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!

She'd probably been told she couldn't spilt sets and took the instruction very literally.

I can easily imagine having the same disagreement with my cousin who has autism and, as it happens, volunteers in a charity shop (because he cannot do paid work). Could something like this be why the server was so fixed on what was allowable?

The majority of people working in charity shops now have some kind disability, are you 100% sure she didn’t have a hidden disability.

It may seem logical to you to buy six and donate four back but could have been very confusing to her. I’ve worked in the past with people who were capable of holding down a job, wonderful customer service etc but if someone ordered lots of things at one and wanted to change one (just as an example) it could be confusing and then distressing when the customer would inevitably become rude and say things like they have “no sense,” It doesn’t take much to treat people decently.

The set will have already been processed and marked as a single item in inventory. She probably didn't want to have the bother of redoing the inventory and repricing a new item of 4 just to have someone come in and then ask of they can just buy one of them etc etc etc.

Yes it would be interesting to hear the other side to this tale wouldn't it.

I recall a few years ago, last weekend in November I had a clear out of Christmas decorations. I'd got a tree, full set of baubles etc, loads of very nice, expensive decorations that were like new.

Saturday afternoon I took them down to the local charity shop. When the assistant realised what it was she sniffily told me they wouldn't take it with no explanation why just that 'we're not taking Christmas items'. Fair enough if this was January, but it was November.

Took it down to the British Heart who were thrilled and had the tree up in the shop window by the following Monday. By comparison, the first shop were advertising on Facebook a week later as 'desperately needing Christmas decorations donating' to make the store look more festive!

I do find some charity shops a bit baffling I confess.

I'd have taken them all and flogged the 4 I didn't want on Ebay lol

Interesting. I don’t understand what was rude about OP buying an item at full price, and then making a donation? At a minimum the person in the shop should have explained why 4 figurines was not an acceptable donation, because that’s the only issue isn’t it?

I recently had a bad experience in our local Barnardo’s shop, which has a popular kids’ toys section and a lot of passing traffic from parents. I carefully picked out a selection of my son’s things, cleaned it, made sure all pieces were there like drivers for cars, puzzle bits etc. The woman in the shop just waved me away and said they had no room, didn’t even look at what I had. Fair enough- the shelves were not full but maybe they had stuff ready to come out from the back and no more storage space. However she said it in a way which made it very clear that she thought I was using them as a dumping ground. Some of that stuff was quite emotional to part with. I was really hurt.
I hope that you are kinder to people who donate to you and don’t let some people’s bad conduct make you think everyone is like that.

Stock taking would have made it look like she’d not served you properly

I don’t see what the big deal is really, you could have just left with them

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

I would have come back on a different day to (ideally) a different staff member and donated it back to them, for extra petty points

Well if you want to carry 10 heavy books that you don't want, home on the bus, feel free.

This is how houses get cluttered and we end up with stuff we don't want.

And the managers are paid.

Of you read OP’s update, you’ll see that they have made their way back!

But they now have one book less and £1 more than before.
The remaining 9 books will go into the pile where someone else might decide to do the same. So how is it not helpful or supportive? It's better than her throwing the book back and leaving with the charity not getting £1.

Don’t be so ridiculous! 😂😂😂 You cannot compare a charity shop to a store such as John Lewis.

John Lewis wouldn’t be able to sell the items if they were donated back to the store… the charity shop would.

This thread has really made me laugh with all the far fetched excuses people are making for the batshit volunteer. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen on MN.

There is somewhere inbetween being rude and smug and then carrying home 9 books I don't want.

@JiggleJiggleFold Oh my I would really have wanted them too. I love rats😂
Totally beside the point I know!
I would have done the same

Why didn't you just agree to buy the 6, then walk out leaving four on the counter. Wonder what she would have done or if she would have chased you down the street waving four figurines in the air shouting 'stop that woman!'

The comment about the book offer '10 for a £1' probably means the shop is desperate to get rid of books, as a charity shop manager myself we often do offers not just to raise funds but to clear out old stock ... especially at the moment with DVDs that no one is buying, I may do an offer '5 for £1' and whilst I would always use my discretion and sell one for £1 the main objective is to clear space. The actual £1 is generally irrelevant- what costs time and money is getting rid of unwanted, unsaleable donations that are foisted on us. Less than 20% of what most charity shops are donated is actually saleable ... the depressing reality is that the job mostly involves wading through mountains of dirty, broken and hideous items .... the joy of course is finding the occasional gem. . So many people come in with a huge pile of rubbish and expect us to kiss their feet with gratitude for off loading their unwanted tat on us.

There is somewhere inbetween being rude and smug and then carrying home 9 books I don't want.

Where is that sweet spot?

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....

As someone who has autism (and also has children with autism) I'm really disliking the general consensus on here that if you volunteer your time or work in a charity you must be vulnerable and have autism 🙄

You know some people can just be moody or grumpy or aloof without being on the spectrum?

What do you know? Well, obviously not that it wasn’t me who did this and posted about it! 😂

Oh yeah, sorry, that makes me look like a real idiot, not keeping track of user names on a 200 post thread. Will slap myself on the wrist.

But thanks for the construtive feedback to my answer to the question YOU asked.

Is it possible, though, that you get to the point where you automatically assume that all donations are crap? I explained above that I was really hurt by the dismissive response (without even looking at it) to a donation that I am sure was really good quality and which I had genuinely thought would be a good earner for the charity.

No, to VOLUNTEER in a charity shop you have to give up your time, regularly, week in week out, receive no payment for your labour, deal with all sorts of snippy comments from customers, and sort through black bags of grotty underwear and keep smiling.

Being shitty about volunteers just makes you look nasty and dim.

Not every charity shop volunteer has additional needs but many do. We have a volunteer in our shop who would have reacted just as this person did in the OP. Very rigid thinking, a set is a set, taking only 2 out of set would be impossible for her to understand. Yes it's illogical but that's the way she operates. We had to stop putting the price on each one of a pair of shoes as she would see two prices and ring up 2 x £4.99 as she just could not understand the concept of a pair and that although there were two stickers, she only charged once.