Charity shop rant

Simple.

If a 'volunteer' is rude to you when you donate or visit a charity shop, just politely ask for their name. When they ask why, say that you will be writing to their 'area manager ' about the disgraceful way that you have been spoken to. You would not for a second tolerate that level of rudeness in any other shop so why should you in a 'charity' shop?

I know exactly what you mean about the rudeness, but often the shop manager is at fault, as they would be in the commercial sector, as it is their job to ensure that customers and donators are treated with courtesy and respect. It is the charity shops, whose staff are pleasant and polite, that are properly managed.

By the level of response to this thread it seems to be a common problem, just complain !! And don't just threaten to do it, do it. It is not enough for management of these shops to say' well they are volunteers' they are your staff, paid or unpaid, and as such they represent your organisation. It is the managements role to manage !!

Because for some people at various points in their life it is unavoidable.

Of course I wouldn't do that . maybe I'm bright enough not to? Why is it seen as a viable, unavoidable alternative to actually working directly for an employer, though? Nobody can prevent you getting a job and avoiding working for slave wages?

I genuinely don't get your point; I have to work or I don't eat. What's the difference?

If you would work full time hours for £70 a week with no employment rights at all fully in the knowledge that if your employer took the fancy you could end up sanctioned for up to 3 years.
Then you are not quite as bright as you think you are

True Roblembottom, and to balance my post, I then took the books that the charity shop rejected to another charity shop, who were delighted to have them and very polite.

I'm shocked by all this rudeness. I donate to my local Mind charity shop and the women are always lovely when I take my bags in. And I love the emails I get saying how much my stuff has made. There are nice ones out there!

"Its not like those there have not said yes ok to that type of work."

Never heard of the Poundland case? That person did not want to work in Poundland for no wages, but the Job Centre forced her to anyway. I know that some charity shops also use workfare.

How upsetting. I thought my experience yesterday was a one off, sounds like it wasn't.

I used to do an online auction for a charity, but have recently stopped. I had a big box of items that would have gone on the next auction, and would have raised around £300, plenty of new items. I took it to the local charity shop for a similar cause (animal rescue, lots of animal ornaments and items in the box). They were really snotty with me, told me off for banging the door too much when I opened it (I had a large heavy box in my arms), couldn't take books, bla bla, just made me feel a nuisance for leaving them a couple of hundred ££ worth of stock. I won't be going back, which is a shame as the charity is a good one.

Will the be able to take swim suits

Our charity shop doesn't sell on used swimsuits or underwear, but we can send it for recycling and make money on it that way.

And there was I labouring under the misapprehension that keel haulers were only paid the king's shilling Flogging, so just the standard workfare rate.

Oh, you mean your work with dead horses don't you! Sorry, didn't realise...

No, dear. I'm in actual paid employment.

The point is that forced labour at below legal and/or market rates is cannabalistic on real paid employment Hanging Judge FloggingMolly.

Now get back to swinging your cat o'nine tails, or is it keel hauling you have on this morning?

I've got a few bits to drop into a charity shop today and now I'm nervous!

Will the be able to take swim suits?

Needasockamnesty, I genuinely don't get your point; I have to work or I don't eat. What's the difference?

I worked with someone once that made a fortune selling stuff at boot sales.
I saw her a few weeks later being an arsehole to someone dropping off some donations in the back of our local hospice shop.
I'd be inclined to agree that not all charity shop workers are there out of the goodness of their hearts.
OTOH I also know a chap that wanted to give back to the charity that helped his mum. He worked Saturdays in their shop for years. He was grateful for every tiny donation that came through that door.

Floggingmolly Mon 06-Mar-17 22:03:16
Why do you think people shouldn't have to do anything in return for benefits?

Do you think it is 'doing something in return for benefits' if you put in a 35 hour week and receive £70, or is this a case of out and out exploitation?

Would there be more people actually employed or able to get a start in employment if government was not subsidising employers by sending them a stream of people to work at no cost to the employer?

I find a lot of these volunteers have no interest in the particular charity they are working for but are doing it either to show they are a do-gooder or do it purely to get themselves out of the house/for social reasons.

Or, in many cases, they'll lose their disability benefits, otherwise. Pickachew why chose this particular benefit to bash? My DD would like be to be able to work but because of her severe physical disabilities cannot so for you to make that statement about that particular benefit is highly offensive !

Lil

Consent given by someone whose choice is do this or don't eat, is not consent at all.

And hand clap to Molly as always bravo for getting in a benefit dig it's been a few hours since your last one

you are not shoved in charity shops by the jobcentre. You get asked what kind of work you are looking at and if it falls within retail then you will be given pushed in after a certain time of not working and claiming. Its not like those there have not said yes ok to that type of work.

You might have a point flogging if the equivelenf hours resulted in the benefits being the living wage, as opposed to around £2ph

Also when I worked in the charity shop it was sort-of forced labour - I had to take up some kind of work placement otherwise I wouldn't get my unemployment money (this is not in the UK, but elsewhere in Europe) and a good amount of the other workers were in the same position, while some were older retired ladies who volunteered, and some were people doing one year full time but subsidised by the State, plus the boss who was employed by the charity. But all of us took the job seriously, cared about it, and followed the rules. I only got 9 euros a day working there but I still worked the same as I would at a salaried job.

You're not really being unreasonable but everyone has bad days - maybe that worker had just been told off by their boss for some health and safety violation. When I was working in a charity shop (worked for two periods in the space of 3 years) the rules and regulations were always changing - sometimes we could accept certain donations, sometimes we couldn't. I always tried to be polite and nice to people dropping off donations but couldn't blame my co-workers for getting frustrated and being less than polite at certain donations.

If they are having to work, they should be paid in wages, not benefits

im beginning to wonder which charitys these charity shops staffed by rude, ignorant, cant get any work cos they dont have brains are for, i volunteer at a cat charity shop not a major national charity but a medium independent one, there are currently two shops for this charity in different towns, all of our paid and unpaid people are polite and always say thank you even if someone gives us one book in a carrier bag (which does happen) we always take the donation politely then take donations to the sorting area,
funnily enough the gift aid bags are where we find most of the tat for some unknown reason
all profits after costs yes thats 100% profit goes to the charity all books are kept recorded and sent in at the end of the week to the trustees
in two years of working there i have probably bought 4 items from the shop and donated hundreds of items
i work at this particular charity shop because the orginisation is one i am passionate about, ( i have worked as a volunteer at the cat centre for ten years, foster kittens for them, do talks in schools with kittens for them, have two cats of my own from there)
and for people who say volunteers are the people who cant get a job anywhere else i work paid work for a major food diner chain
and i have a degree so please dont tar all volunteers with the brush of the minority you may have met

Why do you think people shouldn't have to do anything in return for benefits?