Chuggers and "leading questions"

[HellomynameisIcklePickle]

I've had quite a few on the phone/at the door and I honestly don't mind them trying. I like to be polite and will generally wait to say "not interested" at the available opportunity.

But what really, really winds me up is when they do really staged "Yes" questions.

"This is just a terrible problem, isn't it?"
"£2 a week seems reasonable to help, doesn't it?"

Oh fuck off. Is it just me who gets so annoyed and thinks these "leading questions" are really them saying "You're so stupid, if I just get you to nod your head and agree with me you'll do anything I suggest."

I know that it's a recommended selling technique and lots of people use it, but the main people who pitch to me are chuggers and it's only them who I notice it with. It just gives me the rage.

BlueberryWoods I said that to NSPCC a few months ago when they called hounding to update my monthly DD by an extra £5. They said 'Oh, okay, how about just an extra £3 then?' ] Um, no, I can barely afford the amount I pay at the moment!

I was so annoyed I cancelled it straightaway, and then set up one for childline as soon as I got another job.

I literally laughed out loud at Bookaholics 'weirdo' comment and will be adopting EatShitDereks response from now on as it made me giggle.

What's with the clever retorts?

Just say no thank you!

I tell them I don't have a UK bank account

Okay, here's a genuine question:

Do you think charities should be entirely staffed by independently wealthy kids on gap years?

Because if not, why do some of you have such a beef about them getting paid?

Is it because you think people should give all their time to a charity because they're so committed to the cause? I guess your doctor is a kind, giving person committed to their job, but you don't expect them to work for free!

Charities are generally not sustainable when only run by volunteers. To lobby for changes in the law, staff helplines during working hours, produce informative material and websites, organise events, etc etc, takes time and cannot be done on 2p and a skeleton staff of pensioners.

My DH is a charity comms manager and he's completely committed to his job - works 10-12 hour days and weekends for rather less than the average national wage - but unfortunately we can't pay the mortgage on goodwill. Doesn't make him a hypocrite.

Don't donate if you don't want, but really, believing that charity workers should not be paid is ridiculous.

I hate the ones in town who ask if you have a mobile phone, and if so could you send a text there and then to donate x amount.

Also the students out harassing people selling magazines to make some cash. No, I don't want one, and no I don't want to have to repeat this 6 times to your mates dotted all over town!

I say "I'm sorry, we've made our charity committments for this year". It actually seems to work quite well, it's polite, and doesn't leave much room for them to argue.

(I'm not actually lying either. I do actually sit down when I do my tax and decide how much I'm going to donate the following year and where I'm donating.)

Walking down our local high street involves running the gauntlet of chuggers. It's quite stressful, every 20 yards or so. I ignore them. I'm getting good t it.

At home I just get DH to answer the door. He deals with them swiftly.

Actually I find many charity tactics distasteful lately.
Tv advertising has become quite extreme IMHO.
It's a nightmare if you are old like me like a good itv3 crime drama.

Fine, pay people to work for a charity but maybe don't have them pissing so many ppl off.

Just say no and walk on.

revolting I don't think charity workers shouldn't be paid...(I volunteer for some and get paid for one...)

When the group were advertising my job someone who did similar work for a leading charity asked for more details - they were and wanted to be paid £16 ph - I get paid a few pence over the national MINIMUM wage...that is a huge discrepancy - and in our case the most we can afford to pay...

I really object to chuggers ...

I really object to getting junk mail and 'freebies' like cards and coasters I don't want ...

I really object to stuff like this
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10229675/Executive-pay-at-charities-not-excessive-claims-industry.html

I think the problem is that the big charities are now run like multinational companies - between 20-30% of all donations go on running costs...wages, advertising etc...and maybe running a successful business is more important than the cause...

And also I worked in scientific research - with a lot of the funding coming from charities and believe me the successful researchers - the ones most interested in developing their careers - need to publish as much as possible as quickly as possible and if they didn't would struggle to get more funding (and the research was not necessarily as in depth as would be most helpful, but the detailed research takes longer and if anything it stops others getting grant money to do that - but how research should be funded is a separate debate). They are far far from watching the pennies ...I have seen hundred of pounds of money 'wasted' because someone wouldn't wait 12 hrs to make sure they had the right thing before using it at the next stage ...or instead of making something themselves - cost a few pennies and minutes to make but a couple of hours before it can be used - buying it ready made at a much much much higher cost - and they have the money to waste because they are 'successful'... a vicious circle...

These are all reasons I only support small local charities ...

I had this earlier in Homebase. "Hello are you enjoying the winter Paralympics on the TV?" I said I am not interested.

I hate being asked to give to charity, I give to charities of my choice when it suits me not when I am guilt tripped into it. That is one way to ensure I will never give to that charity, they go on my shit list.

RevoltingPeasant I definitely do not think charity workers should work for free, no more than workers in any other industry. But I do think wages should go towards necessary staff, promotion, administration, etc.

Not to chuggers who accost people in their free time, often specifically targeting those who are too polite/shy/guilt-tripped to just refuse them, use sneaky and dishonest tactics, and actually make it harder to give by only accepting specified donations (e.g. can't make on the spot donations, only set up DD or those sneaky text message things that so many people have been caught out with recently).

Okay so Mantella, how do you think charities should be funded then if they never advertise? Seriously they need money to run, and getting money costs some money.

I think chuggers harassing people in the street is poor, btw, but politely going door to door, setting up stalls at events or busy public places, is how many people learn about charities or become members.

I don't think the vast majority of people donate after actively researching a variety of charities and carefully selecting one to support. Some will. But most, IMO, will see a stall at a community event and go "oh, never realised there was a local nature charity" or "oh, isn't that guide dog puppy cute, that does sound like a good cause" etc.

Charities need money to run and they need publicity to keep their activities in the public eye.

I find it quite useful when they send chuggers out en masse in shopping centres etc. I tell each of them that I've just signed up with their mate round the corner.

pull out your mobile and out it to your ear op.

they don't approach anyone on the phone

do you love your children? another leading question i hate them saying that absolutely hate it! the implication that because i love MY children i should pay for everyone elses because they are sick or poor and mom lost five babies due to poverty she wants to keep this one alive i really want to tell them she should have used contraception if they have toxic water and no food not kept having babies and losing them because they cant eat/drink etc then they tell me the kids are sick i end up telling them my life story instead all its ups and downs with my childrens medical problems i cant afford to pay money for other children to eat because my son has so many allergies its expensive (plus my allergies) my kids are ill etc etc but they persist so i ask them is it for children in our country if answer no i tell them i firmly believe we should help our own now as we have helped the rest of the world enough if it is in our country i tell them they can come for tea i can share what i have they avoid me now

One really got to me the other day after I donated to a busker. The musicians were quite talented so I was feeling quite happy and relaxed as I carried on and walked around behind the crowd that had gathered. This girl came up to me with a confused look and pointed at the ground behind me. I thought I'd dropped something, turned back - nothing- looked at her with confusion and she said "There - you dropped your smile". Then I noticed the clipboard, definitely dropped the smile then and I told her in no uncertain terms what to do. Which I was a bit shocked by because I've only said that particular obscenity to someone about twice in my life! I only donate to people on the street who give something back to me - like their musical talent. Or the odd Salvo man standing unobtrusively outside the shop door with their coin bucket. Absolutely detest the direct debit chuggers for causes I've often not heard of or who closely resemble in name/branding more famous ones.

I have a large fierce looking dog, who is as soft as can be, and who usually comes to the door to greet any visitors. If confronted with strangers on my doorstep, I usually say to be careful of the dog, as he doesn't like strangers - I invariably find that the 'intruder' retreats very quickly without bothering me further.

If approached in the street, which happens quite a lot in London, I just avoid eye contact and walk ahead resolutely and completely ignore them - they usually give up after a few seconds and search for the next victim.

By the way - and I haven't read all of the thread, so has probably already been said - these people are paid money by the charities to behave in this aggressive way.

I once saw a man asked 'you like animals, do you sir?'. He replied, 'yes, I'm just heading to the butchers actually.'

But in a serious note, YANBU. Drives me crazy.
It's like running the gauntlet some days on our high street.
My particular bugbear is when I have my children with me in the buggy and I get asked 'would you like to help another baby/child?'.

I work for a charity that employs "chuggers". We wouldn't do it if it wasn't an efficient way to fundraise, simple as that. Easy to complain about the costs and what the chuggers are being paid, but if charities could rely on people signing themselves up to donate without being prompted to do so, they would - fundraising is very value for money focused.

In my experience the people who do the job are typically young, keen to do something 'worthwhile' and work hard. It's a difficult job: you have to be resilient to the constant knock-backs. Agencies allow smaller charities to do street fundraising without the costly overheads of training people up etc so this can work out more cost effective for them even if you've got to pay a 'middleman'.

Maybe I'm lucky but I've never had a problem with chuggers (for any charity) being difficult (not denying it happens). I just look them straight in the eye, smile and say something like "sorry, not today" and walk on. If they ask again I just repeat "no, sorry" but keep smiling.

If people do have bad experiences, do complain - charities are desperate to protect their reputations and if chuggers aren't acting as good ambassadors then they will take action.

KarenBrockman I also got asked did I enjoy the Paralympics. It was a charity for getting disabled children into sport. It was in store just after the checkouts in a garden centre chain.
Them: we have to ask, as you could be a millionaire, could you donate £1000?
Me: er...No
Them: well, we never know..
(Continued descending down to £10)
Me: no I'm not prepared to give that much
Them: what could you give?
Me: I'll donate £1
Them: we can't take that.

This is not an affluent area - not sure how many £1000 donations they were expecting!

I ignore on the street but when they come to my door it really winds me up. I have even stopped giving to local people who come to my door. I don't sponsor people I know through just giving for doing a 30 min walk anymore either....I totally fed up with the whole thing - if you want to raise money for charity did into your own pocket.

We have charities we donate to on a monthly basis, we signed up independently of chiggers so we didn't pay their commission.

It's pretty bad, but I find if someone approaches me in the street asking for money for a particularly heartstring-tugging cause, I'm inclined to think 'scam'.

It's happened a few times around here - usually people selling raffle tickets at 5 each 'to help disabled orphans'. At least one of the 'charities' was found to be a scam, it was amazing what people had donated (presumably in good faith) to these people.

Very sad. OTOH, the local community centre that collected both money and goods for the Phillippines disaster raised a huge amount of money, all of which went directly to the DEC.

I used to feel bullied into this kind of thing, but I am ever so good at stonewalling them now. Just don't get drawn into any conversation with them at all. You don't have to be rude. I just smile sweetly and say 'hello!' when they try to engage me in conversation, I don't say anything else, I just continue to smile and sail past. Or if they ask me to donate, I say, 'no thank you!' as if they had offered me a biscuit.