To be annoyed by this go fund me?

[SilentAlarm]

So I’m in a group on facebook, for fans of a certain band.

Someone has just posted saying that they felt really sad to see another group member having to sell their rare records and memorabilia in order to pay for surgery for their dog. And so a go fund me has been set up to avoid them having to sell these items. Target to raise is £3k.

Am I getting grumpy in my old age? AIBU to think this person 100% should sell the items to make the money and they should have had pet insurance in the first place?

I know nobody is forcing me (or anyone else!) to donate but you seem to see this kind of thing time and time again, people having pets but not bothering with insurance, and then relying on others generosity when something goes wrong.

Doesn't mean they are not insured.
Some insurers only insure after a certain age, ( a lot of places of age of 16-18) so if they need surgery you need to pay yourself.

I get annoyed when people who have spent lots on a foreign holiday but haven't bothered to get for travel insurance do gofundmes.
I always wonder who is donating to all of these campaigns because I don't think I know anyone IRL who has ever said they have.

Miri I just think there must be a minority with no sense paying for these poor me people who fail to insure or save for vital things.
I'm happy to pay for vulnerable people, but not for bad planners.

I'll go you one better OP, and say that I think that people who can't afford vet bills shouldn't get a pet to begin with.

*ducks for cover

This sounds like a scam. The old ‘sick pet needs surgery’ is a very common dating scam, though I’ve not heard of it being used in this way before. I definitely wouldn’t donate to this and I’d flag the post to the group admin to be removed

Wishing you're joking right?
Pets are cute and everyone has a right to that cuteness until the furry ball grows less cute or gets ill. If the former, people have the right to dump and replace with a cuter option and if the latter, well GFM now sounds like the option! I'm really sick of animal neglect

Unless I'm missing something (?), the thing with these begging sites is that there seems to be no checking or validation at all … the folk on there could be absolutely anyone, making up absolutely anything

I realise it's possible to get stung with a "proper" charity, or even with someone you thought you knew, but it honestly beats me why anyone would donate to a stranger with a story which often sounds dodgy at best

They should sell the memorabilia items but I don't see a problem with them trying to raise money for their poorly dog to get surgery too if the items don't cover the full cost. Obviously if you don't support it just ignore them and let other people help them out. I'd much rather contribute to the care of sick animals than a load of other dodgy charities and gofundmes out there.

Pet insurance isn't rubbish.

Far too often people choose cheap policies without reading and/or understanding terms and conditions, policy limits etc
and are then surprised when their claim is rejected for a perfectly valid reason, based on those terms and conditions.

Rubbish pet insurance is rubbish. They aren't all created equal.

You're not unreasonable to feel that way, I think gofundmes are awful.
However, my dog isn't insured, he was a 9 year old rescue when we got him with a list of health problems (teeth, skin, hip just to name a few) the cheapest quote we get for insurance was £76 a month, me and dp can't warrent that kind of money especially when insurance company's are notorious for trying to get out of paying and said we'd take any costs on the chin. 5 years later, he's 14 in a couple of weeks and has cost us about £2k in vets bills, a lot less than the insurance would have cost us.

I donated to a "save my pet" crowdfunder recently. It was for a cat. I don't know the cat and am never likely to meet her, and I don't know her owners.

But a blogger I follow had mentioned her more than once. And when she went missing for a couple of scorching hot days and then dragged herself home horribly injured, and it became apparent that her injuries were almost certainly deliberately inflicted by some cunt of a subhuman, and her insurance was nowhere near enough to cover the inpatient surgery she was going to need, well, yeah, I bunged her a tenner.

And I was delighted to read that her broken ribs were healing, the wires had been taken out of her shattered jaw and she was able to eat normally. That she was able to go out and about again, learning how to cope without the tail that needed amputated after she was swung around by it. That she was back to her grumpy self, and being adored by her owners four year old child, when she had been so close to death.

Well worth the tenner for the emotional rollercoaster, and fantastic result. But it was only possible because the blogger has a massive audience, and about 350 of us donated, with insurance covering roughly half of the final cost.

Most folk don't have that reach.

PS this crowdfunder raised a bit more than needed in the end, so there's over a grand going to Cats Protection on top. Win, win, win.

I dislike most of these things tbh and it’s just posh begging really isn’t it? A recent one locally was “help raise funds for my nieces cancer treatment” which actually was NOT for said treatment but to help this nieces family travel and stay in a different city while she was getting the cancer treatment. It felt disingenuous to suggest the money was for treating cancer when actually it wasn’t. Or one I saw was to fund the cost of flights for family members to
Attend a funeral. This included the dead girls father who was in the US. The tragic girl had killed herself following years in care- so why the fuck didn’t her father get his arse over from the states before that?
As I say- these types of sites are mostly chancers and beggars and they’re horrible.

Gofundme is about 100 percent annoying.

I had one being shared on fb last year for a friend of a friend. Every few days there would be another share telling/updating the cats sadder and more urgent story, how he was still waiting for £xxx of treatment (to get a leg removed), along with the justgiving link. Last time I looked she'd raised a grand total of £0. Did feel sorry for the cat having such a feckless owner. Then there were the follow up posts of the poor cat recovering after they'd "had to go ahead and pay" for the surgery with their own money as they couldn't wait any longer 😮and we're now looking for cash back.

A few months later the same person posted about the latest addition to their family, another bloody kitten to add to the uninsured dog, 2 cats (one with 3 legs!) and various small pets. 🙄

More people than ever are aware that a lot of justgiving are people chancing their luck with a sob story than genuine need, unfortunately there are still some that get sucked in.

Sorry, gofundme not just giving! (It's 3;49 and can't sleep!)

He's lucky, (as is the dog) that he has something valuable to sell.

It's absolute hogwash that you can't insure a rescue animal. We've had rescues for the past 2 decades and have never had any issue insuring them.

That said, I do agree that most pet insurance is shit. They pay out for little cheap procedures, but for things that run into 4 figures, they often find a reason to not pay out. Or there will be something in the smallprint that allows them to not pay for certain things/operations, or there will be a limited amount they will pay out on an ongoing condition. (like diabetes.)

As our animals got older, we discovered things that were not covered, (eg; eye treatment like removal of cataracts, and dental treatment,) or if they needed to go on long term treatment for something (like diabetes,) they would pay out for no more the first 12 months!!! So we stopped insuring them (probably 10 years since now.)

We have saved around 7-8 grand in insurance in that 10 years. Not paid a penny out. (Other than for preventative treatment that pet insurance doesn't cover anyway!!!)

Nothing has been needed for any of our pets, and two of them are at senior and elderly age now. (None of them have ever needed cataract or dental treatment, by the way, I just found out when I read through the policy thoroughly!)

Also, regarding the comment about people going on holiday with no insurance and expecting people to pay when they get ill/have an accident. I don't think this is the case with many. I have heard cases though, of people going away, and something happening, and the insurance company pulling everything they can out of their arse to not pay up.

One lady (in her 60s,) tripped and fell and broke her leg (when me and DH were on holiday in Spain some 5 years ago,) and the insurance company refused to pay for the treatment in the Spanish hospital, because she never declared she had smoked for 15 years, from her early 20s, until her mid 30s. (She had stopped around 25 years before!!!) Absolutely FUCK-ALL to do with her fall, and her broken leg, but they pulled this out of their arse as a means to not pay for her.

When filling in the form for insurance, there was a section that said 'if you have ever smoked, how long did you smoke for, and when did you stop?' and she never filled it in. As I said, this was fuck-all to do with her broken leg! And she had no idea how they found out she smoked for 15 years in her 20s and 30s!

Insurance companies really are pure scum sometimes. They happily take all your ££$$$££, but often won't pay out when it really counts. (ie when it's a lot of money to pay out!)

Re the OP, I loathe this go-fund-me stuff too most of the time. There are occasions where I don't mind it, like if it's for a vet bill. But yeah, if someone has the means to pay (by selling something valuable,) it's a bit of a cheek to ask others for the money.

Then again, it's not breaking the law, and if people want to give, then that's up to them. These sites should be policed way more though. They are like the mid to late 2010s equivalent of the chuggers/charities begging for money.

Sad tales to rope people in. Some people (particularly the elderly and the vulnerable,) have been known to give everything they have got, and have ended up having to beg for food from people they know.

or if they needed to go on long term treatment for something (like diabetes,) they would pay out for no more the first 12 months

A perfect example of not reading terms and conditions before taking out a policy as per my previous post.

You can't take out a policy, agree to the Ts&Cs, then get pissy that something isn't covered as listed in those conditions.

@OrangeSwoosh

I never said I didn't read the terms and conditions. What the fuck are you on about?

Do you have problems with comprehension ?? Or can you just not be arsed to read peoples posts properly? I guess reading peoples posts properly would make it more difficult to post shitty comments would it?

I just merely said that these insurance companies do everything they can to not pay out much money, by making sure they don't cover expensive treatment, and ongoing conditions for more than 12 months!

READ POSTS PROPERLY if you are going to say anything, because you are making yourself look foolish.

Every week there's a gofundme in our community group to pay for a funeral. It's very cheeky but people donate.

Any crowdfunding is impertinent and completely unacceptable.

Impertinent suggests it's rude, but there's no obligation to pay?

I think OP is right in this case, but I support the RSPCA to rescue distressed animals and would fund a cause if I felt relevant.

Gofundme is begging, pure and simple.

If you stood out on the street with a begging bowl people would take a dim view, this is no different, but because it’s online people seem to be more tolerant of it. And reality is that no-one knows exactly why people are raising money. Anyone can bring out a sob story and claim that they need money to support it, and then jet off to the Maldives on the proceeds.

Anyone who donates to any of these is a mug.

Boggles, Surely it's right to save historical memorabilia for future generations 🤷‍♀️