To absolutely HATE when shops ask you to donate?

[ProfessionallyIrritated]

IABU and I know it, I’m just hot, bothered and peeved off.

you know when you’re in literally anywhere, like for instance McDonalds and it always wants you to round up to the nearest pound… I can deal with it on self service tills as you can just click no.

was in Poundland earlier buying a couple of essential cleaning bits, came to £4.50 (don’t get me started on how nothing in POUNDLAND is ever A POUND anymore!!!!!!)

self serve tills aren’t even working so I go to a regular till.

Barely-out-of-his-teens cashier scans my items and then was like “and would you like to donate £3 to” I don’t even remember what it was. I was like no thank you, and he went (loudly) “are you sure? You could make a difference to someone today”

me: no thank you, and I don’t think you should be pressuring people into making donations when they don’t want to.

him: well a lot of our customers do donate so that’s why we ask

if it was rounding up to the nearest 10p or even 50p I don’t think I’d mind as much but THREE POUNDS? that’s only just less than what my shopping came to…..

I know charities need to raise money and IA definitely BU but why the fuck do shops ask people to donate to charity? It doesn’t help their buisness presumably. And what happened to just pressing a button on the PIN pad to say no instead of having to verbally broadcast it? It’s almost like being peer pressured into donating ffs.

I can barely afford to live as it is, I don’t have the money to be donating to charity at the moment as mean as that makes me sound

Does anyone have a link to a source about shops paying less tax because of this? I didn't realise this might be a factor.

I smile and say no thanks. If they push I ask them to donate to a charity I support and start telling them all about it :)

I strongly disagree.

She said "no thank you". And the cashier continued to ask. That's the part that's unacceptable and does need addressed with management. It's beyond the cashiers job to ask "are you sure?" It's putting pressure on the customer.

Personally I would be asking to speak to the manager about these problems in order to ensure it didn't happen again. It's not their job to pressure customers to donate.

It's something I feel very strongly about, and I have stopped donating to charities that use pressure tactics - pushy guys in the high street badgering for donations, door stop collectors full stop and I wouldn't have an issue at letting the charity know that pressure tactics were being used. People have the right to say no and that should be accepted with no further discussion.

YABU. Just say no thanks. And don’t get annoyed at the staff - they have to ask that, if told to

I've never come across being asked at a till but would hate this too - maybe most cashiers just press no without asking. I do hate it on self serve like Mcdonalds though, I think they deliberately try to trick people who are in a hurry as the donate button is highlighted (and often not always the cheapest donation amount).

But the staff should accept the answer of the customer, not say things like are you sure etc. that becomes pressuring the customer to make a donation and is unacceptable.

The op said she said no thank you but the cashier continued.

I agree. I’m sick of snippy staff. I was in M&S the other day and the till didn’t reduce my £12 meal deal, so I asked the lad for help. He said “Are you sure this is all part of the meal deal” (I knew I was going to be asked that) and I said “Yes the labels all said “Part of the £12 meal deal [or whatever they said]”, they’re just all over there” and he snapped ‘I’m not saying you’re lying!!! I’ll go and check” and huffed off. I wish I’d said something at the time, over sensitive wanker

I had Poundland in mind from the title of the thread. They literally just say its for charity. No indication of what said charity is. Pure guilt tripping.

We are asked by management where I work to ask customers to donate €2 for a heart disease charity every year around Valentine’s Day. I absolute hate doing it and can’t even bring myself to ask the majority of customers.

@ApplesInTheSunshine her first response WAS no thank you! Then the cashier pressured her AGAIN.

At least read her OP properly ffs before giving out to her - or were you too busy polishing your halo up on that moral high ground? Ffs

I think will someone so pushy I'd have left my shopping at the till and just strode out without paying, but I'm horrendously stubborn.

I was asked if I wanted to donate 9p in a Walthamstow pharmacy last week. I agreed, assuming it was to top up amount to nearest 10p, but it actually took the payment to £5.11 - weird. I asked the cashier and he said it's always 9p - so strange.

Nope, I don’t mind. They were collecting in Primark the other day with a bucket and I put in a fiver.

Other times I just say ‘not today.’

Generosity is good, don’t make it a bad thing.

Lucky you. Its everywhere, and online too. If retailers are so concerned about the less fortunate then they can donate from their profits. What they actually do is guilt people to give, then advertise how they've raised money for charity!

Maybe the shop, assuming it's a large one, could give a bit of it's X million pounds of profits instead that would be quicker!

I know and right in the middle of a cost of living crisis, they are worse than piles.

I don't mind Wilko's too much as it's only 5p and it just asks on the machine rather than the person asking you.

But when it's a pound and I've often only spent £4 - no thanks.

YANBU, we prefer to support charities we've looked into (eg not ones where they've got fancy headquarters and mega high salaries)

Similar goes for being pestered to do gift aid, especially if the ticket seller makes it sound like it's free money. Er, no - I don't think that Ely cathedral or whatever deserves tax money more than schools, nhs and social services etc

It bugs me when Virgin ask for your foreign currency for their chosen charity and congratulate themselves on the amount raised. They are giving none of it.

If they'd agree to match their customers' donations then I'd consider it.

Better than it ending up in people’s drawers surely.

Gosh, the Poundland where I go is 25p! I still decline as I donate where o want to, not where I'm coerced.
£3 is ludicrous!

This is not true 🙄

YANBU - if the companies would like to donate my hard earned money through their profits then they’re welcome to but I’m not doing it through their shop!

we have had two raising money forms from my son’s school this term!! The ones where you have to find as money poor sods to sponsor them as possible and it can become a popularity contest! Other than asking my parents for a fiver I’m not putting anyone on there other than us as his parents! One was for a charity and the other is to raise money for books for the school. I’m not against raising money especially for his school because I know how stretched they are but I hate the sponsored ones with a passion!!! The pressure!!

I hate it.

The posters who are saying it's a tax dodge... can you link to anything that describes this? The only tho g I've been able to find is that this wasn't true in the USA when people thought it was!
I'm really interested in this. Thanks!