Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

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:
C8H10N4O2 · 21/01/2018 23:45

So how much of your valuable time did you waste on taking stuff to the shop without checking first what need currently?

More time or less than you have having ranting at posts from someone with actual experience trying to explain how charity shops actually work?

Charity shops are used as dumping grounds. People also leave new, clean items which are simply unsaleable for a host of reasons.

If you want to help find out what they need. If that is too much trouble then don't bother. That includes refuges btw - they have seasonal peaks too.

ButterflyOnTheWindow · 21/01/2018 23:48

The charity shop I work in opens every Sunday. They have to close if they don't have a volunteer who can work the till, or occasionally no volunteers turn up at all.

Original poster
Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 23:49

RTFT c8h it was nothing to do with the items being unwanted.

OP posts:
Original poster
Bearbehind · 21/01/2018 23:51

If you want to help find out what they need. If that is too much trouble then don't bother

Thanks to posters like you I suspect quite a few people won’t bother

OP posts:
Julie8008 · 21/01/2018 23:54

Whilst people do donate a lot of unusable stuff we always say thank you. As a human being when I am processing the donations in the back, in private. Its not unusual to make comment when you find mouldy sugar in the sugar jar, or used under ware, or anything else. I am human.

But it is always fun to find a rare gem that will make the charity a decent return. I do not find that disrespectful.

TattyCat · 21/01/2018 23:55

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.

Thanks for letting me know! I thought I'd been really helpful (and they were wooden - I seem to have accumulated a fuck-ton of the things!) but I'll save myself the effort in future.

This thread has actually been really useful. Useful because I've learned that I need to actually check with each charity shop to determine what they really want/need first. I hate the thought of dumping stuff on shops where it's not wanted, and yet some stuff is either brand new or nearly new, or electrical and in like new condition. I just hate the idea of taking good stuff to the tip!! I don't get what happened with charity shops, tbh. They absolutely did used to be 'grateful' for donations, but no longer. Something changed.

ohhereweareagain · 22/01/2018 00:03

The stuff I was taking in was new jumpers dressing gowns pjs etc in new sealed packaging and I sometimes flashed up a few examples to ie the manager if he was standing around or a lady in the back sorting room. I was friendly and approachable. They could have said to me thanks but we can't sell it so stop making deliveries. They have no problem stopping people dropping off loads ie books. How hard would that have been. To have accepted bin liner after bin liner each full of new shirts skirts etc knowing it was going to be binned rather than sold or sold off even to be recycled was unforgivable Angry

Julie8008 · 22/01/2018 00:05

Nobody said your donations were shite. Eh- plenty of people did

I did not say your donations were shite, (apology wanted). I listed several reasons why a donation might be rejected, but I have explicitly said we do not know the actual reason why yours was.

Whilst we are polite and accept most donation bags, as we cant prejudge what is in the bag. Sometimes it is in an open bag or box and the items are obviously not suitable to be sold in our store. In that case we say no thank you as they might be able to find a home for it else ware rather than us throwing it in the bin at our expense.

TattyCat · 22/01/2018 00:08

ohhereweareagain

I'm shocked by that and I'd definitely avoid giving to that particular charity again. How can brand new stuff be not worthy of selling? It doesn't make sense.

In the past I've sold a lot of stuff on ebay and have been constantly surprised by the 'rubbish' that people will buy. Empty glass jars and bottles of a certain brand immediately spring to mind! I think charity shops are missing a trick - they DO sell!! I've had £5 several times over for an empty whisky bottle. Makes it cheaper for me to drink whisky and it's less going to landfill, given that it's not really recycled!!

roundaboutthetown · 22/01/2018 00:08

ohhereweareagain - I agree with you, they should have said something. I would have been furious that so much stuff was just thrown away.

AintNoOtherFans · 22/01/2018 00:11

The saying "never bite the hand that feeds you " springs to mind.

It wouldn't have killed them to take the donations and put them to one side. It never ceases to amaze me that people in jobs (voluntarily or otherwise) continue to stay in a role which has clearly ground them down so much that they hate customers/people/life and show that they despise them too.

Ruffian · 22/01/2018 00:11

Julie 8008 'So your being selfish to expect a shop to pay for your rubbish disposal at the expense of their charity

In other words, your stuff is shite.

springtulip · 22/01/2018 00:12

Rude man, i often don't take to some charity shop workers, they often have this condescending holier than thou attitude. Yes, we get you're working voluntarily, but i bet sometimes it's to give them something to do with their day rather than actually wanting to help the charity out.

roundaboutthetown · 22/01/2018 00:13

I think the problem is, recycling used goods is colossally labour intensive, which is why so little of it is done, either for charity or for profit. I think people have unreasonable expectations of unpaid volunteers.

roundaboutthetown · 22/01/2018 00:14

And there is no hand feeding a volunteer for them to bite.

ohhereweareagain · 22/01/2018 00:15

I would have much preferred to have taken the stuff to a local bootsale i recently discovered and have knocked the stuff out there for free than it have ended up in landfill. The items were from overseas and apparently as they were from the 80s didnt fit the now eu code of regulations with regard to labelling. Some of the poor sods i see at this bootsale would have probably been more than happy to have had some of this clothing ie for their kids but then again most charity shops are so bloody over priced these days a lot of these people probably wouldnt have been able to have afforded to purchase them if they had made it to the shop floor anyway Hmm

tiktok · 22/01/2018 00:16

Ohhereweare, that’s a terrible story. I volunteer in a charity shop and we never dump anything saleable. Unsold stuff goes to other branches. Unsold books go to the book man. Unsalable clothing gets sold for rags etc etc.

If the shop you are talking about is part of an organisation then report the shop. If it’s independent and local they will still have a board managing the charity. Complain!

tiktok · 22/01/2018 00:17

I know of no regulations regarding washing instructions. In the shop I am in, it’s not an issue at all.

AintNoOtherFans · 22/01/2018 00:18

Don't bite the hand that feeds you - in other words don't turn away donations which is what is "feeding" the charity you are volunteering for. No donations, no charity shop.

roundaboutthetown · 22/01/2018 00:26

But you are not being fed by the charity, you are feeding it by volunteering, as are the donors. There are far more rude donors of items for charity than there are rude charity volunteers, so you could say the donors are biting the hand that feeds them, too, on your logic, because the shops will close down when all the volunteers stop volunteering... So if you are interested in the continued existence of charity shops, then you should consider not hammering on their doors when they are closed and taking offence at every explanation as to why they cannot always accept donations.

ohhereweareagain · 22/01/2018 00:28

It's really weird as when this women told me this I grilled her in case I had misunderstood but there was no room for misunderstandings. I kept repeating but she was ADAMANT that they don't sell it on and that if a garment doesn't have certain labels in they throw it out ie hand knitted items of which I had also donated a lot which were also new. I recognised this lady. An intelligent respected local women who DEFINATELY knew what she was talking about so i believed her. Dh checked online various charities inc this one. They all appeared to say they would make use of anything donated so it contradicted what this women said but she was so off and adamant that she chucked out anything without eu approved labelling. I have no plans to take it further but it has left me angry as all that time I thought I was contributing to a charity I wasn't plus I could have done with the cash tbh. Hey ho

BoomBoomsCousin · 22/01/2018 00:29

I would have been a bit annoyed by that as well OP. Charities, in general, are reliant on a lot of goodwill, if they are unable to avail themselves of that goodwill when it's offered they should be kind in the way in which they turn it away and not make it seem like it's all too much bother for them.

Julie8008 · 22/01/2018 00:32

TattyCat I don't get what happened with charity shops, tbh
Your right, have had that discussion many a time. Whilst its good to get brand new valuable gifts to resell its also depressing why money has been spent on something new that has never been opened. January is really bad for that, so many Christmas presents that no one wanted.

Best I can figure is that so much we buy now is disposable. And costs/rents/wages are so expensive that charity shops cant afford to stock their shelves with 50p mugs or 99p clothes. We can only afford to sell high quality high margin items.

And then there is a large number of people who try and haggle the price down. I mean its a charity shop FFS but they will only buy if they get a discount. Then there are the professional bargain hunters who trawl the shops with their bar code scanners looking for something to resell on ebay that we have undervalued. Its dog eat dog. sadly.

ohhereweareagain That does seem a really bad form for a charity shop. All I can hope for is that they were afraid to say no to you in case you stopped donating all together (like bear is now doing) and they realised you had the potential to donate some valuable stuff.

ohhereweareagain · 22/01/2018 00:40

To be honest the clothing I was taking was aimed at people who needed clothing but we're on a lower income but the prices I see on a lot of charity shop labels are no longer cheap so I now do a bootsale once every couple of months to clear surplus stock knocking it out at a really cheap price a charity shop more than likely wouldn't so the clothing is getting to the people in the community that need it. I think charity shops used to help the locals as well as the charity they represent although not so much now

Julie8008 · 22/01/2018 00:46

In the past I've sold a lot of stuff on ebay and have been constantly surprised by the 'rubbish' that people will buy

You are right but consider that ebay is selling to 65 million people from the UK, direct to their living rooms. A charity shop is selling to a few hundred people (of a particular demographic) who live in a very small area.

I know my charity shop takes ebay seller volunteers. Hint hint.