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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Or was she? Charity shop purchase.

278 replies

JiggleJiggleFold · 09/06/2022 09:50

I went in a charity shop yesterday and saw a set of figurines, 6 of them for £20.

I asked if I could buy 2 of them separately and the lady said no, they're a set. Fair enough. I had a few other bits to get from other shops, so left without them.

Whilst shopping I googled the figures hoping to get them from ebay or somewhere, as I only liked 2 of them. Turns out they end up at around 10/12 quid individually with postage anyways so 20 for 6 was very good.

I went back in and asked for the set. I paid the £20 and said to the lady "I only really want these 2, you can keep the other 4"

She told me they come as a set and you cannot but them individually.
I said I'm not asking to buy them individually, I'm paying the full price but only taking 2.

She told me I wasn't allowed to do that.

I said I'm keeping 2 and donating back the other 4 and that she could sell them as a set of 4.

She was adamant I want allowed to do that and made me take all 6 of them :s

I walked into the charity shop 2 doors down and donated the 4 I didn't want.

AIBU to think the whole things was just ridiculous?

She was really huffy and abrupt with me about it, like I was trying to rip them off or break the sacred rules or something!

OP posts:
Oldsu · 10/06/2022 00:41

KitKattaktik · 09/06/2022 10:47

I went into a charity shop with 5 bags of donations, clothes mostly, the majority still with retail tags, so unworn. I saw they had a donators card, where they stamped the card for each bag of donations and when the card was full (20 stamps) you could claim something to the value of (around £5 iirc) so I asked for a card.

The assistant said, it's for donations only to which I replied that I've got these 5 bags to donate. She said, we'll take these now and give you a card the next time you come in do you can start collecting then.

I pointed out that wasn't what the poster on the wall said and she repeated what she said again so I picked up my bags and took them to the charity shop down the road.

Was it the Salvation Army by any chance they have a scheme like that, if it was then you would have read the poster incorrectly their scheme is that you buy a 're-bag' for 99p fill it with donations you then get a stamp on a card for £2 and get a new bag, now my DH has given up running a charity shop that is how I donate, however I did see one customer the other day with a re-bag and 3 tesco bags wanting 4 stamps, the manager (who is a lovely very professional and stylish lady) offered to sell her 3 new re-bags and put her donations into them, that way she would get 4 stamps and 4 new bags, only to be told very rudely that the customer didn't have time and to just give her 4 stamps and was (very reasonably IMO) told they cant do it like that as there has to be an initial outlay of the 99p to qualify.

Catlover77 · 10/06/2022 08:40

I’d have paid for the 6 and then left the 4 on the counter. She can’t force them upon your person 😁

MrsSkylerWhite · 10/06/2022 10:38

Adlitem

Ah, well done you, you really got one over on those two women volunteering their time for a charity. [slow clap]“

this ^ wonder how many people being snotty about charity shops volunteer themselves.

(been shopping in charities for 30 years, never seen a donations box for goods, they go straight to the back to be sorted).

CandleSchtick · 10/06/2022 15:54

(been shopping in charities for 30 years, never seen a donations box for goods, they go straight to the back to be sorted)

Quite right. There's never a donations box in a charity shop. People would try to buy stuff before it's been checked, cleaned and priced. As pp said, it goes straight over the counter and into the back of the shop.

Madamum18 · 10/06/2022 17:56

That was ridiculous. As are the daft analogies about John Lewis. As is the tendency to lump such behaviour as being about "autism!".

The charity shop person was being daft, not getting the best deal for the shop and it sounds like she was just digging her heels in for no good reason! Still at least you got your figures and the other charity shop benefited!!

Bbq1 · 10/06/2022 18:09

jubileetrain · 09/06/2022 10:06

A lot of volunteers are vulnerable adults on placement through support groups and organisations actually.

Show quote history

It's ridiculous to claim that a lot of volunteers in charity shops are 'vulnerable'. Volunteers are made up of retired people, mums of school aged children, those who feel an affinity with the charity in question, people who work in another job part time and just kind, caring members of the community who have some time on their hands and want to help.

Schooldilemma2345 · 10/06/2022 18:14

Computer says no 🤣

angielou791417 · 10/06/2022 18:30

My daughter is Autistic and in that situation would be unable to see the logic in what you were telling her, if she had been told to sell as a set she would be stuck on that instruction

TrixieMixie · 10/06/2022 18:45

YANBU, this kind of thing is utterly infuriating.

Staffy1 · 10/06/2022 19:02

Catlover77 · 10/06/2022 08:40

I’d have paid for the 6 and then left the 4 on the counter. She can’t force them upon your person 😁

Probably best to have taken them to another charity shop as the OP did. With her reasoning she may have thrown them out as she couldn’t get past the idea that they had to go in a set of six.

FreyaStorm · 10/06/2022 19:09

Like Steve Martin in Father of the Bride and the hotdog buns 😂

Lizzy53 · 10/06/2022 19:14

My thoughts too Giltedges

LondonMrsA · 10/06/2022 19:24

This is hilarious.

Staffy1 · 10/06/2022 19:26

adlitem · 09/06/2022 15:39

Well first of all not acting (as you yourself described) smugly to the women, and then secondly not writing a long gloaty and patronising post about how you got the better of two people - possibly vulnerable - who are spending their free time on volunteering for a charity and trying to follow the rules they are told to apply to their stock.

You could have done exactly the same but it could have gone like this:

Can I just buy one book, I am happy to pay the £1.
No, sorry I can't do that.
Ok [grab 9 random books], I'll have these.
Great, that's £1 please.
Great, thanks
[walk out, drop off books in donation box either at that charity shop or another]

You know, just not really being a dick about it. But what do I know....

Show quote history

Refusing to sell a person one book for the price asked for ten is being a dick. Not everyone wants to carry nine unwanted books home and getting rid of one is better than none. There will be others that buy ten but no harm in letting the people who don’t want all of them buy the ones they do want.

Manth0914 · 10/06/2022 19:34

I wonder if it was incorrectly priced or display?

Tilltheend99 · 10/06/2022 19:38

Bbq1 · 10/06/2022 18:09

It's ridiculous to claim that a lot of volunteers in charity shops are 'vulnerable'. Volunteers are made up of retired people, mums of school aged children, those who feel an affinity with the charity in question, people who work in another job part time and just kind, caring members of the community who have some time on their hands and want to help.

Show quote history

Maybe in middle England la la Mumsnet land. In the city I live in it’s almost exclusively people with hidden disabilities and the top manager getting paid. Even the elderly people who work there often have hidden disabilities.

Even if your local shop is staffed by pensioners and mums looking for work experience 🙄being rude to charity shop workers is the lowest of the low.

Newsflash: they do not owe you s**t! Even people who are being paid don’t have to accept rude entitled behaviour so I hope the poor lady selling figurines didn’t give op or anyone else a second thought.

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 10/06/2022 19:52

I do hope that you haven't brought the 'Curse of the Figurines' upon yourself. 😳😱
Those poor reject four figurines may

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 10/06/2022 19:53

... haunt you forever.

slashlover · 10/06/2022 19:56

Quite right. There's never a donations box in a charity shop. People would try to buy stuff before it's been checked, cleaned and priced. As pp said, it goes straight over the counter and into the back of the shop.

The one I work in has a donation box, or rather a massive tub on wheels. Because we're quite a large store and have a car park, people will bring in a car boot full or things at once. On weekends/BHs we can have three or for people donating at one time so can go from 2 black bags to 25+ black bags within 5 minutes.

slashlover · 10/06/2022 20:00

JiggleJiggleFold · 09/06/2022 11:01

No.

I asked if I could buy 2 separately for a reduced price. Ie... £5 maybe for 2.

She said no to that.

So I paid £20 for all 6, which was the set price for 6. Then tried to donate the 4 so they could make more money in top of the £20 the wanted (and recieved)

So very different.

You probably pissed her off by trying to haggle, they were 6 for £20 and you offered £5 for 2. Also, do you think CS workers are idiots? We know how to use eBay and would have known the value those figures would have sold for, and would have known you were being a CF to offer a fiver.

Johnnysgirl · 10/06/2022 20:06

slashlover · 10/06/2022 20:00

You probably pissed her off by trying to haggle, they were 6 for £20 and you offered £5 for 2. Also, do you think CS workers are idiots? We know how to use eBay and would have known the value those figures would have sold for, and would have known you were being a CF to offer a fiver.

Show quote history

I missed that post! So op initially tried to pay a lower individual price than the unit price per figurine when sold as a set...
Bloody hell 😂

Misunderstoodagain · 10/06/2022 20:13

I work with learning disabilities in adults and a lot of charity shops will have adults with LD volunteer there, It possibly could have been someone who didn't fully comprehend what you were saying.

MyrtlethePurpleTurtle · 10/06/2022 20:15

adlitem · 09/06/2022 10:03

I think you should just have done what you ended up doing anyway and not have caused such a fuss. People who work in charity shops are often volunteers and might not have felt they could "break" the rules and split them up. She may have been oddly rigid on the rules, but to me is more strange to keep arguing with her about it when you could just have done what you did in the end on the first day.

Spot on

MyrtlethePurpleTurtle · 10/06/2022 20:18

stuntbubbles · 09/06/2022 10:10

YABU. Would you find a set of something in John Lewis and take the couple of bits you wanted out of the box and try to buy those? Or buy the whole thing at the till then try to leave behind the parts you didn’t want? People treat charity shops and their workers like crap.

I agree

NickD87 · 10/06/2022 20:27

I think she may have formed an over attachment to the figurines.
when she goes in every morning she imagines their a group of friends who have been galavanting around the shop all night. Maybe she didn’t want to split them up because you would rip apart their special bond and change the dynamics of the group.