Dispute with Siblings over How to Split Price of Gift

LSenorUmberto on 21/12/2017 - 11:55

I am having a small dispute over the price of a gift, OzBargainers please weigh in.

My 2 sisters and I always give our parents a gift and split the cost 3 ways.

This year I was responsible for purchasing the gift and bought an item from JB Hifi.

I had recently taken advantage of the 15% off gift card offer - I had bought 2 $100 gift cards for $85 dollars each.I had intended to use these on personal items for myself, but as I was purchasing the gift from JB Hifi, I thought I may as well use it on the gift.

Either way I will save $30 by using them and there was no point in saving the gift cards for another time.

I requested that each of my 2 sisters transfer my 1/3 of the full price of the gift before the gift card discount was taken into account as the gift cards were my own business.

What happened next is one sister read the receipt and saw that I had used the cards. After explaining to her my discount she is refusing to pay 1/3 of the full price and wants only to pay 1/3 of the price after the gift card discount. I feel this is unfair as I bought the gift cards to advantage myself.

What does Ozbargain think is the right thing to do? Stick to my guns or relent?

Poll Options expired

  • 49
    Insist on splitting the full price
  • 1118
    Share the bargain and collect only the reduced price
General Discussion

closed Comments

  • Normie on 23/12/2017 - 02:12
    -1

    You split 3 ways on the amount u brought it for.

  • utopia on 23/12/2017 - 03:04
    +2

    Ask your parents what both you and you siblings should do.
    It'll be the best Christmas gift for them to know how they brought you up

  • Lumens on 23/12/2017 - 03:21
    -2

    You guys are petty as fkk. In our culture we strive to try and pay for the bills, food, costs and more. In turn, the person receiving the freebies returns the favour the next time or of their free will. We don’t count pennies.

  • nessism on 23/12/2017 - 04:23

    In short: It's very simple - it's fair to split the actual cost 3 ways. Anything else, as your siblings and the vast majority have pointed out, is not.
    What you were, or were not, going to do with the gift cards is irrelevant.

    As penance and in humility, you could share the smackdown you got here, with your siblings. Just a suggestion.

  • DiscoJango on 23/12/2017 - 07:54
    +3

    fast forward 40 years from now. op is on their death bed. his\her sisters refuse to talk to them. op remembers back to starting a family breaking argument just to save $30. op dies alone. the end.

  • popcornready on 23/12/2017 - 08:24
    +2

    Mate, in a previous post you said you had no money as it was all tied upz
    So why are you buying this Nintendo crap?

  • greatlamp on 23/12/2017 - 08:49
    +1

    Did you ever hear the tradegy of Scrooge the miser? No? I thought not. It's not a story an Ozbargainer would tell you.

    It's a Dickens legend. Ebenezer Scrooge was a money lender so cold hearted and lonley, he grew to despise Christmas for the happiness it brought to others.

    Ironic. He could save money for himself, but not for his family.

    • T1OOO on 23/12/2017 - 22:18

      Hmm I thought that had a happy ending ?

  • srhardy on 23/12/2017 - 10:15
    -1

    your in the right, next time dont share receipt

  • eagleanthony on 23/12/2017 - 10:23

    Cherish “the win” with your family. Split it and share the wins like you should.

  • robby128 on 23/12/2017 - 12:55
    +1

    Show your empathy to your siblings. If she does the same to you, how do you feel? but it depends habit in your family. Personally I would not do that to my family/ sibling.

  • Misam0810 on 23/12/2017 - 12:58

    Mate you are so in the wrong here. You are trying to make a profit off family. If you are willing to burn family for 30 bucks you never paid out for initaly, wow I'm lost for words. 3 ways is what you paid. By you logic if you walked in and got a straight up 15% discount due to a sale item would you still stick your sisters with the full 100. I would hope not.

  • THICKnSLOW on 23/12/2017 - 14:49
    +2

    What a thread, just goes to show how something so unreasonable to one is so reasonable to another.

    Vegans are exactly like this.

  • majord on 23/12/2017 - 17:01
    +2

    It's simple.. Very simple.

    You shoudn't have used the gift cards for this shared purchase if you didn't want to share the savings.

  • imcold on 23/12/2017 - 18:32
    -1

    Well as far as opportunity cost on replacing the discounted gift cards or i.e, at full price.

    You should clearly be asking for the discounted portion of the price, it's really your fault you didn't buy enough gift cards for personal use or for gifting.

  • Tech5 on 23/12/2017 - 18:53
    +1

    Jesus, rather than split the price, it sounds like you three should just split and part ways for good.

  • berger on 23/12/2017 - 19:37
    -1

    Share the profits. Being nice goes a long way.:

    One thing a family member of mine did last year. Similar situation as the OP

    We buy the brothers & sisters and their partners smallish $30 Kris Kringle gifts.. name out of a hat type thing…one gift per member, that’s all

    My sister in law bought the brother in law a Schol foot shaver(its what he wanted, so that’s fine) it cost her $34, it was advertised at $27.95… she’s gone back for a price match at Woolies and got a full refund.. I told her to buy him something else since she got out of it for free… anyways I got the silent treatment for weeks from her for saying that!

    • T1OOO on 23/12/2017 - 22:21
      +4

      I don’t get ur story at all.

    • Smokey010 on 23/12/2017 - 23:56
      -2

      so what was silent treatment?? Was it a special?

  • MessyG on 23/12/2017 - 19:57

    You made a snap decision to use your JB HIfi gift cards because you had JB Hifi gift cards which wasn't well thought out at all, and then after doing that, realised you essentially didn't get to spend the discount on yourself. If you were that low on cash you should have held onto the gift cards for yourself, and used cash for the purchase.

    And then you had two choices. Either do what you did, or say "hey guys I got the present a bit cheaper so you only need to give me $x instead".

    Think hard about which scenario makes you the better person, brother, and son. I am a bit lost for words by your behaviour and hope that this thread helps you develop and mature a little bit.

  • smartazz104 on 23/12/2017 - 20:21
    +1

    What does Ozbargain think is the right thing to do? Stick to my guns or relent?

    You have no guns to stick to; you spent X amount on gift cards and expect your siblings to split the cost as if you had spent Y when you haven't, with the intent of keeping Z for yourself. Shame, shame, shame.

  • frozenkuku on 23/12/2017 - 20:49
    -1

    Jesus how can u be so cheap taking over $30 profit off your siblings and post the discussion on ozbargain? Your parents must feel shame on you.

    I recently gave my sister a house worth 2 million dollars and I don't even mind about it. Once your parents die, your siblings are the only families you have left.

    Same happen to my dad and my aunties, my aunty gave over $10 millions to help her brother and sister, and her parents. She always buy gift, buy food, or take the whole family to travel around the world at her own costs. She never mind about it cos she thinks seeing families bond together is the most valuable thing, and she always taught us dont fight and dont argue with own brother/sister/cousin, we should all feel happy and dont make little bad things affect our mood, cos its bad for health. I remember few years ago i was not happy about my sister, i told my aunty about it, she then transfer $5 million to my bank next day and told me to forget about the unhappiness and be nice to my sister.

    And you are talking about this tiny $30 dollars, thats not even worth a meal. Stop be so cheap, buy ur own girt to ur parents, stop splitting gift.

    • T1OOO on 23/12/2017 - 22:22

      You realise the irony of posting that on a site where people kill them self for 7 cents cash rewards. Lol

      • dojomojo on 24/12/2017 - 05:20
        +2

        Feeling sad? here, have $5 million dollars…

  • JimB on 23/12/2017 - 22:23

    I sometimes people think I'm cheap, but reading this makes me feel much better about myself.

    • KozieSeller on 24/12/2017 - 01:50

      Sometimes people think I'm cheap, but reading this makes me feel much better about myself.

  • cyrax83 on 24/12/2017 - 01:22

    Tightest ozbarginer here would have to be you. Trying to screw family over something so petty. Seriously?

  • thriftybunny on 24/12/2017 - 05:51

    Slightly off topic but just interested in people's thoughts, I had a friend with people who worked in medical profession in his family, so he used to take the full restaurant receipt after eating out so he could give it to his family member to claim 10% back, he never shared the 10% rebate with us but we never asked either.
    After reading this thread I now feel like he should have shared some of the cash back with us.

    • MessyG on 24/12/2017 - 07:38

      Sounds like no one objected at the time though? Plus it was a friend not family. Also meal and entertainment salary packaging isn't like you get given cash, it's a payroll deduction applied slowly over time that you need to provide meal receipts for. It's a very different situation.

    • maximum on 24/12/2017 - 08:59

      Could be worse they could have collected the cash then used a voucher + Credit card points and took the tips too.

      You never know maybe his family member never passed any savings on to him either. Really if you weren't able to claim it it's not like it cost you any more than you were happy to pay in the first place and at least someone is getting a bargain.

  • maximum on 24/12/2017 - 08:50
    +1

    Personally I would have passed the savings on to my sisters but my sisters would never have looked at the receipt to check out how much I paid so it goes both ways. They would, however, ask me to find the cheapest way to buy the gift.

    Every family is different. My sister puts money into my account for her credit card spending straight away (she is a supplementary card holder on my account) but I just trust she is paying me back if she didn't / couldn't the limit on that card is low enough that it wouldn't be a big deal.

    I wish OP and his family a very merry Xmas. I think the best gift you can give your parents is to try and get along with your siblings, even if it means losing some money.

    • John Kimble on 24/12/2017 - 09:05

      I think the best gift you can give your parents is to try and get along with your siblings,

      Key word being "try" haha

  • accessdenied on 24/12/2017 - 08:55

    share the discount and get over it. Get into the christmas spirit…. Stop crying

  • 00000Raz00000 on 24/12/2017 - 09:10

    OP must be in his teens are some sort of manchild cause dear lord this is a complete non issue that you rightfully got blasted for by your sisters, and instead of taking the L you decided to whinge about it and somehow expected to get sympathy from the community and side with you.

  • fickre on 24/12/2017 - 09:52

    The fact that he insists on defending his argument until now is even ridiculous.

  • Crown3d on 24/12/2017 - 10:09
    +1

    This thread needs to be closed

  • joelmuzz on 24/12/2017 - 10:21

    Split it by the discounted invoice price obviously.
    If the whole family is genetically savvy (tightassed) then this is not a dispute which can be won.

  • Dont Care on 24/12/2017 - 11:49

    You're an absolute Cock

  • bobbified on 24/12/2017 - 13:56

    If you go with out a mate and you had 50% off coupon, would you say that the voucher covers your 50% share and you don't have to pay anything else?

    I think most reasonable people would split the remaining bill AFTER the discount (or simply not pull out the coupon at all).

  • jcsantos on 24/12/2017 - 13:57

    Seriously??

    For a couple of $$$ you need to create a thread for it??

  • pure genious on 24/12/2017 - 14:29
    +1

    Now I'm confused/conflicted about my situation.

    My siblings (a brother and sister) and I decided to split mum's $300 gift from JB Hifi 3 ways.

    I organised to buy the gift and I had a $100 JB gift card I got for my birthday. Instead of using cash, I decided to use my gift card since I didn't plan on buying anything for myself from JB in the near future.

    I asked my brother and sister to give me $100 each. I didn't think twice about this and wasn't trying to rip them off - I just saw the gift card equivalent to cash.

    Since I didn't pay for the gift card, should I pass the $100 saving on and asked them for $66 each instead?

  • Toons on 24/12/2017 - 14:42

    Watch a Christmas carol, maybe that will provide you the insight you are should be looking for.

    Has all the advice you should need over something so stupid.

  • Moderatorscrimshaw on 24/12/2017 - 15:05

    As the Op has solved their dilemma this thread has served it's purpose.

    Comments now closed.

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