St Christopher's in ED would not take my donation, why?

[trinidad]

Hello All,

Apologize for the lengthy first thread.

With the weather on the up, and a feeling of spring in the air, I decided to finally get rid of those coats, trousers, shoes etc, which were sorted last year, but I had only managed to place in bin bags and placed in the corner of one of my rooms.

I counted six bags in total, and much of the clothing, was quite good. I had visited the main store of St Christopher's in the past, and decided to visit them.

I drove the short distance to the store, and was lucky enough to find a 30 minute bay close by, on lordship lane.

I brought my first two bags into the store, and waited patiently in the line. There appeared to be a lot going on, with two volunteers coming and disappearing in the back.

After several minutes, I informed one of the volunteers, that I wanted to make a donation. I was asked what I had, and I informed the volunteer, I had male things.

I was asked to place the contributions in a pile at the end of the volunteer desk, which I did. I placed them on the ground, and left without a word from the volunteer. I returned back to the store a second time, and I was told by the same volunteer "we cannot take any more of your things, perhaps you could take them to MIND on the corner" I was completely shocked and surprised. This was the first time I had donated to a charity, and did not understand why I was being turned away.

I really wanted to contribute to the charity, and I had purchased a number of items in the past. I informed the volunteer, perhaps I should visit the smaller branch a few doors down, and she replied "sure".

I did visit the smaller branch, and explained what had happened, and the staff were really shocked. The manager in the small store was warm, and inviting. She told me, we welcome all donations to the charity. I gave the remaining four bags to the branch and left.

Any thoughts anyone??

[singalto]

The volunteers in the bigger shop can be very off hand but are sometimes overwhelmed when lots of donations at the same time. Don't be put off making donations..

[siousxiesue]

School holidays tend to mean masses of donations and regular volunteers off because of the break, I would suspect it's that.

[Whittler]

As singalto says, it may be a health and safety issue to do with how many bags of donations the volunteers can take and sort in one day. If their 'sorting and pricing' area becomes clogged and overloaded with bags of donations waiting for sorting, it poses a H&S risk to volunteers. It's a balancing act for volunteers who may be deluged with donations at particular times - as someone has already pointed out, holidays are prime times for people to have a clear out - and they have to make sure there are enough people to sort and price and manage the shop floor. I doubt very much that it was a case of shunning your donation for no good reason, and perhaps next time if you have a lot of stuff it may be better to divide it and take it to a couple of charity shops that are close to each other to spread the love!

[treehugger]

I took some stuff to St Christophers on Saturday. The shop was heaving with so many bags of donated stuff that I couldn't see how the staff would sort through them. I actually thought at the time that the shop felt like it was being overwhelmed. I imagine that was the reason why they were asking for no more donations at that time.

[Mick Mac]

It's disappointing, but at the end of the day they are volunteers, and I take my hat off to them for giving up their free time. Even when they cant cope with everything. Perhaps drip feeding the bags over a period of time might be helpful to them.

In reality clothes are often sold by the ton for very little money.

[Pugwash]

My husband is a volunteer at the Hospice Shop - the amount of donations can be overwhelming and all bags have to be carefully sorted as some people bring in broken/dirty/torn items in black bags and just dump them at the counter. Staff have fallen over the bags and injured themselves, and there is also the question of health and safety to both the public and staff/volunteers - should a fire break out it would quickly spread .

When we cleared out my mother's flat, the Sydenham branch told us they could not accept anymore stuff as they were overwhelmed - we ended up spreading the load by visiting 6 other charity shops.

[hammerman]

Maybe a sign could be put on the shop door saying 'Sorry but we cannot accept donations until further notice' or something like that? That would stop the build up and staff having to deal with not just storing/sorting the stuff but talking to customers.

Trinidad is also probably questioning the attitude of the staff e.g. after placing his bags on the ground he left without a word but was then met by a warm and inviting manager in the small shop.

[Pugwash]

I believe staff have suggested a note on the door but have been told by 'management' that this cannot be done.

The small shop does not get as many donations left there as people tend to go to the large shop.

[trinidad]

There seem to be a lot of misleading messages typed here.

I received a PVT message from the manager of the branch, inviting me call or see her.

I went into the shop yesterday. The Manager was really apologetic, and did not want this experience to stop me donating. She genuinely wanted to get to the bottom of what happened, but adopt more of a training/awareness view point, than scolding someone. The manager intends to communicate with me next week.

In regards to "volunteers being overwhelmed" that is not the impression i received from the manager, they seem to have good systems in place to distribute excess donations elsewhere, and had quite a large storage space on the day I visited, in fact I was told some members of the public even do house clearing, following a death, which the charity accepts, so this has no affect on school holidays, or volunteer shortages.

I got the impression, there was also no H&S issues, the Manager informed me the branch never turns donations away normally - so no issues with pricing, sorting etc....

The manager was really nice, and I am glad I met her and will donate again.

[Mystic Mog]

Glad you sorted it out. These charity shops do a great job.

[sjw]

I had this problem in St Christopher's in West Wickham despite there being a large "donations welcome" sign outside I was almost frogmarched out of the shop when I tried to leave a bag.Have to say it put me off and have not donated there since there are plenty more charity shops who are grateful for donations.

[Pugwash]

Every now and then, they have a clear out and give items to be recycled, so this may have happened. There was a recent inspection by HQ H & S so they may have noted the build up of bags. A new manager was appointed a few weeks ago with the original manager being sent to another shop miles away. I heard that she was more approachable than the old one.

They have a large number of volunteers but recently it has been noted that at times they are very short staffed. Many of the 'volunteers' are doing work experience or on community service so there is a fluctuation in staffing levels.

They do collect and deliver items of furniture for a small fee - I purchased some very nice wooden dining chairs there a couple of years ago for ?5 each. Also an Arsenal bean bag and bed linen for a football mad grandson