To be annoyed the charity shop would not accept my donation

[Bearbehind]

I've had a bit of a clear out and had some stuff to take the the charity shop.

I checked on line it was open today then took the stuff into town.

You can't park right outside so I carried the stuff, in the snow, to the shop only to see a sign which said they no longer open on Sundays.

Oh well, I thought but, all the lights were on and I could see at least 3 people inside so I knocked the door and someone opened it.

He said they were shut and I explained I didn't want to come in, just drop these donations off.

He outright refused to accept them, because they were shut, and I'd have to go to another branch of theirs that was open today or come back tomorrow.

AIBU to think that if someone has made the effort to bring a donation to a charity shop and if there's are people there, they should accept them.

I'll be buggered if I'm taking stuff to them again.

Rufus - charity shops don't have enough volunteers to process all the stuff they are given. If people resent the teeny, weeny, minuscule amount of extra effort involved in dealing usefully with their own unwanted stuff, then just think how few people are willing to give up their time to make the huge effort of processing hundreds' of other people's unwanted items.

Does sound a bit 'off'..refusing to take them. Ungrateful buggers.

I feel comments of they don’t want your junk (these posters who posted this rubbish know jack shit about what you were donating - they should not think just cause they give their junk to charity shops everyone else flows suit).... along with if they are closed they don’t have to accept your donations, rightly so they don’t have to accept anything likewise they could have had more grace when suggesting the op take her goods elsewhere. . Be nicer people it doesn’t cost anything to be accomodating.

I would personally not use this charity organisation again, if you are part of a mums group on Facebook I would mention what happened in a post on there.

I can see both sides. Having had issues donating to charity shops in the past (range of excuses like sorry we can’t take it today, we don’t need kids clothes at the moment bla bla, plus a parking fine once (not the charity shops fault of course but a bit annoying as the signage outside the shop was confusing), I just always use those bags that come though the letterbox now as I CBA with the hassle of going to the shop and potentially being refused. It’s situations like the OP had today that drive us into the attitude I now have towards charity shops.

Im not sure why that post is directed at me round

As ive said i have no problem if a charity store is full and not accepting donations

Ahh rufus yes we have the unopened toys too. And a lovely pair of iron fist shoes I wore once in the house when I got them then broke my knee and couldn’t wear such high heels again. Shite is it? Lol

Bearbehind don’t let randoms stop you wanting to help

I may have mistyped or misunderstood something

Its getting late and im trying to read my book and mumsnet at the same time

Somethings got to give

Let's all stop donating to charity shops. Because they are businesses and have better things to do than accept donations. Good luck with that one charity shops. No wonder people are getting a bit annoyed on this thread.

I'm pissed off because so many posters have said they work in / have associations with these charity shops and get annoyed by donations and accuse donors of using charity shops as tips.

I cannot think of a situation where sending stuff to charity is easier than chucking it in the bin so, even if the items are not up to scratch, the intention was good.

I like the idea of donating to the 'end user', like what women's refuge, so am going to do that in future.

karigan

Rufus - a shop is not full if it doesn't have enough volunteers - they are two entirely different issues.

round

Yes I understand

But when the shop volunteers tell me that they cant accept my stuff because they are full i tend to believe them

It was the charity store in my village

So we took it to the one in the next village

A few months later the shop in my village was accepting donations again...so we took it there

You aren’t going to get many donations if you refuse to accept those that are taken to you

I assume the shop only refuses donations that are dropped off when they are closed and a volunteer has informed the person hammering on the door that they cannot currently take the donations as they are closed, but X store would be able to take them.

Also, this time of year is the one time that many charities actively suspend donations not because they don't want the support but because they actively can't keep up with the volume of things coming in -whether of any and all donations or just of specific things like bric-a-brac or books purely because everyone has the same idea to give their unwanted pre/post Christmas clear out stuff to the charity shops.

Whilst charity shops are grateful for continued donations, that does not mean that they can't occasionally get overwhelmed and they would rather people stopped bringing things they know they can't use (and so will end up binned or recycled, both of which cost them money) than take them for the sake of not upsetting the odd person who can't understand why they are refusing to take more things that they don't have the time, resources or ability to use effectively to increase the revenue of the business to the benefit of the charity (which is what charity shops are - not for profit businesses that still have admin costs, rent, rates, utilities etc to pay)

Also whilst the OP may have been giving the charity perfectly good items, you would be shocked at how much unuseable stuff gets sent to charities, and unfortunately every bag of donations is a Schrodinger's bag of items - it is both full of trash and treasure until it is gone through and checked, sorted and processed. If they don't however have the manpower to process the items then they have to prioritise the items they do have over the potential that might be in a donation bag.

Sometimes things that are perfectly functional are actually not saleable - so you might have a load of white shirts, some BNWT ... they are all perfectly saleable but if the store already has a huge rack of white shirts and they know they are only selling 2 a week then they are not going to hold on to every white shirt they get donated, because they don't have the space to keep every item indefinitely, and so your white shirt might just go straight into the rag bag so that the charity can still get a little bit of money from it.

That's not to say that your item is not worth taking to a charity shop because it is rubbish or sub-par, but if they have actively asked for people not to bring certain items, it is because they cannot handle the volume they have received, not because they think your items aren't good enough. Once they get back on top of the stock they have received, I'm sure they'd love your items, just at the moment they don't have space for them. That is not a judgement call on their part, purely a practicality that some people seem to take as a personal insult.

Bolloks to that OP YANBU. read so much shit on here from people who experience issues of a negative nature with charity shops although always a rush from some regulars defending their annoying ways. So many charity shops and in competition with each other on the high street often manned by rude volunteers. They depend on donations of which one's left outside get pinched. Of course they could have taken it. They didn't have to go through it . I've boycotted giving to the local ones as have many others for varying reasons but the main one that I constantly see on our local community forum online board is rudeness/ridiculously anal jobsworthy rules. Sod em'. Take it to be recycled as textiles

Rufus - and if a shop has a big sign up saying it is closed on Sundays, do you refuse to accept it and knock on the door until they answer? And then refuse to accept they are closed unless they tell you precisely why they can no longer be open for sales and donations on a Sunday?

They are not being anal jobsworths if THE SHOP IS SHUT

round

Have you read any of posts where i have said i have done that

I think my post said that IF THE SHOP IS SHUT ITS SHUT

Im not 100% sure now

So i might need to check

round do you for some completely obscure reason think that i think bear was right to knock on the door

Cos i don't remember saying that

I do think its fair enough to be cheesed off when the website says open but the shop isnt

But then you get back in the car and go to another shop LIKE I DID

Yes, sorry, Rufus - I misinterpreted one of your posts!

Oh thank goodness

Thats fine round easily done

Oh the relief

round stop trying to make yourself feel better about the shop today being closed being the reason I'm so pissed off.

I lay my reluctance to donate to charity shops in future firmly at your door, along with that of your cronies.

Going out of my way to donate is not a big issue in the grand scheme of things.

What is a big issue is the fact that, even if I did go out if my way to donate, the assumption is it's shite and I just can't be arsed to bin it (despite the fact that would be 10 times easier to chuck stuff out)

I have to admit, I thought it was odd the way you suddenly turned!

Jeezo well that got a bit heated.

I think the OP is deliberately misreading what I and other charity shop volunteers have said.

Yes we get lovely donations. Yes we get some great clothes which have never been worn, jewellery, books, shoes and everything else. I would say the sellable stuff which comes in is about 50% of total donations, averaged over the year.

However, the post-Christmas clearout is different. At this time of year the sellable total drops to about 25% to 30%. Lots of people are clearing out toy cupboards and wardrobes and for whatever reason, think that the charity shop is the the best place for chipped cups and toys with bits missing. Why do they do it? Who knows. If everyone just asked themselves "Would I pay money for this?" the problem would be solved.

Yes charity shops need donations and we're very grateful for them, mostly. But at this time of year when you cannot move for black bags in the back shop, and cannot physically squeeze any more stock onto the shelves or rails, you sometimes have to refuse to take stuff. Especially bulky stuff. It's also not always as easy as "just send it to another shop", especially in dreadful snowy weather.

I've recently had a clear out and washed/ironed suits and expensive clothing and even handed it over on a wooden clothes hanger, so all they have to do is price it up and hang it up. I felt better doing that than shoving it all in a bin bag and handing it over (what I used to do - even with really good stuff). I even dug out the 'spare' buttons in the plastic bags and safety pinned them to the clothes. Go me

Anyway, my question is, for those 'in the know' with regard to charity shops and what they want/don't want... I have a huge amount of curtain poles and fixings, all in good condition. I don't want to chuck them but I no longer need them and really can't be bothered to ebay them (plus they're difficult to post). Would charity shops want them? Could they use them? It seems a shame to throw them out but they are taking up A LOT of room in our storage and they are so expensive to buy new.