To think that you should be able to opt out of chuggers coming to the door

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

DH off out at a course last night.

I have bathed and settled 1 year old DS and 9 month old DD. DD teething, has a cold and hand foot and mouth so this is no easy feat.

Have just made myself some lovely spaghetti carbonara and am about to settle down to catch up on crap TV.

At 8:30pm, I have just got my arse on the sofas and am about to eat the first mouthful of my spaghetti when I am disturbed to put it mildly by some loud hammering on the door. I get up, and as I have not a sneered the door quickly enough within the 10 seconds expected-- the caller then starts ringing my very loud old Victorian bell so loudly that it nearly comes of the wire

By this stage, I've got the fright of my life and DD is screaming. I genuinely assume that something awful must have happened to DH and the police need it speak to me urgently. I then open the door to find a middle aged gentleman dressed in a red "Save the Children" jacket standing in my door step grinning at me. He then asks me if if he can speak to me about "The Children"?

I say NO! not fuck off, even though I feel like it but I'm so relieved that DH isn't under a lorry on the M60 that I'm feeling charitable I then said I had to go and settle DD again and shut the door

AIBU to think this is totally not on? It's like harassment - I feel like these chuggers are now ringing the bell really loudly to make people think it's super urgent that they answer the door.

At 10:30 once I have settled DD, chucked out my congealed spaghetti and made some toast, I cancelled my Save the Children monthly direct debit. Any suggestions for a children's charity that doesn't use these awful collection techniques? I'm not happy to be donating money to support this kind of thing.

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

Oh - actually, my point is that I think there should be some type of opt out for door to door twats callers like the Telephone Preference Service

[MardyBra]

YANBU. Have started threads on this before.

And no I'm not going to put up an ugly sign saying no canvassers. I have a very elegant front door, don't you know.

[MardyBra]

The worst offenders are the blokes selling overpriced cleaning kit, who tut or roll their eyes because I'm the bitch who won't buy from them.

[MardyBra]

They can be a bit intimidating too.

[imip]

Would be nice to opt out. I get more than one a week, drives me nuts, but it at late. When I am trying to feed 4 young dcs.

I just say do you want me to set up a direct debt straight off, they say yes, and I say no, sorry, I'm not interested.

I donate money to charities, and volunteer. I get annoyed by what feels like the constant harassment in my own home. I always donate online to the regular DEC appeals. I don't like the idea of someone getting paid to 'sign' me up.

[Perfectlypurple]

Pop into your local police station and get no cold caller stickers for your door. It doesn't stop all of them but some it does.

[StUmbrageinSkelt]

I have the stickers up saying please don't knock. I had 3 hours sleep last night and was having a nap when there was loud knocking and I finally woke up enough to stagger to the door to be greeted by a guy selling solar panelling. I said can't you read? And he said he is allowed to knock because he is not selling stuff, he is educating me about govt rebates. I saw red and asked him if he were stupid (and no, no, he is wrong, he is not allowed to knock) and he told me not to be rude.

I have visible solar panelling. No way not to see it. I probably would have been more courteous if not for the lack of sleep.

[MardyBra]

"Pop into your local police station and get no cold caller stickers for your door. It doesn't stop all of them but some it does."

But the stickers are ugly. Why should I have to deface my property in order to avoid being hassled at home.

[TheRealMaryMillington]

YANBU

I don't mind the people selling stuff so much, because at least they are just trying to make a living even though I don;t want to pay £6 for dishcloths

Coming to your door late-ish at night is especially not on.

I once had a youngish woman come to the door chugging for cancer research, I declined to make a donation and she refused to go away, asking me "Don't you care about people with cancer?". Given that I'd just been to the funeral of a dear friend who had just died of ovarian cancer I was really upset by her attitude and the whole idea that she had been trained to be confrontational to try to get people to give. Horrible

[angelos02]

YANBU. Any sort of unsolicited hassling of people, be it in the street, over the phone or door to door should be illegal IMO.

[50shadesofmeh]

you can opt out..and not answer the door

[AlpacaLypse]

yanbu.

You should let Save The Children know why you cancelled the direct debit though.

Not specifically children but I do donate to Medecins Sans Frontieres, mainly because they've never asked me straight out for any money.

Other charities that I no longer donate to due to aggressive pitching - RSPCA, Barnardos.

[FrankelandFilly]

If you're looking for a friendly children's charity to support I can recommend EACH (East Anglian Children's Hospice). I've raised money for them a few times, they have my contact details but all I get is a quarterly letter about what they are fundraising for, wtc. No hassling.

Oh and no YANBU

[FishWithABicycle]

I agree you should be able to opt out, but yabu to expect to do so without putting any kind of sign up. Yabu also for choosing to have a blaring loud doorbell that wakes up your child. You have the power to resolve that.

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

mardy - I agree re: the stickers. They are horrid. I didn't spend yonks sourcing the perfect wrought iron door mat and lovingly restoring my glasswork to the have to put a sticker up in the porch. Although thank you for suggesting purple

st

I think it is really not on. I have tweeted Save the Children but no response. Probably too busy sourcing next year's bri-nylon jackets for their chuggers.

mary - that is shocking

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

I don't have a blaring loud bell. I have the original one that I would like to keep as it is an original feature of the house

My point is that the chugger pulled the handle so violently and repeatedly that it woke DD.

He also hammered in the door so, with that logic, maybe I should get rid of that too?

I don't think so. I think chuggers should either be banned or modify their collecting techniques so they are not bothering people at night.

[SexualBernieClifton]

we live in a no cold calling zone. council set it up. we have signs at the end of our street and companies can be reported if they ignore them.

It is rather fun to see their faces when you point this out to them!

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

I answered the door as the bell was being rung so loudly and the door knocked so violently that I genuinely assumed it was the police or similar.

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

sexual - where did you get the signs?

A neighbour I am friendly with has just texted me to say she had same issues last night. I might speak to the others re: doing something like that

[cherrybombxo]

I wasn't sure what I would see when I opened this thread - "chugging" means wanking here!

[angelos02]

I always just hang up on cold callers if they ring me. One had the audacity to ring back to ask if I had deliberately hung up on them so I said yes. They went on to tell me how rude I was!

[fairgame]

I've got a no cold caller, charities, religious groups, hawkers etc etc sticker on my door. It has done the trick.
Save the children are terrible round here for late evening chugging. They are the reason i got the no cold callers sticker. They kept coming at 830-9pm when DS was in bed. Hammering on the door, pressing the door bell and waking him up. He has SN and started getting really anxious and it was upsetting him.
They always say "all your neighbours have been really generous". Bollocks i've seen you walking down the the street and hardly anyone has opened the door. The ones that have opened the door got rid of you as fast as possible.

[AppleYumYum]

YANBU. I don't think it is on to be calling after business hours if they must door knock. I don't like answering the door when it is dark out and I can't spy out the window to see who it is.

It's the same with those text £5 to give blankets in Syria. I did that and then was hit by three phone calls a day by some company on behalf if UNICEF trying to sign me up to a direct debit. Never again, do they not realise that it puts people off donating.

[BackOnlyBriefly]

It would be great to make chuggers opt-in, but it's not going to happen because who would?

All that's left is the sign saying "please do not knock as a bucket of cold water on the head often offends"

[NormaStits]

We get ones selling fascia boards a lot. And once I got one for driveway paving. We have oldish tarmac which doesn't look great but does the job adequately. The salesman started his spiel and I said I wasn't interested, to which he look scathingly at my drive and said 'are you sure?' He wouldn't have got the sale after that even if I wanted it!

Charity ones bug me too, I'm not giving my details to someone on the doorstep!