Easter Seals issue

Charities sometimes request household items be donated so they can be resold in a thrift store. In this case, they sent a flyer to our home asking us to put things to donate to the curb for pick up. We covered everything in black plastic bags and tied them so it would not all get wet.

Here is what happened. I wrote an email to the donation center with the photo attached.

"Hi-

I received a solicitation in the mail for donations. I replied on line for a pick up. Despite the rain, we put all of our donations to the curb well covered and ready to be picked up. I had no idea that my donations would be rooted through on the street, uncovered, cherry picked, and left. I guess I don't care if you did not want the items we donated, but it is incredibly rude to have opened bags, uncovered items, and left it all sitting open in the rain on the side of the road.The items are a memory foam mattress cover and a feather bed mattress cover. They are now soaked, heavy and ruined. Unable to be donated to people who might want them. Jackasses. See attached photo."

Now I received a prompt return message, and the writer does apologize. However, because of the rain, we checked on our stuff at the curb several times. No random wandering band of soggy bedding bandits was there when we looked. I guess it could have happened this way. I could be the lost Russian royal Anastasia too.

Here is the reply.

"Hello,

I want to sincerely apologize for the mistreatment of the donations you had prepared for us to be picked up today. Our driver, however, was not responsible for the uncovering and opening of the packages you had left out. We just spoke with him, and he stated that the donation appeared as it does in your attached picture when he stopped by this morning. We appreciate greatly the effort our donors put into getting their donations ready, and treat the donations we pick up with the utmost respect. Our programming depends on these donations, and our drivers are all very aware of how that should translate into their pickups. Unfortunately, we do occasionally have to deal with individuals that scour neighborhoods for items they can pick up for their personal use.

Again, thank you for your donation, and we are sorry that the effort you put into your donation was disrespected by whomever had stopped by this morning.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to reply to this e-mail or call us at the phone numbers listed below."

Anyone else have this happen? Its the first time they solicited donations from us so I really don't know. I liked to be able to put stuff out and they come and get it, but I would have been better off putting this all straight in the trash as it was!