To detest charity muggers...

[pecanpie]

You know, the ones who accost you on the street for £2/month where over half goes into administration costs. I feel like I am running the gauntlet every time I walk from the tube station to work. There was even an attempt to accost me between the Royal Free Hospital and the tube station - it's not even in Central London! Even worse, I now get similar house calls. I can't escape these 'chuggers' and above all, think it's so intrusive that they come after me at home - literally like being mugged on your doorstep! Whatever happened to good old junk mail?

Should be illegal in my opinion...Anyone willing to help me mount a campaign?!

Baby in a sling is an excellent defence.

I got jumped the other day. Pointed to baby and said gaily I'm sorry, she's just done the most COLOSSAL SHIT and I have to get her home and changed before it DRIBBLES OUT and I have to throw away BOTH OUR OUTFITS!

The poor chugger gaped at me open-mouthed and silent for a couple of beats, said oh, right, bye...

and that was that. TMI is the way to go, ladies.

'Her plaintive voice followed me - 'But you've got dreadlocks...' - as if thats some kind of indicator of love for cats or dogs or whatever animals it was for.

PMSL- you should have said "they're not dreadlocks. They're the tails from the squirrels I shot this morning"'

It clearly pays for them to do it at the moment, while there are still some spineless idiots being bullied timid people who probably think chuggers are volunteers. My ex is from NZ and actually couldn't believe it when I said they get paid. He avoids them like the plague now. I can't see that many people will be left to sign up out there. In the long run they are shooting themselves in the foot, as we have seen on here, with people agreeing the big charities are now seen as pests.

I honestly think in a couple of years charities will be bemoaning losses because they'll keep chuggers on the street pestering people with no expendable income well over their time has come and gone. Our PM will probably hook them out using taxpayers money if the banks are anything to go by.

They are out in force on our High Street as we speak. As soon as I spotted the red tabard I recalled this thread, reminded myself of the best remarks and marched up the road ready for whatever they threw at me.

I passed 3 of the buggers in a 100m stretch and not one approached me. I tell you ladies, the 1000yd stare is the way to deal with these people

Chuggers are being allowed into SUPERMARKETS now - someone I know got accosted as she was innocently browsing the cheese section. They were wearing ID issued by the supermarket, so they had been given permission, they hadn't just wandered in off the street.

Nowhere is safe anymore

I was approached by a charity collector (not a chugger) in a restaurant where my best friend and I were having lunch to celebrate my birthday. I politely said that I didn't want to donate at that point, and turned back to my meal, but the woman refused to leave us alone, even when I asked her (still politely) to go away. She indicated my friend and said that I couldn't talk for her and she might want to give - my friend said that she didn't want to give either, so again I asked the woman to leave us alone.

She left the restaurant, and as she passed the window where we were sitting, she told me to 'Fuck off!' I hadn't intended to say anything about it, but at this point I decided to complain to the waitress, who told the manager. The manager was shocked that this woman had been going round the tables - apparently she'd been told she could leave a collecting tin on the table by the door, but that she wasn't to approach any of the customers, and she'd totally ignored this.

I went home, googled the charity she was representing, and told them what a fine job she was doing!

I have to admit to signing up for an NSPCC DD from a chugger, BUT in my defence I was heavily pregnant and hormonal/tired, about ten of the buggers had tried to lure me in (a few of them even grabbing at my bump wihout asking, arrrgh), plus the chugger in question was gorgeous. As soon as I walked away I was like, "I'm an idiot " and cancelled the thing as soon as I got home.

He wouldn't take less than a tenner a month either

I've taken to looking at them blankly if they talk to me and saying "Desolee, je ne parle pas Anglais." in my bestest French accent, then waltzing breezily off.
Am waiting for this to backfire when one of them actually speaks French!

Some chuggers in the street in Gloucester at the weekend were actually trying to lure people in with free diet coke
Wonder where that money could've been better spent ...

Name and shame, StayingDavidTennantsGirl, name and shame!!!

(And please furnish me with an acceptable shortening of your name!!!!)

Lunabelly - it was a number of years ago, and I can't actually remember. I blame my age! And DavidsGirl or SDTG are fine by me - or Staying. It is a bit of a pain to type the whole thing, isn't it.

Not only do I get accosted on the street but now the good weather is here every evening just as I'm about to dish up dinner a chugger rings the bell from Dogs Trust, RSPCA, ST. John's etc - very frustrating. My Dh hates the way they don't want a one off donation only a DDR will do. I used to say I didn't have a bank account and they moved off like a flash - but had to account for my lies to the children. It has also like others put me off donating to charities who employ them.

I had a friend who worked for a charity that was using them and who was appalled to find that the company who run the chuggers charged on average £45-90 (more for big DDR amounts) for each DDR sign up to the charity , so the person signing up needed to pay the DDR (which was usually only for between £2-4 a month)for a couple of years before the charity made anything from it!

I know its a crap job and they are usually just kids trying to make a few bob - but boy are they annoying.Surprised to find they are paid per hour, adverts I have seen said up to £xx per hour - so I assumed they had to meet targets or got commission - hence the persistence.

I just say NO loudly as they approach. The alternative is to try to sell them your (imaginary) charity - the Chugger-Free Streets Promotion Society comes to mind!

From Monday to Friday these miscreants are the bain of my existence. On a typical walk from the station, to my office, to get lunch, cross the road for a bottle of water, back to my office, and then go to the station at the end of the day I probably dodge about 20 of the fuckers. Every. Day. That's 100 a week. If I gave to every single one, that would be direct debits to the tune of £4000 per month, increasing by the same amount month-on-month. Yet they ALL seem perpetually vexed as to why I'm not furnishing them with my bank details simply because they've winked at me or commented on the colour of my coat or invited me under their umbrella.

Idiots.

They're playing on your guilt feelings for not supporting them with just £2 a month - that's £24 a year, which is more than you might like to give to one particular charity in a year. I don't want to be put under pressure by a chugger, but want to think carefully about money I donate, as I don't have a lot of it.

Take time to think if you would like to support a charity and your reasons (a relative or close friend may have been affected by something, for example) and give a donation to the cause, no matter how much. That helps assuage any feelings of guilt.

We have one big drive a year with friends and relatives on collecting money for charities local to us, as my employer does matched giving, but only for local charities. However, there are plenty to choose from.

I also include my CAMRA membership as an annual donation to a charity - willingly given without CAMRA resorting to chuggers.

I used to hate the way ('used to' - now live out in teh country and very rarely approach a town/city!) they would focus on young people/students, rather than middle class people with jobs. They'd spot you down the street and make a bee-line for you!

The one time I got REALLY pissed off, and still haunts me now was a Shelter chugger. At the time I was 'homeless' and Shelter had given me a grant to go to uni. I told him that I was actually only AT uni because Shelter gave me a grant (which I was very grateful for) and he told me maybe I should give something back! Whilst I was still receiving the grant! So i told him 'well, wouldn't that make the whole reason they GIVE me the grant completely pointless;' and he had a proper sarky/chuffed with himself look on his face. URGH. I SOSOSO wish I had complained. Anyway, a Shelter chugger approached me the other day as i made my annual trip into town, and I gave him a good ear bashing about this last guy, and why it made me hate him, his charity, his job, in fact all charities and quite possibly his mother, and he backed off very quickly

IN DEFENCE OF CHUGGERS

I used to work as one. The company was paid a fixed fee by the charity to raise £X, so any costs incurred wouldn't go up for the charity if we had a bad day or whatever. I was on about £8 an hour which was good for back then.

However - when I did it, it was a fairly new thing and people were I think more receptive to it.

Factoid 1 - it is the most cost-efficient way of raising revenue for a charity, much more so than mailshots which have really low returns, tv ads, billboards and charity shops. Yes they are paid, but charities employ lots of people in different capacities!

Factoid 2 - our target was to sign up 3 people a day. That is a helluva lot of rejection, and the abuse you get from the public reduces you to tears frequently. Spitting, shoving, verbally abusing, sexually harassing...

Factoid 3 - we received training and info about every charity we fundraised for, often getting to visit their centres and see them at work, to motivate us. We genuinely did care and the buzz of signing someone up was amazing.

Factoid 4 - we were very strictly trained never to harass people. The stories on here make me we would have been disciplined if not sacked for speaking to the public like that! We were constantly told not to guilt-trip, and always accept the first 'no'.

Buff is it really the most effective way?

My DP manages membership recruitment for a charity and does not think so. They have abandoned this type of fundraising because it doesn't pay. Instead they have stalls set up at places where people who are likely to donate are likely to be - it's a nature charity, so nature reserves, beaches and forests maintained by that charity - and they try to snag people as they walk in.

My DP and his colleague have got up to 16 memberships in a day this way... 3 is around their minimum target.

It'd be 'effective' if charities stole our bank details and withdrew what they wanted from our accounts ... doesn't mean it's ok.

Buff... It sounds as if charities have got more 'desperate' since then. Some of the stories on here are appalling, it's harrassment and the ones that actually put their hands on people and block their way, I can't see that that's legal.

To do this when the job situation is dire, so many redundancies and lack of money generally, is just really wrong. People should not be forced to give - that's not charity at all.

I'm thinking that the only way it would work is if the contributions were mandatory, taxes for the charities, 1p in the pound or whatever. I think even that would be preferable for me than feeling my stomach drop at the prospect of running the gauntlet of chuggers... it's awful. :(

I was accosted recently by a chugger asking if I liked children. I replied that no I didn't. He asked again as he obviously thought I hadn't heard him correctly.

He left very quickly obviously realising I was a lost cause.

Depends on the charity, some find it effective, some don't. If it gives them bad PR then more often than not it becomes very ineffective.

UK charities are probably the best regulated and most transparent in the world. Also there is always a balance to be struck between regulation and going so far it stops people from giving altogether. It is something we should be very proud of. Obviously the larger charities are subject to proportionately more regulation than you local school fund, which is entirely appropriate.

If you have a bad experience with a chugger please report them directly to the Charity Commission. They do have to tell you, by law what proportion of the monies will go to the charity.

www.charity-commission.gov.uk/about_us/about_the_commission/speeches/suzi_speech_230910.aspx

Burping "I was on about £8 an hour which was good for back then."

EIGHT POUNDS AN HOUR. HATE THEM EVEN MORE NOW.

I saw somewhere that it CAN go up to £16 an hour.

Charity should not be mandatory. It should be freely given. And whilst I have nothing against care homes for one-legged transexual Portuguese circus badgers, I would resent a portion of my pay being swiped to pay for them.

Charity should be a personal thing between us and our conscience...not bullied or just plain stolen from us.

Charities need to know what their projected income will be so they can commit to long-term projects. That is why asking people to donate a tiny portion of their own regular income is desirable for charities. People giving a regular monthly donation, even of £2, are greatly valued. People rarely cancel once they have signed up.

I think the golden age of chugging may be over though - people think so negatively of them. Not helped by the aggressive and rude attitudes I've read about on here!

While my company did not give each fundraiser commission based on sign-ups, I'm aware that other companies did. I think the key was the fixed cost for the charity in gaining say £10,000 a month income. I really don't see what the problem is - all effective types of fundraising cost money. I'll say it again - chuggers are far more cost-effective than charity shops, I used to know the figures so I could reel them off at the abusers in the street who thought I should be working 40 hours a week in the cold for free.

Buff... I don't always think that regular donators are valued. I paid into the Blue Cross for a couple of years and then started to receive demands requests for increased contributions every month. I asked them to stop sending them and in fact stop sending their catalogues and other bumph every month and they wouldn't/didn't. I cancelled the direct debit and now they get nothing from me and never will again.

I don't know that chugging has reached a peak, I never remember it being this aggressive so something must be still worthwhile for them to be so insistent. I feel sorry for the elderly who maybe feel pressurised to sign up for what they can't afford and aren't able to get away from them so easily.

I wish they'd stop, full stop, people who want to donate will always find a way. I wanted to support a couple of charities and found them, all by myself, through the internet, no chuggers required.