Unfriendly staff in charity shops

How rude!

Oh you're so lucky to have lovely people working in your local charity shop. We have 3 in our little suburb & they were all great until a new lady manager took over!
I was rummaging in the 50p compartment one day near a little old man. He then took his hard-rumaged spoils to the till, puffed-up with thrill of it all , as we all do.
Anyway, this awful harridan at the till burst his bubble by accusing him of taking said spoils from the more expensive section. She was a complete & utter cow to him. I had to say my bit. I'm afraid charity shops do attract some right #*!# so & so's, who quite frankly shouldn't be allowed near nice little old men. Rant over. 😶

I’ve rarely encountered unfriendly people in charity shops and have always been thanked for donations. Except once.
A few years ago, there was a collaboration between Innocent drinks and a well-known charity, which asked people to knit tiny hats for the bottles to wear. I knitted 50, all completely different (I was really proud of some of them! ) and never got any thanks at all. I didn’t expect them to be over the top or to look at every one, but some acknowledgement would have been appreciated!

Whenever we take stuff in to one of our local charity shops they are always really pleased and thank us. No excuse for bad manners.

Bluebelle - you have described perfectly a day in the life of a charity shop worker, certainly in my shop. Worn knickers and all

I always organise an uplift from BHF. In fact I had one last week.
The staff in the shop I phone to organise an uplift, are very appreciative, the drivers always thank me, and I receive a thank you letter, saying approx how much they had earned from my donations.

nanna8

I like our op shops better than calling them charity shops! Op= opportunity, not so patronising.

Nothing patroining about our charity shops. They are so called because they raise money for the charity that runs them, Age UK, Oxfam, Local hospice or whatever.

It is not a referral to the people who buy there because that would be inaccurate because every sort of person buys there and some charity shops are quite upmarket specialising in antiques and collectables, or expensive clothing.

HettyBetty

I tend to use the same charity shop most of the time. The staff are very friendly, always say thank you for donations and go out of their way to be cheerful. A while ago there were two teenage girls trying on prom dresses and the staff were making a big fuss of them, making positive comments and admiring the way they looked in each dress.

The manager has an amazing memory and sometimes tells me about my donations. "That set of mugs you brought in, it went to a young couple who have just moved to XTown." She is fabulous and very popular. I'm sure it increases the income considerably.

That's quite wonderful!

CountessFosco

RedRidingHood

That's been my experience at a host of different charity shops.

LeBonCoin = we used it regularly

Sorry, that was meant for Grandmafrench, not RRH

RedRidingHood

That's been my experience at a host of different charity shops.

LeBonCoin = we used it regularly

I arrange the collections for our church fete. Everyone is thanked profusely, even those who know that their ‘donation ‘ should go to the tip! Everyone is then thanked again on Facebook.
I agree a lot of the charity shops around here have very miserable staff, but they are also struggling to recruit volunteers, so they are in a bit of a no win situation.

The charity shop I volunteer in nothing like some of you have experienced. It’s a local children’s charity and the staff are always friendly and helpful .and we get regular customers who stay for a chat .
We accept anything apart from duvets and pillows . And never turn people away . We do have a sign saying no donations after 4.30 became we want to provide a clear shop and back office for the staff the following day .
I always thank people for their donations and I’m very aware that some people are clearing a loved ones house and are quite emotional.
Our shop has easy parking so we get loads of donations and sometimes you can barely move for black bags and boxes . And we are very grateful for donations but
I do think people should think more about the condition of stuff they donate . It’s obvious that some people dump the contents of a cupboard or drawer into a box as you get used toiletries, dirty kitchen stuff and broken toys which we have to put in our bins . Plus dirty tatty clothes and shoes which go into recycling .
Regarding rude staff which isn’t acceptable. Most are volunteers and some have never had a customer facing job. So Perhaps don’t have people skills. We also have teenagers doing DOE .

Grandmafrench

And what does your post even mean, Monica ? The OP started a thread asking for others’ experiences. This resulted in a mixed bag of comments. Posters are adults. With our many years between us, no one needs to be ‘told’ that they’ll find many sorts of shops can have rude or unhelpful staff. D’you think we’ve all just floated down the Mersey on a tea tray?

A charity shop hopefully raising money from donations and efforts of the public should at the very least endeavour to say thank you for the gifts. Kind donors are giving, providing stock, not picking up fish and chips.

People on any thread don’t need to have their own experiences dismissed or disrespected - and as in this case - according to their numbers of visits.
Discussion, Debate please - not Dismissal or Derision based on your own ‘findings’ and what YOU decide is correct.

I am still trying to work out why Monica’s post caused you to have such a strong reaction! She is always helpful and supportive and didn’t deserve your put-down!
I didn’t think she was dismissive or disrespectful, but I do think that maybe you were.

Mt61

I offered our local Sally Army a lovely sofa, various other items. Whilst there I had a look round, saw a nice butter dish & plastic oxo jug, they wanted £11, I only had £10. I asked could I have them for £10- no she flatly refused! I felt like saying don’t bother picking up the sofa, I’ll give it to the hospice. I Didn’t of course.

Oh & not much of a thanks, btw.

I offered our local Sally Army a lovely sofa, various other items. Whilst there I had a look round, saw a nice butter dish & plastic oxo jug, they wanted £11, I only had £10. I asked could I have them for £10- no she flatly refused! I felt like saying don’t bother picking up the sofa, I’ll give it to the hospice. I Didn’t of course.

And what does your post even mean, Monica ? The OP started a thread asking for others’ experiences. This resulted in a mixed bag of comments. Posters are adults. With our many years between us, no one needs to be ‘told’ that they’ll find many sorts of shops can have rude or unhelpful staff. D’you think we’ve all just floated down the Mersey on a tea tray?

A charity shop hopefully raising money from donations and efforts of the public should at the very least endeavour to say thank you for the gifts. Kind donors are giving, providing stock, not picking up fish and chips.

People on any thread don’t need to have their own experiences dismissed or disrespected - and as in this case - according to their numbers of visits.
Discussion, Debate please - not Dismissal or Derision based on your own ‘findings’ and what YOU decide is correct.

Never heard of an Op Shop, but whether it's that or any other type of shop, manners and common courtesy cost nothing.

mrsmeldrew

I feel quite depressed about the lack of manners in the UK. We go to France annually for 5 weeks and the difference is incredible. Strangers greet each other with a Bonjour, and people are very polite. Always a smile from shop workers.

I noticed in the local boulangerie English tourists speaking French but not adding a s'ils vous plait or merci. I always do that and I can sense it is appreciated.

Incidentally there is a charity shop in Sarlat. Popped in there and got a warm welcome.

I notice on our village Facebook - people post wanting a plumber/electrician/gardener/cleaner etc no please or thank you. Lazy as well because if they did a search they will see recommendations from a week or two earlier.

I suppose it's the norm now.

I think France and the UK vary very much from region to region.

One of the things I was always told amused the French about the English was the way they kept saying 'please' and 'thank you' after everything. I was told in France you just asked for something in a courteous manner, without unnecessary pleases and thank you, and in Normandy, which has been our stamping ground for the last 40 years, that seems to be the rule.

However the French are far more formal and frequent in greetings and we have learnt[ to say 'Bon jour', Bon soir' etc when ever we go in and out of any establishment from shops, to hotels, to joining queues in the pharmacie.

I think that many charity shops are overwhelmed with the sheer quantity of donations they receive. We think we are doing them a favour by donating, but as there is a bit of a trend at the moment for buying less and simplifying our lives, the whole of the UK is doing the same thing at the same time. Clothes in particular are just too plentiful in supply.

There’s no call for rudeness, obviously, but I can understand why the volunteers would feel ambivalent about more donations coming in if they are in that position - locally we’ve reached the point where people ask on the community Facebook Group which charity shops are taking clothes before they offload them.

Our local charity shops ask if you do Gift Aid when you take in donations, so yes, you are always acknowledged and thanked.

But like everywhere, some are more ‘people’ person than others.

It's a strange old world the charity shop. There are many of them in my area and you could cut the atmosphere with a knife in some of them. No Good Morning, nothing.

It seems to have changed from a simple, kind idea into something else. Volunteers get fed up with dealing with fly tipping and so on. For some reason the Hospice ones are always nice.

I feel quite depressed about the lack of manners in the UK. We go to France annually for 5 weeks and the difference is incredible. Strangers greet each other with a Bonjour, and people are very polite. Always a smile from shop workers.

I noticed in the local boulangerie English tourists speaking French but not adding a s'ils vous plait or merci. I always do that and I can sense it is appreciated.

Incidentally there is a charity shop in Sarlat. Popped in there and got a warm welcome.

I notice on our village Facebook - people post wanting a plumber/electrician/gardener/cleaner etc no please or thank you. Lazy as well because if they did a search they will see recommendations from a week or two earlier.

I suppose it's the norm now.

One or two people have occasional experience of rude or unhelpful and ungrateful staff in one shop and this results in a thread headed: ^ Unfriendly staff in charity shops^

You will occasionally meet unfriendly people anywhere from your local charity shop, to your local chippy, chemist, garage, post office, bank, bus stop - absolutely anywhere.

Over the last month we have been downsizing and moving and I have taken stuff to about 10 different charity shops in 3 different local towns. On one or two occasions they have told me that they couldn't take certain types of goods, or that they could only accept donations between certain hours, but all the staff I dealt with were courteous, charming and grateful for my offerngs.

Mine is only anecdotal evidence, all though the sample size is reasonable, but, geographically limited, but would never generalise from a sample of 1.

Several of our local charity shops employ some staff with special needs who appear to be distant.

I had a similar experience a while ago before a big charity shop opened in our town and I had to travel to the next town. I too phoned to see if they were accepting donations and the person who answered was quite curt, when I went in the shop I was ignored at first then when I said I had donations the person I spoke to said to take them round to the back, no thanks or much communication. So now I either put things in bags we get through the door regularly, or in a bin inside Dunelm. Non clothing items we can take to a British Heart Foundation shop which opened a couple of months ago, it is the only charity shop in our town and they were quite pleasant when we recently dropped some stuff off.