Quote:
Originally Posted by shut the front door
Not so much for Villages Cycles.
I belong to a group that raised thousands of dollars to gather up angel tree kids cards at the regional rec centers. We are limited as to how much we can spend per child as we'd rather provide Christmas for as many kids as possible. Therefore, many of us go way above what we raised, in particular for kids who want bikes. We dipped into our own pockets to be able to provide bikes for many children, but we wanted to make sure that our efforts at assembly wouldn't leave a child in danger. Took a bike to Villages Cycles, explained that this is an angel tree gift and asked if they could look it over to make sure it's safe.
Sure we can! For $40 we'll look it over!
Knowing that we are trying to provide for underprivileged kids, they wanted $40 per bike to take a look.
Fortunately, I have found another avenue. I just hate that they had to be this way about it. The 1 bike took 10 minutes for them to tell us that we assembled it correctly and we shelled out the $40 out of our pockets.
As an aside, please know that the deadline for helping these kids is Dec. 14. Please go grab a card and provide Christmas for an underprivileged kid. They deserve this.
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I really fail to see the issue other than you "expected" a company that you contacted (unsolicited) to expend its own time, personnel, facility & expertise to examine a product that wasn't theirs and inspect work they didn't do (placing a legal liability on them) for your supposed un-named "charity" ...all for "free".
How many "free 10 minute inspections" would you like to have had done?
1?, ..5?, ...25?,.... 250? adds up doesn't it, it would to them.
They are a business with overhead cost, other customer/demands, possibly other charities and certainly other related challenges that go with operating a business. They are not a non profit and they are definitely not there to personally serve your particular choice of non-profit for no-cost, because you think they should.
Life doesn't work that way.
Additionally, they probably are at minimum, very leery of scamers (ie: people asking for free stuff, just because they claim to be affiliated with certain groups, social media channels, product reviewers, etc)
I wonder if you thought about any of this....
If you desire to do good work in the world, good on you!
If you are legit, I commend your efforts, but you take that on, along with any other related issues, expenses or inconveniences attached.
Have a good holiday & best of luck in your endeavor.