Thread: The Salvos have left me stunned !!!!

Strange, my local Sallys had no trouble coming & picking up a 20" CRT TV a year ago - on Sydney's North Shore, in the mortgage belt. I was going to throw in a DVD player, but a friend needed one before I got round to ringing the Sallys.

I think it depends very much on who is running the local store - if he/she is a stuck up snob, then they will only want solid gold trays & diamonds, if they have a bunch of clients who are really needy, then anything that works is welcome.

I used to work for the Red Cross, and the decision to take electrical stuff is a commercial one. If a store has a dozen tvs on the shelf and no buyers, why would they take more?

The website for freecycle is The Freecycle Network . But even there I've struggled to give stuff away. I've seen tvs sitting on the side of the road for weeks.

The charity stores have been inundated with CRT TVs, since they cost $30 each to throw out...so if it doesn't sell, it costs them money to dump!

My lady bought a new flat screen LED telly last weekend,. I disconnected her old one and we put it on the kerb outside her house with a sign on it saying "Free, good working telly". Some 3 minutes later a neighbour asked if he could borrow our sack truck to take it home....
Once upon a time the Salvos' were about the only charity I supported but nowadays they are just another big business and I won't give 'em a zack!

Usually kerb side stuff with "free" on it doesn't move for ages. But put a dollar amount on the sign and some git will steal it thinking they've scored a bargain

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

Usually kerb side stuff with "free" on it doesn't move for ages. But put a dollar amount on the sign and some git will steal it thinking they've scored a bargain

You must live in an area where thieving is the main pastime...
I have done quite a bit of work in Adelaide and I find old windows, furniture etc etc goes from the kerb in fairly short order. Hard rubbish is bloody good fun. I scored a very nice Mountain bike for a friend, scooters etc for my grandsons, a good leather couch for another friend.

Well, as advised, I put it on freecycle, and got three replies straight away. The first reply came and took it away and couldn't thank us enough for it. Just goes to show that there are needy people who don't expect the very best when it is for free.
Fate stepped in it seems, as two guys from the Salvos came around not two hours later looking for cash donations,.....you guess the rest.......

Yep. Within the past six months we have offered the Salvos:

• A tellie (although not a flat screen, a CRT job) - told they wouldn't take it as its too old.
• A corner TV unit. Very nice timber unit, with cupboards down the bottom, and stained glass windows up the top. Not accepted because it only fits 'small' flatscreen tv's, which they don't obviously want.
• A lounge suite on behalf of a friend. 2 single seaters and a 3 seater. They went and looked at it, decided it wasn't flash enough. The lounge was in very good condition, and I would have accepted it if I was after a suite that sits 5 adults.

In the end, a friend of a friend who is rebuilding assets after a divorce very happily took the lot.

When the Salvos knocked back the above gear, they did so in a rather rude way, as if to say that we were only trying to avoid the rubbish tip fees by unloading rubbish on to them.

The Salvos do do a lot for the community, and are one of the long standing charities. I usually give to them because who knows, we may need them one day. But this seems ridiculous, and perhaps, it may be a reflection that nobody even wants older stuff any more.

Hi,
You can't pick the suburbs where the grubs live. My sister in law had a Cape Cod up stairs extension done, the builders skip was raided every night and stuf chucked all over as they ferreted. We had a wet area reno done and people came knocking at our door, could they please have this or that out of the skip. We live in an area of ex govy houses that have been sold off, the Sil in an area of double story mansions. Both skips were by the road side.
Regards.

Yep Duke. Same thing at my current job. We're restoring an old train station and have had people coming up asking us for the bricks we've cleaned and other pieces (that are ultimately to go back into the heritage listed building) or for a look through the place.

Sure, you don't mind sometimes, and it's better than them skip diving themselves and getting hurt, but it's a wee bit annoying when they're complete strangers interrupting what are pretty busy days.

While I'm a kerb and skip diver myself at times, I always, ALWAYS, leave the area as clean, if not cleaner, than it was before.

A few weeks ago, my local Big W had brand new largish Sanyo CRT TVs for sale at $50.

Of course they were getting rid of all of their CRT stock but as the TVs were brand new in their boxes, they would have also carried a full warranty.

Those TVs sat on their pallet for many days.

Perhaps, we can coin a new expression... "As valuable as a CRT TV".


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I live in a low SES area with lots of retired manual workers. Almost anything put out on the nature strip would go quickly as they could find a way to use it ... short lengths of pipe, old corrugated gal sheets, you name it.

But as they've aged and retreated indoors it doesn't move so quickly, plus the council has announced they'll prosecute for dumping FFS. (We don't have hard rubbish collections).

Recently I put out a perfectly good lounge chair after clearing out my Mum's flat and some lowlife just took the cushion. So that meant a trip to the tip with trailer and a $22 tipping fee.

Anyway, one good thing about the council is that they allow a disability training organisation to run a recycle shop alongside the waste transfer station, and they'll take anything that can be tested and tagged, or fixed. The place has thriving sales since so many residents are on low incomes. So that's another model.

We all need to get real. If you sell slectrical goods, they must be safe. So any charity has to have an old TV inspected and tagged. Everything looks silly till you look at all the consequences then you see your old TV or lamp is costing a charity not helping it.
If you dont mind your mother getting a dodgy crock pot that may kill her so be it. But when mum is dead what will you do. Call it bad luck or create blue murder.

There were buiders buiding a couple of investment properties top of my street about 12 months ago,bricks stacked on foot path etc etc you know no room to store etc,sure enough one Sunday morning up drives a p...k in an old sedan opens boot helps him self to 50-60 bricks.Felt like putting one through his windscreen.