Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Who's Doing Who a Favor Here?

So I had a bunch of stuff that didn't sell in the garage sale this past weekend and wanted to drop it off at the Salvation Army -- rather than just toss it in my dumpster. Just because it's of no use to me doesn't me that someone else couldn't benefit from it, right?

I drove by on Saturday and read the large sign by the donation door that said "donations only accepted during store hours." Since it was after hours that day, I saw that they were open until 9pm each weeknight. Great, I could go after work. Which is what I did last night, at 6pm. Only to drive right up to the donation door and see in smaller, hand-written with a Sharpie lettering: "9am to 4pm M-F, 9am to 3pm Sat."

Sigh, one more day with all this junk in my trunk. I really thought about tossing it, but really what was one more day. No big deal. I'm helping by donating, really.

So after a shitty, frustrating morning at work, I drive down to the Army and pull up to the donation door. I pull out the shopping bags from the back of my car and hand them over to the man working there, go back for more and overhear him rudely tell a woman that they are a "retail center" and they are not accepting books of any kind. She gives it back to him with a smile, "you'd think people these days would buy books, my mistake."

I bring two more bags -- kitchen stuff and Christmas. "We're not taking Christmas, bring it back in November."

I'm throwing this shit out, but I don't say that. "Can I have a receipt please?"

"You make your own."

"Excuse me." Now every other place I've been to has given me a blank sheet of paper with some sort of letterhead or logo on top, and then they date and sign it.

"You're supposed to make your own itemized list yourself."

At this point, I've had it up to here with his attitude -- no thank you for donating, no helpful attitude about my taxes. Just "make your own."

Yea, I will gladly throw that Christmas stuff away tonight -- so much for being a good person and donating to a "worthy" cause. Salvation, my ass.

No comments: