Cancer Research UK Avis 

Visited the bridgwater shop with lots of things, i knew some wouldn’t be accepted but it’s good to try and not add to landfill, i was completely happy to take what wasn’t accepted to the recycling centre. Met a very kind gentleman who advised me what was ok and what wasn’t, no problem at all and then along came his supervisor, I presume , although definitely lacking in people skills. She was rude, nasty, patronising and generally unpleasant, i left feeling worthless. I understand that charity shops cannot accept everything hence my anticipation to take some things for recycling, books with torn covers/foxing, toys that don’t have the relevant labelling but, as i said, far better to try to rehome than landfill.
This charity is close to my heart after having several family members suffer from cancer, some of the items i donated were from a family member who had recently passed so it was a difficult task for me today.
I understand you cannot accept everything as I was already prepared for but i think a little compassion and kindness from some staff would be helpful, remember that most people who choose to donate to this charity have already found life difficult and suffered from the devastating consequences of cancer.

Just moved to Leigh a week ago, decided drop donation off, very rude woman looked through things saying "dont want that, dont want that".
No thought to us, our belongings.
You need decent, polite staff.
Charity shops always asking for donations, would have been less upset if sold on Vinted.
I certainly wont be returning to this shop.

I would give zero stars if that were possible.

I was allocated a place in the Big Half through Cancer Research UK, paid the £20 registration fee and set up the required fundraising page. My place was subsequently cancelled, despite me having completed the registration process and paid the fee.

What followed was an extraordinarily frustrating experience.

Cancer Research UK repeatedly told me that they had sent emails explaining the “next steps”, but I never received these emails, including after checking my spam folder. When I contacted them to explain this, I was unable to get a clear or satisfactory resolution.

Even more concerningly, Cancer Research UK never refunded the £20 registration fee I had paid for the place that they themselves cancelled.

I find this completely unacceptable. I had paid the registration fee, followed the process required of me and created a fundraising page in good faith. My place was then cancelled, and despite contacting Cancer Research UK to resolve the situation, I was left without the place and without my £20 being refunded.

The most frustrating aspect is the complete lack of ownership and accountability. Rather than simply resolving the issue and refunding the registration fee, I was repeatedly told about communications that I had never received.

For an organisation whose fundraising depends so heavily on public trust, this has been an extremely disappointing experience.

I would strongly recommend avoiding Cancer Research UK if you are considering racing for a charity.

i will never understand how a company can receive so much money to dedicate its time to beating cancer... still - cannot beat cancer.... its like paying for a tv that will never turn on.
yet the people working there have a lovely big pay cheque. vile.

Awful I wasn’t paid and got abused and blamed for everything.
one used his authority and was inappropriate verbally. and the other she can’t say both paid staff.
And they’re still there disgusting I’m
So glad small ones are shutting.

I regularly collect unwanted clean clothes etc from friends for their Cityside Branch in Belfast and I also allow them to claim tax from HMRC as I pay tax even though I am a disabled pensioner.

I donated a sizeable number of items (a full shopping trolley) on Monday of Tuesday which included video gamers “collectables”. I returned with more items on Thursday. The young girl who accepted them was very pleasant. I then took a quick look at the store items and picked a £4 item and a bar collectable priced at £12. It was dirty inside and needed cleaned. I brought both items to the till and offered £10 for both as the bar item was dirty. The young man (with no people skills) said he couldn’t reduce it. I told him I had had items reduced before. In the locked cabinet beside him was one of the two NEW collectors figures i had donated earlier in the week. I point out to him this was priced at £15 and the other had obviously sold and I had donated a substantial amount of other items just that week. He got me to go to the counter for the donations that I had literally been at 5 minutes prior. The man there was not very pleasant and referred me back to the checkout.
He refused to give a discount for a dirty item despite my donations. I left the store telling them their refusal of the £6 discount had just cost their charity hundreds of pounds in donations. They are always looking for good quality men’s clothes and I have black bags full. I always sort all my donations before bringing them to them but they have lost out. All donations will be going to a different charity. Nor will I be buying anything in their store.
I rang their supervisor who confirmed they do not discount BUT common sense should be used if an item needs cleaned, needs repaired etc.
She was very nice but I told her I would not be returning particularly as their retail prices are too expensive.

A used leather motorcycle jacket all scuffed with ripped lining was £60. As a motorcyclist myself it was worth £25 or so not £60! Records are too expensive selling what were cheap records that originally when new were about a £1 they are now looking £5!
I note others on line complaining about charity shop prices. CEO salaries and management salaries need looked at. They are all complaining about overheads but I believe they do not pay commercial council tax so they save a fortune and gift aid gives them an extra 20% back from HMRC on every £100 they sell, if they can get all donators, like myself to sign up for it.

Extremely poor customer service from Ruth. Not understanding at all. I Donate weekly and am big supporter of the charity unfortunately will be taking my goods elsewhere in the future.

Ridiculous 'charity' shop, I tried to donate good things, not junk. An item being a set of expensive car snow chains, these retail at over £100 and have been used once. They said it couldn't go on the shop floor for 'safety purposes' despite there being many heavy items on the shop floor and tall chest of draws etc , secondly was a large teddy , massive infection. They said they would take it if there was a ce mark on the taf , which there was. I took it in and they said because of an extremely small mark on it they would not take it. There was no thankyou for the other things they accepted despite meticulously looking through it checking it in major detail. do not bother donating to these jokers, it felt like an interrogation in there, not a good deed to help cancer patients. There is many other charities around which are great full for your donations. Go to them instead. I will not be shopping in cancer research any more. Poor show

They will never release the cure . Because they make so much money from pretending there intrested in finding a cure to help people . They take from the many to help the few. Even if they could they would never eradicat cancer .

I had a very disappointing experience with Cancer Research UK. I signed up to run the London Marathon and was sent a running top, fundraising page, regular countdown emails, and even received a call offering support so naturally, I believed my place was confirmed and trained for months.

However, I was later told I never had a marathon place in the first place. This was extremely frustrating and confusing, especially after making numerous calls and being passed between different teams, all giving inconsistent information. It took over a week to receive a clear answer by which point it was too late.

After balancing training with motherhood and studying to become a qualified personal trainer, I am honestly gutted. This situation could have been easily clarified from the beginning.

Based on this experience, I would not choose to fundraise or participate in events with them again.

I brought a large bag of football Annuals to Cancer Research Charity Shop in Orpington High Street. The person at the back of the shop very abruptly jumped down my throat saying he did not want them. I took them to Help The Aged instead who took them with open arms. Very rude staff and poor judgement doesn't help anyone.

Extremely disappointed with Wimbledon Village Cancer Research store manager pert attitude regardless my complaints. What is more the store displays misleading prices and she was trying to change the displayed price of an item when I was about pay for it. Was argumentative and probably wanted it for herself. In the past I’ve seen her walking around the shop talking to herself and swearing which I complained about, however to no avail. Certainly Not a pleasant neither inviting place to be.

Biggest con ever , just a big business in the guise of a charity . They play on people's emotions to raise billions of pounds to make profits on useless , torturous research on animals that stop any real progress, and suppress the real cures and glorify the progress they exaggerate they are making.
I have never given them a penny and never will . I give to honest research charities like Dr Hadwins who don't test on animals and don't make massive profits out of emotionally manipulating people .

Had to write a review for the kingston surrey branch as Jason could not have been more friendly or helpful. He made the effort to help me to find a shirt for my husband. Store was well organised and full of interest. Always a nice welcome and atmosphere.

Discriminatory and Aggressive Staff Behaviour – Shirley Branch

I attended the shop with my elderly mother. When my mother asked the staff member at the till whether bags were available, the response she received was curt and dismissive.

I calmly raised my concern about the tone used towards my mother. At this point, another staff member with red hair intervened in an aggressive and confrontational manner, pointing her finger at me and telling me to watch what I was saying.

She then asserted that the staff member at the till was the politest employee and instructed me to show her respect because she was elderly. I made it clear that my mother is also elderly and that we fully understand the importance of respecting elders.

The situation escalated further when this staff member stated that we only know how to respect our own. This remark was deeply offensive and unacceptable. Her behaviour throughout the interaction was hostile, unprofessional, and entirely inappropriate for a customer-facing role. She was also overheard telling another employee that she was going to lose it.

As a family, we have always supported Cancer Research UK, as my mother, sister, and niece have suffered multiple times from cancer. It is therefore especially distressing to experience this level of rudeness and discrimination in a shop representing this organisation.

Wren Retail Park, Torquay. I absolutely love this charity shop. The large store is always clean, well presented and offers a great selection of good quality, reasonably priced goods.
The staff are always so polite & helpful and one particular member of staff is an absolute joy. James is always so cheerful, polite and very helpful and I particularly love the fact that he remembers you by your first name each time you shop there. As a customer I find this really refreshing and it makes the whole shopping experience very enjoyable. Thank you James - you are a star :-)

While I’m a supporter of this research,
1/2 people will get cancer??
Half the global population??
4.5 billion?
This amount seems to be plucked from the air, and quite possibly very wrong…
More research is required….

Never felt less appreciated than I did today donating goods to the Morpeth newgate street shop.
I carried in a number of boxes into the shop and each time left then on the table in the back room where they sort donations.the door was open and staff were in there ,I didn't see the staff only sign on the door.When I had finished taking in the donated goods ,a very abrupt woman (? manager) told me in future not to enter the room.She as very abrasive and rude,I asked her why as I had always carried items in for them in the past and left them in the room,she replied health and safety and pointed to the door.She was loud in her manner and as the shop was full of people I asked her to lower her voice and change her tone.She became more abrasive and said i am not having this conservation.She has been off hand in the past when I have donated but today was something else.Will not be making future donations to this shop.I think she needs to go on customer service training

The local store is shocking, the manager is rude, ungrateful, unprofessional, chasing people out the store because they had wool in the donations bag and they dont take it. So she actually chased her to another shop and thrust it into her hands, declared "we dont take this" and walked away. Telling customers there is a 2 bag limit on donations and thrusting a gift aid for at me demanding I fill it in. Didn't check if I was a tax payer. Their electrical are not checked to be safe, I purchased a hair dryer for my sister when she came to stay, turned it on and within 3 minutes of use it was over heating and died. Tried taking it back with receipt to be told they are a charity shop they didnt have to refund me. As a charity the bridgwater store really needs to sort itself out. And customer care dont care enough to do anything about it.

Sadly I can no longer support Cancer Research U.K. following my recent experience with them, whilst trying to support the charity, in purchasing a quantity of Christmas cards.
At the point of payment I was very rudely informed that my purchases would be “rounded up to the next pound” not would I mind if my purchases were rounded up! This meant an increase of 60p would be added to my bill.
I contacted Head Office who apologised for the rudeness I had experienced whilst defending their “Rounding Up Policy” stating donations had dropped since Covid.
I replied stating why I thought this was greedy and unacceptable behaviour for a charitable organisation dependent on the goodwill of public donations. I also stated I found their approach discouraging!
The second reply apologised again for the rudeness I had experienced. The dialogue in the second response was exactly the same as the first response, suggesting it was a pre written reply which had been used many times for similar complaints!
Unless or until the “Rounding Up Policy” is dropped I have withdrawn my support from this charity.
Having read other reviews on this site I see I am not alone.
I urge you to think again Cancer Research U.K. before you completely destroy the goodwill and generosity of the public.