To think those high pressure charity street fundraisers should be banned

[startrekk]

This isn't really something I have given much thought to until recently. I always just avoid all contact and walk past the charity fundraisers quickly, ensuring I don't get caught listening to their hard sell.

However recently in the small village where I live there have been a team of around 5 and they are stood apart from each other pretty much blocking the main high street meaning you have to actually ask them to get out of the way as they have taken to hovering in front of you as you get close. I've had them pretend I have dropped something in order to get my attention and comment on my outfit or shopping bags as I've gone past.

I feel sorry for the small independent coffee shop that is located in the spot they have chosen to stand, as everyone avoids this path like the plague now and goes along the path further down.

I know it raises money for charity but I don't feel that is a good enough reason for these high pressure sales tactics to be allowed. There's nothing wrong with standing with a bucket and hoping people give change, but this is just ridiculous! I'd love to know where they learn their 'techniques' for selling.

AIBU? Anyone else who can't stand charity street fundraisers (charity muggers)?

@Thewifipasswordis
Is this a recent thing? Because I see them constantly on Bold St

I hate this too, OP. Some charities even outsource their chugging so the people you talk to are basically hired salespeople trained in hard-selling. They don't even work for the charity.

What RoboticSealpup said.

I always give the SA some cash. They seem so dignified in comparison.

What I'd really like is a way to give one off anonymous donations online without handing over any personal details for the charity to further harass me

Snuggly, you can do that, just ask them for their bank details & make a donation - it won't show any info from you.
You can use a generic paying in slip in the bank if you prefer.

Snuggy, sorry

Two of the worst approaches I've had were "Hey hey, would you rather be a mermaid or a seahorse?" and "I wanna give you a hug".
They were both told where to go sharpish.

Also the ones who approach you with "Hiya, I promise I'm not selling anything"
No, but you still want my money.

I am personally of the view that any kind of door to door selling should be banned. That way you’d get rid of jw’s and the other religious, charity sellers, dodgy scam artists, the list is endless.

Once had a knock on the door and when I opened it the chugger stood there and said “now I’m not going to patronise you by telling you about what the Red Cross does.....” to which I responded “I’m not going to give you money,” she replied “oh, I don’t want money,” to which I responded “I’m not going to fill in a direct debit for you either,” at which point she became very aggressive and shouted “don’t you care about children in the third world?” To which I responded “no.” And slammed the door.

I am at anyone who thinks they do this for minimum wage though, they absolutely don’t. They earn around £12 an hour, and let’s be honest, if you are paid to knock on people’s doors and harass people in the street for a living then being shouted at is an occupational hazzard. I used to work for a telesales company selling Leeds for double glazing. I detested every second of it but it was the old adage of no-one would give me a job as I’d never had a job.”I wouldn’t want to do it again for any money, but neither do I feel deeply sorry for anyone who does it even if they have to. Same with chuggers, if you’re going to be rude/aggressive/full-on then if people are rude back you deserve all you get.

I don't know what all the fuss is. I've never had any pressure and barely ever been talked to by a chugger.

I'm a forty year old, stocky, 6'2" bloke.

Couldn't agree more. If beggars were as aggressive the Police would arrest them.
I'd like to add the ones who knock on the door at gone 7pm. I had one from some donkey charity at 9pm on a Saturday. Our local gossip group was alive with messages about them and one woman said one of them was incredibly rude to her so she called 101.
If I want to give to charity, I will contact them. Far apart from anything else, I won't give my bank details to a stranger in the street or my doorstep.

I hate it. I was walking through town just before Christmas and one jumped in front of me asking me if I had a minute. I don't think he was impressed when I said there was no way I was standing in the pouring rain talking to him. Doorstep chuggers get the door shut in their faces as well, often while they are still talking.

Depends on your charity obviously, as they don't all strictly 'save lives'. But the one I worked for did on the ground work directly saving lives. Check out any DEC organisation and look at their annual reports, the figures will be there.

www.unicef.org/publications/index_102899.html

Now, I may be missing the point here, but doesn't the UN in UNICEF stand for 'United Nations'? The people who effectively run the entire world and are closely allied to the World Bank? The people who, it could be argued, actively dictate world policies that may contribute in no small part to the horrendous conditions experienced by those whom they are seeking to charitably support?

What difference could £3 a month of my money - or £3 a month from 500 million people for that matter - possibly make to their ability to run whatever operations they're running? Why ever do they bother?

I always think the same about charities named after and/or endorsed by the royals. These people aren't just comfortably off - they own a significant percentage of the entire planet.

If I had £1million at my disposal, I would hope I'd use it as a catalyst and aim to encourage other wealthy people to join me in doing a lot of serious good where it's so desperately needed. If I had £1billion - or £100billion - at my disposal, I wouldn't bother wasting my time and energies in trying to galvanise other obscenely rich people - let alone ordinary families - into joining me: I'd just get right on and stump up myself.

My sister in law was at the vets having her puppy put to sleep as was too poorly for this world, I was shown pictures of cute puppys and asked which one id like to save he had no words when i had finished having a go I'm not nasty but still

I find an abrupt NO usually works, don’t try to be polite or give an excuse as that just gives them an opening to try and change your mind.

I don’t give to charity because I’m in debt and my money is better used paying off my debts and making life more comfortable for my kids. But if I did have enough money left over at the end of the month to give to charity I’d want to look into them myself before deciding which one to donate to, rather than handing over my bank details in the street.

I loathe charity muggers. When someone donates, most of the money goes to the salesman not the charity. If you sign up to a £5 a month direct debit, the first year of donations all goes to the person who stopped you and signed you up.

It’s also obvious that many of them don’t even support the charity they are collecting for or know what it does.

I usually manage to avoid them but once when I was out with my newborn I was in the grips of PND and was cornered by one. I felt like I couldn't say no, I was really pressured into it.
I was on maternity leave and not earning much money.
I ended up cancelling the DD after a month.

@ManicUnicorn the RSPCA are indeed disgraceful.
Our street adopted a cat which we suspected had been left behind by students when they moved. The landlord of the house found cat food and the likes so it seemed to confirm it. I put a pic on social media and got no response, and another neighbour had a scanner but he wasn't chipped.
He used to appear every day, we all took it in turns to feed him. He wasn't an indoors cat but would go in a shed if raining. In fact the only time he refused to leave my house was during firework night-we live on a street next to a field used for a huge display. He literally hid under my daughter's loft bed, under a blanket. As the kids all went to the same school and walked home down one long road, he would be waiting for them. He was very friendly and playful.
Around a year after this, I hadn't seen him for a couple of days-not unusual as he went between a few houses and it was half term- and asked the neighbours had they seen him but no. I then posted a pic online and asked if he had turned up in a new street.
I got a call from the local RSPCA woman. He had indeed been found, he had been hit by a car and broken his leg. Would we like to come see him and whilst there, sign some papers?
I had the sense to ask what these papers were. Turned out it was to get me to claim him as my cat, which meant I would be given a £1000+ bill, plus would be prosecuted for negligently allowing "my" cat to be injured and not having him chipped or registered with a vet.
I explained this was all rubbish, he was a street cat who us neighbours looked out for, in fact another neighbour had put posters up as well. We did say we would happily adopt him if no one came forward but she refused saying she wanted to prosecute us.
We never saw him again. We as a street made a complaint but got nowhere. One of the neighbours had even called the RSPCA about him originally when he was left behind and they said there wasn't much they could do unless he was injured.
I spoke about it in our local group and others came forward with horror stories about this awful woman.
I would never ever support them again after that.

I agree about HAVING to being abrupt.

This in itself is horrible, my young son told me off for sounding rude. It erodes civility on the street when let's face it we could do with it more than ever.

Someone from Animal charity knocked on my door late - I find charity chuggers know between half 7 and 9 pm at night.

I now ignore.

Anyway he had information from the council about the cat killer and my young son was there - he started talking about mutilated cats.

I said what? Sorry you are from the council and authorised to update me on the cat killer?

He said he was just starting a conversation and would I like to learn more about the charity!

I kid you not and said thanks for traumatising young children and shut the door in him.

Also used to get followed when I was walked home late from work by homeless charity but I did complain and let them know the area of the man who used to pounce on women when they came out of the station.

boohasaoresentforyou what an awful story.

I'm wondering if they've been stopped in town as I haven't had to dodge them on my most recent visits. It's bad enough having to dodge the abusive steet drinkers having foul mouthed tirades at eachother and mamba zombies as it is. Adding in people getting in the way, not taking no for an answer and calling out random comments makes Amazon a very attractive alternative way to shop.

A PP hit the nail on the head. I want to go into town to go about my buisness pleasantly. I'm generally a nice, polite person. I don't want to be put in the position of having to ignore people, and being very assertive towards them, pretend I don't care about sick children or animals etc in order to continue my day without having to commit away ££ per year.

I was stopped by one in Cambridge, it was a charity (NSPCC) I’d just donated £500 to as they had helped a relative, and I was planning on a similar one later in the year when I’d saved up.

I explained that I don’t give my bank details to people on the street, and that I’d recently given a large donation to them anyway. She got proper shirty, and shouted that it was only £3 a month and how anything I’d given already ‘wasn’t enough’.

So shouting at me in the street for £36 cost them £500 they’ll never get another penny again. I now concentrate on smaller local charities that don’t get vast amount of funding.

I hate them.

I hate how they try to do some fake smile and "I like your coat" or some such bollocks and herb you say "no thank you" they get all arsey shouting at you down the street until you are forced to tell them to fuck off.

@LiveSleepSnore, I agree with that. I wish we lived in a kinder and more polite world but that simply doesn't work with chuggers

I hate this so much, you can't even get from A to B without being stopped and made to feel guilty. I won't donate to these charities that use them anymore. It may make money but it doesn't give the charity a good image in my eyes. I was asked so you don't want to help children with cancer then? Talk about guilt tripping! Soon shut up when I told them I work with sick children.

I donated to a large international aid charity posts large disaster, I then received phone calls and texts asking for more. Same with a direct debit to a large charity, more calls asking to increase my donation! Nope.

I still give to charity but on my terms and tends to be smaller or local ones these days or individuals campaigns etc