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.

Bear - your Gift Aid summary from 2016 was £700, so it is a bit ridiculous for you to claim you believe people who are telling you that your stuff is unwanted rubbish which charity shops are ungrateful for. I'm afraid, therefore, it still comes across to me as though you are throwing all your toys out of the pram in a fit of childish pique. You are concentrating solely on the inflammatory posts which went strongly against you, despite the fact this thread is also stuffed full of offensive remarks about pathetic volunteers with no lives and self-justifications for throwing stuff into landfill, which I find just as inflammatory as the remarks about your stuff being rubbish. Yes, in the heat of the moment it is easy to get wound up by the remarks which offend you (I certainly did, yesterday!) and thus miss the more thoughtful answers, but today is another day. Surely you have calmed down enough by now to acknowledge you overreacted?

In fact, that £700 figure is from just one shop, I see! Clearly they did not chuck your stuff out.

round what is ridiculous is people, particularly those involved in charity shops, that say I'm selfish for using charity shops as rubbish disposal when they had absolutely no idea of what I was giving.

It's this default position that everything is shite that has really pissed me off.

Surely the default should be that they need donations to survive and, if that means weeding out the bad stuff, which people have given with good intention, then so be it.

I'm not saying I'm going to bin everything in future. Only that I'm going to choose, very carefully what I do with unwanted items because I will not be subject to the scorn of people like those who posted vile comments on here.

If sorting through my stuff is too much trouble for some I'll ensure it goes somewhere where that isn't the case.

Mahoosve clear out including furniture and electricals over the year round

One charity, not one shop- I'd have drowned them!

The comments about people using charity shops as free rubbish disposal have me rubbing my eyes.

Surely charity shops understand that they are by definition disposing of stuff the original owners do not want, some of it in used condition, and some of it so used it can't be used again.

The resentment about junk is not reasonable. Whatever charity runs the shop should have arrangements for disposal of unusable donations that include selling on in bulk.

Math,

So do you think donors have no responsibility to consider whether their donations are saleable, given that the shop only makes money when they sell items, and the reason for donating is to raise money for the chosen charity?

In other words, do you feel that that the ONLY responsibility for evaluating the contents of whatever people bring in rests with the shop, and none at all with the donors?

'Things in used condition' I am OK with - of course, one person's 'lightly used item' may not be saleable because it is not wanted, not because it is worn out. But 'so used it can't be used again'? Do donors not have a responsibility to deal with these items differently?

Bear - I think you're a bit too concerned about other people's opinions! You know your stuff isn't rubbish, you've got the Gift Aid donations to prove it. So the opinions of people who think your stuff must be rubbish should be like water off a duck's back. Just try to be a bit more patient with people who make the mistake of opening the door of a closed shop to you when they don't want to have to go into detail about why they cannot accept your donation. There genuinely are all sorts of good reasons, which have been outlined in this thread, why they may not have been in a position to accept your donation without them making the entire shop, or indeed the entire charity shop sector, a den of ungrateful jobsworths.

mathanxiety - as you do not live in the UK, I do not think you are really in a position to comment knowledgeably on the effects of our rubbish disposal laws and charges, health and safety regulations, UK and EU sale of goods laws, etc. There is a limit in this country to what can can be disposed of, or, if in large enough quantities, even recycled, for free - it's partly why there's a growing problem with fly tipping and contamination of land. Sometimes junk really is junk which needs to be disposed of safely and at a cost. Sometimes it is easier for a person to leave stuff in a charity shop than to take it to the local waste management centre.

round I see where you're coming from and actually, you are going above and beyond to fight the cause of charity shops now, even though you don't have anything to do with them, which is commendable.

I've long moved on from the original issue of not being able to leave my stuff.

The damage was done by the scornful comments and the assumption, particularly by charity shop staff, that every bag is yet more shite.

I'm not going to change my mind following those comments.

If people had said, we do get some crap but we deal with that in order to get to the good stuff, I'd have understood.

It was the assertion that dumping stuff in a charity shops was easier than binning it that really got to me.

I cannot think of a single situation where that would be the case. No matter if it's crap or the Crown Jewels, it was given with good intentions because chucking it out is always an easier option.

If you rely on donations to support your business then surely you have to encourage people to donate, not pour scorn on them and say they generally give you shite.

The fact my stuff was/ is good quality didn't even come in to it; the assumption was it was crap they didn't need/ want anyway.

My stuff won't go to waste in future but it won't be sneered at in its bin bags either.

Sometimes it is easier for a person to leave stuff in a charity shop than to take it to the local waste management centre

Sorry round but that is bollocks.

Stuff that goes to charity shops, unless it's furniture which only specialist ones take, can easily be put in a dustbin- it doesn't need to be taken to the tip.

Rubbish disposal?

Well that's me told... except the two massive bags of carefully folded, clean clothes in great condition I took to the local charity shop last week are not rubbish!

Tip for OP
I always phone ahead and tell them what I've got & ask if they want it.

I also choose charity shops where I can park at the back or have parking close by because I'm lazy I leave the bags in the car boot & ask if they would like to see what I have first. I've been to several different shops & they always come & empty the boot.

I'm with you OP. It was rude of them and they could have taken your donations.

Sometimes it is easier for a person to leave stuff in a charity shop than to take it to the local waste management centre

Not really. I think it's easier to take it to the tip. No sorting out needed, put it in a bin bag & sling it in the recycling cage.
Taking it to a charity shop is more effort IMHO.

Bearbehind - but you are not allowed to dispose of batteries and electronic goods in general waste!!! They are not that easy to dispose of!

And you are charged if you can't fit all your sacks in your waste bin on bin day - you are not if one of the sacks goes to the charity shop.

How would anyone know if you'd put batteries or electronic goods in a bin bag? Ours go in a pile of black bags and no one has any idea what is in them.

Not everyone is charged for over filling bins, we can put out as much as we like.

I'm confident it's more effort to go to a charity shop with stuff than it is to put it in your own bin or another bin between you and the shop. (Unless you are the poster who lives above a charity shop)

I am therefore more than ready to believe that some people donate broken electronic gadgets leaking battery acid and stuff they couldn't fit in the bin on bin day to charity shops from time to time - because it takes all sorts to make a world!

If I were you, Bearbehind, I wouldn't be able to resist going back to that shop when it was open to see how they behaved towards me then - and then reporting back on my findings!

Round, I have lived in the UK, and in Ireland, and where I live now we also have regulations that are strictly enforced about what, how much, and where items outside of normal food waste and recyclables can be disposed of.

I have to buy a $5 sticker for every (pricey) big brown bag of yard waste, and another for each small item of furniture or old broken lamp, etc that I want to leave out. I have to pay about $50 to get a mattress hauled away. Empty paint cans must be taken to a central collection point, ditto mercury light bulbs and batteries and other stuff like that. Luckily, there are scrap metal men who will take metal items away for free. I paid about $300 every 3 months for municipal garbage and recycling service before I sold my house. That charge is now included in my rent. The extra charges for yardwaste and furniture stickers and large item disposal are on top of that.

As I mentioned, the second hand shops near me take whatever is donated with a smile, and they manage to dispose of loads of it to paying customers.

I have personally bought stained and motheaten old cardigans for their buttons, old jackets to salvage zips that are the right length to replace broken ones, and have reconditioned many battered old handbags for resale. My mum buys old jumpers with holes and gravy stains to make felted mittens and cushion covers, obvious using the backs for this, and with the stained parts discarded. A friend of mine unravels holey old sweaters and knits socks that she sells at craft fairs.

And where in the UK are they selling this stuff. math, because everyone who shops in a charity shop knows the UK charity shops are not selling it?

Cantkeepaway, a professionally run charity shop should have a way of turning a profit on almost everything. It shouldn't be depending on selling everything in the front of the shop. It shouldn't be depending on selling only items that can be used for their original purpose.

Not sure what stuff you are referring to, Round.

If charity shops really are happy to sort out that grade of rubbish for me,mthen I shall start donating far more to them in future, instead of making an effort to sort out the stuff that looks saleable in their shops for them!!

The stained, motheaten stuff, math - charity shops around here do not put that up for sale.