FAQs
Have a question? We probably have an answer β take a look!
Membership
π I love the Share Shop idea! How much & where do I sign?!
Yes! We love this energy!
All the info you need about becoming a member can be found on our How to Borrow page.
But if you’re after the TLDR version;
β’ We offer 2 memberships: quarterly or 3 months for $15 and yearly or 12 months for $52. You can join here and either pay online or at the shop. At sign-up you will be asked to sign the borrower’s agreement.
π Do you offer any discount membership categories?
You may want to consider the quarterly membership which gives you a 3-month membership for $15.
If the quarterly membership is out of reach for you, please reach out so we can discuss options.
Please know that we have kept our membership prices as low as we can for now – they’re probably lower than is sensible!
π Can my organisation join?
What a great idea! Please get in touch to discuss it with us further.
We’d like to offer organisation membership but we haven’t figured out the details yet.
Your feedback is very welcome.
Donations
π I like the Share Shop idea but can’t see anything I want to borrow. Can I suggest things for you to get?
Yes, please!
We want The Share Shop to be stocked with useful things and it helps to know what our community wants to borrow and make good use of.
Take a look at our wish list, which covers the things we are looking to find for our members. While we will generally prioritise suggestions from our members over those from the broader community, we’d still love to hear your ideas.
We want to grow and it’s important to know what people need!
π I’m thinking about donating a thing… but it’s petrol powered is that okay?
So nice of you! Unfortunately, we are unable to accept petrol powered items.
Petrol powered things are difficult for us to store and presents challenges in terms of maintenance and insurance. We are proud to offer a range of garden tools that are all electric, quieter, and generally cheaper to run instead.
Check out our donation guidelines for more information.
π I’m thinking about donating a thing… If I do, what’s the deal if I want to use it again?
Cool! We’re so happy you’re thinking about donating a thing!
When you donate a thing, it becomes the property of The Share Shop. This means you will need to borrow it out, just like any other member, if you want to use it.
If you are finding the thing is popular and rarely available for you to borrow, tell us so we can prioritise getting more.
π I’m thinking about donating a thing… If I do, what happens if I move out of town?
Yew! We’d love to have your thing!
If you donate a thing it becomes the property of The Share Shop. This means if you leave town, you can’t take it with you… This could be bit of a bummer, so please think hard before you donate.
Problems
π Argh! The thing I want it never available. It’s super frustrating, what can I do?
Yikes! This is definitely not what we want for our members, but as our inventory is generally made up of donations this can happen from time to time.
If you are finding a thing is especially popular and rarely available for you to borrow, tell us so we can prioritise getting more.
π Oops… I borrowed a thing & broke it / it stopped working. What do I do?
Don’t panic! With support from City of Newcastle we now have a dedicated repair fund to handle this.
Let us know the thing is broken so we can take it out of our inventory. Return the thing to us and we will work to get it repaired or, if necessary, properly disposed of. In most cases that’s it!
Exceptions would be stuff like, if you intentionally smash a bunch of things to pieces⦠Frowned upon.
π Umm. I borrowed a thing & lost it / some *#@! stole it. What do I do?
What a pain. Tell us so we can remove the thing from the inventory and discuss what happened.
In most cases that’ll be it, exceptions being if you keep losing thingsβ¦ Like, ummm, are these things lost or being re-homed? If that happens we may need to cancel your membership.
A broken thing
β οΈ Uh oh! If a thing is broken, let us know as soon as possible.
The next step is to complete this form.
