Can I return Christmas earrings to jewellers?

marcowil

The chances of contracting HIV from a pair of earrings are, as I said, very very remote.
Given that the virus can only survive outside the body for a very short time and you need a large amount of the virus present in bodily fluid to contract it, the chances of it happening with a pair of earrings removed from somones ear are negligible.

I will, I'm afraid never be 100% certain that anyone will contract HIV from earrings

OP, I'm glad you got sorted - the company provided very good ciustomer service. I purchased a pair of earrings as a gift one day and then discovered (the same day) that the person to recieve them did not have pierced ears. The jeweller I bought them from refused to exchange them even though they had gift wrapped them for me and it was clear the wrapping was still intact

SandC

Still, would you be happy to buy a pair of earrings that might have been worn by someone else?

marcowil

I personally would yes (if I wore earrings). As long as I knew they were 2nd hand when I bought them. Plus you always have the option of getting them sterilized if you wanted to.

shaun_from_Africa

The chances of contracting HIV from a pair of earrings are, as I said, very very remote.

The same can't be said for any of the hepatitis viruses though.
These can easily survive outside of the body for many hours (and in fact, some tests have shown this timescale to be up to 4 days).

There is no way that any responsible shop would resell used earrings even if they have sterilised them as they wouldn't know for certaintity that they were totally safe.