Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to boycott shops that facilitate chugging in their store?

96 replies

bibbitybobbityyhat · 19/01/2017 21:04

In a smallish branch of M&S today.

1 exit.

Have to run the gauntlet of getting past 2 chuggers for the British Heart Foundation.

The sum total effect of this decision by M&S afaiac is that I won't go to their shop again.

Aibu?

OP posts:
beargrass · 20/01/2017 09:26

YANBU. I purposely do not give to charities that use chuggers. They're so big they're like businesses, and you see this played out in the cancer research world especially, where some cancers get a huge priority over others with the obvious results that brings. Domestic violence charities for example, simply couldn't afford to use chuggers because they run on such a shoestring. Chugging unevens the playing field and is intrusive.

Original poster
bibbitybobbityyhat · 20/01/2017 09:27

GoodEyebrowDay - wasn't your original response on this thread Fuck off and didn't it get deleted? I can't take your later post seriously as you have spectacularly missed the point.

OP posts:
Original poster
bibbitybobbityyhat · 20/01/2017 09:28

I have three charity standing orders, I am simply not going to sign up to any more. No matter how the chuggers might try to catch me out.

OP posts:
specialsubject · 20/01/2017 09:37

How to give to charity ? Coins in buckets ( if person has I d ) or direct payment. Not via chuggers, just giving, virgin money or anything else due to commissions.

Tell them that.

MinesaPinot · 20/01/2017 09:38

Working in London you're subjected to all sorts of charity collections every day, particularly coming out of the mainline station. Some I give to, and some I don't.

Chuggers, on the other hand, are a different matter, and I LOATHE them. They are always hanging around by St Paul's, accosting unsuspecting tourists. I tend to breeze past saying "sorry I've got a train to catch" or such like. Ran the gauntlet of three separate sets in a 100-yard stretch one night after I'd had a bad day - there was the bloke who followed me across the traffic lights telling me that it was people like me who were causing most of problems on this planet. He got a bit more of a mouthful than I think he expected....

insan1tyscartching · 20/01/2017 09:50

YANBU I don't set foot in WH Smiths anymore because they have someone at the door admittedly not a chugger selling overpriced make up. I don't mind putting coins in buckets and I always give the lovely Salvation Army collector in town a fiver but there is no way I'm signing up to a direct debit (I already have two charities that I send a monthly donation to by choice) through a chugger.

Foxyloxy1plus1 · 20/01/2017 09:51

It isn't a question of avoiding giving 50p to a charity. I'll happily do that for charities I support. The difference is that it's not 50p, it's signing up to a regular payment and it's being approached in a store and nagged and pressured into making a commitment.

I know that there are many people who have made commitments to regular payments, that they have subsequently cancelled because of harrassing phone calls asking to increase the direct debit and pay more.

I do say 'no thank you' pleasantly, but they are very persistent and continue their harassment. I'm not complaining about their presence. I'm complaining about being harassed for money.

PicardsCombOver · 20/01/2017 09:51

I forget which charity it was but a 'chugger' held my arm and pulled me backwards when I was running after my MIL and DH (the city centre crowd had eaten them), he scared the living daylights out of me. I'm cross just remembering that. I give to charity, my time, money and belongings but I'm too fucking scared to be within 100 meters of cities now. Yay online shopping.

foxessocks · 20/01/2017 09:52

I don't like them because when I was in my early twenties I worked in town and walked the same way on my lunch every day. One particular man was there every day and he would follow me all the way down the road despite me politely saying no thank you the first time. He even once asked me to marry him so not even relevant to charity giving at all. He would be jokey at first then get personal about me not caring etc etc. I complained to the charity and they did email an apology to me but nothing changed except in the end I stopped going that way because i was so fed up.

Having said that on more recent ocassions that I've gone past them a quick "no thank you" has worked absolutely fine so I guess it's like anything, some people will take the piss.

Mrsemcgregor · 20/01/2017 10:23

I was once accosted by someone getting people to sign up for direct debit to a neonatal unit (a great cause that I would consider giving to on my own time having looked into it) I asked for a leaflet to take away, got told no. So I said I would go home and do it via their website.

The woman looked at my 8 month pregnant tummy and said "I would have fought someone in your condition would care more about dying babies"

I cried all the way home. I never did donate.

Mrsemcgregor · 20/01/2017 10:24

Though not fought. Dammit. Blush

Mrsemcgregor · 20/01/2017 10:25

Offs bloody phone. You know what I mean!!

Original poster
bibbitybobbityyhat · 20/01/2017 10:26

Yes, so chuggers are annoying on the street and my point is that it's even worse in a shop when you can't get out without walking directly towards them and through a door that they are standing right next to! You're like a captive audience (like the only way to get out of zoos and tourist attractions being through the gift shop).

Very unimpressed with M&S Clapham Junction.

OP posts:
GinIsIn · 20/01/2017 10:30

I actually have the answer to this- before they say anything to you, smile brightly, wave and say 'hello! I already have a direct debit to [insert chugger charity here]' and walk briskly past. Never fails!

goingonabearhunt1 · 20/01/2017 10:45

I don't like how they stand right in your way when you are obviously trying to avoid them (the ones in the street I mean). I find it kind of intimidating.

KoalaDownUnder · 20/01/2017 11:05

I don't like how they stand right in your way when you are obviously trying to avoid them (the ones in the street I mean). I find it kind of intimidating.

Exactly! They are so in-your-bloody-face.

I am not intimidated by them, just irritated. But I know that many people who are just trying to go about their business in a public place are. And I think that's wrong.

MackerelOfFact · 20/01/2017 11:23

For the agency I worked for, the money for me and the agency came only from the gift aid.

So if someone isn't a UK taxpayer and Gift Aid can't be claimed, the chugger agency set up the donation for free? I didn't know that.

I work in Central London and have to pretend to be on the phone to be able to walk from the office to Sainsbury's and back again without being accosted at least twice.

I was running for a train once, clearly in an almighty hurry, and a bloody chugger leapt out in front of me, arms wide open, grinning "you're running to see me!" He got the short shrift. Fucker.

Itmustbemyage · 20/01/2017 11:36

You should be ashamed. And god forbid someone in your family doesn't need a charity's help in future

I work full time for a local charity and also volunteer one evening a week for a national charity, neither of these charities feel the need to accost people on the street or in shops to elicit support. I actively avoid supporting charities who do that. In the past I volunteered in a charity shop one day a week and stopped doing so when they started this way of fundraising.

Bobochic · 20/01/2017 11:38

Chugging ought to be illegal. It's a disgrace.

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 20/01/2017 12:16

I work for a charity and I hate chuggers

AnotherUsedName13 · 20/01/2017 12:54

Chuggers make a LOT more for a charity than a bucket collection. On average, our bucket collections will bring in about £200 for a day's work, often with multiple volunteers. A decent chugger will bring in £1440, donated over a four year period, in that same day. Even if you take the cost of the chugger out, it is still a massive increase on a bucket and as well as that it is regular income so we can budget and plan for it.

Plus chuggers increase the pool of donors. Yeah, some people will go online and donate to a charity (which is even more cost effective) but a lot kind of mean to and don't, or don't know about your charity or whatever else. Chuggers, statistically, hugely increase the donor pool.

If you want the charities to cut support and services, then absolutely campaign to ban chugging. But make no mistake that that is what you're pushing for.

ThymeLord · 20/01/2017 13:11

Morrisons are terrible for this. It's always people from Dogs Trust and they wave pictures of pooches under your nose as you leave the store. I am very happy to drop a couple of quid in a bucket but I am not signing up to a direct debit, and that's all they ever want. I already give to two charities and volunteer for another, my time and money is committed. Being harassed while I am doing my shopping isn't going to make me change my mind.

ThymeLord · 20/01/2017 13:12

Chuggers actively put me and many other people off. I can't see how they can make money for a charity unless people feel pressurised into signing up, and if that is the case then it is just plain wrong.

PicardsCombOver · 20/01/2017 13:12

I think people would prefer to not be hassled with aggressive hard sell tactics in the streets Smile (said by someone who worked for two charities for many years)

cupsanddogs · 20/01/2017 13:16

I wont ever pay anything to chuggers. I applied and got a 'customer service manager' job with a company with turned out to be chugging. They are on huge bonuses!

I hate it too