How to Ask Someone If They Received Your Gift so That It Doesn’t Feel Uncomfortable
Christmas is over, the new year is fortunately just around the corner, and now you may be wondering: has my friend ever received my present or what? It was a thoughtful gift; You’re sure she’ll love it and she always thanks you, so it’s unusual that you haven’t heard of her yet. Asking if she got it? Would that be rude? Would it be uncomfortable?
The answer to the above is: possible, possible, and possible. There are times when registration is required, but there are a few more things to consider before doing so.
Don’t be a pest
There are people in your life – you know who they are – who constantly ask if you received their card or package. In fact, they just got out of the post office, they haven’t even gotten back to their car yet and are wondering if she has arrived. Or they got a notification – right this second! – that it has been delivered; do you understand?
This is annoying, but more importantly, it puts unnecessary strain on the recipient, leaving whatever they do so they can check the porch multiple times a day. By the time they actually get your card, they won’t even want it anymore. Don’t be that kind of person. Give them a chance to get it, discover it, enjoy it and thank you at a time that suits you.
Consider your relationship
I would not hesitate to ask my brother if something I sent for him arrived or one of my nieces. He is busy working from home and raising three children, so he probably just forgot to tell me – and he is not one of those who are easily offended. However, I spent a few days in internal discussions whether to ask the woman who runs the weekly training program for my son and a few of his friends if she actually received the gift card that I emailed her. I’m pretty sure she would have written to me right away to thank me, and I suspect the letter ended up in her spam folder, but still, ugh.
This is where the dynamics of your relationship with the recipient of the gift can help you. If you think someone might be more sensitive to being put in a predicament, there may be someone else, such as a spouse or parent, whom you can quietly ask. But what if you sent a bouquet of flowers to your best friend’s mom after your spouse died and didn’t hear anything? Let it go.
Consider the time
This brings me to another important question: timing. While it’s nice to officially thank you for every gift, there are times in a person’s life where gratitude may be slower to you – or it may never reach you. For example, after the death of a loved one, or immediately after the birth of a child, or after a wedding or baby shower. Chances are, you are one of the many that the couple should thank.
Plus, you might be totally okay with the quick thank you text, but a lot of people still love to send handwritten notes that they send across town. Give the recipient time to thank you in their own way; and sometimes, depending on extenuating circumstances, it is better to assume they got it and let it go.
It’s all the fault of the USPS (or the seller)
The US Postal Service is currently not exactly known for its timeliness. I personally spent most of December tracking two packages I sent to a family in just one state. (Well, it wasn’t so much “tracking” as “watching one package sit in Philadelphia and another in Cleveland for days.”) One naturally arrived the day after Christmas, and by that time I became the annoying person that I warned you about earlier.
But if you find yourself in a situation where, in your opinion, your gift should have already been delivered, you are damn sure that they would admit it, and you are sincerely concerned that it did not reach them, you can check and blame it. on the good old USPS. “Everything I have sent seems to be delayed this year,” you might say, “so I wanted to make sure my package arrived normally. I trust no one and nothing! “
If you ordered a gift directly on the store’s website, you can also “blame” the company for this. It is not necessary to lie at all , but I would say that you can exaggerate the truth a little to make the question less awkward.
“Hey, it looks like the item I sent you was delayed and I never got a confirmation email that it was actually shipped,” you might say. “Let me know if he doesn’t come soon so I can start calling and harassing them!” That way, if they got it and just forgot to thank you, they can save face by eagerly texting you the next day that it just came and that they like it.