Or was she? Charity shop purchase.

[JiggleJiggleFold]

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!

My analogy is fine, yours not quite so much

Unfortunately, you’re wrong on both counts.

Ah, well, when you put it like that I am convinced! 🙄

No really it isn't.

If someone came into my shop and offered to buy 6, take 2 and leave me the 4 I'd say knock yourself out mate, wanna buy 12?

Then I'd sell the remainder.

We're not a supermarket chain but we're a fairly upmarket shop.

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.

I don't think either of us were being unreasonable on reflection.

I gave them the full amount they wanted for 6 and tried to donate 4 back so they could make more money.

She didn't want to accept them for reasons I don't know

Other shop got a donation worth around £50

It all worked out well :)

It sounds completely bonkers that you weren’t welcome to donate 4 figurines to a charity shop.
I saw 20 balls of beautiful green wool in a charity shop recently. I’m not confident at knitting and thought it would be a waste to buy all 20 and probably not use them all so I asked to pay full price but only take 10 balls and the shop assistant was more than happy with that. He still gets the £10 they were priced up at but also they can sell the other 10 balls of wool I didn’t take and make more money. What’s not to like about that?!

She might have been intellectually challenged.

That's very strange!

That's what I thought! It was a win win situation for us all. But seems many think I was being rude 😐

OP I'm autistic too and I definitely wasn't trying to do that. I took exception to a comment about SN and common sense. Sorry to derail a bit.

I don't understand why you didn't just take the 6 figurines and sell on the ones you didn't want.

As someone who's volunteered in a charity shop, it's very hard work and it can be annoying when a customer tries to complicate things, even if it's in a way that objectively makes sense.

Even if she was a manager, the paid staff really don't get paid enough for how demanding and exhausting the job is.

But seems many think I was being rude 😐
Nobody said you were rude. Just a bit odd to have pressed the point so much.

Yep.

Nothing wrong with asking, but she said no as she has a right to do.

The right thing to do would be to tell them they are selling them for less than they could do, and/or buy the whole set for what you would have paid for it on eBay.

If you aren't going to do that then just buy the set for £20 and flog the ones you don't want.

Ok, well that is how your shop is run.
From what I know about the charity shop sector a lot of them are run nationally and almost as big corporate groups with lots or rules surrounding price and donations etc. Much like a big super market.
Of course we don't know the exact situation here. Maybe the charity shop manager just decided to be entirely unreasonable to make OP's life more difficult by refusing the donation, to the detriment of her own charity. Or, more likely, there are rules or policies in place (akin to those you'd see in bigger corporations - hence my analogy) which she applies, perhaps a bit too literally (for reasons we don't know - vulenrable, risk averse, new, strict policy, etc). We of course don't know either way, but unless the charity shop manager has some kind of personal vandetta against OP, chances are the second of those two possibilities is probably the most likely.

I did similar-saw a set of china I wanted, but it included a tea-set; mugs, milk jug, teapot and sugar bowl. I paid for the lot, and left the bits I didn't want.

I mean you asked and she said no, and then asked again and were surprised the answer wasnt different. Charity shops are bound by all sorts of weird policies- if the assistant didn't feel comfortable with what you were suggesting for any reason then fair play to them for standing their ground. I don't know why it's such a big deal as you got the ones you wanted and a different charity shop got the others.

The whole thing does sound crazy but I think it is worth keeping in mind that she is probably a volunteer and may have learning difficulties or mental illness.

Exactly. Ask, get told no, then do what you ended up doing. There was no need for all the inbetween, that's all. Like you concluded yourself, neither of you were being particularly unreasonable, although you were perhaps both not doing the most obvious logical thing (her in not just bending the rules if it made sense to do so, you in repeatedly trying to just take the 2 away when she had already said no).

The other possibility of course is that those figures had been around for ages with no interest and they were keen to get them off the shelves to make room for new stock but they can't bin them. Maybe she didn't want any of them.

And? Your point is?

If someone can't serve someone in a shop and keep a basic level of politeness then they should not be on the tills. If charity shops want top dollar for items these days then they need to treat customers a little more respectfully than many currently do!

I've done most of my non food shopping in charity shops over the last 15 years.

I know what you mean!
BUT also, some volunteers are older / returners to the workplace / have additional needs. This can mean that instructions are taken very literally. I find I can be patient when I think of some of the nice things I've had & how it generally 'does good' even when the odd experience can be quite frustrating (like this)

It's great you have 2 lovely figurines & it was really nice of you to redonate to the charity sector rather than sell on privately.

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.

This sort of thing drives me absolutely crazy, though to be fair last time I did pretty much the same thing in a charity shop it was fine (I bought a plastic pull along cart with mega-blocks in it, then donated the cart back immediately!)

I once went into a Wagamamas and wanted a set meal with a drink.

I wanted Meal A with Drink E, but Meal A only came with a choice of drinks A, B, C and D. I was told I couldn't have Drink E even though Drink E by itself was cheaper than at least one of Drinks A to D!

But it gets worse. My friend wanted Meal B with Drink B. But it turned out that Meal B came with the option of Drinks A to E, so after five minutes of arguing about why they couldn't just give me the cheaper drink I wanted with my set meal we worked out that I could have Drink E - I just had to get my friend to get Drink E for me with her meal, whilst I got her the drink she wanted with my meal. FFS, idiot companies / staff!

If people are purely focussed on their own wants and needs and are unable to have empathy, consideration, and patience for other people maybe they need to avoid charity shops, Pineapple.

I wasn't told no, then told no again.

It was 2 very different propositions.

One where they only recieved a fraction of the price then had to find a buyer for rest. Which I understand.

2nd where they already have the full amount desired and have an opportunity to make more with a donation back.