BHF refuse my donation of an antique Edwardian Windsor chair

Ignorance ! Put your valuable items into an auction and donate what you get to another charity! Their loss -

Phone your local auction house, they will collect the chair and sell it for you and you will get the going rate for the chair and then you can donate the money to a cause that you love or treat yourself to a nice day out.

If anyone has a lot of lego to get rid of WeBuyBricks buys them to recycle - it's part of WeBuyBooks, which buys and sells on books.

I donate all my unwanted items to a local charity as long as they are in good, saleable condition. The tatty stuff goes to huge, purpose built (not my domestic) recycling bins which are thoughtfully near where I live! That being said, I too have encountered rudeness from ill informed (is that ‘woke’ enough for the sensitive souls here?!) workers at the BHF. A beautiful solid ash unit-‘too big’ to be removed from my first floor flat. Well, it got up here fully assembled!! And some lovely, modern Darlington crystal I no longer used-‘we’ve got a lot of glass’! These items were gratefully received (and removed!) by another charity. I no longer donate to BHF although I admire the work they do. Perhaps they should train their staff better with basic levels of courtesy thrown in! After all, their jobs and much of their charitable endeavours depend on their donor supporters.

I had to give away my parents much loved and very expensive refectory table and six chairs because no charity would take them. The upholstered chairs had no fire label and they wouldn’t take a table without chairs.

Madeleine 45, that was such a lovely contribution! You made some valid points in a constructive and pleasant manner. So ofte the comments on here are downright rude and unnecessary!

I had a 2 year old small black undercounter freezer, bought while waiting for kitchen refurb to be done and fitting a new integrated one. I held back from tip journey because it was perfect. 2 very nasty collection drivers refused to take it saying it was rusty. It had a miniscule tiny spot of brown on a bar inside and they just looked at it and said "can't take it". Made me feel as if I was using them to remove it for free, instead of trying to help people who maybe could not afford a new one. I have a heart problem myself and I would never donate items to to BHF again after this, although I still donate in other ways.

I had a spat with BHF recently. I've just moved house, and contacted them to take away some old( perfectly respectable) furniture i could no longer use. When the people turned up to collect all my stuff everythig was rejected because it wasn't perfect (ie some things had the odd scratch on them). Such a pity - I am sure there are loads of people out there who would happily pay a small price for a bit of furniture, and make it good themselves. it occurred to me these charities should have workshops where they train people to restore furniture - thus giving people a job and then having nice furniture etc. to sell on afterwards.

As far as Lego's are concerned, this is per the U.S. website but I'm betting this is worldwide.

www.lego.com/en-us/service/help/more_about_us/brick_facts/brick_facts/recycling-lego-pieces-warehouse-recycling-kA009000001dblqCAA?locale=en-us

avitorl

Most charity shop workers are volunteers. Also it can be very difficult to get rid of Edwardian chairs.Sadly they have very little value now. It can be difficult to give them away. I know this from my own experience

Charity managers I have worked with never had a screen to be behind they were all out in the shop or behind the scenes sorting and steaming .

BHF are much more fussy about what they will take than other charity shops. I know they need a fire label but they will not take anything with very minor scratches or faults. I also find it annoying that they often ask for more than the asking price in their shops.
I find it odd that they asked for a table with the chair as, when I donated a dining table and chairs, I got told by the charity that people want chairs but not tables, as people do not have dining rooms nowadays.

Thank you for your interesting and informative post, Madeleine45.

I gave a large crate of Lego to a local school. Not all children have it home and it’s an expensive item for schools to buy.

I haven't idea what the issue was, but it seems it wasn't possible to just accept it. I gave it to a neighbour for their grandchildren. I would rather it had gone to a group so more children would enjoy it but what can you do.

What was their problem with Lego?

I tried to donate a large quantity of Lego to a local charity. They said they would have a committee meeting to discuss whether they could accept it and would put in a charity shop if they couldn't. I took it home and gave it away.

Grandmaderby
Ours is what you call an Aladdin’s cave
We are a local charity helping to support a children and young adults in a particular pastime.
We sell anything and everything 😂
We are very lucky in that we a a resident PAT tester.
I wonder how many of the Main Stream charities deliver and pick up. Not many, if any.

All our local charity shops who are furniture based take old furniture. Teak furniture dating to the 1960s/70s is highly desireable and quickly snapped up.

lemsip

They simply are not allowed to take furniture, beds ect ect antique or not!

they do not accept 'everything.

Not allowed to take furniture? News to me. The BHF took a really big, solid oak repro sideboard which TBH I never really liked even when we bought it! (Talked into it by a Liberty’s salesman decades ago.)
Sister was disposing of a nicer one after a move, win win.

Our local BHF shop is huge, always has lots of furniture. It occupies the site formerly occupied by BHS.

I saw a Zandra Rhodes suit on sale for £6 in a Charity shop. I alerted the staff but could not convince them that they should get it valued as it would be a collectors' piece. They persistently misunderstood me and insisted that was the price saying it could not be reduced. I should have bought it except I am a size 14 and it was a size 8........... Frustratingly I saw a friend a few minutes later who was the right size and told her about it but never discovered if she bought it..........

Freecycle is best IMO. I recently gave away 2 wooden dining chairs. Old but well made. The young man who took them sent me a photo of them at his small dining table. I don’t like waste so was pleased.

Put the chair in a local auction.

Of course charity shops can and do accept furniture made before 1953.

The fire labelling only applies to upholstered furniture and a Winsor chair is not upholstered.

However, we have both been running a small antique stall as a hobby and clearing our own house prior to downsizing. We both buy and sell regulalry at auction and I can say that at the moment single chairs, or chairs in pairs are a drug on the market. No one wants them and even our local auction house no longer accpets them unless they are of exceptional quality and style. they did accept one pair of chairs from us recently that were a very unusual design that sold well, but declined to include in their auctions a pair of balloon back Victorian dining chairs with upholstered seats because no one would buy them.

I have been involved as a volunteer with many charities over the years and you see the best and worst of people in every place. Bags of dirty - and I mean dirty - clothes literally dumped , actual broken furniture that they seem surprised that you cannot accept etc. When I am doing things on my own , I can use my own judgement, but when you are a specific charity shop you must go by their rules. Dont know if it is still the case, but the majority of charity shops would not accept electrical goods as they all have to have PAT testing, but Sue Ryder used to take them as they had people who did this testing and then they could pass them on etc etc. But working in the shops you can only follow the guidelines the charity set.
I am sorry you got someone who was rude and did not have the correct knowledge of the rules. This could be a variety of reasons

a. New person who had not yet learned the rules and did not understand how hard it can be to spend days in the shop. That you will not be lady bountiful handling beautiful things for most of the time, but lifting and sorting things and coping with everything from lovely people who do their best, to a whole range of situations , from people who are drunk or on drugs or trying to shoplift (yes even from a charity!) to antique dealers hoping to find something special which has not been recognised etc etc
b. Someone who is having an off day or is in pain and should have really not gone into work but there is no one else available.
c. Just as you say a rather rude person who should not be doing this sort of thing with the public, who will put people off helping your charity.

When I have run shops at times, certain people would be carefully given jobs in the back, and kept away from the public as much as possible. I did have one person that I had to say, very politely but firmly, not to be so pushy with the customers and she took offence and flounced off, but that is the only one I did have to specifically do this to.

However if someone has been rude more than once, I would try to contact the manager of the shop, explain what has happened and say that this person is not only behaving in an unacceptable manner per se, but will be putting off people from donating and could also put someone off ever helping that charity again.

In our area we have a community action group , and they are a great place to go to , in a very green way. They know all the local charities, and a womens refuge , and a "mens shed" where people can mend wooden things that are worth working with etc. so if I have something that I just dont know where it would be best used, I contact them and they will help to get it to somewhere that will be pleased to use it, and I am very happy to know that I am helping someone and also avoiding landfill etc.
One specific thing the PAT testing group can do is if someone has died and there are things like kitchen things, kettles, mixers , microwaves etc which have obviously been in use until the person has died, then these are tested and here I know that they have been given to people , such as young people leaving care and setting up their own place, women from the refuge, and someone not long ago who had had a fire and was without all the kitchen things. So if you look around and check with WI or local council or lists in the library you may find just the right thing that you need.

I am 79 in a months time, and when I look back over many long years I have been involved in all sorts of charities according to where my life took me, and of course there have been times when you could scream, or slam the door or whatever, but the majority of the times I have gone with no ulterior motive but to give a little bit of time. In return I have made lifelong friends, learned lots of things, been reminded that I have much in life to be grateful for, and when I am having a rotten day, in a lot of pain and not able to do much, it is good to know that I have these things to look back on.

Do keep on giving , for the greater majority of people you will meet will be decent and helpful, and you will feel happy that you have done what you feel is right.

When I last wanted a new washing machine I looked on Gumtree and found a practically new one, the brand I like, for under £100.
I went to collect and found it was a charity warehouse. The place was piled high with white goods and furniture. I was asked if I could take anything else as they had so much!.

That machine is still going strong after c10 years!

MadeInYorkshire

They aren't allowed to sell things in their shops without a fire label, but I've seen antiques etc for sale on eBay from them, so that's a bit weird - maybe it's BHF in one place possibly London that does the eBaying?

A lot of the charity shops sell items online nowadays. Especially if they think they can get more for it there than they can in-shop.