3/26/2016 04:25:53 am

Given my folicly challenged dome which hasn’t been touched by comb or brush in more than a decade and my wife’s extremely curly head of hair which no comb or brush has to date been able to penetrate, if you had given me a comb and brush set, it would have been gratefully recieved and immediately put to good use on our dog Jack.

Robin

3/26/2016 04:26:04 am

But the TacoMan I sent you is awesome! I put a LOT of thought into that, actually. I even pictured you lifting it up over your head and dancing around the living room in a sombrero singing, “Taco, taco maaaaaan….I want to be a taco man. Taco, taco maaaaaan….” ;-)

(That, my friend, is quality songwriting! I know you’re jealous.)

Lesa C

3/26/2016 04:26:12 am

omg, Robin, you’re killing me, that is hilarious! LOLOLOL

BJ Lownie

3/26/2016 04:26:30 am

Very scarily, I can see an ad for Taco Bell with a chihuahua dancing around in a sombrero with that tune playing in the background.

And thanks to Robin, I now have that song stuck in my head. I suspect some of the readers here will also have that tune stuck in thier head. If this is the case and you’d like erase that tune, read on….

Ready.

Ok, here goes…

“Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree.”

That should do it.

Oh, no need to thank me. You’re most welcome.

Roisin

3/26/2016 04:26:39 am

I had to revisit this after a discussion with my other half a few days ago. In my kitchen at home is a rather nice bottle of red wine, aging nicely, given to me as a birthday gift from said other half some time ago, very shortly before we became an official ‘couple’.
I commented that I was only keeping it out of sentimentality. (I don’t drink red). He went puce and confessed that it was a ‘regift’. Within 24hrs the wine had been given to my dear mother – and yes, I told her where it had come from! :)

Jon

3/26/2016 04:26:50 am

Roisin – it’s probably a good thing you didn’t find out that it was a regift BEFORE you decided to become an official couple!!!

BJ Lownie

3/26/2016 04:27:02 am

Your delightful tale makes me wonder what the record number of times a gift has been regifted. I suspect this isn’t something tracked by the good folks at Guiness (the record people, not the beer folks…for my British colleagues).

It brings to mind a ‘gift’ that a couple of friends of mine (hey there Diane and Pam) mailed back and forth to each other…always at random times and from distant locations. I seem to recall it was a fairly hedious needlepoint. I’ll have to check with them to see if that gift is still in circulation.

On another note, I suspect a few of the items we’ve handed out at APMP events over the years – magnets, cards, t-shirts, etc. may have been regifted to a colleague who wasn’t able ot attend. You know, the old, “My boss went to APMP in New Orleans and all I got was this t-shirt.” (My apologies if you’re one of the one’s who received one of these items as a regift. :-)

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BJ Lownie and Jon Williams are the co-founders of Strategic Proposals.

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