the wedding list company that went bust - does anyone really care

[FluffyMummy123]

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I don't get this hatred of wedding lists. I ahev a fiend who did not have one as not very jkeen on the whole idea. Among her gifts she ended up with 15 flower vases, which now languish in a cupboard unused most of the time as no one ever has 15 bunched of flowers!! Her guest would have far rather had a list to buy what they wanted!

and expat, the fact is that people usually want to buy a gift for the couple rather than the fact taht teh couple want presents!

a fiend melrose??? is that a freudian slip???

i'm not taking the piss honest.. that just made me chuckle

really should learn to type!

FioFio, naturally a well-chosen gift list will include items with modest prices. Anything else is just taking the piss. Of course, there's nothing to stop a guest from buying a couple of plates or part of the cutlery set even though entire set might be beyond them. A guest can also give vouchers which the couple can put towards buying other items from the list that no-one else buys. Our gift list include door handles and toilet door locks. I think it quite tickled the cousin who bought the latter to be able to tell people what his gift to us had been.

Btw, we decided against Debenhams because they added a £3 surcharge, paid by the guest, for delivery per transaction. We reckoned that was unjustifiable since it bore no relation to the actual cost to them of delivering the items. We used John Lewis, where delivery was free.

its not the end of the world but it is very unfortunate and the situation was miss-managed by the company - they continued taking purchases on their website when they knew there was a very good chance that they would not be able to honour them. The first brides who used that company heard about the problem was via the media - that would make me angry more than anything else!

I'm not with them myself but have been on wedding forums where people are - and have seen copies of the fob-off emails that they got from the company saying that they were not going out of business, just a bit of a re-giggle - THAT would make me angry, more than the loss of "stuff"

p.s. we did not want a gift list - that info was met with a very unexpected amount of anger when some of our guests got wind of this, we had "you ARE having a gift list, ARENT you! I HATE when people dont" and "well if you're not having a gift list, you WILL tell us what you want wont you" and more. My mum got a load of phone calls from relative asking exactly what we wanted if we dont have a list.

so we got one
are we bad?

Gosh that explains a lot! I made an an o/l enquiry to wrapit before I got married and was positively harangued by the sales woman for months afterwards!

I feel sorry for the guests, not the married couples.

But, then again, I'm watching the news and seeing what's going on in Georgia/Ossettia right now and thinking..."care..."

I'd feel a little more sympathy were it not for the customer profile and that ridiculous comment one of the disppointed brides made about it being just like Farepak. What, like poor people who have to save up all year to afford some food and presents at Christmas and then get ripped off and left with nothing? I don't think so, Camilla/Arabella/Minty/insert other posh name...

VeniVidiVickiQV why no pitty for the couples - the stuff their guests bought for them effectively belonged to them - they were their belongings - if a load of your belongings were taken from you are you saying that you wouldnt care just cause worse stuff happens in the world? its not nice - not the end of the world, or like being in a war zone, but still not nice

If the wedding couples had any manners whatsoever, they'd simply tell the guests that they had received the toaster/dinner service/canteen of cutlery just before the thing went belly up. And thank them nicely for the wonderful gift.
Problem solved.
Unless it's your granny, then you'd have to buy the gift with your own money so you could display it when she visited.

although, having said that, I looked into wrapit for about 5 mins before finding endless bad reports about them online (couples not getting their gifts for nearly 2 years etc) - I didnt dwelve deep to see that I did not want to use a company like that so did have a bit of a "buyer beware" shrug when I heard about the whole thing. They should have done a little bit of research!

I assumed that the stuff would be delivered direct to the happy couple. If not then the only option is to say, thanks for the lovely present we didn't get, and no no no we do not expect you to buy another one, it was your kind thought that counts.

It didnt belong to them - they never received it. I think it is somewhat discourteous and grabby to be upset about losing something that hasnt cost you anything. It's the guests that have lost out. I think it's wrong to expect gifts just because you are getting married. I really do.

i think it would be unutterably galling, though, to know that your mates/family were being ripped off in this way by a company that knew it was going under. i'm not surprised they're pissed off. but then i haven't seen the news reports so i don't know how ghastly the brides are being.

Apparently the wedding couples aren't the only ones who're suffering...

"But what about the silent victims of Wrapit's collapse? The company employed more than 100 people who have now been unceremoniously laid off. I am £1,500 out of pocket because of Wrapit's failure, and am struggling with the rent this month as a result. Why has our story not been told? Perhaps because we are all in hiding after the vitriolic abuse ladled out by angry couples who will not be receiving their Missoni towels."

"One email to Wrapit staff reads: "All of you are absolute cunts and I hope (if there is a God) that you and your families all die in absolutely horrible circumstances." At least someone is thinking of us at this difficult time. Angry customers have converged on many of Wrapit's 15 showrooms across the UK. One branch in the Midlands had a couple storm in and demand to take what was owed to them straight off the shelves. When anyone associated with Wrapit is being branded a liar or a thief, it is easy to understand why we may be a little hesitant in mentioning the company on our CVs when looking for new jobs."

"One thing is clear: no one affected by Wrapit's demise has been hit as hard as the Farepak victims. But who knows what we former employees might achieve if we start shouting loudly in our poshest voices. I'm even thinking of setting up a charity."

I was about to link to that and say yes, I care about the employees more.

The cheapest thing on our wedding list was a rolling pin at £1.99 and we got 2 because the first person to buy one was too embarrassed to have only spent £1.99 that they didn't go through the list (idiots - we really didn't care about how much people spent - if indeed anything at all).

why cant we feel sorry for all three, the guests who purchased, the couples AND the employees

its not a competition

And comparing it to Georgia is rediculous - how dare you be upset about being burgled when there are people out there who've been stabbed in the leg, How dare you be upset about being stabbed in the leg when there are people out there who were murdered... and so on

and whats to say any of the brides who lost out "expected presents just because they were getting married"? they might have been very touched and surprised by some of the contributions.

oh I don't blame people for being upset, but the newspaper column was very much of the floating shelves variety.

If I'm being asked ot empathise with a stranger I think I'll save it for something a little more worthwhile.....

I didnt compare the two.

I'm just highlighting my priorities and how it formulates my opinion of "get a grip". I'm inclined to agree with JJ - it is all a bit tornadoes and floating shelves.

Many companies go under every day, for far less reasons than Wrapit have re HSBC. In fact, more and more all the time.

Peter Gelardi has plenty to answer to, that's for sure.

oh - x posts with JJ

If it happened to a friend I would think 'oh poor things' for about 5 seconds. But if they went on and on and on about it I would think they'd lost touch with reality.

Newspaper columnists are fair game. They've been paid to write the drivel I've just wasted 3 minutes of my life reading. I don't know them, I don't really care about their wedding list. Why would I?

I would feel most sorry for the employees. Mortgages/rent to pay. Families to feed etc. It's all a bit more worthy than a few towels and some bedspreads.

Where does this "wedding list = posh" crap come from? I had a wedding list and my name's not Camilla. SalBySea is right. It's not either/or. There is no reason why one cannot sympathise with the couples who might not get their gifts, the guests who paid for the gifts, the employees who have lost their jobs and still have plenty left over for Georgie/South Ossetia. The "victims" of Wrapit might not deserve as much sympathy as the people caught up in Russia and Georgia's spat but neither do any of them deserve the open hostility that has characterised some posts on this thread.

I can't see why people have such an issue with gift lists either - unless the items are all ridiculously expensive, in which case I usually go "off-list" - it's quite useful not having to wrack my brains to think of something they might like that no one else would think of.

And it's hardly a new idea, is it - it was originally to help couples set up in their new home as they wouldn't have anything - these days, with so many couples living together or having their own home already, it's hard to know what they wouldn't already have, so any hints and tips are useful.

And really, who goes to a wedding WITHOUT taking a gift? I would be so embarrassed NOT to take one - how rude! it's not a case of the couple "expecting" gifts, they know that most people are going to want to give them gifts, so they might as well get some stuff that will be useful to them or that they wouldn't have the spare cash to buy themselves.

My friend got caught up in the wrapit fiasco - she is neither posh, grasping or a cow and it is another unfortunate episode that dogged her wedding, along with losing her FIL 3 weeks prior to the wedding due to a fishing accident where he drowned. But after all, that's nothing in comparison with Georgia being invaded, so I'm sure there are a few people on this thread who think she doesn't deserve any sympathy.