To hope social distancing puts an end to chuggers?

[dancinguser]

Since moving to a large town 5 years ago I've grown to hate chuggers. No matter where in the town centre you shop it's almost guaranteed you'll run into at least one of them trying to get you to stop by shouting something along the lines of "you look like a nice person!" or "do you care about sick children?"

My method for dealing with them used to be walking just far enough out of their way that they couldn't stop me by law (by keeping over 3 steps away from them, walking within 3m of shop entrances). However after having several charities break these rules and one man even stand in front of me to make me stop I decided to not go out of my way to avoid them, and instead walk in my usual direction and ignore their existence (much to their annoyance).

AIBU for hoping that this is the end for charity muggers? With social distancing sticking around for a while I don't see how it's possible for them to do their job for the foreseeable future. I also think that our behaviours will be a lot different in the going forward even if we are clear of the virus. It's hard to imagine anyone would be happy with a complete stranger making a point to come into their personal space on the street.

Oh i hope so too

Some of them are so rude...i just walk past now

Don’t get many to the door anymore...but i need a new no cold callers sign

I hope so! I’ve found them to be irritating and rude. I’ve had two bad experiences - the first one, when I worked in a busy town I used to have to leave the office about 4pm and head to the post office to post contracts. There was so many of them I eventually had to take a long detour to avoid the street they were on because they were so irritating and intrusive. One used to bound about sticking his face really close to people, or walk about clapping and flapping his arms. Another one didn’t believe me when I said I was at work and couldn’t stop and talk, and made a really smug and passive aggressive comment (‘this lady might be a bit more friendly!’) as he approached someone else!

Another time I spotted two ladies in charity t-shirts out of the window at home. I’d JUST got baby dd down for a nap in the Moses basket - she had been grizzly and fussy all night so I was exhausted. One passed by and I leaned out of the window and asked her not to knock as I’d got a sleeping baby - she nodded, said ok, and moved off. Then a couple of mins later I see them chatting at the top of the drive and the other one marched down the path, hammered on the door, and woke the baby. I was fuming. I leaned out of the window again and told them I’d just asked them not to come - they just stared at me and wandered away. It was really strange, the first woman had definitely appeared to hear me, I don’t know what she’d thought I’d said because the words ‘don’t knock’ and ‘sleeping baby’ aren’t easy to mishear

Nobody has to do that.

How do you know?

If they ask me if I care about sick children/trees/donkeys whatever it is they are trying to bully me into paying for I just say no I don’t and keep walking. I do donate to charities on my own terms and not when a large percentage of the money is going towards aggressive bully’s who target people they think are likely to cough up.

I've never before heard of 'Chuggers'. I have occasionally been approached by people trying to raise funds for a charity but I can either engage with them or move on quickly.

@Bluesheep8...ofc nobody has to do this job. They could apply to do something else like telephone fundraising.

I can not stand them. Around October last year I had the "cheeky chappy" shout across the shopping center at me "oh there you are there" that got my back up right away, so I just kept walking and said no thanks, he kept going on and on, and followed me about 30ft through the shopping center, so I eventually turned round and shouted at him to stop following me. He did not like that! Didn't stop him though 10 mins later I walked back and he was doing it to another young woman with a toddler. Luckily mine was in the pram so I could get away fast. She was playing along with his shite though.

I really hate the ones who stand in shop doorways. I had such an awful experience of one in one of the local shops that I put a complaint into the shop about them. They were told to leave the shop and they ended up just doing it in the middle of town!

I tell them I'm not 18 yet which confuses them long enough for me to get away.

I will put money in tins that wee old dears or veterans have given up their own time to collect. If it’s voluntary charity collections I.e buckets and tins I’ll happily stick my spare change in. I think I lost my wedding sixpence though....it looked like a10 pence and I had it in my purse for luck

Theres a story in a marion Keyes book about how this woman gets approached by a chugger in the street and she pretends to be interested and acts slightly madly treating them like her new best friend until the chugger was actually running away from her, terrified. I know it's only fiction but it made me laugh and I wish I had the courage to carry it off.

I havent told it that well but the story is hilarious. Wish I could remember which book it was

Infact I'm remembering that wrong. That guy was a Scottish gas worker, he was trying to get me to switch 🙄

Ooooh, that would be a silver lining indeed. I really dislike them. A few years ago when I was really struggling with anxiety I used to dread walking to my bus home, because to get to it I had to run the gauntlet of a host of (well, it felt like a host of) chuggers.

I find staring at them and saying "what? Uh? What?" and acting seriously confused makes them go away but they shouldn't be out there doing this anyway.

My dp cousin works as a chugger for a children's charity, he told us they get to take home half of whatever they have in the bucket at the end of the day!

He was paid a percentage of what was raised. This percentage, which I cannot remember the exact amount (but was significant), was not disclosed to the donor. Having heard this I feel it was disingenuous of the charity to raise money in this way. I would rather pay a charity directly so 100% of my money goes towards the good causes

Their job is to persuade you to donate. That's what they're really being paid for.

Moat people wouldn't donate to charity, that's what chuggers are for really.

I had one chap my door and give me his full scripted shite when I was about 15. He asked if I was 18, when I said no, he told me just to lie and change my birth date on the form. I was not a confident 15 year old and he was very pushy. My mum went mad when she came home and contacted the company to make them cancel it.

Oh, I also had one (in the same shopping center, and again a man) shout across to me again "oh what's that on your feet, oh that's right, it's shoes, do you like having shoes? Do you know how many children don't have shoes?". I just looked at him with a confused face and said, you're wearing shoes, if you want me to take you seriously with that crap, you will need to take them off". Again, he wasn't happy.

I imagine a lot of people won't donate because of chuggers.

I don't mind collection tins, they are mostly people standing there with some dignity and not rattling them in people's faces. No problem with that.

Another good tip with chuggers if you have the time is to bore them to death with your personal problems when they do that nicey nicey approach.

Bluesheep8...ofc nobody has to do this job. They could apply to do something else like telephone fundraising.

Telephone fundraising? They're not doing it out of a passionate belief in the charity they're working for. Many ARE doing it because they have no choice.

There are always choices. It's called capitalism.

I refuse to donate to charities who use these underhanded tactics. Hate them in the street, but most I've encountered do leave me alone when I say no and continue walking, but hate more the ones who knock on doors. It's disgusting targeting vulnerable people at their own homes and any that chap door and don't take no for an answer get a mention on Twitter. Bad publicity is the only way charities will stop using these disgusting practices.

I also wouldn't set up a direct debit with any charity as I believe many will then persistently hassle you to increase your donation. No thanks.

My local Wilkinson's is guarded by chuggers.

It's really nice. Big, clean, lovely staff, lots of interesting brightly coloured things inside.

But getting inside is like a game of Dungeon & Dragons. Chuggers are trolls. You have to edge past them covering your eyes like Sandra Bullock in Bird Box. You catch their eye and it's game over.

Fucking ridiculous.

@NoMoreReluctantCustodians Mystery At Mercy Close.

Not only chuggers but the street 'entertainers' dressed up as Disney characters who grab at children to have their picture taken. I first experienced this in London, within a couple of years they'd sprang up in other cities. Them and similar, obviously buskers are ok.