AIBU over 2p?

[MrsCosmopilite]

I need to give a little background info for context.

I'm unwaged, a student. I am not eligible for benefits, so I do 'treats' out of a very small budget (£10 per week tops). I shop a lot at the charity shops in our town - and I make frequent donations of unwanted items. I have a four year old daughter, who needs some new clothes as she's grown out of a lot recently.

Today I was out with DD. We'd had lunch (£6 in the cafe), and I'd bought a local paper (£1). I then bought her a skirt in charity shop A, which was £2.

We went into charity shop B and she spotted another skirt which was £1.50

I took it to the counter, opened my purse and found I had only the single pound left. I rummaged in my purse and found another 48p. I explained to the person on the counter that I was 2p short, but I would happily drop the extra in next week when I'll be back in town. I said that I had no other money on me, and showed her my empty purse.

She looked at the skirt, looked at the money in my hand and just said "Well, it's £1.50..."

She didn't offer to put the skirt aside whilst I got any money, she didn't offer to call anyone (there is always a manager on duty), in fact, she didn't do anything, just stood there.

In the end, I had to leave the skirt, and the shop, with my daughter crying because I couldn't afford to buy her something for £1.50.

I feel the woman was mean - I go in the shop every week - I go in all the charity shops every week, to have a look. I would happily have given the extra few pence the next time I was there.

"I'd have put the extra 2p in myself."

for how many people - how about 10p? £1? how much do you think volunteers get asked to let off in a typical day? When I worked in a local one it was ALL the time - probably at least every other customer - no one wants to pay the ticket price "for someone else's crap" as it was sooooo nicely put once.

Do you think the regular shoplifters should be let off too? Some were doing it because they needed things and couldn't afford it, some were not.

I agree it was a bit mean. However, charity workers are volunteers, and while many are fabulous and helpful, some aren't skilled in customer service.

However, as many many posters have asked you, why didn't you just ask for it to be put aside? I hate this "she should have offered" stuff. Why? So you don't have to behave like an adult? Just ask politely for what you want.

Some charity workers may be in circumstances not much different than OP, and inno position to begin giving away clothes a few pence less, and pitting it in the till out of their own pocket.

That you would have brought 2p in the next few days doesnt matter, the till have to balance at the end of the day. Being 2p short today and 2p over another day is not good enough. Once is enough to get an employee spoken to, more than once they might be written up, or fired.

If you wanted to ask for the skirt to be set aside, then you should have asked for that, rather than a 2p discount. Shops do it, and so do many charity shops.

but y wouldn't expect tesco to do this would you? so why should a charity shop

This!! Am I missing something here?! If you don't have enough money to buy an item, you're not able to buy it.
Or is it the fact that because it's a charity shop it's seen as fair game?!
As people have said, you wouldn't rock up to the tills in Tesco with your shopping 2p short and expect to still get it by telling them you'll drop in next week sometime with the rest of the money, so why is a charity shop any different?
It's still a shop!

There have to be strict rules for volunteers who work on the tills in charity shops. So many people are quick to critise/misunderstand the most minor thing. If she had let you off, someone overhearing, could have misunderstood and reported her for reducing prices for a friend or a regular customer.

Charities also have a duty to the person who donated the item to get the best price as the items have been donated to raise funds for their cause.

I think charity shops have forgotten that some of their clientele shop there because they need to buy decent clothes for less money, not because it's cook to by vintage or whatever. When I was super skint and needed to get furniture on the cheap, I looked at charity shop furniture and it was just as expensive as buying new from argos. It was shocking. Who else would by a second hand bed other than someone who needed it on the cheap? I can understand them wanting to get the most for their goods, but sometimes I wonder about their attitude towards people who shop there because they are skint.

Why should they? The purpose of the charity is to raise funds for the charity, not provide cheap goods to the Skint, if they can sell things at a certain price they should.

yes it was a bit tight of her.

They are volunteers - are told to follow strict rules. I can imagine that people do try it on in charity shops - after all whatever they are selling costs the shop 'nothing'.
And you are expecting the person on the till to have common sense and confidence...when maybe it is their first job (even first day) etc, they may have little or no experience, they are so busy concentrating on following the rules and doing things right, the till adding up that they just can't think about anything else.
I bought some books from a charity shop once - it was 3 children's books for £1 -but we only wanted 2 so I took them up to the till and he said it's 3 for £1 and I said we only want 2 - we'll just call the 3rd book a donation back. He charged me the marked prices on the books so for the 2 books I paid £1.50. At the time but I thought it wasn't worth making a fuss...(if I had I would have said hang on a minute, picked up another off the shelf, paid my £1 and then handed the book back!)
I was actually quite annoyed ...I know it is only 50p but ....then later realised he just didn't have the experience/confidence to think independently ....think beyond it was 3 for £1!

I think it's utterly shite not to put it one side whilst you get 2 more flipping pence. I would've offered to keep it for you until later or I would've just paid the 2p myself. I can't believe some of you wouldn't, actually. What a revolting tightfisted world we live in when people wouldn't give 2p to somebody.

The OP wasn't trying to get something for less than the price they asked for though, I think we should remember that.

She was prepared to pay the full price by returning with the money she was short of at the time.

It's just not that simple from the point of view of the woman working there, for many of the reasons people have stated on here.

The shop policy probably doesn't allow her to let customers take the goods away while still owing even a small amount.

The shop might not allow her to hold clothing for customers, as many people don't bother to come back, and it might mean they lose a sale to someone else as a result.

She can't pick and chose which customers are trustworthy enough to return or which amount of money is small enough to lose if someone doesn't return.

She can't be expected to make the money up for every customer who is short of the amount they need.

But it's not fair on the OP to suggest she was after a discount when she's clearly said she intended to return with the remainder of the money at some point.

Having worked in charity shop many years ago, you would be surprised how many people say, I don't have enough money with me would you take x? When politely refused, they then magically found the money in a pocket!

What a revolting tightfisted world we live in when people wouldn't give 2p to somebody.

There have been times in my life where I have had to budget to the last penny and did not have 2p to give to someone, if that makes me tightfisted so be it but I can not give what I don't have.

The fact that the op didn't ask if it could be put to one side while she ran home does make me wonder, she suggested she could drop the money in later but never suggested going back later to pick the skirt up.

What a revolting tightfisted world we live in when people wouldn't give 2p to somebody

what a revolting world we live in when so many people don't want to pay the ticket price in a shop raising money for sick kids that the staff have to impose rules

How many 2ps would you give? Shop I used to volunteer in had more than 1 in 2 customers "unable" to pay the ticket price - maybe 25 out of the 40 or so customers an hour... open 8 hours a day 6 days a week. Can you see how that would build up - how do you tell the genuine ones?

4 or 5 people a day would ask for put-bys too - where and for how long would you put all these things?

Well as another poster said its a shop like any other. Non charity shops wouldnt let you off 2p either. Why didnt you ask her to keep it for you? If you want stuff in life either material things or even with your life goals, sometimes you have to negotiate or adapt your strategy to the person or situation or, accept that sometimes you dont get what you want and move on/learn from it.

I would prob either ask her to keep it or think so i am 2p short , oh well another bargain will be around in here next week this one wasnt meant to happen.

In charity shops I don't usually take my change, so for a £2.75 item for example, I'd pay £3.00.

I'm sure lots of people must do this and therefore being 2p short shouldn't mean someone should have to go without.

No, we wouldn't expect this in Tesco but charity shops are different, they are supposed to benefit both the charity and the customer who may not be able to afford to shop in high street stores.

What Somewhere said.

These are volunteers, why should they pay for the customer?

1. I was at an opshop a few days ago where someone was wanting to volunteer, and was having it explained to them how it took time and trust before anyone got behind the till.

It's run on small stuff, so it all counts.

But Sprouts you are giving the change to support the charity's work, not another customer who thinks it is OK to short change the customer. The charity commission has very strict rules about misappropriation of supporter's funds. The shop staff are not allowed to work this way.

But Sprouts you are giving the change to support the charity's work, not another customer who thinks it is OK to short change the charity. The charity commission has very strict rules about misappropriation of supporter's funds. The shop staff are not allowed to work this way.

Again, charity shops primary purpose is to raise money for their cause NOT to provide cheap stuff to people on low incomes. Would it be OK to pocket 10p from every sale, because the volunteer is on a low income or for her to give stuff to a friend who is destitute. No it would not. However valid the reasons it would be fraud.

Do shoppers in Tesco ask to pay less because they purpose is to provide cheap food, no we understand they are there to make a profit, we shop there because they are cheap and that is their market.

MrsCosmopilite I'm at a loss to understand why you didn't give your name, address and home phone number and say that you'd really like the skirt and please would she be prepared to keep it for x hours/overnight so you could get the money? Or ask to speak to another member of staff (if the assistant was too junior to make a decision about the 2p)

Seems like a non-problem to me, but maybe I'm too simple in life ...

Possibly it was the assumption that you could just take it and drop the money in later that rubbed the wrong way - I don't know, I wasn't there, but would have thought it more polite to ask if you could do that, rather than simply state that it's what you would do.

Did you ask if you could put it by for another time? It would have been nicer for her to offer, but hey.

I quite often used to let people off a few pence when I worked in a (non-charity) shop as I knew it would be made up by people telling us to keep the change, or by coins picked up off the floor.

That said, I never had anyone tell me that they would drop it in later, their first response was always 'I'll put it back' or 'can you keep hold of it'.

If you're on such a tight budget that you can't afford to give somebody 2p, then fair enough obviously, that's not tightfisted, you don't have it. But if I was in a shop where somebody needed another 2p and I did have it spare, I can't imagine standing there judging somebody and sanctimoniously thinking 'well, they'll just have to put it back, tough shit'. I would just give them the money.

However, the way I've just been quoted in that picky way people do on here, I guess that makes me an awful person who's trying to destroy all charity shops or something

Actually a TESCO till worker did put in1p for a lady before me who was short. I offered and she said no, she'd do it.

I think your daughter needs to learn sometimes she can't have everything she wants though as crying over not getting a skirt is a bit much given she had had something already. Maybe next time keep an eye on what you have left in your purse so it needn't have arose.

YANBU though.

In my local Tesco, they have a little pot of coins to help people out. I was 20p short on my shopping and was about to put an item back, when the assistant said not to worry, I can help, which I thought was lovely. Nothing to do with Tesco profits, its the fact they even thought about that sort of embarrassing problem (that always makes me go )

I would definitely have given the 2p if I had been in the shop, it seems such a small amount of money to cause a problem about.

I like the system in the US, where they have a plate full of pennies on the counter you can use. Great idea.