What is your experience of charity shop workers?

[Posey]

Some are lovely but some are so holier than thou, think they're really a cut above.
Today a man who works in the local Cancer Research shop was so rude to me and ds, then slagged us off to the next customer, that I left the shop in tears (after telling him I would never set foot in his shop again). I've found them like this before in there. An old lady came in with a bag of stuff to donate and was told to put it in the back room, no please or thankyou or let me take that for you.

Really puts me off.

Will stick to lovely Oxfam in Dalston!

In my experience, they are either nutty, but in a nice way, or, could freeze boiling tea at 20 paces.

I've taken absolutely loads of good stuff to charity shops over the years, and not grot, but recent paperbacks, barely worn clothes, household stuff etc. and it's rare to even get a thanks.

You don't expect a medal but huffing and puffing to each other about all the "extra work" that's just been brought in, and a dismissive wave of the hand indicating where you should dump it is hardly encouraging.

I just try to think that when it's sold the money will filter down then to people who really need it, but I really have felt aghast at the lack of a smile or polite thanks when making donations.

Only 3 years old? The man is a git.
Write and complain. I am sure the charity wouldn't like to think he was scaring customers or conributions away.

I have met some who could melt bone just by glaring at you through the window. There are some very, very scary old women hauting those places.

Some of them are really sweet and just love people-watching though. There's one in the YMCA shop in Teignmouth who is like the Oracle at Delphi. She knows everything.

The women in the Oxfam charity shop in St Anderews some years ago were amazingly rude. They would stop serving you , if a friend of their came into the shop, and would have a long chat while you waited.

This was a while ago now, and the current ones could be very nice.

Perhaps they are retired doctors' receptionists - years' of practice honing their "death-by-withering-glance" techniques on the sick and infirm

I think a lot of them do it for their own benefit - getting out, meeting people, the gossip and polishing their halos.
I must compliment our local charity shop ladies though - they were so grateful and enthusiastic about some donations I took in that i almost said They aren't all that good you know.

I can update you on the Oxfam shop in St. Andrews from last November . The staff were perfectly and unmemorably pleasant. I do often find myself thinking "League of Gentlemen" in a lot of charity shops, but a lot of the time it's sweet old lady volunteers - the other week I had a lot of trouble getting them to let me donate the 5p that had fallen out of my purse by the side of the till!!

MTS.....I'm not surprised, they were very old, and I'm sure they have popped off by now! They seemed to be surving on pure venom!

St As is so nice, I miss it very much

i used to work in a charity shop (well two actually) and have experienced both ends of the spectrum as far as the staff are concerned.

thats all i'm saying or i'll be here moaning all night

My step grandmother is a charity shop person.

(ok i dont like her in terms of our family etc) BUT im sure she is a VERY LOVELY charity shop worker.]

her heart is in the right place and she is doing her best to do 'her bit'. As far as charity shop workers go, those like her are lovely, and i hope all the charities are greatful for the hard work they do, for no pay at all!

I love the bonkers displays that old women put in the window. They are working on what they dimly remember was all the rage in 1971.

talking to a friend the other day whose mil works in a charity shop and grabs all the best bargains and pays next to nothing for them. I know this isn't what always happens but it probably does happen more than we know. Spoils it all for everybody else

I used to work in the head office of a major charity. We didn't have shops but had local branches consisting generally of the 'old dear' types mentioned here - some busy bodies, some clueless but most were very nice. I think our place was very old fashioned in that we took great pride in thanking people for their donations/time etc, despite the tat we used to receive. Our chief exec used to travel from one end of the country to the other to help out at fundraising events and the old dears used to love him. He was a stickler for writing thank you letters as well. I think charities have had to change their images and ways of operating to survive in what is now a cut throat business, and it is sad that so many have become impersonal and impolite.

Maybe 'the customer is always right" only applies to paid staff not volunteers.

It doesn't apply full bloody stop IME

I hate it when you get a bag through the door to fill, you rush round to fill it for the allotted pick up date - put it out & no one comes to get it !

I hate it when they come round to get their damn unsolicited bag, and you haven't filled it, because you were too busy - and they make you feel like a mass murderer. I had one say "I'll wait here while you have a quick scout round for a few things to put in it then".

Hi has anyone volounteered in a charity shop and had problems with maybe rules they have about being able to take stuff home ( that's paid for of course)????