Good on your friend for at least wanting to give cloth a go
My Mum gave me 3 fluffies when I had dd, I hardly used them at all to be honest. They did leak but worked ok with a cover(I only had the cheapo plastic pants), they were a kinda strange fit on dd, she has boney hips so I think that may hyave been what the problem was. After several attemps with these I figured cloh nappies were to hard and gave up thus my using sposie's until dd was 9 months and I discovered MCN.
On a newborn absorbancy isn't really an issue so the fluffies really might be ok but after those first few weeks I would recommend opening them, pulling out the wading and restuffing with some towelling, face washers, tea towels, whatever's handy. I plan to do that with mine if I have a another baby and keep them as back-up. Since she already has the fluffies, re-stuffing them with old towels might be her cheapest option.
If the packaging isn't opened she could always get a refund (kmart and big w usually always refund if that's where she bought them) and use the money to get some prefolds, the wee wuns have infant prelods for $3.80, even cheaper than fluffies!
I know everyone knocks the fluffies but for someone on a tight budget that can't afford nice MCN, fluffies are still better than resorting to disposables