Returning things to a charity shop - yes or no?

[Snazzygoldfish]

I bought dd a wooden marble run yesterday in a charity shop. The box was sealed with tape but it looked fairly new. When we got it home and opened it, many bricks were missing and had been swapped for odd bricks which are different sizes to the originals so they don't stack up to the right height to be able to use it properly. There are no marbles and we don't have any of the right size to fit through the small holes...not even sure that you can buy them that small. DD was disappointed but being 3 quickly moved on!

I won't return it because it would feel like taking from a charity but I do feel cross with the people who dontated it knowing it's junk. I was just interested in what people thought of returning something worthless morally. It was £8 if that matters.

I think for £8 I would return if it's convenient to do so. You could always pop a couple of quid from the refund into the collection box on the counter if you feel particularly guilty!

I would return it for £8! If it's sealed, my expectation would be that it'd been checked.

In this case I actually probably would, mainly just to point out to them what’s happened. Decent charity shops will check games and puzzles to make sure nothing’s missing and often write on the box that it’s complete.

Charity shops do check there are pieces to games but if the person who donated it put substitutions inside, very hard for charity to know this unless they actually put the game together. The Volunteers don’t have the time to do that. People often donate crap to the charity shops as it’s easier than going to the tip.

If the £8 is a lot to you and you shop there for the bargains as opposed to supporting the charity, then return it.

On another note, is something with small marbles age appropriate for your 3 yr old?

Thanks, £8 is quite a lot to us and I don't usually go to this charity shop as it's quite expensive and more for adults (look don't touch kind of charity shop). I'll chalk it up to experience though because as it stands we are the only ones that lose out whereas if I take it back either the charity loses out on the money or they sell it to someone else who loses money & gets a disappointed kid into the bargain!

We won't go there again though and will stick to the scruffy kids charity at work end of the road as they have a spinning money box that dd saves coins to put in.

The box says for 3-8 years and dd hasn't put anything in her mouth for over a year so I think it's safe just not functional!

We had a similar experience. Brought a game of Operation from a charity shop. Box taped up and looked relatively new. But when we got it home some of the bones were missing, and even when we put new batteries in the buzzer was only working intermittently. Think we paid about £8 for that as well.

We felt like we couldn't return to a charity shop, so like you chalked it up to experience. We brought a new one off amazon as our dd really wanted this game, kept the cards, money and bones from the charity shop one as spares, and then threw away the main bit if the game as it was useless.

We like to support charity shops, but wont be buying that kind of item again unless we can check it first.

Take it back. I'm a charity top volunteer and although we do try to check toys as best as we can, we just don't have the time to assemble everything. In the circumstances you describe we would apologise, give a refund and bin it.

We have to tape the boxes, if we didn't there would be stuff all over the floor and things getting mixed up. However if someone asked if they could open up a box to check everything is inside we'd say that of course they could and help them do it.

Oh and yes - people do donate absolute crap sometimes. Personal highlights of Monday's sorting shift were 6 kids DVD boxes without the DVDs inside, a colouring book with every page drawn on and a doll missing its head.

I would absolutely return it, but the same thing will happen to the next person that buys it. The staff will just put it up for sale again.

That's shocking otra! I do tend to use our local charity shop as an unofficial toy library and buy a lot of toys and books from them only to give them back a few months later when dd loses interest but would never give anything not in a good condition that I wouldn't buy myself.

Yes absolutely you should return it.

Charity shops now charge a lot more for things than they used to and at £8 for a second hand game I would have expected it to get a rudimentary inspection to check contents. They can't have it both ways - either cheap prices and shoddy goods, or higher mark up means you get the correct item.

Snazzy, if everyone asked themselves "would I pay good money for this item" our lives would be a LOT easier.

I'd be embarrassed to hand in shoddy goods. Has it got worse over the past couple of years since people's bin collections have been reduced I wonder?

I would definitely take it back, not for the refund, but to let them know. Quite often there will be regular donators and this may have come from one of them, so they will know to be extra vigilant in future.

Personally, I don't think it's anything to do with reduced bin collections. I blame David Attenborough - but in a good way!

There has been so much news about plastic, and recycling, and not sending stuff to landfill which is great. And people always say "take it to charity" when people are posting saying they have excess items they don't want. If it's something we can sell, we will welcome you with open arms. Even if it's textiles we can't sell, we can send them for reprocessing and they won't end up in the tip.

But I do think a lot of people fill bin bags and sacks with things their kids don't want any more and are horrified by the amount of plastic and tat. So to make themselves feel better about it, they convince themselves that it has value and that we will want it. Rather than taking it to the tip, they take it to us. Then they go away feeling all warm and fuzzy and that they've done a good thing.

When in fact, the broken toys and video tapes will just end up in our dumpster instead of in their own bins.

You should return it.
If it's incomplete they won't sell it on. They won't lose the money as it was a donation so it cost them nothing.

£8 is a lot of money for a charity shop game! I agree, you should return it.

IANAL but my understanding is that the Sale of Goods Act applies here just as much as it would if you were buying from any other shop. That means it should be of satisfactory quality, which clearly it isn’t. So return it. Being a charity doesn’t give them the right to rip people off by selling stuff that isn’t fit for purpose.

I think for £8.00 i would certainly return it .It is the best part of a tenner and is not suitable for use .My friend was a charity shop manager ,and would have checked all items being sold were complete (or write a note on to say they werent!).As you say £8.00 is a lot to you (and most people probably)but thats beside the point ,you wont go there again and they have lost your support .So return it (maybe swap for something else maybe).And you can go there again !

I would definitely return it if it was me. I think £8 is quite a lot to most people!

If you're still after a marble run, John Lewis sell a nice wooden one. I think it's about £12 and is played with almost daily here, it's great.

Take it back. They wont mind at all! There is no way I would waste £8.

Meh. You take your chances with an item like that from charity. I'd return it and let them know unusuable.

I was about to say ANYTHING you give in a charity shop Is essentially a donation, and the "thing" you buy is a token gesture …

BUT Some charities are taking the piss now.

If it was sealed, I'd expect it to be checked and verified.

Take it back!

Take it back to the shop. As it was sealed, you had no opportunity to inspect it before purchasing. I'm sure they won't quibble.

Depends on the charity. If it was one of those little local independent shops I probably wouldn't. But if it was somewhere like Heart Foundation who can charge more for something when you can get it new I would absolutely. Some places have got well greedy. If they can charge top prices then they can deal with returns.