Charity shop refusing refund

[BlazeMonsterMachine]

This is such a trivial thing I realise, but for some reason it's annoyed me....

I needed a new pair of jeans, so popped to the local charity shop. With covid restrictions, you can't try clothes on at the moment, so when paying I asked about what to if they don't fit.

They told me to keep the receipt and I can exchange them. I queried whether there could be a refund, but apparently not - exchange only.

Now we're talking less than £10 here, and I realise it's charity, but it just doesn't sit right....

Are they allowed to do this? It feels like I'm just throwing money away / making a donation rather than shopping. It just strikes me as bizarre that I have to guess as to whether something fits and tough luck if it doesn't (as there's no guarantee that they'll have anything I want to exchange for).

Just wondering if anyone knows if this is the correct procedure as annoyingly the jeans don't fit.

I'm not planning on kicking up a fuss when I go back, but if they don't have a pair of jeans I could swap for, it would be good to know if i could push for a refund.

[Gobbeldegook]

Just sell them on for what you paid

[Gilly12345]

It’s a CHARITY shop not a shop, why not go shopping to an ordinary shop.

I think it cheeky to ask for a refund from a CHARITY shop.

[osbertthesyrianhamster]

Now everyone wants a bloody refund. IF you don't like their policy, shop elsewhere.

[MindGrapes]

I've seen stuff I've bought from high street shops in charity shops, priced higher than the sale price I paid in the high st shop!

Nothing wrong with that but some charity shops really aren't 'cheap as chips' - they're reasonably priced usually, but not so cheap I could afford to buy lots of things at e.g. £6-12 each that I wasn't sure would fit.

It's their policy though so up to you if it's worth the gamble.

[TangledUp789]

Why would you be annoyed when they told you at the time it was exchange only? If they'd said 'yeah that's cool, you can return them for a refund if they don't fit', then you went back and they said 'it's exchange only, no refund', then you're absolutely right to be annoyed.

But you knew what the returns policy was and you chose to go through with the purchase anyway. I've bought loads of second hand clothing on eBay that doesn't fit/doesn't suit me and is non-refundable. It's annoying, but it's not the seller's fault. At least with your charity shop purchase you can go back and swap it for something you like.

[toocold54]

Legally it's exchange only unless faulty. I think second hand goods are excluded from this and sold as seen.

Exactly this. Lots of places don’t give refunds.
Also don’t ask if you can get a refund they tell you no and then get annoyed when you can’t get a refund knowing you couldn’t anyway.

You could ask if you can have vouchers or something so you don’t have to spend it all in one go/spend it in other branches as you don’t want to buy something just because you have to.

[Thewiseoneincognito]

Who’d want a refund from a charity shop? Put it down to a donation and move on.

[LoverOfAllThingsPurple]

A lot of places do no refunds. Yes they are allowed.

[kowari]

Who’d want a refund from a charity shop? People who are buying second hand to save money. Not everyone can afford to make a donation, they may need the money to buy clothes that fit.

[Sadsiblingatsea]

It’s a charity and you spent less than a tenner.
Be generous.

[LipstickLou]

I have been a cover manager for our local hospice shops for three years when not in London. If you need the £10 let me send it to you. I have been asked for a £1 refund, the paperwork is not worth it, I get my purse out. Do I understand poverty, I do, I grew up in other people's clothes , I could afford designer clothes but I no longer need them. If you néed cheap jeans try Tesco £4 or Asda. There is a collective of people that think charity shops have no right knowing the value of antiques or designer goods. I have been shouted out, insulted and my job has been threatened because I won't give discount or sell cheaply. Shame on them. If you have no need of the charities help, God bless you. Most people work for little or no pay in these shops because they are bereaved. Have some decency.

[WombatChocolate]

I went to a normal shop the other day. Clearly no trying on allowed and they said their policy was exchange not refund. I chose to walk away rather than risk ending up with stuff I didn’t want as the items were expensive.

If it was a charity shop and the items were cheap, I would consider if I was happy to essentially make a donation, if the item was no good to me and if so, I would buy the item. If not, I’d walk away and leave them behind. For less than a fiver, if I thought there was a good chance they might fit, I’d probably take the chance and accept if made a donation to charity if they didn’t fit. I wasn’t prepared to let the shop I was in have £70 for an item that might not fit, but for £5 and charity, I probably would.

No right to a refund just because something doesn’t fit.
However shops will find they sell less when people can’t try on and they use this policy.

Charity shops find lots of their customers seem to have no sense of them as charity shops working for a good cause and selling cheap items that have been donated. They find people argue about the prices or want to return items for all kinds of spurious reasons, even if they cost £1.

In this cases you sound pretty mean. Yes you could go and get multiple videos for your exchange if you really need every pennies worth of your shopping..or you could just accept it as a small donation. You do t sound like you actually want the videos, so why bother doing the exchange. And if you bought knowingly, what’s the issue really.

[LentilShanklet]

FFS. It's a charity shop - I wouldn't dream of asking them for my money back. I'd simply donate them back, in keeping with, you know, the spirit of charity.

It's in no way comparable to Sports Direct - I don't even consider it a retail environment. It's bloody charity. I'm actually astonished anyone would come to a charity shop asking for their money back!

And for the record I'm a lone parent, who has only just this month come off benefits to start a new (sub £20k) job.

[Luckyelephant1]

You knew the exchange only policy and bought them anyway so I don't think you can kick up a fuss now. End of the day it's a tenner donation to charity.

Lots of shops are exchange only. All New Look sale items are exchange only and their changing rooms aren't open. I've exchanged so much stuff recently! It's just a first world problem to deal with right now.

[angelfacecuti75]

Some charity shops do offer refunds. But it is "in addition to your statutory rights" which means you don't legally have to have a refund. You could always exchange them for a top or something else you like rather than jeans.

[angelfacecuti75]

Or pop them on ebay and claim your money back that way.

[TheFutureDoesntWork]

If you néed cheap jeans try Tesco £4 or Asda.

Well there's a novel sales technique. "Go to a different shop." 😐

[WombatChocolate]

I accept that some people are extremely hard up and can’t afford to donate to charity or buy items that they won’t use.

If this is the case, buying from a place that tells you ‘no refunds’ clearly isn’t for you. Supermarkets sell jeans for under £10 or other shops will too and they will be more suitable if you’re not in an position to write off the money. That’s fair enough as a choice. It’s not the same as saying you’ll go and get 10 DVDs in exchange, which suggests you can effectively afford to spend the money and be without a new pair of jeans. Clearly this issue then is that you resent letting the charity shop have some money for nothing and so would rather take anything...absolutely anything off them rather than just give something for essentially nothing.

[PerspicaciousGreen]

I used to volunteer in a charity shop. The purpose of charity shops is to make money for the charity, not to provide customers with cut price goods. Think about it - how many charities with shops have the kind of mission statement that "sell cheap second hand goods in the UK" would actually fit into as a purpose in and of itself?

You would not believe the amount of piss-taking and theft that goes on in charity shops, and all the staff in mine were volunteers except for the paid shop manager. The volunteers are working for free and therefore can't be expected to do the same complex tasks and take the same responsibility as someone working in, say, H&M would. The charity has to make their policies with that in mind.

If you could get a refund, I guarantee you that multiple people a day would be coming in holding a shoddy pair of Primark jeans with holes in them, a receipt for ten pounds, and a tag which "fell off" the jeans. They'd have bought some DKNY ones from the shop, gone home and taken off the tag, then brought their old jeans in for a "refund". And the poor volunteer has to either see the charity ten pounds out of pocket, or say no to a customer who's obnoxious enough to have done it in the first place. The shop manager (in ours, a nice older lady) would have to come out and try to defuse the situation and make a judgement call which includes their shop staff's safety while the customer screams at them for calling them a liar. I'm grateful that when I volunteered there, it was no refunds no exchanges. People did get cross sometimes, but it was a simple blanket policy to enforce.

One of our shop policies when I worked there was that if a customer points out a fault or says an item is priced wrongly and asks for a discount, we are to apologise and say we'll put it back in the donations queue for repricing tomorrow, or they can buy it at full price. Again, this was to protect the charity from chancers and protect the volunteers from abuse and people trying to bully them into lowering the price.

I completely understand that it's annoying that you can't try things on at the moment. But please think about this from the view of a shop that is trying to raise money is and staffed by volunteers.

[WombatChocolate]

Excellent post Perspica.

[Iminaglasscaseofemotion]

I don't think any shops are legally required to give a refund.

[Ddot]

Because you cant try on you are entitled to a refund.

[RaspberryCoulis]

@Ddot

Because you cant try on you are entitled to a refund.

No you're not.

[Notmoresugar]

I can't believe you've started a thread about this and I can't believe I've responded :-(
If you didn't agree with their policy why on earth did you buy them?!

[wildchild554]

All the charity shops I've been to offer an exchange or credit note only.