to be annoyed to receiving post from charities?

[FindingMyMojo]

Got home tonight to yet another letter from a charity I have previously donated to, asking for further donations. I received a couple last week too.

This annoys me for several reasons:

• I always tick the data protection, no mail please boxes, yet charties seem to ignore this.
• I get almost all bills etc online & if there is at all an online option I will use it, yet charities seem to ignore this & still send me post.
• I give money as I can afford as as I am inclined. Now I know charities are sending these letters as they must raise money from them -but not from me (see above re checking the 'no letters please' options).

But most of all IT COST THEM MONEY TO WRITE TO ME. I don't want money spent on posting me rubbish/reycyling/landfill. When I am donating I don't want your newletter/county updates etc. Yes I am interested but please email me your newsletter - don't post me recycling thanks. All these letters/postage/envelopes/plastic wrappers/magazines etc cost the charity money - I don't want them, they still send them.

It annoys me to the extent that I won't give them anymore of my money. I'll donate to charities who won't post me costly crap & who spend my money on the actual needy.

I am aware of the need to promote/publisise etc to raise further funds for worthwhile causes, but it annoys me to have it rubbed in my face that I am basically funding charities to send me stuff I have said i don't want and certainly don't need. Email me - why write to be via the post too?

AIBU?

Yeah, I sort of see your point tbh, but I'm not sure if YABU or not....

Charities wouldn't direct mail people if it didn't work, so it's better for them to risk the wrath of the few in order to reach the masses, IYGWIM.

What annoys me personally (and this is an aside to the cost btw, I just mean what I personally feel is a piss take) is when they repeatedly phone me. It's always in the evenings and it's always one particular charity, and unfortunately, they have lost my money and support forever. I hate being harrassed, but I do understand why they do it. Like I said before, they wouldn't do if it didn't get a result.

Grrr. So annoying though.

Charities do not have an exemption to the Telephone Preference Service, even though some of the more intellectually challenged ones appear unable to read the regulations. If you are signed up for the TPS (and, if you aren't, why not?) and are phoned by a charity, tell them clearly to stop doing it. If they do it again, go to Ofcom. It's an offence, and the ultimate punishment is having their phonelines disconnected.

Charities are welcome to ignore the Mail Preference Service, as the MPS is non-statutory. However, if you use the reply-paid envelope to say they should stop writing to you, they're idiots to continue.

Red Cross are terrible for this.

They noisily deposited yet another of those clothing collection packets through my door at 5.15am on Saturday morning, waking everybody up. Don't think I'll be donating anything their way in a long while...

tokyonambu - I am on the TPS, the calls get through that, I repeatedly tell them they are breaking the law and to take my name off their list, but still the calls go on....

Start by asking to speak to a supervisor.

Then write to their CEO putting them on notice.

Then go to Ofcom.

Alternatively, there's a guy I once worked with (who is a bit of a loon) who claims that he simply wrote to the CEO saying that further calls would be invoiced at £10 each, issued invoices when the calls arrived, and went to a small claims court and won a default judgement. He might even have been telling the truth.

direct marketing is a really cheap effective form of marketing for charities.

It takes a second to bin it, or slightly longer to phone up and take your name off their list.

I think you can register with the telephone preference service to avoid the phone calls.

sadly the demand for charities services has massively increased in the recession, while the available funds have gone down.

i got annoyed with Marie Curie because I agreed to support them each month and then they sent me the direct debit mandate without a stamp on.This entailed a 20 mile round trip to the sorting office and paying £1.15 because we obviously didn't know what it was until we collected it.

Direct marketing does work though - I worked for a charity and they reap huge benefits from it.

Do remember though that when you stop giving to a charity, it's not the people you send the direct mail to who suffer, but the charity's beneficiaries.

Yes I know that this direct marketing does work - but not for me. It just means I will donate to charities differently now - in ways that doesn't involve giving them any more details than necessary and never my address.

Charities also need to take responsibility and modernise their direct marketing - I've always been happy for them to email me. How much waste is created by posting people what is essentially rubbish - it just goes straight into my bin & I'm not the only one. Don't even get me started on the pens!