Feeling sorry for a chugger

[FlemCandango]

I have just turned away a doorstep chugger, very politely (he is very lucky he didn't get dh!).

I feel sorry for him because he looked so young and nervous but I hate being chugged. He is being paid to collect subscriptions it is a sales job. which think is wrong not least because I volunteer for a charity that deals with vulnerable people who are the often the ones most likely to sign up for charity donations they cannot afford.

But I still felt slightly bad for him perhaps he will use his little boy lost routine on another doorstep to good effect.

[TutanKaDashian]

I admit to feeling sorry for them as it must be a very soul destroying job having to act jolly all day when most people either ignore you and some are just plain rude. I'm in the ignore camp and have been known to cross the road to avoid them

[mogloveseggs]

I ended up signing up for love film a few years ago. It was the middle of winter and bloody perishing and the girl on the doorstep looked half frozen. Couldn't shut the door on her. She wasn't local either. Our neighbour across the street had given her some gloves!

[BeyondVulvaResistance]

I tell all chuggers and sales people "I am autistic and for you to sell anything to me would be ethically dubious" I have been told that is not a 'normal' thing to do but

[BillSykesDog]

Do you know how they are normally recruited? They're recruited by a private agency in the belief they have a proper job.

They turn up on their first day and are driven to an unfamiliar area fairly far from home and then told to get out of the car and knock on doors and the job is commission on sales only and on a self employed basis. Most of them have to do the day to get the lift back. Most don't last much more than a day and it's rare they ever even see any commission they have earned as they normally weasel out by saying they left before the subscription was processed and therefore are not entitled to any commission at all.

I am very nice to ones who knock at my door, but never sign up. It only benefits the unscrupulous agencies and not the chugged to sign up in most cases. I wouldn't encourage them.

[branofthemist]

Hmm the sceptic in me thinks his young nervous big persona may help him bag a few pity sales.

[Kalispera]

My friend once spent a summer doing door to door sales for a Hoover company. It was that or lose his flat before uni started again.

It's a shit job. I feel so sorry for them.

[ErNope]

It's an awful awful job.... truly is.
The "little boy lost routine" mentioned above is likely genuine in more than half of cases.
I moved out at 16 (abusive family) I started working in a very dodgy takeaway working 80 hours a week for 3 pounds an hour (40 hours is the max for 16 year olds). When I lost my job in desperation I took a door to door sales job. Stuck at it for a month before quitting because it was so horrible. I was assaulted twice in that month and called all manner of horrible things.
The way people treated me was really quite shocking. I wouldn't go back to it for 20 k a month. Please be nice to doorstep chuggers I know they're annoying but just say "sorry not today" and just shut the door!
Disclaimer: sometimes doorstep chuggers are awful. I've heard "oh so you don't care about kids with cancer" and worse being said to potential customers. Most are just trying to earn a living though. If you encounter an awful one take down their name (if you can, normally they have badges or identify themselves) and report to the charity...

[ladyballs]

I'm a charity fundraiser and have used door to door fundraisers in the past. I have never used an agency that does not pay a living wage - I've heard the horror stories and want tomorrow part of it. I'm always nice to chuggers because it's a tough job.
BeyondVulva I love your approach!

[PhoebeGeebee]

BillSykes - I work for a charity and have been directly involved with the training of door to door workers ( who are employed via a third party agency) and be assured that they know the job, know what they will be doing and are fully trained before being sent out. It might not be the case with all charities but there are very very stringent measures in place to stop unscrupulous practices.

[PhoebeGeebee]

I'd also second what ErNope said - if you don't like anything about their approach then report it asap. We can only act if people tell us they're unhappy.

[KoalaDownUnder]

I am normally a compassionate person (really!) but I struggle to feel sorry got them, tbh.

It's an invasive, obnoxious sales tactic and j hate it.

[ladyballs]

I totally agree with what Phoebe said about reporting. Charities take complaints really seriously.

[bluebloom]

Street fundraising was the hardest job I ever did. I was very young & the majority of the time the only woman on the team. The company I worked for arranged accommodation so you'd live with your team & tour around towns in the area for a week. I often felt very vulnerable living with a group of older men. I was grabbed, kissed, shouted at, spat on & groped on the street regularly by members of the public. If you didn't meet your target in a day a manager would drive to meet you & tell you off. If you missed it more than once you'd get sacked. Hardest job I've ever done. They say it's the most effective way to raise money for charities, but I'm not sure that's true. Either way I am very polite to fundraisers, listen to them & will sign up if I have a genuine interest in doing so. It's a tough job & the people doing it are trying their best to make a living & often are motivated by the ethical side of the job, they're not the ones pocketing the big profits. It is worth being kind to them at least- a polite no thank you is more than enough.

[AntiHop]

I used to do that job. I raised a large amount of money for the charity. Many people who did not sign up have a cheque donation instead. I've done tin shaking as a volunteer and I raised a lot more money going door to door even when you take into account my salary and the agency fee.

Be nice to the chuggers. It's not a pleasant job.

[BonnieF]

I have zero sympathy for chuggers.

They are rude, obnoxious, samctimonious and invasive. They use mainupulative, exploitative tactics to guilt-trip well meaning people to give money to corporate 'charities'. These organisations use that money to pay six-figure salaries to their CEOs, and pay for yet more guilt-tripping TV adverts.

Fuck off chuggers.

[Janeymoo50]

I'm never rude to them and in the words of Sammo etc - I just say no.
What I don't understand is do charities really expect people to stop in the middle of a busy high street, in all weathers, laden with shopping or small childre, enter into a discussion, discuss personal finance details, whip my debit card out (in the pissing rain) and think nothing of it. I never answer the door to anybody I don't know.

[Ginkypig]

Disclaimer I'm disabled and not great on my feet.

I'm always polite to door to door chiggers but they annoy me because it takes so much effort to get to the door on a bad day.

Anyway I'm wary now because I answered the door to one a few months ago the day after I'd got home from hospital as I'd had a downturn in my health, she was working for the Anthony Nolan charity.

she (and I'm not exaggerating) looked me up and down and sneered hmm still in your pyjamas I see. I was so shocked I mumbled yes I'm not well today. She made me feel so small and ashamed I could tell she thought I was just a lazy work shy

I know she didn't know I'd literally only been home from hospital for less than 24 hours but still.

Normally I don't really care what people think of me but for some reason this has really stuck with me.

[CharminglyGawky]

I never sign up to anything at the door and always make that clear, but I did invite one in once! She was a teen, and was sopping wet, seriously, she could not have looked wetter if she had just climbed out of a swimming pool fully clothed. I said I wouldn't be signing up but offered a cuppa and a towel if she wanted. I was a student at the time and a very similar age, so I hope it wasn't threatening or creepy!

She declined saying that she was soaked through so it would just be easier to finish her route as quickly as she could so that she could get home. I felt really sorry for her, it was summer but she was so cold she was visibly shivering!

[OnceThereWasThisGirlWho]

AntiHop I've done tin shaking as a volunteer and I raised a lot more money going door to door even when you take into account my salary and the agency fee.

That's really interesting. I know someone who was a chugger and apparently quite good, but she reckoned she'd make more money rattling a tin. This is because there was some kind of specific appeal for getting people special buckets (I think they had a water purifying system in or something) and so as part of her pitch she carried a bucket. Spent the day fending off people trying to put money in it. So I am interested to know what the truth is in this. I do wonder in particular about longterm damage to the charities image. And who is signing up - if it's vulnerable people with limited funds it seems a bit immoral.

My worst/best chugger incident was when I was homeless and scouting round town desperately trying to work out where I was going to stay that night. Shelter had just dropped my case on discovering the council wouldn't help me (didn't count as "priority need"), basically when I needed help the most . A chugger from Shelter cornered me! I was polite, in fact it was funny in a bleak way, but I did tell him what had just happened and that I had changed my mind about Shelter as a charity. I despise Shelter for hoovering up funding when local grassroots charities often provide much more useful help (and argued with the council and got me into a hostel, as well as offering showers and laundry if I was on the streets).

[ladyballs]

Once I'm sorry you went through that.

People who collect coins in buckets aren't usually paid. And chuggers aren't legally allowed to collect cash.

[nitsparty]

When someone knocks on my door, I ask, from the inside, who they are and they have to tell me. What I never, ever do, is open it. Not without them telling me their business , Never. Cant understand why anyone does. DD has more or less left home now (wish she'd take all of her stuff), so I mostly live alone.
I'm nice but polite to chuggers, even the telephone ones, as it was the type of thing my own DD did just after uni. The answers's still no, though.

[Honeyandfizz]

I had one last week, a young lad telling me he was on a youth offenders programme, kept calling me Miss. He was trying to sell me all sorts of tat like a knell pad for my garden. When i asked the cost of this it was £13 i said no thanks it really is too expensive, to which he snapped my head off "well I'm not asking you to pay my mortgage Miss" grabbed his bag and left in a huff. I had been perfectly polite and he was rude, i hate answering the door to these calls and generally avoid but he had seen me in the front room and had knocked the window. Grrrrr!

[Honeyandfizz]

*kneelling

[Newes]

I'm always nice to them and try to keep it short and polite so they aren't wasting their time and can move on to someone who might want to sign up.

[ElleBellyBeeblebrox]

My brother was a chugger for about a week and a half before he had a blazing row with his team leader over breakfast about the ethics of what they were doing, and basically told him to fuck off and walked out.
It's a tough job, far from home usually, living with people you don't know and often getting abuse from people all day long (his favourite response was "fuck off and close the gate while you're doing it")
I don't defend the ethics and the actions of the companies themselves, but the chuggers are generally trying to get by. I don't give to them because I'm fuckinh skint, but I'm polite to them.
In the time he was there my bro knocked on the door of a bloke getting a surprise party ready for his little daughter, and he stayed for 20minutes helping him blow up balloons! Another of his team mates knocked on the door of a guy who then started to tell the chugger guy about how his life had no meaning, he had piles of pills and booze, and he was going to end it all that day . He stayed with him for an hour after calling an ambulance for the guy. They're not all ethically dubious morally bankrupt shits.