To moan about expensive but bad gifts

[Dorisbonson]

Fortnum and Mason £200 picnic basket. Guess what it comes with?

Small basket with smart logo, two small plates, two small glasses and that is it.

No food, no liquid. For £200.

It's lovely but I shall never use it and the person sending it clearly thought they had bought something different and expected not unreasonably a hamper of food.

Really annoying. Fortnum and Mason = rip off.

I agree that it's an extortionate price, but it is described as a picnic basket. If the gift included food it would have been described as a picnic hamper. But even those are a ridiculous price. You're paying for the snobby logo on the lid.

Surely the gift giver should know what is included in the hamper? Sell it , one thing with F&H is that they sell really well (full or empty).

Is it this one? www.fortnumandmason.com/fortnums-shoulder-picnic-hamper-for-two

I think it’s clear that it only includes the crockery etc, not the food. Maybe would be better with a note saying that explicitly though.

Could you return it and exchange for a Christmas hamper instead?

I can’t believe the price of that!

Definitely find out if you can return it. I'm all for wasting money, but bloody hell, they're pushing it with that one.

It is quite obvious from the listing that it doesn't contain any food though, so not sure what the sender thought would be arriving with it?

Not quite in the £200 league but my PIL never ask my DH/DC what they might like for Christmas / Birthdays so buy what they think they might like - hence why I have an 8ft un-used trampoline in the garden, a giant keyboard in the dining room and I know DD is getting a scooter (not electric) for Christmas that is highly unlikely to be used. What the kids DO need is new gear/equipment for the hobbies they already have! This is not exciting enough apparently but I do wish their money was better spent.

If it's this one, it is described as a hamper and the photo has food and drink on it. I agree one should read the fine print but I can see how it can be confusing

Also why is this under Cost of Living? No one with money to spend £200 on a basket is worried about it

Crikey. If they had gone for the £365 one you would have got a salt and pepper shaker too.

One of my dc's splashed out on a luxury bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day, about £25 iirc - they were still a student so didn't have much money.

The quality of the flowers was dreadful, some disintegrated once unwrapped, others only lasted a few days; I felt for that amount of money, the quality should have been much better.

Naturally I didn't say anything but was cross for days that customers & my dc were being ripped off buying a 'special' that was anything but.

Here's what you could have had...
This plus £175 of food and drink!

It is the one in the photo. I will send it back. I am so annoyed. I think anyone spending £200 would assume that it had some goodies inside!

Not necessarily if you know the prices of F&M , Harrods,Selfridges etc...
It is clear that no food is included. If you send it back you should be able to exchange it for something else or at least get a gift voucher. I think that the problem with hampers in general is that they always have a lot of stuff in it that people don't like.

The recipient may be. My uncle bought my cousin a very expensive dress when she was little. Her mother (her and my uncle were no longer together) almost cried at the waste, knowing how many clothes she could have bought with that money. I'd feel the same way if someone gave me a £200 picnic basket.

Agreed. When I was struggling for money in a tiny house I cried on a number of occasions when my parents bought bulky expensive gifts I neither needed nor wanted. I tried explaining time and again but they were very wealthy in a mansion and just didn't get the issue.

Now I have worked up the career ladder and have a big house their gifts bother me less but still the memory of that time comes back whenever they send unwanted expensive gifts. I'd rather they just spent less and I didn't have to worry what to do with the damn things!

Hampers have always been shit value. Back in the day I used to get loads as work gifts. Never liked the majority of the content. It all stopped in the last financial crash and thankfully hasn't picked up again.

I happened to have a look in Fortnum and Mason's yesterday - it's near my office. It was rammo. People with trollies full to the brim with tins of biscuits!

If you think the giver meant to give you a food hamper, you could swap it for this one- www.fortnumandmason.com/the-fortnums-classic-christmas-hamper?gclid=Cj0KCQiAkMGcBhCSARIsAIW6d0Aht7dWmlisShYIVozFAdQ_Rt1mN1Y4_NWg2jOt7Kyqr8ZifECYYzsaAsrmEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds Same price and much jollier.

PS can't imagine who would want to carry a wicker picnic basket on their back, what a faff. Someone having a picnic five metres from the car, I guess.