to be peed off being hounded by RSPCA for money... just because i ALREADY pay them money?

[juicychops]

i was targeted a year ago and read out some story about a poor abused dog which after MUCH pleading by the man i agreed to a monthly donation of £3.

Over the last 3 months i have had a number keep calling me literally about 20 odd times. i haven't answered because i didn't recognise the number. anyway the last time they called i rang the number back to see who it was and as it was the RSPCA, when they called AGAIN today i answered, thinking it was to just say thanks for my continued support.

but no

i had another story about another poor dog and then was told that others who already sponsor rspca have agreed to up their donation to £10 per month and would i like to?

i said no.

another story about another dog, then asked if £5 would be ok?

i said no again.

then, some MORE stories about how terrible dogs have been treated and figures from the last year. then asked if £3 would be ok?

by this time i was getting a bit narked and said politely i already give to the dogs trust which combined with rspca totals £10 per month i cant afford any more. she finally got the message and said goodbye.

i know animals get badly treated every day and my money is needed, but it is also needed by my ds too and these calls i find really uncomfortable because of the sob stories they read out to emotionally blackmail you. i just find it really annoying that i was targeted before and persuaded to pay because i wasn't already, but now targeted again BECAUSE i already pay them, and obviously not enough by their standards.

i am too polite to be firm at the start of the call so i cant help but let them go on and on

AIBU to be annoyed?

I know its an old link and a daily fail one at that but please read!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324203/Former-RSPCA-inspector-blew-whistle-charity-destroying-healthy-animals-hanged-home.html

I think hounding existing donors for more money is now the universal method of raising donations. It's infuriating. Charities are also asking for ludicrous personal information, either to sell or to allow them to profile their donors making advertisers keener to display products to their userbase. It's all a bit disgusting, really.

Never donate any money to charity via a method that can be traced to you. To do so is a recipe for being bombarded with junk mail and hounded with begging phone calls.

I only donate via a Charities Aid Foundation account now - I can get the equivalent of Gift Aid benefit by putting the money in via Give As You Earn then make donations anonymously on an ad hoc or regular basis.

The RSPCA are awful. They destroy lots of healthy animals while at the same time wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of donations pursuing politically motivated cases against hunts for alleged tiny breaches of the hunting act.

Most of these cases haven't even involved the death of a fox - just the suspicion that the hunt might have been chasing one for a short time, yet they deem it a prudent use of funds to spend thousands on. One case that ultimately was thrown out of court cost the charity £327,000. Strangely it was brought by the RSPCA against David Cameron's local hunt, many believe it was to make a political point. Whether you agree with hunting or not, I don't think anyone can condone this as a wise use of money when they are destroying healthy animals.

They deserve to loose the royal charter and if they keep on their current course they should loose their charitable status too as they are fast becoming a political pressure group. Take a look at their recent board reshuffle - half of them are animal rights nutcases, one even compared farming to the holocaust (I kid you not).

If you really want to do some good for animals then find a local dogs shelter, cats home, wildlife sanctuary and dotate to them, if you can't afford that then maybe volunteer an afternoon of your time a week (or whatever you can spare).

There are lots of ways to help animals - but the RSPCA isn't one of them!

We had similar with the NSPCC. I told them that, if I got one more phone call I would cancel the existing direct debit. Then I put that in writing to the email address on their website. Two years later and we have never had another call from them. Putting it in writing helped. A lot of the call centre people are temping so, even if they report comments back, it's not followed through - whereas putting it in writing means it gets passed along in the company (at least I presume it does)

How to deal with a telephone chugger - by an ex-telephone chugger.

Rule number 1

Whenever someone calls you, ALWAYS check who the caller is before acknowledging who you are.

A chugger ALWAYS has to say 'My name is, and I am calling on behalf of....'

If they say they are calling on behalf of a charity, then you KNOW its a chugger.

YOu simply say, 'that person is no longer on this number, please remove their details from your system. Then, get them to repeat back what you have asked them to do and ask them to confirm that they have removed your details.

They can click a button on their screen to do this. That should stop all calls stone dead.

Registering with the TPS is not much good with phone chugging firms - they have specific scripts to deal with that objection, which you counter by saying.

'I am TPS registered, you should not have called me. What is the name and address of your company and can you now put me through to your manager so that I can take up the matter with them. But, before you do, can you please assure me that you have removed my details from your system whilst we have been speaking?'

That sort of fightback works very well with them.

Just write to them instead of writing here!

It's an outside company that does the fundraising calls, same as other charities. I've been equally hounded by Red Cross and British heart foundation.

It's got nothing to do with the actual charity's work.

Marina you need to stop reading and believing the Daily Mail.

"I think hounding existing donors for more money is now the universal method of raising donations"

Apparently it's known as "foot in the door". Once they've got your £3 a month they hound you for more. I had this with WWF and was very tempted just to stop the DD but didn't because I believe in what they do. However, when I moved, I completely forgot to update them with my details. Scarily enough they found my new address but not my new number. If they find the new number I may have to stop the DD. I was giving them £3pcm when I was struggling to buy food for myself. I didn't need some arrogant whipper snapper with no knowledge of the world guilt tripping me into thinking what I was giving wasn't enough.

Old thread, same old problem.

Manina wasn't there a deliberate policy amongst LACS to infiltrate the RSPCA?

The best charity I have found for not doing this hounding for more money thing is Medicins Sans Frontiers. Theyve been superb. I get no emails from them, no phonecalls or anything and so I will always donate to them.

anyone seen the DM's article about charities today?
nice to see where they get their research from (4 year old threads)

Gabilan
Yes I believe there was. Evidently is has been (and continues to be) very successful.
Unfortunately the net result has been the decimation of a once great charities reputation. Donations are in freefall (probably why the OP has been having the pestering phone calls) and the charity is in real trouble.

They need to cull the extremists from their ranks, get back to rescuing abuse puppies and kittens and stay out of politics / campaigning / prosecutions etc.
If they don't then I forsee a day (soon) where they loose the 'R' and maybe even charitable status altogether!

RSPCA local branch came out to look at some poor ponies in waterlogged fields nearby in 2013/14 winter and wouldn't take action unless one of them died, but was delivered in such a way as they hoped they would because it would help the cause/publicity.

Cancelled our direct debit straight away and am trustee of a (large) independent charity and we then put them on a backlist. Local vets wont deal with them either.

RSPCA is no longer fit and proper in my experience (and I don't read newspapers)

I tried to get them to come out tonight because a snake got nto my flat but they dont come out if its late at night.

They might be coming in the morning.

Oh and i also informed them i have a cat I dont want her attacked by the snake. It went down a hole between the boiler and washing machine. DH did try to catch it.

This would make me stop my regular donation, to be honest!

I have cancelled all my dd'd bar one because of this. The wwf and I think the only reason they don't hound me is because it's an old one and hey don't have my new address. I now just give generously to people asking for sponsorships ( which seems to be every other week these days anyway).

They phoned at 8.30 this morning Told me to ring them if it happens again Havent seen snake since it disappeared down the hole. Fingers crossed.