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 would return it, or ask if you can get something else for the same value so they aren't losing out (if there's anything you like). You are right it is a charity, but if £8 would make a difference to you then please don't feel bad about it.

I once asked to open a game and count the pieces
Do jigsaws always have the exact number of pieces they say on the box? I think sometimes, they round up the number???

When we donate our old jigsaws, we make them up to make sure all the pieces are still there, bag them, put them back in the box, and label that they are complete. If there're pieces missing, I leave them in the spare room until the missing piece comes to light. I've obviously got OCD

Do jigsaws always have the exact number of pieces they say on the box? I think sometimes, they round up the number???

I've never seen a jigsaw that didn't have the same number of pieces as on the box. Jigsaws are a fairly standard cut, and it'd be weird to get one with 79 pieces rather than 80, but the box would have to say 79 if it did.

I would take it back. In the charity shop I volunteer in that would have been checked but as PP said if the pieces were replaced with odd bits we may not have seen. Would have noticed an absence of marbles though. No way d any game have been that expensive in our shop though unless some sort of collectible

I've never seen a jigsaw that didn't have the same number of pieces as on the box.
I was thinking of the larger ones, say 1,000 pieces. I assumed the 1,000 was rounded up.

Apparently the larger jigsaws aren't always exact, it depends how the pattern is cut. So if it says 1000, it might be 998 or 1002 or 1006.

No charity shop volunteer has time for counting anything over 50 pieces anyway.

I buy lots in charity shops and always return if faulty. You'll either get a refund or a credit note.

You'll either get a refund or a credit note.

I don't think they can get away with giving a credit note if the item is faulty. The contract of sale is broken.

I wouldn’t return something to a charity shop if for example it didn’t fit, but would if it were faulty in a way that I couldn’t have seen in the shop (like in your situation)

I’ve only returned something to a charity shop once, it was a little wooden sewing box with needles and thread etc in. In a sealed cardboard box so couldn’t check it. Opened it and the wooden box literally fell apart in my hands and was empty!

I think it's worth taking it back and pointing out the error/asking how they check things. Don't they do that before deciding what it's worth?

I don't think I could ask for the money back though.

Please do return it, I run a charity shop and we always give refunds, without question, if a customer is unhappy with their purchase for whatever reason.
But can I please make a plea - when de-cluttering please don't automatically think 'a charity shop will want this'. We get inundated with incomplete games, broken toys, torn books, text books from the 80s etc etc No one wants this stuff, it is more of a problem with local authorities not making it easy to get rid of stuff and so much focus on 'recycling' - some things are just beyond recycling! I go to the tip at least twice a week with unsalable donations, and have to pretend it is my own stuff I am getting rid of!

I was going to say no, I would never return to a charity shop. I always refuse receipts. However, £8 for one toy is a lot for a charity shop so in this case I think I would. Or at least I certainly wouldn't judge you for returning it. I'm curious why it was so much, waa it the Haba one or a cheaper version like the Lidl one?

It's a proper make not Lidl or anything like that. I've looked online to see if it was worth buying another set and using this one as an extension set and it retails new for about £25. I think though I'm going to buy the one that someone said about upthread from John Lewis as it's half the price and looks nicer.

I don't know, I don't think I will take it back as it would feel like I was robbing the charity. It's a national chain, not a small independent one though. Thanks for all input.

Take it back and have a full refund.
The item was given as a donation,so the charity shop will not loose out,
and neither should you.

You can certainly return it, of course you can - it's faulty.

Whether or not I actually would return something would depend entirely on how much I liked that particular charity and how much I could afford to donate the money I'd accidentally paid out for a faulty item. If taking it back I'd probably try to find something to buy from them instead and do a swap. But there's no reason why you can't just return it if you want to.

when de-cluttering please don't automatically think 'a charity shop will want this'.
We give playable games to the charity shop (e.g. the DCs have a four-puzzle set and three are complete).
Other stuff no (and being card/paper a lot of them can be recycled).

Absolutely return it to the shop. Items are usually checked before putting out for sale. They are obliged to give you a full refund. If in doubt, turn things around.....if you were selling something, then I'm sure the buyer would return to you with a complaint. Explain that the box was sealed and that your child/children were very upset that there were parts missing and that they were unable to play with it. Any good charity shop would be very apologetic and wouldn't quibble about a refund.

Take it back and have a full refund.

The charity shop will not loose out as they had the item for nothing anyway.

It was a children’s game and I also counted children’s jigsaws, so 24 pieces is still manageable.

When my mum ever dies I do not count her collection of jigsaws, the majority is 1000 or even more.

@drspouse, please don’t, give them for free somewhere. If I would look at a jigsaw box for sale I would expect all sets to be complete.

I'm confused @reluctantbrit, do you mean don't give playable but slightly incomplete games or puzzles or do you mean don't give non-playable puzzles? I don't give anything that isn't playable.
If someone is paying £1 for 3 Bob the Builder puzzles instead of £6 for 4 new then that's not exactly a loss, it's a £1 win for the charity shop.

I've seen incomplete puzzles and games on sale for low prices before, with labels stating that ("e.g. "Postman Pat puzzle, 2 pieces missing, 50p"). Presumably it depends on the charity shop whether they think these are worth taking and selling or not - some are absolutely desperate for donations as they have so little, others have high quality donations coming out of their ears and can't give floor space to incomplete ones. But I think if you donate something like that you should definitely take the initiative of checking and labelling it yourself, not leaving it to the volunteers to do (which they won't, as in OP's case, because they usually haven't got time).

I wouldn’t donate a jigsaw set where parts are incomplete. I gave them away for free to a childminder friend who just used the complete ones or to a friend who run a playgroup with very limited funds.

If charity shops would offer them for very limited funds and is honest about it it may work but I wonder if it is really a “market”, I would think it depends on the area and the kind of donations they get.

An incomplete game is not really playable in my opinion. What kind of game would that be? If a whole set for one player is missing so it can work for three but not four I would think donating it somewhere else would be ok but not offering it for sale.

If you have a "pairs" game where one whole pair is missing it is perfectly playable (our Mr Tumble pairs game was like this for ages, one kite went missing and so we took the other one out of circulation, until one DC ripped it and it went in recycling).

Or a Ludo set with a couple of missing counters, for example - replace with coins or counters from other games and you can play perfectly well. I think it does depend on general quality of stock and obviously on price as to whether these will sell, but I've definitely seen this type of thing for sale in the "bargains" corner of one of our local charity shops before.

Thanks for all advice/comments. I took it back and they were really apologetic and generally great. We swapped it for another toy. Will definitely go there again.