I HATE HATE charity collectors at the door

[lemonstartree]

we are bloody struggling like so many others. I KNOW there are people worse off than us and I contribute where I can. But I HATE people turning up at the doorstep guilt tripping / or trying to guilt trip me into giving money i DO NOT HAVE for causes I don't want to support

AIBU ?

The charities must think they do get more money in the long run, or they wouldn't keep doing it. The charity we were caught out by had small print on the back of the direct debit form, which said that the contract they paid their doorstepping agency was £1million. That is one hell of an investment, it must return for them.

I was at my mums this evening, a two charity chuggers from vso called. She was just about to sign up to a direct debit for £10 a month which I knew she couldn't really afford. I stepped in and said my Mum needed to think about it. They didn't like it. Made me feel really about my mum and wondering if she will be vulnerable as she gets older. I asked her if she wanted to sign up and she said £10 a month is ok. I knew she couldn't afford it.

YABU to hate them. YANBU not to answer the door.

Yanbu.if no one does door to door donations then they'll stop doing it. Sadly I think they prey on the elderly and lonely, thinking they may be a soft touch for donations...

I had a very persistent charity person at the door last night around 7.30 as I was getting my dc ready for bed. They were very insistent it would only take 20seconds of my time and I must be able to spare that surely. In the end I had to just close the door.

These people do not care about the charity themselves - do not feel guilty about saying no, or ordering them to get the fuck off your property if they do not immediately leave.

They generally take the first years worth of donation as commission. If you care about a charity - do not sign up via a chugger. Sign up directly through the website or by contacting the charity.

The agencies they use are utterly unscrupulous. They exploit the (usually) young people they use by paying crap all and putting them on commission, thereby turning them into door-to-door salesmen. I hate it with a passion.

I recently complained to Scope after one of their chuggers made a series of inappropriate comments such as, what will you do if your baby turns out disabled (I'm pregnant) and divulging very personal details about two neighbours who have kids with learning disabilities and details about my next door neighbour's family which I was unaware of because they had chosen not to tell me. We are good friends with them as well. He was determined not to take no for an answer despite me repeatedly saying we weren't interested so in the end I had to shut the door in his face. Just such a shocking invasion of mine and my neighbours' privacy and confidentiality.

I put a complaint in to them and apparently the individual was reprimanded and suspended from doing any work for 3 days. I pointed out that this wasn't about individuals and I actually didn't want him to be punished. It was about them using an agency which puts its employees under huge pressure to sell, sell, sell. They didn't respond to any of those points.

I really do feel that reputable charities have their reputations damaged by chuggers but it's becoming increasingly common.

Having complained about a particularly rude and persistent RSPCA door-to-door collector last year, I know a bit about this.

They will most likely be employed by an agency and that agency will be regulated by the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association and follow their code of practice. This means that they have to disengage at the first sign that you do not which to engage with them.

I filled in an online complaint and the same day received a phone call back from the PFRA and the next day an apology from the agency and a promise that the employee was out of the field for retraining.

Interestingly the agency manager told me that a simple "no cold callers" sign would be ignored by their workers and that I needed to add "or charity collectors" to the bottom.

Tarka - I got this sign from ebay which covers most bases including charity collectors and has the added bonus of being a bit less stark than some.

AFAIK if they do knock or try to hang around arguing the toss once the sign (they won't have seen, natch ) is pointed out they are actually committing some sort of offence.

My friends son did this for a while.

Believe me they are encouraged not to take no for an answer. They have. REAMS of lines to learn, so they have a comeback for every reason you give for not donating.

They couldn't give a hoot about the causes they're collecting for.

I just simply and politely say 'Not today I'm afraid, we already have our own charities we support regularly and, while I wish I could, we just aren't in a position to be able to help you today.'
Most will politely say no worries and walk off.

I do agree it is somewhat embarrassing and pressurising to be asked on your doorstep, often to sign into long contracts giving monthly for a year or whatever.

Honestly, I think it is going to cause a lot of ill will over a long time period. And that will have consequences. Unfairly cajoling elderly people into setting up direct debits they can't afford (and may not realise they can cancel) is very far away from anything a charity should be associated with.

Hi . i found this old thread after i had yet another set of charity workers call at the door.
I do not like anyone without an appointment visiting my home i mean its my home if i want to give to charity i will seek it out .

But that is not the worse thing when i asked them not to call again the guy started arguing with me - so i then asked him to get off my property he then stood on the pavement arguing with me - at which point i closed the window and went back to the washing up

YANBU. They are cheeky too! One called me darling . If they were nice and polite I'd just say I don't make any donations at the door. And they always seem to call when I've got my hands covered in pastry dough!

Although I don't like to be disturbed at home I also don't think they deserve to be spoken to like shit. They are just trying to make a living and I bet many of them would much rather be doing a nicer job. I just lie and, with a smile on my face, tell them that I already support whatever charity they're plugging. I'm not rude, and they hopefully don't feel as bad as they might (even though they still don't get the commission - if that's how they're paid).

I just don't answer the door. If they dare bang on the window or over-use the door knocker, I stand in the window, wave and smile, then walk off to carry on what I was doing. Normally, dinner or bedtime, as that is when they appear.

I had one chugger (not one I waved at) flip the bird at me through my front window because I ignored her. I am not obliged to open the door just because she banged on the door.

I appreciate they are just doing a soul destroying job, but if you are going to beg at peoples doors for money at the most chaotic/busy time of day for most families, then you deserve to be ignored.

Oh we had one a few years back who was collecting for a cancer charity. The chap was told no politely as we prefer to donate in other ways and as he went down the path he shouted out, you obviously dont care about cancer.

Id just lost my dad to lung cancer and was obviously devastated, i had to physically pull my dp back from hitting him.

Horrible

People who do this doorstopping, particularly when they try to get you to sign up for a direct debit are on commission. Next time they call ask them how much commission they will get if you sign up and then tell them to bog off. I think if people want to donate to charity then they will do so but when people turn up at your door it's a form of intimidation. Knocking on doors asking for money is not on imo. Yanbu.

Not all D2D collectors are on commission. Some do it simply to help.

Like Christian Aid volunteers at my local church.

However, when the resident old lady annoying busybody Christian Aid leader tried to collar me on Sunday after church a few weeks ago to go door to door on my road and surrounding roads, I gave her every excuse under the sun. What I wish I had actually done was say 'sorry, I don't agree with going door to door, however great the cause. It is intrusive and annoying and quite frankly, I don't want people in my neighbourhood thinking of me as that kind of person.'

In the end I just told her that I work very long hours as a company MD, am heavily pregnant (as she could see) and I have two kids under 5 to look after. Any spare time I get from work, I want to spend with them or spend sitting on my bottom trying to catch my breath.

I am constantly hassled by the church to do time consuming big-ask stuff, in addition to attending and running Sunday School (which I do at least twice a term), and this grinds my gears. But that is another thread!

YANBU. It's awful. The thought that I could be interrupting someone's snooze or waking their kids up makes me shudder.

NinaHeart

While I'm sure you are passionate about your charity, and I appreciate that it's harder to raise funds these days, how can you be sure that people are really happy to set up the direct debits?

Lovelygoldboots mentions her mum and the £10 monthly direct debit she nearly ended up with, that she couldn't afford. How many times does it happen that there's no one around to stop a vulnerable person from being cajoled into a direct debit when they can't afford it?

I would not be surprised to find it's quite a significant number. Going by my own experiences with the door-stoppers, by the experiences in this and several other threads over time, and experiences of other RL people I know, a significant number of these door-stoppers leave the code of practice behind in the training room while retaining the hard sell techniques.

A couple of months ago, I helped an elderly neighbour to cancel 3 direct debits that were taking about £20 per month out of a tiny pension. He simply couldn't afford it.

I'm always polite on the doorstep, at least to start with. If the caller accepts my polite "no, thanks" then fine. Sadly, more often than not they refuse to take a straight no. That's when I shut the door, in their faces if necessary

YANBU. If they had "proper" jobs they could donate their wages to the charity. Two birds with one stone. But no....

Same for charities who send me pens/stickers/address labels etc. Please explain how that is money well spent. They do not get my money.

Salvation Army is fairly good compared with the rest of them.

Yanbu report them to their head quarters...

The poster who said that people DO sign up after saying no two/three times already...

Your response is exactly what makes me angry. THAT is harassment. ONE no should be enough.

I live on a busy road and they are an infestation. I've just ordered a sign 'no sales people etc'.. And if they still ring the bell (and BANG the knocker one after the other like they usually do... Waking the babies)... I will ask them if they can read.. Pointing to the sign.. Plus advise they contact the charity I support Literacy for Adults..

The charities do themselves a HUGE disservice using chuggers. I used to have monthly debit order with two well known ones and cancelled them straight after I was accosted by one of their chuggers in the street in Wimbledon... Who followed me taunting and belittling me in front of every one.. He physically blocked my path so I couldn't walk. IDIOT.

The other wouldn't take no for an answer and kept ringing the doorbell after I had (very) politely told him I wasn't interested, and was cooking so had to go and closed the door. The knot in my tummy was huge that evening - he really spoilt my evening.

There have been many times chuggers have annoyed me with their guilt tripping at the front door, but these two stand out for me.

I don't answer. Like you, I look ok to outsiders but am skint for most of the month.

The bloody Christian Aid woman battered my letterbox so much she woke DS a couple of weeks ago.

Personally I think it should be illegal- they have plenty of boxes in shops for people to put change into, and collectors standing in shopping centres, i can't imagine they even make that much money going round doors.

i had a sign on my door it got mysteriously ripped off