AIBU for shouting piss off to a street fundraisers.

[misspedantic]

I am fed up with these people trying to mug me for my bank account every time I walk out of a shop. Today there was 12 of them along my high street, working for 3 different charities and after being asked how I was or am I having a nice day or have I got a spare minute 7 times, I shouted "PISS OFF". I seriously can't cope with it everyday.

AIBU for wanting to land a drop kick to their heads tell them to leave me alone.

I chugger once asked me to sign up for £3 a month, I told him (in all honesty) that I only had £2 in my bank account. His response was "That doesn't matter! That's what overdrafts are for!" I didn't sign up, but I do worry about vulnerable people who may be bullied into it.

A quick list

I have
built schools
aquaducts
taught disadvantaged children
repaired machines that shouldn't run in places that have no chioce.
and various other things

I have done my time for charities that I believe in, and still give via direct debit to those that I still care about.

If chuggers really cared they would do more than beg for money on street corners.

yanbu.

My rule is that my manners stop where other peoples rudeness begins. I'm very polite with my no's but will happily yell at anybody who tries to block my path or follow me down the street. It has only happened a couple of times.

I once kicked one in the shin and screamed in his face when he blocked my path, refused to let me move and got in my face with his aggressive sales spiel when I was heavily pregnant, he looked scared and ran.

That's just it Boney.. they don't care, it's just a job to them.

I am happy to give cash to voluntary collectors shaking a tin etc. but who on earth thought it was ok to decide to ask people to give their bank details out on the street?

Two wrongs don't make a right, but none of us are perfect and when met with aggressive sales tactics, it is easy to see that tempers can get frayed!

Two problems with with this, Charity fatigue and an unwillingness to see my hard earned dosh not getting to the point of need, most of it going to administrative overheads.

small hint - get your mobile out and pretend to talk to someone. never make eye contact and walk quickly

I wish there could be some sort of regulation as to how many beggars can be on the street at once. It really puts me off shopping in our high street, I have now practised the very fast walk with eyes down at all times.

I did once sign up to one of these three pounds a month things, but within a couple of weeks I was being hassled by phone to do more - sell raffle tickets, up the donation, etc etc so I immediately cancelled the direct debit and won't sign up to anything else ever again as they never leave you alone once they have got you.

One day when I worked on the cash in a busy city centre bank a girl about my age (19-20 then) came in and said she needed her bank account number and sort code for the charity guy outside because he was following her and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. I suggested that we just give him one with a fake sort code and muddled account number, and she readily agreed. It was quite amusing when I then saw her giving him the details out on the street

Around the same time one of these fellas cornered me while I was waiting to meet a friend, giving me the hard sell, "it's only two quid a month, you probably spent more than that on your coffee", at which point i told him it was none of his business how I spent my money. I'd feel sorry for these people if they were fundraising out of the goodness of their own hearts, but in reality they're better paid than me!

I usually let DS run ahead of me if i see a chugger in our High Street (DS knows where he needs to stop - years of training - but the chugger doesn't know that) then when they try to stop me I point at DS and say can't stop - escaping child and hurtle off.....

If I don't have DS I smile sweetly and say I'm terribly sorry but I donate to Cafod and I'm not able or willing to donate to anyone else.

I hate having to run the gauntlet though, it's so very stressful.

I smile sweetly and say 'I am on Jobseekers Allowance of £67.50 per week. I am in terrible debt'
I do give to charity. But I prefer not to be hassled.

Off thread but I find it annoying that my local high street has a Muslim god squad stall on a Saturday with a man stood there with a loudspeaker. Now I have Muslim friends but do not wish to convert to Islam. When they try and thrust a leaflet in my hands I say 'I beleive in Voodou' Well I do have an interest in it. They tend to move pretty sharpish.

Huh, you should see the pro-life campaign stall in Belfast Cornmarket on a Saturday, complete with billboards of "aborted" foetuses. It's actually horrific, I don't know how they get away with it. I'd love to tell them what I think they should do with their petition [apologies for off topic-ness]

I think YABU to say 'piss off' to them. I either say "not today, thanks" or " I only give change to the Red Cross" (which is true). There are so many different types of charities collecting on the streets now that I have no way of knowing which ones are legitimate or not. I am also very suspicious of many charities since a man who our family knew and who was a total conman/ smooth talker in business went on to found some charity and paid himself a very healthy salary as director of it whilst excusing it by saying it was not nearly as much as he could have earned in the private sector. I suspect a lot of charities with obscure missions are run by such people. YANBU to think that the collectors are annoying though. They are heavily trained in various sales and marketing techniques and I too have noticed that some of them are getting quite aggressive about it these days. I detest the ones that try to block me. I wasn't familiar with the term 'chuggers' before today. If someone could explain why they are called that, I'd appreciate it.

Chuggers=Charity Muggers

If they stand in your way SHOVE THEM

TheCraicDealer - that is terrible.

I thought it might be a combination of charity and tree-huggers. They do feel a bit like muggers at times though don't they... Although a real mugging is a lot more terrifying .

It's all been said of course - YWBU to swear, YANBU to think it.
Where I live the High Street is rammed with chuggers, beggars, animal rights activists (think the aborted fetus poster, but a four-foot high picture of a skinned mink instead), fire-and-brimstone evangelists and Hare Krishnas - it's actually been in the news as one of the most chugger-infested towns in the country.
DH rescued a Hare Krishna from me once: DD was young, I was bored, and it seemed perfectly reasonable to query whether the book he was trying to flog to me for £20 differentiated between traditional Eastern teaching and classical Western epicurianism. Poor lad hadn't a clue.. by the end of my theorising about the roots of modern consumer culture he hadn't the energy to ask for a direct debit
I have been known to ask chuggers how I can volunteer to collect money for their charity 'as it's so important to give time.' They never have an answer for that one.

Chuggers drive me insane too! I had one chase me down the street once a few years back, he vaulted over a bench to get to me, I admit I was a bit impressed . When DD was a few weeks old I ventured into town only to get accosted by some guy who begged me for money while showing me pictures of dying Indian babies - I remember throwing money at him as I was in no fit mental state to cope with it! Looking back it makes me really mad to be taken advantage of like that .

Unfortunately the chuggers in our area have started cold-calling on weekday evenings (we live a 5 min walk from the town centre), and that REALLY pisses me off.

I have a mate who deals with chuggers like this - when they approach her she covers her ears and screams 'NO NO! DONT TAKE ME BACK TO THAT HELLHOLE!'. It's hilarious and they ran away so fast

*run

I must find a suitable way to deal with them. They lurk on my route from the office to car park - and are very "in your face" on my way home (usually rushing to do childcare collection). And they walk to block you off, won't allow non-engagement, and one day when I just wearily said "no" (and I mean wearily, not rudely), I got a VERY sarcastic "you have a nice day too" said very quietly behind my back - so I went back and ate her for it (7th consecutive day of this same charity group doing that street)! That did feel good.

'I have a mate who deals with chuggers like this - when they approach her she covers her ears and screams 'NO NO! DONT TAKE ME BACK TO THAT HELLHOLE!'. '

hahahahahaha

I did this job for a few weeks back in 2000
In my defence, "chugging" hadn't been around very long and I'd actually signed up to support two charities after speaking to two extremely polite and respectful chuggers who'd managed to get my attention without invading my personal space or patronising me. Because of these two positive experiences, I actually thought that this kind of direct fundraising was a brilliant idea.

As it happened, I couldn't hack it as a fundraiser because I was crap at getting money out of people. I was quite good at getting them to stop (by smiling and asking them if they had a minute to talk about Greenpeace or the NSPCC, not by blocking their path or calling out chirpy witticisms) but I was no good at continuing to hassle the person to sign up after they'd said they couldn't afford it.

And it was very difficult to force myself to keep smiling and being upbeat and friendly after hours of people being shitty or just looking through me when I spoke to them (I know, I know, they didn't ask me to speak to them in the first place). Weirdly, men would stop for me or my female colleagues but not for the males. And in the whole time I did the job, I swear that not one woman between about 19 and 50 stopped for me although they would speak to the men on my team

Anyway, when we were being trained, we had quite a lot of instruction on how to approach people and about what wasn't acceptable behaviour. We were never, ever to stand in front of someone to stop them getting past. And obviously, walking along with someone or running backwards to stop them passing you would have fallen into that category. We were never ever to make comments like "so you don't care about the environment then" if somebody didn't stop. Same for cheeky or patronising "attention getting" comments to someone you were trying to speak to. Our trainers used the example of those pushy promotional sales people you'd sometimes get in high streets trying to sell beauty treatments/haircuts/gym memberships as what they didn't want to see from us.

Basically, the company was very strict about its fundraisers not pissing people off beyond the fact of us being there in the first place. I'm honestly shocked to hear about some of the experiences people on this thread have had with chuggers being sarcastic, overly pushy or physically blocking their escape! Presumably the training is less rigorous nowadays or maybe there are different fundraising companies in on the act, who are less scrupulous.

It's not as bad as that where I live, thankfully, although I've experienced the "hello lovely lady" patronising type of opening gambit. In this case, I stopped and told the guy he'd get nowhere by patronising women he was trying to sign up. He was apologetic and, I think, surprised. Hopefully it made him realise that his approach was alienating many people rather than charming them. Although who knows, maybe it was something that worked for him - I saw enough women being slightly giggly and coy with my male colleagues back in the day to completely dismiss the flirtation effect

OP, (if you've read this far!) YANBU to feel the way you do. Not sure if you were unreasonable to actually shout abuse. I kind of think it's fair enough if a chugger's been openly rude to you but if they're 'just' being pushy, it's a bit OTT. I tend to just say "I'm sorry, I'm in a hurry" and just keep walking. I never ignore them completely as, at some level, I do empathise with what them doing what can be a really difficult job.

YANBU - I had to run the gauntlet of chuggers every day on my way to work. I used to dread rounding the corner where they'd be. I just used to keep my head down and just mutter "no" or shake my head if they tried to get my attention. It's not nice at all and very wearing if it happens most days.

If I'm daft enough to make eye contact, I usually just say "I'm not interested, thanks" or something along those lines. However I frequently get responses which are just on the verge of sarcastic, such as "well, you have a nice day now enjoy your shopping" - that's when I want to tell them to PISS OFF!!!

They are wankers and I am instantly prejudiced against any charity who uses this method of collection.

In Primark they often have charity collectors who just randomly shout 'handicapped children' at people walking in. This tells me that they are not legit as what charity uses the term 'handicapped' anymore? I would imagine that approx 2p out of every £1 goes to the actual charity.

Wankers the lot of them.

And I'm not a horrible meanie as I give £8 to the Dogs Trust and £5 to Sight Savers International by dd each month.

Here you go OP - just for you - YANBU x

Charities are in a lose/lose situation. Nobody likes chuggers, but there really isn't any better way to get the word out about charity work. Especially if said charity is a smaller, less well known one. Yes, it costs them money to use this method (as with almost any other method of marketing, FYI) but they wouldn't do it if it wasn't a successful way to get new gifts.

And don't presume that the majority of money doesn't go to the right place. The Red Cross use this kind of fundraising tactic and they are prepared to respond to any emergency anywhere in the world (save 2 countries that won't let them in) within 24 hours of any emergency.
Do you remember the hurricane in Burma a few years ago, when the Burmese government wouldn't allow foreign aid workers into the country to help? 2 charities were still up, running and managing to help the victims (by providing clean supplies, fresh water and food) within 12-24 hours because they already had infrastructure inside the country: The Red Cross and Save The Children (another charity which uses similar fundraising tactics). The reason they could do this is because they have successfully raised money.

This may not apply to you, but some people simply don't think about giving to charity until it is thrust in front of them.