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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wish staff in charity shops would say thank you

22 replies

imahappycamper · 24/05/2010 11:35

On numerous occasions I have taken donations of clothes or bric a brac into charity shops and been told "put it there love" or greeted with "oh", or "donation is it?"
I don't want them to fall on my neck, but just a smile and a "thank you" would go down well.
Once in the Salvation Army when I had donated some children's books (in good condition) the assistant said loudly, before I left the shop "I hate it when they bring in books, don't you?".
I've got a blacklist now!
On the other hand I went to an Oxfam in Hull and the man was really nice and even got the items out of my car for me. I'll go there again.
I know a lot of them are volunteers, but is it too much to expect?

OP posts:
biddysmama · 24/05/2010 11:39

yanbu... i donated a pretty good pram and asked them to pick it up and the guy complained he had to carry it up the 3 steps from my garden... that i had been pulling the pram up and down with my dd in it!

Pushmeinthepool · 24/05/2010 11:40

YANBU - Good manners cost nothing. I would just take them back out with you and give them to another charity shop if they don't say thank you next time.

To be fair, the staff at my local charity shop are always appreciative and say thank you when I take donations in.

cupcakesandbunting · 24/05/2010 11:46

YANBU

When I moved house, I took lots of good stuff that I didn't want to lug along with me but didn't have time to eBay. I decided to give them to the hospice shop in my village because they've always got a sign outside begging for donations so I took six boxes full in (all washed, I might add) and the volunteer just pointed at a back room and muttered "through there"

Not taken anything back there since. if they're relying solely on the goodwill of others to keep going, a little goodwill from themselves would be nice...

Pozzled · 24/05/2010 11:51

YANBU. But have to say I have always been thanked, even when I've only had a couple of books or whatever.

JaneS · 24/05/2010 11:57

Might the workers have had some kind of SN? There's a lass who works in one of the charity shops near my mum who wouldn't thank you either, but she doesn't mean anything by it.

If not, they're being precious.

deaddei · 24/05/2010 11:59

Oh how I agree.
I always take to Cancer Research. as they have a fast turnover, price things reasonably and it doesn't smell.
I took 175 paperbacks, all modern, published within last year or so, in boxes for them. Now that's worth a couple of hundred quid for them.
I'd noticed the week before they were low on stock and the assistant said they were desperate.
The woman in the "donations" room actually rolled her eyeballs and didn't say thankyou or anything.
So I took them out and gave them to the hospice shop over the road.

wahwahwah · 24/05/2010 12:05

Marie Curie are lovely. And they send you a letter saying how much your donations have raised.

I remember lugging bags and bags of baby stuff into shop after shop. It was clothes, toys, videos... and so many of them just wouldn't accept childrens things.

SimplySparkling · 24/05/2010 12:12

I volunteer in a local charity shop and always thank people for the donations they bring in and go outside to their car if necessary with them to carry things in.

I'm sorry to hear that people haven't been thanked for their donations and quite understand them taking their donations elsewhere either there and then (which is good as it makes the point immediately) or in future. I'd suggest having a word with the store manager to let them know that volunteers aren't thanking people for donations each time items are brought in. Without the goodwill of donators and the customers, we wouldn't have a shop to volunteer in!

thisisyesterday · 24/05/2010 12:15

yanbu

i don't take anything to the ungrateful ones now, there are a couple in town that always say thank you and are v. helpful so those are the ones i use

Original poster
imahappycamper · 25/05/2010 18:38

Might try taking my goods away then and there, if I have the nerve.

OP posts:
southeastastra · 25/05/2010 18:42

dp gets letters telling how much his donations raised too! i think it's nice

wouldn't worry what the staff themselves say - though think they're all probably like league of gentlemen

FelicityMintcake · 25/05/2010 18:49

Yanbu but I haven't noticed this in mine. They usually do say thank you.

Having said that there there is one I can think of who sounds a bit like she's doing everyone a big old favour (which I suppose, technically she is, if she's a volunteer)

My sil runs a charity shop and the older ladies who work for her can be tricky sometimes (ala League of Gentlemen). It's hard to manage someone who has given time voluntarily.

janmoomoo · 25/05/2010 19:33

YANBU. Same here in my local charity shops. I am always surprised, they just say can you take it upstairs please or something like that. Never a word of thanks, I was wondering if it is some sort of policy.

I still take stuff there because I am happy to get it out of my house!

Tidey · 25/05/2010 19:39

Help the Aged / Age UK take your name and address and they send out a letter telling you how much your donations have raised so far, I think that's nice. They've never been rude about donations and since at the moment we're trying to clear out clutter (being quite ruthless so lots of lovely stuff) they are getting quite a lot of stuff to sell, so they could get fed up and tell us to naff off, but not so far.

LittleSilver · 25/05/2010 19:43

YANBU. I now boycott Oxfam as a) they are pretty rude in there and b) wow, HOW overpriced?

BumptiousandBustly · 25/05/2010 19:46

YANBU, I got this, at our local hospice shop, and they just said: "can you put it over there" - I said "thankyou" very loudly and pointedly as I left, and phoned the manager to complain.

I feel if I make the effort to bring the donation to them, the least they can do is say thankyou, and carry it across the shop!

larks35 · 25/05/2010 19:50

These people don't get paid so I don't think the usual expectation of customer service can apply. Saying that, I always get thanks when I drop stuff off (very rarely do now that they pick stuff up every week).

xstitch · 25/05/2010 20:10

YANBU. It is human decency to be polite to others and manners cost nothing so it doesn't matter that they are not paid. I have worked as a volunteer and I always made an effort to be polite to others. The only valid reason as someone said earlier in the thread would be if they had special needs.

I have just move so made a lot of donations during my clear out. I went to a new shop nearby that had a big sign in the window asking for donations. The man said I'm too busy bring them back next week and specified a time slot. I didn't go back I took them somewhere else.

kittywise · 25/05/2010 20:15

YANBU it's very rude.

whenslydale · 25/05/2010 20:43

I've always been thanked for donations but I know charity shop staff can be a very mixed bunch. My main issue with them is that they always seem to be bitching about some absent member of staff - it's really uncanny how many times I've had to listen to the same stuff whilst browsing..."don't want to upset her ladyship DO we, honestly I don't know why we bother it's not as if we're getting paid I said to her I've got plenty of other things I can be doing with my time and she said to me blah blah blah"

PlanetEarth · 25/05/2010 21:21

Quite agree! I took some things to a charity shop recently, it shut at 5pm and I got there 5 or 10 minutes before that. The woman was just leaving (obviously knocking off early) and didn't want to be bothered with my donation, "We close at 5 you know!" She did take it in and then I wished I'd given it to someone more grateful.

Meandacat · 25/05/2010 22:33

Just to add another slant to this, my DH works for himself and had, on occasion, thought about volunteering for work in one of the local charity shops as his hours are flexible and it would get him out (this was before DD came along). But he never did because the thought of working with the total, utter curmudgeons that seem to staff these places was too much to bear.

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