Gift was received broken and return declined!

Bought a fan as a gift and upon opening it (3 weeks after purchase) the base was cracked/broken. Did not assemble or use at all and the return was picked up and declined as it was after 7 days of purchase. Please keep this in mind if you want to buy as a gift, because nobody will open a gift before giving it! Surely they could establish that it was not assembled, still in original packaging and never used....