Rational rage. Maybe.

[Sue]

I'm still fuming :(

I went into the smaller hospice shop in Lordship Lane this afternoon, chose three books at ?1, ?1 and ?2 and took them to the counter, expecting to pay ?4 for the three.

Assistant picks up the ?2 book and says "That's not in the sale, it will be ?2. But you can get another book for free.".

I didn't even know there was a sale!

Assistant: "It's a cookery book, cookery books aren't in the sale."

Me: "But it's not a cookery book, it's a gardening book." (Carol Klein's "Grow Your Own Veg Journal".)

Assistant: "No it's not, it's a cookery book."

Me: "It's a gardening book, look inside."

Asistant: "We have looked inside, it's a cookery book."

Me: "It's a gardening book."

Assistant looks inside, leafs through it a bit, and says nothing. Maybe she had seen the headings such as "Discouraging Pests", "Chitting Potatoes" and Watering Your Garden".

I then turn round and look at a large notice above the bookshelf (which I hadn't previously seen) which says in large letters "Books three for a pound (I think it was) except cookery and art books".

Me: "Look, your notice says only cookery and art books are excluded from the sale."

Assistant: "Well, we've decided that book is excluded as well. We can't list all the books on the notice which are excluded."

!!!!!!!!!

So at this point she must have realised that the book was not in fact a cookery book.

Me: Something along the lines of "Well that's bloody stupid, what's the point of having the notice at all then."

I then get soundly attacked by two assistants plus a customer for:

1. Swearing.

2. Daring to question a price in a charity shop when said charity is for people dying in hospices.

I was also told I was lucky to be alive when there were people dying !!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!

By this point I was really incensed. Not only did I hold my mum's hand as she died in a hospice, have given money to hospice charities and donated loads of stuff to the larger hospice shop, I also buy loads of stuff there as well.

I would have told them to stuff their books and walked out, but unfortunately I really wanted the gardening one.

In the end I paid the ?4 which I thought I was going to have to pay in the first place anyway, and left, followed by very bad vibes and no doubt left them all gossiping about what a mean and terrible person I am.

When we got outside, I said to my partner I was sorry if I had embarrassed him, and he said no not at all, you were totally right.

All I can think is that the original assistant did not want to admit that she had been wrong to say the book was a cookery book and not in the sale, had to find some way out of it, so turned it all round to put the blame on me for trying to rip the charity off by not paying more than, er, the price it should have been.

Why the customer and other assistant got involved to back her up, I have no idea.

I thought I would feel better for having a rant about it on here, but I don't, in fact I feel even more wound up.

I'm off to have a nice cup of tea, then I think I will go and lie down in a darkened room .......

[Alan Medic]

Great story Sue. Hope you feel better.

[Henry_17]

Sue, AM,

Indeed, that has the makings of great sketch material!

[DulwichFox]

When the Assistant picked up the ?2 book and said "That's not in the sale, it will be ?2. But you can get another book for free.".

Why didn't you just pay the ?2.00 as you expected and ?1.00 each for the other 2. ?4.00 in all.

Which you did in the end anyway. Why engage in such a pointless argument about the subject matter. ???

It's a charity shop.. Just give them a Fiver and everyone would be happy and no stress..

Foxy.

[Sue]

DulwichFox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> When the Assistant picked up the ?2 book and said

> "That's not in the sale, it will be ?2. But you

> can get another book for free.".

>

> Why didn't you just pay the ?2.00 as you expected

> and ?1.00 each for the other 2. ?4.00 in all.

> Which you did in the end anyway. Why engage in

> such a pointless argument about the subject

> matter. ???

>

> It's a charity shop.. Just give them a Fiver and

> everyone would be happy and no stress..

You seem to have missed the point ....

[red devil]

I don't believe it, this is probably the first genuine irrational rage rant and you go and stick it in a new rational rage thread!... :) :) :)

[Sue]

red devil Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I don't believe it, this is probably the first

> genuine irrational rage rant and you go and stick

> it in a new rational rage thread!... :) :) :)

I think you'll find there's a "maybe" in the heading :))

[Otta]

I don't think I'd have bothered arguing about the price of the book to be honest.

But the fact they said things to you about people dying in hospices, and you being lucky to be alive. Well that's just wrong.

Problem is, you're on to a loser from the outset, because as the volunteers of a chairty shop they automaticaaly get the moral high ground, even when (as in this case) they were in the wrong.

Hope your tea calmed you down. Have a beer next.

[rendelharris]

Otta Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> Problem is, you're on to a loser from the outset,

> because as the volunteers of a chairty shop they

> automaticaaly get the moral high ground, even when

> (as in this case) they were in the wrong.

>

>

> Hope your tea calmed you down. Have a beer next.

That's the best advice! God bless charity shop workers, wonderful people providing a great service to the community - especially the impecunious part of it like me - and to their charities, but there's no need to be holier than thou about it. Some years ago I bought a lovely dinner suit in Cancer Research for ?40, when the assistant tried to charge me ?60 and I pointed out it had a "?20 off" sticker on it he sniffed and said "Well, that's a cancer patient who's ?20 worse off then." Funnily enough the first event to which I wore the suit was a Marie Curie fundraiser....

[malumbu]

It's a charity for gawd's sake. Cut them some slack. Take a deep breath and move on. Think about Yemen or Syria. In deed this would make a good comedy sketch. Alternativey write to the Grauniad's consumer problems page. They are getting pretty desparate.

For those who get all upity about my posts this is said in good humour.

[rendelharris]

malumbu Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's a charity for gawd's sake. Cut them some

> slack. Take a deep breath and move on. Think

> about Yemen or Syria. In deed this would make a

> good comedy sketch. Alternativey write to the

> Grauniad's consumer problems page. They are

> getting pretty desparate.

>

> For those who get all upity about my posts this is

> said in good humour.

Quite so and your posts are always good humoured (I think) but rudeness is rudeness, commercial business or not - I do think the "you're lucky to alive" business would have pissed me off. As I said above, people who work in charity shops are absolute stars, but that doesn't mean they have a special exemption to be rude - most of them (in my experience) take great pride in being really professional in their attitude.

[TheArtfulDogger]

Sue

Your post reminds me of the dead parrot sketch from Momty Python

Just replace "dead parrot" in the script with "cook book" and you are almost there.

The BBC pays pounds, shillings and pence for gold like this 😂

Although laughing aside I can understand your irritation at the mis classification and the resulting conversation, but it's still not right for the charity shop to use the emotional blackmail angle without knowing your history.

Final word from me

"Mr. Praline: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's a gardening book, that's what's wrong with it!"

[Sue]

OK I can laugh about it now :)

[Lynne]

I've stopped going into that charity shop because I had the same sort of argument about the large sign that said 3 books for ?2, or what ever it was, only to be told that THIS book ( not art or cookery) was not in the sale. I didn't argue as long as you did Sue, but I was pretty fed up with their attitude.

OK it's for a charity. OK I've had relatives benefiting from a hospice. But IT'S A SHOP. Not a club for favoured members. They should obey retail laws.

Mutter mutter grumble.

[DovertheRoad]

Otta Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I don't think I'd have bothered arguing about the

> price of the book to be honest.

>

> Problem is, you're on to a loser from the outset,

> because as the volunteers of a chairty shop they

> automaticaaly get the moral high ground, even when

> (as in this case) they were in the wrong.

Perfectly said. They're not retail professionals...your logic is also sound Sue but sometimes in life you just have to go with the flow. Esp. when only a quid is involved.

[DulwichFox]

All I can say is , If Sue has so much trouble buying 3 books from a Charity Shop..

.. How does she cope with the Supermarket with all the

Buy one, Get one Free offers..

3 for 2 offers ..

Buy one get 2nd 1/2 price offers..

:)

Must be a nightmare..

Foxy

[Robert Poste's Child]

Using a swear word in a shop means you invoke an unspoken rule that says they can now stop all pretence to give service and show you the door. Another form of moral high ground really as you were using it as a general intensifier rather than abusing someone personally.

I used the f-word while being cross about something in Waitrose once. You'd have thought I'd taken my clothes off and danced naked on the bakery counter.

[TheArtfulDogger]

Robert Poste's Child Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> You'd have thought I'd

> taken my clothes off and danced naked on the

> bakery counter.

Again... Oh well guess "nice buns" would be appropriate here

[Robert Poste's Child]

'We're going to need considerably bigger buns.'

[rendelharris]

You're reminding me of Alan Bennet: "Then there's Ian, who was had up for exposing himself in Sainsbury's. I mean! As mother said, Tesco's, you could understand it..."

[uncleglen]

I wouldn't feel too guilty about depriving cancer patients and others of ?20 - the research labs use students on a placement year at little or no pay (they can still get their loan) to do a lot of the work - students are desperate for work experience in top hospitals and labs. The hospices may very well use students on BTEC courses as the care homes do.

[Sue]

Also!

Apart from the fact that they don't recognise a gardening book when they see one (despite Royal Horticultural Society being on the front in large letters)they don't seem to understand their own pricing strategy.

When I had two books (which fitted in with their esoteric classification obv) it wasn't the case that I could "get another one free". It was the case that I could get the two existing books plus the extra one for a pound.

So bizarrely, if I had bought a book I didn't want, I could have got that "free", got the other two half price, then given them back the book I didn't want!

Oh and re the swearing. I said Jesus at one point before the end, and you would have thought I had said something like "I really enjoy torturing small helpless fluffy animals", oh dear.

As for whether I should just have paid up and bitten my tongue _ yes I could have done. I could also have given them a tenner and said keep the change. I could have said I'll go home immediately and rewrite my will in your favour.

I don't do that in Tesco so why should I do it in a charity shop? It's a shop. I give to charity directly as well, I'm not trying to do them out of money, it's the principle.

Also, they clearly see themselves as a normal shop. When the charge came in for carrier bags I was in the larger shop when an assistant insisted on charging a very upset customer for what appeared to be a very old and well used plastic carrier because "all shops have to do that now."

[TheArtfulDogger]

Sue Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> "I really enjoy torturing small helpless fluffy animals", oh dear.

OMG YOU KILLED TUFTY DIDN'T YOU .

 

[Sue]

TheArtfulDogger Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Sue Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

>

> > "I really enjoy torturing small helpless fluffy

> animals", oh dear.

>

> OMG YOU KILLED TUFTY DIDN'T YOU .

>

:))

[FJDGoose]

The women in that charity shop remind me of the two charity shop characters in the League of Gentlemen.

"There's no need to be rude dear!" " I wasn't being rude dear!" " has it got a special mark dear? " etc