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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be annoyed the charity shop would not accept my donation

643 replies

Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 13:49

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.

OP posts:
Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 21/01/2018 23:17

Was or is an anal jobsworth

StaplesCorner · 21/01/2018 23:18

Actually no, hang on, I take it all back - Bear why don't you get your arse down to a local charity shop and offer to work there so you can see first hand how easy it is, and you can tell them all where they are going wrong eh? You'd be a real prize. They'd sign you right up, and you could open the doors any time you liked and of course, easily deal with anything that came your way.

ButterflyOnTheWindow · 21/01/2018 23:20

At the charity shop where I volunteer we are lucky enough to have 2 changing rooms where customers can try on garments. At the moment they are unusable as they are chock full of donations in bin bags. Naturally our regular customers are not happy. What can we do? Stop accepting donations until we have cleared the back rooms and the changing rooms? It happens every January. New year clear out.

Original poster
Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 23:20

No problem staples. I’ve learnt today that the art is sneering at donations and assuming they are shite I should have taken to the tip? so I’m sure I’m good to go.

OP posts:
Julie8008 · 21/01/2018 23:21

Oh and FYI my charity shop does not accept clothes hangers. People literally bring in hundreds of them. We dont need them as we reuse 100% of the ones we have.

Original poster
Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 23:24

See, perfect example of ‘can’t do right for doing wrong’

A poster goes to the effort of washing, ironing and hanging items only to be spoken to like an idiot for not knowing a charity shop uses its own hangers.

OP posts:
roundaboutthetown · 21/01/2018 23:24

Bearbehind - you are the one who said you were taking them to the tip. You appeared to think this would be a good punishment for the charity. You are just so noble.

Julie8008 · 21/01/2018 23:28

The poor dears seem to be surprised by Christmas every single year ... and then we get them bleating a few months later because they are short of stock.
Other businesses manage to cope with seasonal variations - why not charity shops?

Oh dear god. They are charities run by volunteers and so the shops have no ability to get extra staff over the holiday period. And they are usually small shops already running at 100% with no capacity to increase turnover.

ButterflyOnTheWindow · 21/01/2018 23:28

Wilfully misrepresenting the posts from the army of volunteers on here. I actually really enjoy the work. If every volunteer who has posted here agrees that there is a lot of rubbish to be sifted through, surely there has to be some truth in it.

Original poster
Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 23:28

round you are the one who’s made people think twice about donating to charity shops, not me.

That’s done more harm than a bit of landfill that your counterparts have been insisting is where it all ends up anyway

OP posts:
ButterflyOnTheWindow · 21/01/2018 23:31

Sorry that wasn't clear. I meant the op was wilfully misrepresenting the comments of volunteers on here.

Julie8008 · 21/01/2018 23:31

A poster goes to the effort of washing, ironing and hanging items only to be spoken to like an idiot

FFS, poster asked a question, I gave a genuine civil answer. What is your problem?

Original poster
Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 23:33

What an I misrepresenting buttetfly?

I’m not making up the fact so many have dismiss my original issue because my donations were probably shite anyway.

OP posts:
ButterflyOnTheWindow · 21/01/2018 23:35

I don't know about every charity shop, of course, but ours is always inundated with donations. We wouldn't miss a dozen bin bags a week. That's not meant in an ungrateful sense. Just a factual sense.

Original poster
Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 23:36

My issue is your tone julie

My charity shop does not accept clothes hangers- we don’t need them

WTAF?

OP posts:
Oldsu · 21/01/2018 23:36

TattyCat couple of things DH shop like most other large charity shops have 'company hangers' so no its not a case of just hanging things up as the items have to go on the shops own hangers and whilst nice wooden hangers can be banded up and sold they have to be sold very cheaply , wire hangers and plastic hangers with other shops name get binned, and anyway even if the shop were able to use your hangers the items would still have to be taken off the hangers and checked, and if the items were not correct season IE summer clothes now they have to be bagged up and of course you cant bag stuff up still on hangers

Curtain rods hang around until someone who wants that specific size happens to come in so they hang around.

DH had bags and bags of linen so he put out a rail of linen at £1 a pop that was every thing from towels, sheets duvet covers and curtains, people were fighting over the duvet covers and sheets even the towels went fast but not the curtains because even at a quid if the curtains are not the specific size a customer needs they wont buy them, curtain rods are the same

The other thing that people probably don't realise is that charity shops get more clothes which are not seasonal then are at certain times of the year, today I would say 75% of the bags I sorted were full of summer goods, DH is lucky he has a large stock area so he can sort through the bags decant it into other bags with the same type of garment in IE ladies tops, shorts etc and then put in storage until spring/summer season, other shops don't have that so they are groaning with bags of swimwear in January when they really need more jumpers or coats

XmasInTintagel · 21/01/2018 23:38

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

Are you sure? Have never seen a charity shop open on a Sunday. What area was this in?

roundaboutthetown · 21/01/2018 23:38

Bearbehind - I have already pointed out to you that I have never said I thought your items were probably rubbish anyway. What made me angry was you saying that you were just going to throw the stuff away instead (which you later commuted to putting in a charity bag). I will admit it made me extremely angry that you were planning to throw your stuff away in a fit of pique, given that you had said it was all of excellent quality. That is just such a silly, petty reaction.

ButterflyOnTheWindow · 21/01/2018 23:39

Nobody said your donations were shite. Most volunteers know that a lot of donations are shite and have said so. I think I may remember one poster who said that your donation were probably shite but that was an obvious stirrer.

melj1213 · 21/01/2018 23:39

Bear who spoke to TattyCat like an idiot re: hangers?

All I saw was Julie mentioning - in a perfectly civil and not judgemental way - that their shop doesn't need extra hangers as they recycle their own and you have jumped on them and accused them of being patronising.

I think you need to take a step back and realise that not everything posted here by volunteers is intended as a put down, but as a way of sharing practical information other people may not be aware of.

Original poster
Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 23:40

butterfly I’m honestly astounded by the number of volunteers saying people need to wind in their donations as you wouldn’t miss a few bags.

I’m genuinely not going to bother troubling you in future.

OP posts:
ohhereweareagain · 21/01/2018 23:41

Not everyone that donates is donating old tat. I'm a dealer and decided to donate a LOT of my stock over a period of a year (this went on for about 15 months a year ago). I would go in to my favourite one as there are plenty where I live and this one seemed to be the least popular as they always had signs up that read as if they were desperate for stock. Anyway, I would go in every week between once or sometimes 3 times a week with NEW clothing most of which was in packaging. Nothing wrong with it, it just wasn't to my taste and didn't go with the sort of stuff I normally sell as I buy blind large bulk job lots. I would be friendly when I took stuff in. I would often give back history to the manager as to why I had so much stuff. It was good stuff too. I genuinely thought I was helping in some way. Without boring you and going into more detail it turns out as some women let it slip one day as I went to take a load of new jumpers that they binned most of the stuff I had been taking in as it didn't have clear washing instructions in Hmm. I asked her if they didn't at least sell it for scrap/textiles but she said no they dumped it. We are talking HUNDREDS of pounds worth of adults and children's clothing. I could have done loads of boot sales knocking it out and kept the money as im not wealthy but preferred to donate all the while it was being fucking binned because of health and safety/eu regulations Angry. Never again. They knew me in there. WHY didn't they pull me aside and tell me to stop taking my stuff in Hmm

Original poster
Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 23:42

Nobody said your donations were shite.

Eh- plenty of people did.

expat and julie to name but 2.

OP posts:
Original poster
Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 23:44

Are you sure? Have never seen a charity shop open on a Sunday. What area was this in?

Yes I’m sure. plenty of charity shops open on Sunday’s

OP posts:
roundaboutthetown · 21/01/2018 23:44

ohhereweare - they were being misguidedly polite, because they knew that some people take extreme offence at having donations turned away. Sometimes itmis better to donate to for-profit organisations which specialise in selling on textiles. Volunteers in charity shops can only do so much.