More of a wwyd.Advice needed.

[spongebunnyfatpants]

Last week I left my job and went for a meal with some colleagues.
At the end of the night they gave me a gift bag filled with lots of little treats which was lovely.

However on closer inspection I'm pretty sure that only a couple of them are new and the rest have been recycled. I don't have any issues with recycling gifts, my friends and i always do it. however I know that everyone at my meal will have contributed £5+ each for my gifts and I think they will be upset to know that the woman who arranged the gifts, has used her own unwanted items and pocketed the money (I assume).

Two of the items smell very heavily of smoke and not just on the packaging on the item inside too, which indicates a long exposure to smoking. Most of the items don't have tags, the jewellery wasn't in a box and has no protective stickers on it (as you would expect a new item to have ) and the chocolate box was dirty and they are best before 2011!

So what should I do? I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I think my colleagues would be upset to know about the things listed above.

I'm not close to the woman who arranged the gifts and I don't have any contact details for her. I am closer to another colleague who I could mention it to, but she is close the woman involved or should i just keep my mouth shut?

All opinions/advice gratefully received. Thank you.

Oh dear. Upcycling at its finest.

Oooooh OP. I think you should say something. Maybe something as casual as ''oh - those chocs were WAY out of date by the way, the shop they came from should be pulled up on it' .....

then see what's said?

Could you text the lady tour friendly with and say the chicks are out of date - say your concerned a shop is piling s fast one. Meet he'd and happen to still have the gifts in the gift bag - see if she comments on anything?

X posts! Except contains many iPhone autocorrects that make no sense!

I think i would just let it go if I were you.

It could be that your leaving collection was not as big as you imagine and your colleague supplemented it to be kind?

It's not worth further investigation. Move on.

That's a good idea fluffy. Thank you.

I think maybe talk to the colleague you're close to in a "I'm a bit confused" sort of way rather than a "your mate nicked your money" way.

Or maybe something along the lines of "Good idea to drop the £5 contribution tradition and recycle instead - who thought of that?" and see what colleague says.

I would pop into work in a week or two & leave the chocs in the staff room for all to share!

Oh dear, it does sound a bit fishy.

Do you know the woman who 'bought' the gifts well? Do you think she might be extremely hard up and need the money for food or something? I don't know how she thought she'd get away with it.

I'm not sure what I'd do. Not much help, sorry.

Lol!! Winning!

Bette, we always do the £5 thing, it's the rules :)

Hassled that's a good idea too, thank you.

Lol!! Callme, I'm not sure I'm that brave ;)

Def not in need tail twister, both her and her husband have good jobs and no mortgage to pay, as she paid it off with a little lottery win!

Old bag again I'm not sure I'm that brave, but I'm definitely beginning to feel that they need to know.

Thank you

Could you ask where the jewellery was from and say the clasp broke or something? I'd mention the chocolates as well! So bloody cheeky!

It's a bangle watch Olivia so no clasp, but I could think of something else. X

I would let it go, it is no big deal really. and you have left that job.

You,ve moved on job wise; move on swiftly from this.

I would mention it to your closest friend there - specifically about the chocs and ask her to make enquires.

I would put a photo of the stuff on FB as if you're showing it off/saying thank you. Make sure the date on the chocolate box can be seen and tag colleagues.

Old bag wants new Bag it would be roughly about £40 and I'm not really in contact with anyone who has previously left, it's one of those jobs were people don't leave very often!

Thanks foreverondiet I think I will.

Thanks marriedinwhiteagain, part of me thinks thats the right thing to do but the other part thinks that if I'd money for someone's leaving gift and the money wasn't spent on a gift, I'd be annoyed.

Lol misfit13, only one of them is on Facebook and the bb date is quite small, I don't think it would show up.

Could you send a group email to a small number of people you're friendly with, but NOT including Collection Woman, and say something like "I'm sorry to be a pain but the watch you all gave me as part of my leaving gift isn't working - I've replaced the battery but it's still stopping intermittently so I need to try and replace it, but there's no tag or anything to indicate where it came from. Do any of you still have the receipt?

Also (and I feel awful saying this, I really don't want to seem ungrateful when you've all been so generous) but the chocolates were two years out of date - best before X month 2011. It's not a problem, but I thought I'd let you know so you can avoid using whichever shop they came from again, just in case.

Hope you're all well, it's weird not having to go back to that office, yadda yadda pleasantries pleasantries...etc"

Brilliant selectausername, is your post copyrighted?! Lol

Feel free to use as much or as little of it as you want to!

Thank you x

I'd just let it go.