The thought is still there. I appreciate what they did. I'm not going to pretend that it worked out though. The truth is they were cheap and it seems were stung for it (the Chinese copy was half the cost of a domestic purchase, at least before shipping). You get what you pay for. I absolutely appreciate their effort nonetheless, but I didn't even ask for this because I knew it was more expensive than they would go and planned to buy it myself at a later date.

Besides, it's good for them to realize that things can go badly when you blindly make purchases over the Internet (tonight I learned that the distributor charged the gift giver twice and didn't return any correspondence despite many tries to contact them to check on the order status, which apparently took a very long time... The package finally arrived Christmas Eve). Rather than let them buy falsified products again and again, I think it's better to let them know about it.

Personally, if I buy something for somebody I want to know how they really feel about it. If you don't like it then you don't like it. That's not a problem. Dishonesty isn't good for anybody involved. The gift giver is robbed of truly pleasing you (even if they don't know it) and you just end up scrapping their efforts, making the whole thing a worthless and wasteful exchange.