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.

Im sure we'd get good were just being petty. Perhaps but some of the attitudes here towards what charity shops sell are a bit of an eye opener to say the least!

I took offence

And that was your decision, but was not the fault of the charity.

Sometimes charities are inundated with donations - either generally or for specific items - and they cannot sell enough to keep the donation levels manageable. Would you rather they had taken your items and then just disposed of them (at a cost to the charity)?

Surely it's better for charities to be honest and say "We have more books than we can handle, please don't bring any more in to us" rather than just taking every book that is offered for donation and then having to get rid of items they knew they couldn't sell at a cost - either through commercial waste or recycling - which takes money away from the charity they are supposed to be supporting?

If you don't take library books back you get fined.

All this, gracious/ grateful bollocks is really annoying.

If the shop had been in darkness I wouldn't have thought twice about it.

The fact is, there were people there, they opened the door but refused to let me put my bags down

Clearly, according to an awful lot of posters on this thread, charity shops don't need donations so in future I won't bother.

@Bearbehind I think donating things is great, but I have to ask, based on this quote:
"If they’d said it was because they’ve been overwhelmed with donations and couldn’t physically cope with mine I would happily have taken them to another shop.
This was purely because they weren’t open today."

Did you actually end up taking your things to another shop? It sounds here like you didn't.

Personally I've tried to donate things to charity shops before who refused my donation (too full etc) so I've just taken the stuff to another one. No harm done.

If I'm absolutely at a loose end and can't find a shop to take it, I take it to the cat and dog shelter. They like rags and bedding for the animals cages to make it more comfortable and cozy.

You will not be punishing the unpaid volunteers, after all, as they don't benefit from your actions one way or the other.

Which goes back to my point about pissing off donors flies in the face of giving up your time to help the charity.

OP - YANBU

Lbw I didn't because all the others were advertised as being shut so there was no point.

It's going in the bin now.

"There was a teacher in school at 7.15, she opened the door but she didn't let my child in because the school didn't open until 8.45 am. I was in a real hurry, I wanted my child looked after until school started. the teacher was there already - what was the problem?"

I am sure most teachers will have encountered that at least once or twice....

I agree OP. A bit of politeness and accommodation in order when the shop relies on those donations.

It’s a tough one.

We have great difficulty donating to our local charity shops.

Workers are (sadly) all miserable, ungrateful, and jobsworths. We’ve always had a bad experience despite always donating barely used and new stuff.

However, someone I knew did a stint in one of them and she was horrified by the amount of shit people donated. Dirty clothes, broken toys etc. It’s like the local dump, only you’re supposed to be grateful.

So I can see it from both sides.

But, if that was me, and I’d opened the door to you - I’d have said thank you, put the bags to one side and sorted them out Monday. Not sure why this wasn’t possible.

The volunteers were probably doing a stocktake. Which, by definition, needs a static stock, and therefore takes place while nothing arrives or leaves....

Clearly you are only generous if it suits you, Bearbehind, but expect higher standards from others.

It's going in the bin now.

So you weren't really bothered about supporting a charity, just getting rid of your stuff.

If you wanted to support a charity by donating you would have either gone to the store the volunteer said was open and accepting donations; taken the items to another charity shop or taken the items home to hold on to until they were open.

Just donate it to a different charity shop next weekend. Is there genuinely no space in your house / car for it until then?

@Bearbehind why not sell it online and donate the money to charity? Or take the clothes to a shelter? Woman's aid? Put it on Facebook market place for free?

Endless things you could have done other than spit your dummy out. Or, you know, just take it to the shop tomorrow?

I think the smaller charity shop I pop in every now and then every day has the right idea. Excess clothing/not great stuff they take to the local.....can't think of the name of it......those places where you can take ANYTHING fabric-wise and it gets weighed in or they pass on to the local homeless charities or similar. Excess books, DVDs and CDs are passed on to retirement homes/shelters. I do notice a difference in how smaller independent charity shops operate compared to the larger well known ones.

So you weren't really bothered about supporting a charity, just getting rid of your stuff. Seemingly.

Not tell anyone

There was a notice on the door, AFAIR? Single day or short term variations in opening times don't usually get changed on websites as those are often maintained centrally rather than by the individual shops.

I've known of charity shops not accepting donations whether the shop is open or not, they just don't need any at that time. What would your stance be then?

So you weren't really bothered about supporting a charity, just getting rid of your stuff.

Name me one person who says, I want to support a charity so I'll give them things I'd prefer to keep?

Of course I want to get rid of this stuff.

as that charity wouldn't accept them and so many people have said charity shops don't want stuff because it's so hard to process, I'm not going to bother in future.

The volunteers were probably doing a stocktake. Which, by definition, needs a static stock, and therefore takes place while nothing arrives or leaves....

That reminds me of the time when Oxfam used to put coloured plastic markers on their clothes hangers so they could keep control of the age of stock. They didn't put the usual plastic size markers which might have be useful to the customers and ensure a sale. Oh no, their priority was admin. Talk about cart before horse.
Thank goodness they eventually saw the error of their ways.

Although it's a charity, I would imagine they still have to operate in a professional manner, and when their store closes, it closes.
They have no idea what's in the bags, and potentially it could be something untoward, or your presence at the shop could be a ruse to a robbery etc (highly unlikely scenario, I accept, but the safety of their workforce is paramount).

Another way to look at it - is that sometimes, certain individuals are just grumpy, and not to be too harsh on the charity as a whole. Give them (or another branch) a second chance?