Holiday Heresy!

This has never happened before or at least I've never heard of it. I don't like it.

I helped my father-in-law decide and purchase the gift (let's call it "gadget version 100") for his son, my husband. We were on the phone together when I ordered it and my FIL chose the in store pickup option. We both get the email saying the item is ready for pickup (yay!) and off my FIL goes to get the gift. He shows up at the store, hands his printed email over and they hand him "gadget version 99" and say that they ran out of version 100 and version 99 is $15 cheaper. WHAT?! FIL, who doesn't take any ish like that, refuses version 99 and promptly calls me to tell me the story. I was flabbergasted. In the end I found version 100 at another retailer and it arrived well before today.

Another similar story, my mother-in-law ordered a gift from Kohls and when her package arrived one of the items didn't look familiar to her. Figuring they sent the wrong item, she went to the store to return it for the correct item. She was told by Kohls that they had run out (or backorder) of the item and sent something of similar value "so that the recipient would have something to open on Christmas." Again, WHAT?!

I don't know if it's just me or everyone else, but I think that substitutions should be my decision rather than the retailers'. Just tell me you don't have it and let me figure out where to spend my money. I am guessing that retailers are in a bind now with the dollar being week and spending expected to be down so they are trying every tactic to "cross-sell" the customer. I'm sure about half the people out there offered the substitution route is going for it because (1) it gets the shopping done (and the recipient has something to open) and (2) sometimes the substitution will save you a few bucks. Regardless I still feel it's heresy.