The Coop Volunteer Saga 

17 July 2020

If you are an established reader go down to Act 4 Charlbury Community Centre 15 July below.

Also go to Item 5 in the first section.

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Setting the stage

1. The Coop operates a volunteer collection for customers who are isolating.  The volunteer calls at your house for your list and one of two ways of paying.
2. You will have registered and paid into the Coop system so that they can send you a gift card or £20 vouchers.
3. The actors in the saga are J - a volunteer,   The west Oxford Charlbury Coop, the Charlbury Community Centre, the Mid-Counties Coop HQ, and its District Manager - see Item 5.  I am a retired academic living and isolating in Charlbury with my poetess partner, also retired.  
4. This is the saga of our attempt to engage the Coop Voluntary System - CVS. 
5. 17 July 1635  And now Mr L Franklin - Volunteers Manager.  Spoke to him on the telephone and sent this website.
6. He said he had noticed an email about vouchers being sent.  What I want to know is why is it that two connected managers obviously don't talk to each other.  
7. A project on the scale of this website is hardly routine.  
8. Likewise,  Item 4 Gareth Pearce on the Updates page.  
9. No wonder British commerce and industry is in the mess it's in, lockdown apart.

Act 1

1. J lives in Whitney and contacted the Coop volunteer system soon after lockdown started in March.  
2. J was contacted by the Coop at the close of June.
3.  I signed up to the system on 1 July and deposited money.
4. J contacted us on 2 July and we waited for a Coop gift card to arrive
5. A standard letter arrived on 6 July with a gift card said to be activated
6. J and I phone--discussed the situation and collection was arranged for 9 July.
   

Act 2 - 9 July

1. J calls to collect the shopping list and the 'activated' gift card 
2. Does the shopping and presents the card for payment.
3. Charlbury Coop staff had never heard of the system and, of course, the card was useless.
4. J phoned me and I hightail it to the Coop with my debit card. (Thus defeating J's efforts.)
5. J pays with my card.
6. After animated discussion of the system and J's embarrassment, hope is expressed for better luck next time.

Act 3 - Phoned the Coop HQ 10 July

1. Once the expected long wait was over, one Gareth proceeds to address me by my first name.
2. Once that was sorted out, the saga intensified.
3. It turns out that the Charlbury Coop is not a normal Coop.
4. Probably 35 minutes later and two please-waits, I learn that our community centre runs its own volunteer system.
5. Gareth informs me that the Coop will send me vouchers for when the new volunteer arrives to collect the shopping list.  16 July - arrived.  

          There will now be a long intermission.  

Act 4  

Charlbury Community Centre 15 July

The CCS manager informed me that the CCS has nothing to do with the Coop Volunteer System.

I hope to arrange a collection for Thursday 23 July.  I have stacks of vouchers.

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