Ambu to be tired of In laws buying fake Christmas presents?

[thiskittenbarks]

I feel an important preface to this is that my FIL and his wife are very wealthy - as in each family member is getting a brand new Porsche for Christmas(and not that it's relevant but DH didn't grow up with this wealth as his dad ran off and started a new family as soon as he came into money).
Every year they buy us fake designer stuff for Christmas/ birthday. Bad fakes. No harm is done, but I'd rather have a primark handbag than a very obvious fake Dior bag. It's a bit of a waste as I'm simply never going to use them.
When we had our son they got him some fake designer clothes and toys that were from China (ordered off a random website). I felt really uneasy about it (having previously worked in product safety I know that counterfeit products can be genuinely unsafe and toys that don't meet regs can contain lead and all sorts). DH asked them not to do this, as they might not be safe. But we've never said anything about the fake clothes / bags for us.
It does bother me though because I know they would never dream of wearing the stuff themselves. I've been shopping with them loads and seen SMIL spend serious money on designer clothes for herself and her children (my BILs and SILs from FILs second family). Not that that means that she should spend that type of money on us on us but I just feel like its a bit of a slight. They clearly think we are too poor to know that a real Gucci bag probably doesn't come with a headache-inducing stench of polyurethane.

We never know how to react either - are we supposed to pretend we think we have been gifted a real Prada handbag (even though it's stuffed with Chinese newspaper)?? It's really uncomfortable but we tell them every year that they shouldn't spend so much (and that they needn't get us anything at all).

As much as I dislike them, the bad fake handbags don't really do any harm. But this year we received quite a few expensive candles from them. I know they are fake as I've looked at them alongside some from the same shop that I have bought myself. Also the brand don't even make this scent.
I feel like this is a fire risk and I actually feel really annoyed about it. She talked about it as if it was real and I would have though it was if I didn't have several real ones at home to compare it to. I would have assumed it was safe. I feel like she's put my house and my children at risk of fire. Just buy me an aldi one - they smelled exactly like the real deal.
AIBU / AMBungrateful?
I don't know how to stop this madness. It's such a waste of money and I can't even donate the stuff to charity shops as they can't sell counterfeit goods.

Could you say you've shown present to a friend who bought same designer item and they have identified it as being fake and say you want to return it and contact trading standards if it's fake! This could do the trick. They are despicable people.

Don't give it to a charity shop!!!!

They're not allowed to sell counterfeits and it will cost them money to dispose of it.

I woukd be blunt with them and tell them to stop buying you gifts as you don't like fake goods.

Quietly bin them and laugh about it, You have lost nothing

Story re Primark candle
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42269648

i thought of this story as soon too, fake candles are just as liable

@Mudcity and @UsualGubbins have it

Buy her something fake - perfume perhaps?

She can hardly complain and, if she does, you could say "Oh, but I thought you must love this sort of bargain, since you've been buying similar for us for years."

Whatever you do, don't spend large amounts on their gifts.

Also, don't feel guilty about chucking the fake stuff in the tip - it's her money wasted, not yours.

I mean it’s a present. Just accept with a smile and enjoy bitching about it later lol. So what if you don’t like it? I rarely get anything useful or that I would actually want/use for Christmas but I would never be so rude as to say something. If you won’t use it for yourself, I would just give them away on gumtree or freecycle if you won’t sell them on eBay or feel you can’t give them to charity shops (I didn’t know about them not accepting). If questioned about it, I would say you are worried about safety issues of these cheap counterfeit goods, or say you used them but the offputting smell/loose threads cause such and such a problem.

Thing is, the richer people are, the stingier they tend to be with their money...and well, the other thing is that you would never use these...but there’s plenty of poor people who would take a free handbag or other item in a second, so please don’t just bin these. There was an old lady who lived in the flat downstairs who would literally raid skips and bins to furnish her house, so there’s plenty of people who would be grateful. There’s really no point in you kicking up a stink about receiving these gifts, unless they confront you about not using them.

I do understand your frustration though, especially if they have you open these in front of them.

Yep, if you don't like the family and still have to give them a present, regift them back. Read about this genius suggestion on MN and am going to start doing it with some of the absolute crap that my MIL hand selects for us!

This story is surely Daily Mail gold so I suspect you might not have to find a way to tell them!

Whatthefucknameisntalreadytake
Just smile and say enthusiastically 'ooh what a good replica, it's quite realistic isn't it' and then just look at them for a second too long.

I agree with this. (How do you do an up arrow?) This is awesome. Or, say with concern, “Oh no, this is an obv——I mean, it looks like a fake. I hope you didn’t get scammed!” And then do the look for a second too long. But I truly love whatthefuckname’s idea.

Sometimes you have to play their game to get your point across.

I would be blunt and say that whole you are grateful you still have to insist not to keep buying conterfeit products as they fund mafia and affect our economy tremendously. Thanks. Moving on...

If they can afford real ones that’s very rude and I would make jokes about them looking almost like the real thing.

You could say ‘thank you for being so thoughtful and got me this, but this goes against my values and beliefs, so i cannot accept it’. And give it back.

I wouldn’t pretend you thought they were real and tried to return them. That makes you look stupid. I really like the message copied upthread about thinking it was a bit of fun but now you’ve read about the link to organised crime. What a cow this woman is. How cruel that your fil is not sticking up for your dh.

Also if they’re that well off shows a lack of morals buying stuff related to organised crime (must admit I didn’t realise that, not that I buy expensive designer anything!)

I think you should say something. Buying low cost gifts is fine if you don't want to spend a lot for whatever reason, but I would be very uncomfortable with counterfeit. Apart from the goods being poor quality and, as you point out potentially dangerous, they are illegal. These sort of goods are produced using exploited labour (even more so than genuine goods), by people who are not abiding by any regulations, paying any taxes etc. They can damage the reputation and steal millions of pounds in lost revenue from genuine companies and their employees and shareholders. I would say to the pil 'thank you very much for thinking of us, but unfortunately this candle/handbag/garment is counterfeit, and we would prefer not to have it'. If you offend them, what's the worst that can happen? They don't sound very nice anyway.

If you're not bothered about causing friction then just tell them straight. Alternatively you could send an email about having so much stuff and just requesting a donation to x charity if they want to get a gift. Would save you having the tat in your house. If they do persist just charity shop anything safely usable and bin the rest

I’m affraid there is not much you can do. How old are your DC? Tell them that your dc prefer money or a specific toy from specific shop. If that doesnt work then say thanks when you get your next fake handbag, dont pretend you believe it’s a real one. Then bin it. A bit more difficult with toy but perhaps accidentally step and break them if they’re not safe.
They obviously think you are too poir/stupid to know any better, that is hurtful.
Just bin the lot

Much as I’d love to tell them where to stick their fake candles I’d accept them with grace, chuck them in the bin and hope they remember you in their will.

Tell them your not idiots and you know the stuff is fake.

Get them some fake designer goods as their prezzie this year. See how they like it!

Or

Next time you are presented with a fake gift pretend to be embarrassed and say "Look - I haven't known how to tell you this and I'm so embarrassed even saying this but thought you should know - the bags you've given me the past few years are actually fake. I just wanted you to know as I'd hate to think you were paying full whack for a knock off"

Start buying them the same cheap tacky stuff for their birthdays and Christmas xx

booster

You just reminded me of something i saw a few months back, about knock-off brands.
It would be fun if OP got them something like this
justsomething.co/31-hilariously-cheap-chinese-imitations-that-will-make-you-cringe/

Tell them. Oh, I appreciate this but I think it’s unethical to source false products from China. Please just don’t get us anything, or a token gift if you insist, next year.