Charity door chuggers at 10am on a Sunday!

[helenvelyn]

Sunday morning and am enjoying my one lie in of the whole week. Someone starts banging on my front door repeatedly. Presume it's my lodger who has lost his key after a night out so haul myself out of bed, put clothes on, put contact lenses in, go down three flights of stairs hoping to bribe him to bring me a bacon sandwich as an apology.

It's a bloody charity chugger! At 10am! On a Sunday!

Now I'm up I can see that my quiet street is crawling with them. There's a lady with a clipboard who is also making a lot of noise shouting down the road telling them which houses to knock at. Also they've made next doors loud and yappy dogs bark.

Aibu to be irrationally annoyed by them interrupting my nice peaceful Sunday morning?

Oh yes I hate the ones In the street who pounce on you and demand a minute of your time (which always ends up being at least 20 mins). When I was younger and a lot more shy i’d always get roped into listening to them and signing up. I’m much more assertive and ruthless now and will completely ignore them when I walk past. If they corner me then I tell them to piss off.
I give to 3 charities every month that I’m passionate about and I don’t want to be guilt tripped into giving more to charities I’m not personally interested in

I've noticed certain stores now allow chuggers inside, right by the exits, so they can pounce on you. Yes, Sainsbury's, I'm looking at you. I don't understand the thinking; it's never good to piss off your customers with unwanted harassment (and I do think, actually it is bordering on harassment at times). Bad enough electricity firms but now chuggers. One stopped me the other week and for some reason I stopped rather than ignored them. Turned out they were from Alzheimer's Society. I let them do a bit of their spiel and said "Yes, I understand all that; while I don't have Alzheimer's as such, I have another condition which leads to dementia and I am already having memory issues which are going to continue to get worse". The guy then said he was sorry to hear it and then continued to try and get me to sign up to give regular money to Alzheimer's Society which I personally found crass in the extreme under the circumstances.

I once gave a Greenpeace chugger a brilliant yet polite lecture that left him completely stumped.

I also once had someone more or less jump in front of me and say "You're looking very smiley today, mate" which got a response of "I'm not you're mate; if you were my mate, you'd also know I'm not in the least smiley and make Victor Meldrew look incredibly cheery, so piss off!"

Just a friendly reminder that "chuggers" are people, doing a (shit) job for (shit) pay. They probably don't like it any more than you do. The vast majority of chuggers certainly aren't paid commission - but will be fired if they don't hit their sign-up targets. Please just bear in mind that it's the exploitative recruitment agencies you have a problem with, not the individuals who are inevitably just trying to make ends meet. They don't need a 'lecture' any more than your local tesco check out staff

I was in tears after my mother died, and not only did a chugger try to stop me in the street she proceeded to chase after me when I circumnavigated her and speeded up. I just give to the small local charities now, I think they're more trustworthy anyway.

Pret they are working for the charity of their own free will, no one is forcing them to do it. They have not been ‘exploited’ by recruitment agencies.

@AnnieAnoniMouser - yes the same way anyone works crappy, min wage, high stress jobs "of their own free will" For many it is the only option - no experience required as you may have guessed. The vast majority work for fundraising agencies rather than the charities themselves, the charity/cause could change week to week. These agencies often lie about the nature of the job. The average time spent working as a face-to-face fundraiser is 3 weeks. I personally believe it's exploitative to tell a member of staff they must sign up 5 members of the public before the end of their shift or they will be jobless by the end of the day (and subsequently potentially homeless) - these are young people who are not eligible for benefits.

As I said, you wouldn't lecture someone working checkouts in the supermarket on the employment practises of the chain, so I don't see how this is any different.

In my early 20s I knew loads of people who did a stint in chugging - only ever out of desperation. I know 3 people who left early on their first day in tears never to return due to the pressure of it all. For gods sake people have some empathy - it's their job to ask, you can politely say no, if they take more than a few steps to follow you they're breaking the rules and can be reported. Other than that why can't we just live and let bloody live.

They get told not to come back at any time any day of the week, don't come begging.

We've got a sign on our door and it has stopped nuisance knockers.

Actually I'm more amazed that in the time it took to get dressed, put your contact lenses in and go down 3 flights of stairs, they were still at your door!

Here's an idea for an invention, devise a fob which delivery drivers can use which activates a bell which is different to your doorbell. Then you can differentiate between deliveries and everyone else (usually someone irritating) and decide whether you want to answer the door or not.

AnnieAnoniMouser - yes the same way anyone works crappy, min wage, high stress jobs "of their own free will" hmm For many it is the only option - no experience required as you may have guessed. The vast majority work for fundraising agencies rather than the charities themselves, the charity/cause could change week to week. These agencies often lie about the nature of the job. The average time spent working as a face-to-face fundraiser is 3 weeks. I personally believe it's exploitative to tell a member of staff they must sign up 5 members of the public before the end of their shift or they will be jobless by the end of the day (and subsequently potentially homeless) - these are young people who are not eligible for benefits

There are other jobs out there that don’t require experience. It’s not exploitative to have targets and to lose your job if those targets aren’t met - it’s pretty standard in sales roles.

As I said, you wouldn't lecture someone working checkouts in the supermarket on the employment practises of the chain, so I don't see how this is any different

It’s different because they are choosing to do a job that encroaches on people’s privacy & time. Comparing it to a checkout operator is bizarre and if you think people don’t complain to checkout operators about things totally out of their control, you’re deluded.

In my early 20s I knew loads of people who did a stint in chugging - only ever out of desperation. I know 3 people who left early on their first day in tears never to return due to the pressure of it all. For gods sake people have some empathy - it's their job to ask, you can politely say no, if they take more than a few steps to follow you they're breaking the rules and can be reported. Other than that why can't we just live and let bloody live

Most of us have had one job we hated and couldn’t stick 🤷🏻‍♀️

Having them hammer on my door and hassling me in the street is NOT ‘live & let live’. I don’t need a chugger going on at me. I support various charities and if I want to increase the number I support I’ll do some research & decide who needs the help the most/where my money will do the most good. I don’t need some rude, talentless muppet pressuring me to support xyz charity.

YANBU

Let me explain to you WHY knocking on someone's door begging is wrong. There is a common idea that charities are some good people that get together on an issue.... Maybe, a long time ago. Local charities are the exception. It's an industry, all these charities invest in Toyota and do small projects which may or may not work, but mostly don't work and cause some damage.

International charity organisations like Oxfam and Save the Children are agencies receive public and private money. The UK Government gives aid to these organisations to they do work for them in exchange for.... We build a school, small desperate government will give the British your mining rights in return. This is how aid works. No one is going in to build a school to be nice, it all comes with strings.

Oxfam in South Sudan didn't update their payroll for 2 years, 2 years people who had left were still paid, no one was fired about the millions lost... or was a report made to the donor... Oxfam staff were hideously inappropriate to both national staff and locals, it was reported to Oxfam UK prior to the scandal and nothing happened. If anyone wants to dare defend Oxfam, it's a massive money making organisation which employs 3000 people in Uk on the ground - thousands and thousands of international staff and is widely corrupt. Don't give your money to any of these big charitites, or any that pay chuggers.

If someone knocked on my door on a sunday asking for money to fund these hijinx I would answer the door and go mental, and then i ask them for their own home number so I can knock around. I would take their photo, their charity and start blasting about them on FB. Someone called me at 9pm the other night asking for money in my home. I just didn't give them a chance. I am self employed, I do not go banging on doors or cold call people. This is invasive.

@Mountainsoutofmolehills here here 👏🏻

I agree with Mountain that there are charities and there are charities, which is precisely why I would never give on street. I like to research. I check their accounts and see how much money they hold in the bank, how much goes on administration, things of that ilk. Oxfam is one that I have distinct problems with and they're not the only one.

I am never rude to them, but I can't understand why charities still use chuggers, when so many people find them a real PITA or even intimidating. In the street is bad enough, but door-knocking chuggers really are the end.

Years ago, when they were a relatively new thing, I was accosted in central London by a charity for the blind, and signed up for a small monthly direct debit. The chugger wanted to know my age and phone number, both of which I declined on the grounds that they were irrelevant/I didn't want anyone phoning me.

Chugger said OK.

About a week later I had a letter from the charity, saying that they were 'unable' to process my 'application' (!) unless I provided these details.

The CF-ery of it was astounding - anyone would think I was asking them for money!
The letter went in the bin, and needless to say, the money came out of my account anyway.

,

YANBU. They really are a PITA. Pret I understand your point but there are other jobs that don’t piss people off as much; retail, inbound call centre, bar work, waitressing. Where I live Gusto (not sure of spelling) the prepared meal company comes round every couple of months. I know it’s a job for them and that they have to try and sign people up but if I’ve said ‘no’ the previous four times, I’m not suddenly going to change my mind. I was polite when they came last week but asked them to put a marker on my address to say I wasn’t interested. If they don’t, I’ll be in touch with their head office.

The fact that they knocked isn't unreasonable. It's the fact that they persisted on knocking when you didn't answer

This. Who the heck does this?

Do you live in a house OP? Next time, if so, hang out of a upstairs window, tell them it's a no cold calling zone* and tell them to buzz off and slam window shut. Why does everyone dutifully open their doors? (I understand why in this case because they made it sound urgent)

*cold calling zones don't apply to chuggers, sadly (no idea why not) but you don't know they're a chugger until they say what they want.