Dealing with chuggers at the front door

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I know the cost of living crisis is beginning to bite but it is annoying that charities are now sending people door to door to try and pressure people into direct debits so I have come up with a solution, tell them you already have one. They have no where to go and you aren’t being rude. How do you deal with them?

As soon as I open the door, before I know if they're sales people or charity workers, my words are

"Hiya. Don't want to waste your time soooo, before you start: I rent so have no say in windows/boilers/loft insulation etc, I'm skint and can barely afford toilet roll at the moment so charities truly are a no-go for me, pleeeaase don't ask (🙏<<I gesture this with a big smile), and if its sky tv or broadband etc that you're calling for the same applies. Was there anything else?"

Genuinely, 99% of them listen and appreciate me not wasting their time, wish me a good day and walk on by.

The 1% who carry on are nothing but animals who haven't listened to a word I've said. So I just say "Thanks Bye" and close the door whether they're speaking or not.

My husband hates me doing this as hes really polite - but I don't care. At one point he had 5 direct debits going out for different charities whilst we were sat with 50p left on the electric to try and last 2 days before payday. Its not on.

I'm dead against door knocking B2C. It's intrusive and intimidating to those won't cant find it within them to be able to say no the lovely young person with a big grin at the door.

I think I'd tell them I can't even afford to feed my kids at the moment so I won't be signing up!

We don’t tend to get many here but in the past I’ve just said that I support other charities or no thank you.

My teen DD was with some friends in town a while back and they got accosted by a pushy chugger. Her friend felt obliged to give him money to go away. I was so angry! I’ve told my DC that it’s not rude to tell them ‘no’ and to walk away if they persist and shout ‘stop following me’.

I really like that one. The addition of 'good luck with your next call' is a really polite and tactful way of asking them to leave. I might use it next time.

I used to say “no thank you” and shut the door.

Yesterday I just shut the door. I don’t think that’s rude. Or at least nowhere near as rude as disturbing/pressurising people in their homes.

I just say,- I already give to charity so won't be signing up to anymore. Have a good day, thanks . Close door

Say you are not 18 yet

me too as chugging has a completely different meaning in parts of Scotland…..for those who aren’t in the know it means masturbating. So it made me laugh to see “chuggers knocking at my door”

I particularly loved the word 'churglars' that somebody mentioned on a recent thread - 'chuggers' are the ones who accost you in the street and 'churglars' are the ones who come to your house seeking sign-ups!

Door sticker states
No cold callers
No junk mail

If people post junk and i see i literally shout out the window. Likewise with cold callers /charities

Yep I had one of those. From the Red Cross.

She said “don’t you care about children in the 3rd world?” To which I replied “no” and shut the door.

Personally I think that all door to door selling should be banned.

That way you would not only get rid of the chuggers, the jahova’s witnesses, the rest of the door to door selling lot, but the scammers such as the Nottingham knockers, the “deaf” bloke selling art, the dodgy tradesmen who talk to you about something while their mate breaks in round the back, the lot.

Just ban them all.

I had similar once. Told a chugger to bog off as he was rather pushy and he yelled out, don’t you care about people dying with cancer.

considering I’d lost my dad to cancer the week before I was enraged.

my dp at the time had to hold me back. So upset!

I have a sticker on my door that our local police force handed out. It says that we do not buy or sell at this door or some such thing. For some reason it really does scare off door to door salespeople and chuggers. I don't know why the bright yellow sticker works but I gave my neighbour one too and it was certainly very satisfying watching the team of purple polo shirted cold callers look at our houses last month, say something to their colleague and walk past to the next houses.

This is a good one.

I simply say I don’t ever buy anything on the doorstep, thank you. Then close the door.

Don't answer the door

Sorry I've got diarrhoea and then shut the door in a panic

It's a really horrible job, lots of them don't get paid unless people sign up. That being said I rarely answer the door to them. Though I am tempted to start sending them to the woman up the street who let's her barky dog poop everywhere

I think that what doesn't help is the (ironic) perceived moral high ground that many of these charity-broking traders believe they have. They won't see themselves as 'selling' anything, but as fine, upstanding pillars of the community serving the vulnerable.

They want the best of both worlds: to profit as a trader from an established business model but also to claim the respectability of a volunteer driven by a passion to help society.

In the nicest way, they're parasites really - if you genuinely did want to give to the charity they're paid to hawk, you'd be much better giving directly, so that the charity gets more of your money. I also hate the way a lot of charities/charity brokers will cite the gift aid as their claim that ALL of your giving will go straight to the charity and all admin or other fees will 'simply' come from the gift aid - as if it were some kind of surprise windfall. For taxpayers, GA is an integral part of your giving - and it isn't random 'free' money as it obviously means that less tax money goes to funding all the stuff that taxes have to fund.

I consider it a scam, to be honest, as I think the majority of people won't fully reconcile the fact that it's a business with a marginal side benefit to charity. They never make it clear that they are paid brokers - usually with no real connection to or passion for that particular charity - relying on the perception that they are actually charity collectors. Obviously, they know that, if they made the true position clear, they would never get anybody at all.

I don't see any difference between what they do and me standing with a bucket in the high street with a big charity placard and then handing on 50% of donations to the charity and quietly pocketing the rest.

Whenever anyone knocks on the doir whether chuggers or sales or people touting for gardening, window washing or property improvement works, I always just say "we never do any business at the door, it's a fixed policy for everything" and close the door. I absolutely will not consider any proposition of any kind that starts with an uninvited knock on my door. It makes it easier because there are no decisions to make and you don't have to listeh to the introductory spiel.

I recently had one stop me in the street. He was working for a charity for ill children. He started asking me if I knew that premature birth was a main cause of children needing hospital treatment, I said yes, which was true, but I wondered at that point what if I had had a very unwell premature baby. Then he asked if I had children and if I would be having any more. I had recently been widowed so obviously wouldn’t be having more children and walked off trying not to cry, but there are so many ways those questions could upset or offend people.

We had an absolute loon knock on the door for a charity last year. I wasn't at home and Mum opened the door. He was waving his arms about.. Mum asked him if he was feeling alright? She told him to come back later when I was at home.
He came back, I wasn't home and he started the same arm waving so Mum shut the door.. I complained to the charity on Twitter. We now have a No Salespeople sticker by the door.
My friend got accosted by a very persistent chugger outside a supermarket a couple of years ago... To the point that when she finally got away she was scared to go out again in case he started again..
She isnt on Twitter so again I complained to the charity.

It depends on my mood really.
Sometimes I just say ' sorry, I'm just the cleaner '.
Sometimes I crouch down and open the letterbox while bellowing ' hellaaaaw, hellaaaaw. Have you brought the coal, hellaaaaw?
Their reaction is quite funny. Some actually start talking to the blooming letterbox in return until they get fed up of me asking where the coal is and leave.

I say 'no' and shut the door. It's better to cut the chuggers out of the money chain by donating directly.