I threatened a charity shop with Trading Standards

[rodformyownback]

DH thinks I was being completely reasonable (if barking), but I feel terrible about it.

This morning I went into a local charity shop that sells lots of toys with ds1, to get him a reward for having kept his pants dry for a certain time. I saw a toy car-park in a flat box and asked the lady at the till the price. She went out the back briefly, came back and said "£4.75". I showed it to my ds, he loved it so we went to the till to pay. I was making a big deal to him about what a big boy he'd been, how we were going to play with the car park when we got home etc, when the lady rang the item through the till and said "£12 please"!
The item did not have a price tag on it, and had I known it was £12 I would not have offered it to ds. We are broke and I had no intention of spending that much. I went very red and said I thought that as she had told me the item was £4.75, she should sell it to me for that price.
The till lady went and got the manager, who said that she could not reduce the price as these car parks were brand new and had been bought by the charity for resale. To my utter, complete mortification I started to cry (BIG disclaimer - I have PND, am not coping well with stressful situations and am NOT MY NORMAL SELF). I was not stroppy, more apologising for myself and trying to speak quietly so ds wouldn't know I was upset. I just couldn't bear the thought of having to tell him that we couldn't buy the car park. I said to the manager that I was very sorry, I understood that it was a charity shop but that I thought they should sell the item at the lower price, and having told me it was £4.75 they may be breaching TS regulations to renege on that (tbh in retrospect I doubt this is the case).
The manager tried to call her area manager but couldn't get through (all the while I'm standing there at the till while a queue mounts, silently weeping and feeling like the biggest twunt that ever lived), she came off the phone and told me that she would sell me the car park for £4.75. I thanked her, paid and left. I feel like such a knob and can't believe I shafted a charity shop.

Was I being unreasonable? (Please be gentle, due to above mentioned PND probably being a bit foolhardy to post in AIBU!)

Also made me think about the role of charity shops in general. I have always seen them as having a dual function, raising money for their own charity but also selling second hand goods cheap to people who can't afford to buy them new. When I was better off I used to pay more for items I thought were worth more than the price tag. Now it seems they are run along much more corporate lines. What should be their goal? would be interested to hear others' opinions!

TiggerMummy

• "Does this charity shop do well? Is it for a cause you have a vested interest in? Because if it's not the biggest and supports a charity you believe in, I'd pop in and next time round slip an extra pound or two as a donation. But that's just me."

The shop does very well in general so far as I can see, ironically because they are not in general money-grubbing and do perform a really valuable social function. Lots of parents I know, even quite well off ones, use it. The second hand goods are lovely and very reasonably priced. Such a shame they are being pushed by their head office (as Vix1980 said) into selling overpriced tat!

Yes I fully agree about donating (felt more strongly about this before I opened the box and realised what a pile of crap I'd bought!) I was going to pop back in with the extra money later in the day but was a) too mortified and b) don't have extra money! Will donate some decent toys at the next opportunity

Anyfule as I said in my OP I realise I don't have any real legal recourse, I was just being a bell end cause I was upset

The best, clearest 'idiots guide to trading standards' I've ever found is in moneysavingexpert.co.uk and YANBU - a charity shop is still a shop, the customer is always right unless she's actually got stolen goods stuffed in her pockets or swearing her head off. Even when the staff are volunteers, they should still be trained in elementary customer service. Hope PND clears up soon and ds1 keeps up the good work in the trouser department.

When I worked in retail, it was our company policy to honour pricing boobs. Customer service is king.

I avoid most of the mainstream charity shops these days. I can't afford the mark-up on a lot of the goods. It is quite often cheaper to dress the kids in Primark for less.

Just seen your latest rod don't worry, we've all made complete embarrassing pillocks of ourselves in our time! Don't beat yourself up xxx

It's nothing to do with customer service - legally, they did nothing wrong and there would be no recourse had you called up trading standards (but it sounds like you know that.)

They didn't have to sell it to you at that price but they did, they honoured their mistake when they didn't really have to.

YWBU, you were wrong. But you know that too. Just forget about it.

YANBU at all. You were right to query it, how come its acceptable for charity shops to do this but it would not be in any other shop . They are still a retail shop and have to comply with the same standards imo

I work in a charity shop and I would guess that if the shop had bought them in then the item may well have had a code that the cashier keys in or a barcode that the cashier scans with a wand, the price is linked to the PLU or barcode number and if the IT department haven't changed the price on the system then £12.00 would have come up on the till, we have all bought a reduced item in a supermarket and when the item is scanned the old price comes up - I know I have and I have had to go to customer services to get a refund.

It happened in my shop, we had a load of bought in branded goods reduced
put them out for 9.am on a Friday thats when the promotion began the first customer that bought one was at 10.00am and the price hadnt been changed on the system it took IT until 11am to get all the prices changed
complete nightmare.

I like charity shops and often pick up nice kids' clothes and toys. I'm happy to pay a few quid for a baby dress or jacket etc. But I agree, sometimes they sell stuff for £££ and sometimes more than it could have originally cost. I saw a child's H&M t-shirt for £2.99 the other day and a linen dress for £29! (It was nice, but not designer or anything.)

As for the OP I think you were completely reasonable. It's not about shafting a charity shop, it's about having promised to your DS because of their mistake, and not wanting to let him down.

I hope he loves playing with it and when your DC have grown out of it, take it back to the same shop. No need to feel bad!

YANBU, it was extremely unreasonable of them to 'force' you into having to take it that far imo. Shocked they didn't just apologise for the misunderstanding and sell for the advertised price.

I'd think no more about it and hope ds1 enjoys the carpark!

Rod sorry wasn't directing my reply at you, but some people on the thread have got it really wrong and were misinforming you.

Sorry you had a crap experience, they sound like arses in that shop

What a difficult and ridiculous experience - they should have let you have it without fuss.

I feel sorry for people who shop in charity shops who don't know the primark or supermarket line names. They are being ripped off. Lots of charity shops near me feel very corporate with all that floral overpriced new soap / sweets crap they sell.

I also hate the way that at the till point sometimes the price gets queried. 'oh four pounds for this that's cheap...' well it may be cheap but I spend an awful lot in charity shops and it is second hand.

The charity probably made a loss by selling you the item for the lower price. Maybe it made your son happy, but the recipients of the charity are the losers by honouring the mistake.

yanbu

i have seen worn smart price jeans in a charity shop for £2.99... you could at that time buy them new for £1.50

Very small, short of cash charities can't afford to run shops because the sat up is too much.

Charity shops should serve their customers as much as they serve the charities beneficiaries.

You did nothing wrong, and even if they did nothing illegal, it should be illegal to quote a price and then charge you more!

I think you stood your ground and stuck up for your ds very well.

not misinforming anyfule it comes from working in retail for years. if you are not going to honour the price on the item because its a massive mistake like it says 50 pound when it should be 500 pounds you can withdraw it from sale. but has to be for 24hrs you are not allowed to put it back out on the shop floor. lots of customers knew the you have to honour the price on the ticket rule but not the withdrawing it rule so would get quite upset when we did. if it has changed since Christmas when i left my last job then fair enough.

You were absolutely right...

Shops are bound to sell goods at the advertised price. That you were initially quoted 4.75 was good enough....but the item should have been clearly marked.

I would forget about it now....
Hope your little one enjoys his car-park!

YANBU. Charity shops where I live are for middle fucking class people to get nice stuff cheap, it's no longer a place to offer people without much things they otherwise could not afford.

YANBU. They misled you into choosing to buy it with an attractive price. On that basis, you agreed to purchase. they then moved the goal posts. This happened to me on a smaller scale in a charity shop. The sign said "All tops 2.99". In tiny 2mm font that I didn't see without my glasses it said "unless otherwise marked" or some such. When I got to the till it was £4. It's a small amount of money but I don't like being misled so I left it on the till and said the pricing is misleading. I still go in the charity shop every week, but it left a sour taste.

disclaimer: I am middle class.

Can I do something terribly un-Mumsnet? Can I give you a hug OP? You sound really really upset and depressed.

Look, how old is your ds because my ds is 7 and I'm about to go through his toys and other stuff to give to charity. I'd far rather give it to someone who could make real use of it. Tell him it's a treat from the 'big boy fairy' or something! PM your details and I'll pack some things up for you.

I know what it's like to be counting pennies and I've also been in that situation in a shop making a complete tit of myself. You don't want to tell your ds that he can't now have what you have just promised him but also you feel so so stupid in front of these older people. So please accept my hug and please do PM your details so I can get this stuff off to you

On a bad day I'd do no better than you did, OP. But to counter all the charity bashing, doesn't anybody see the shop's POV?

Staff member replies with guess re the price (maybe she thought her tone was an obvious one of guessing; maybe she herself has social SN and can't get tone of voice right, maybe she thought you meant a different product, who knows?).
Real price is revealed.
Customer bursts into tears (apparent hysterics).
Shop in a bind, they probably paid 9 quid for the item; they need 12 to make a profit per unit.
Shop doesn't know customer has PND, think she's just a bit barmy.
Woman than threatens legal action.
Shop manager thinks, "Oh sod it, I'll just get rid of hysterical woman, and give this misinformed volunteer a bollocking or just not have her in again, even if we are a bit short-staffed & the volunteer desperately needs to do some kind of volunteer work to get a job in future"

I am sorry if this doesn't across gently, OP, but if the difference between 4.75 & 12 quid is enough to severely stress you out financially, then I think you need to consider much cheaper treats for your DC.

The law doesn't state anywhere that items must be withdrawn from sale for a period of time, if mispriced. Some stores do this though which is why people may think all traders should. Traders are supposed to try and get prices marked correctly, but mistakes do happen. It's true to say that civilly there's nothing you can do, but it TS are interested in pricing errors if they seem to be occurring regularly or deliberately. That's because under The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regs it is a criminal offence to mislead consumers. This doesn't benefit individual consumers though.

Forgot to say - I don't think you were being unreasonable at all, except for feeling like a knob who tried to shaft a charity shop. You're not and you didn't.