If you got an ugly Christmas sweater, something in the wrong size or a duplicate item as a gift, ’tis now the season for returns and lines at customer service counters are long. Margo Riekes, spokeswoman for the Better Business Bureau, knows standing in line for 45 minutes may try your patience, but she says to consider what it must be like to be the person hearing peoples’ complaints all day long.

Riekes says if the gift giver was thinking far enough ahead to enclose a gift receipt in your wrapped box, it will make the process infinitely easier.