A woman wanted a pair of Ugg boots for Christmas. But since the model she wanted was sold out, she told her husband she ordered “a nearly identical pair of boots from LL Bean.”
The husband, however, wanted to surprise the wife. So, fast forward to Valentine’s Day, and the woman gets the pair of Ugg boots she wanted.
Sounds great? Well, not really. She wanted to return the second pair “because I don’t need two pairs of essentially the same shoe.” However, her husband was against it “because it was $25 to get them shipped and another $25 to return so that we would be out $50.”
One of her friends offered to buy the Ugg boots, so the woman said: “told my husband, and he got even more upset, saying he would deal with it and took the box out of the closet.”
She concluded the original post, writing, “Now I’m getting the silent treatment.” In Reddit’s AITA thread, she gathered various responses, with over 60 percent branding her as an a..hole.
In an edit, she clarified that she works from home and “I have 16 and 10-year-old Uggs (different styles) that have little wear.”
People who found that the wife was in the wrong said, “Apparently, she got him a dose of guilt-tripping for buying her a pair of boots she wanted.”
And while the point was supposed to be whether the wife did the right thing, many Reddit users talked about the differences in styles and how the quality of shoes went downhill.
Some tried to defend the wife, but another internet poster replied, “It’s not as simple as just returning it, and her husband put a lot of thought into the gift for her to say, never mind.”
Others think the wife needed to be more explicit with her husband and how the new shoes were a replacement for the ones she initially wanted.
Someone pointed out, “I think this should be a teaching lesson for OP about being more direct/clear if she changes her mind and no longer wants something she needs to tell him plainly.”
One person suggested there are two separate incidents, explaining, “The husband felt that OP bought the LL Bean ones as something she settled on, and thought at a later date as he kept an eye out for the Uggs that she could finally get her hands on the ultimate prize she wanted in the first place.”
Another argued how the husband wanted “to win the best present award so badly that he set himself up for this failure.”
One Redditor said they “would have been thrilled if my husband would have put as much effort into my gift as the OP’s husband did.” But another soon replied, “I don’t understand why there are so many comments about you being ungrateful.”
Some tried to give the couple the benefit of the doubt, saying, “I get the hubs thinks it’s a big romantic gesture, but it’s just a pair of boots.”
One poster said that those who think the original poster was the a…hole get their gifts “wrapped in the grocery store bag.”
Someone also talked about gift giving policy, saying, “My husband and I have an understanding between us that it’s OK to return/exchange gifts.”
And another used psychology to solve this woman’s debate, writing, “Maybe he knows she’s right, but instead of being mad at himself, he’s taking it out on her.”
Who is wrong here? Do you believe that returning gifts should be the norm?