&39just wait until holly sees we&39ve bought her the new haynes manuals&39the average briton will be given £52.50 worth of unwanted presents this year, figures from vouchercodespro.co.uk show with socks topping the list of gifts we&39d rather be without but can you take them back&ldquoreturns policies are generally set from the point at which the item is sold or &ndash if bought online &ndash delivered, so returning a christmas gift isn&rsquot always easy,&rdquo said james walker, founder of complaints resolution service resolver.co.uk .the good news is that even if you don&39t have a receipt, the product has been opened and it was bought in the sales, there&39s still a chance you can exchange it.&ldquosome retailers have special policies for festive gifts that extend returns until well past christmas. in fact, if you buy from john lewis you&rsquoll get three months to take back anything and get a refund whatever the reason,&rdquo walker said.but you have to be careful &ndash because not everyone is that generous.&ldquothere are plenty of retailers out there with much more tricky returns policies. some of these might be fine for ordinary purchases, but if you&rsquore buying before christmas, you need to make sure you pick the right time,&rdquo walker added.what to watch forgetty christmas presentsthe boxes could be hiding anything from awful jumpers to cliff richard cds...&ldquoas well as how long you have to take a gift back, there are other things you need to be aware of. make sure you keep it in the packaging if you can &ndash for example it&rsquos really hard to return opened dvds or games,&rdquo walker said.&ldquoif the product is opened, unless it&rsquos faulty, the store isn&rsquot obliged to accept a return. many retailers will, however, provided a product is in good condition &ndash so keep as much of the packaging as you can, just in case.&ldquoanother thing to watch out for are hidden returns charges &ndash some shops charge a &lsquorestocking fee&rsquo, while some online retailers make you pay for the cost of postage when you return.&ldquofinally, make sure you know whether the store you&rsquore going back to will offer you a full cash refund, or just store credit &ndash with gift receipt&rsquos it&rsquos unfortunately often the latter.&rdquothe 6 rules for returning goodsif you don&rsquot have the receipt if you don&rsquot have the receipt, you need to find other proof of purchase. did you buy it by card if so, you can show you purchased the goods via an electronic statement.if it&39s broken if the product is broken, damaged or faulty you have the right to return the goods and ask for a refund, repair or replacement.if it&39s opened product this is down to the discretion of the retailer. some products may have restrictions on returns if opened such as video games. the store should display their policy clearly so that you are aware of this.if it was bought in the sales shops don&rsquot have to accept returns unless faulty. so for example if they normally have a 14day returns policy, they are not obliged to extend this to items on special offer. if you can, agree with a member of staff the possibility of returning a sale item, and make sure you take down their name if you do this.is it under warranty it depends on the goods as there is no defined time limit and it depends on how much you paid and the expectation of quality that comes with the goods. however, for the first six months, the onus is on the retailer to prove a problem with a product is not their fault. after six months, the onus is on you the consumer to prove there is a problem with the product that is not caused merely by wear and tear.if it was bought with a credit card if you pay by credit card and the amount is over £100 and less than £30,000 including any deposit, your credit card company is jointly liable for any problems. therefore, if you are not getting any joy with the retailer you can approach your credit card company.  
