Would you like to round up to £1? No I fucking wouldnt.

[DavAtTheCampaignForMoreBankHolidays]

I cant be the only one who is getting increasingly pissed off at being asked to donate 20p everytine I pay for something?

The recent one in a charity shop was being asked to round up to the nearest pound AND then being asked to donate 25p. In fact, it wasnt even asked, it was "shall I round it up?" and "press green to say yes".

I always end up feeling really tight but apart from the fact that it would cost a fortune if I gave a donation every time I was asked, I really resent that businesses get tax relief for this whilst also bragging that they donated £x to charity.

Would you like an email receipt?

This is just as bad as those shops whose staff try to flog you buying some chocolate.

I think it's actually quite a bit worse - annoying as it is in WHS or wherever with the chocolate bars or bottles of water.

Even if it's framed as an amazing bargain that you'd be mad to decline, there's still no social shame or emotional guilt in turning down additional purchases.

However, when it comes to charity donations - regardless of the charity or your desire to support it - it's generally seen as negative: mean/callous/uncaring/selfish/ to turn down any request for a donation, especially if it's a relatively small amount.

It doesn't matter whether you already give 90% of your income to carefully-selected charities whose aims you support, having done your due diligence and considered the options very thoroughly - if other people only see/hear you declining to add 25p for some random charity that is better known for its propaganda than for good works, you're a bad person irrespective.

No need to be rude. It's not the member of staff's fault. The majority of staff wont care if you donate and many probably hate it. Customer facing work can be crap. Please dont make it worse.

Never EVER going into Oxfam again after reading these posts!

100% agree with you! We all need what we need (and want) in life to make ourselves happy, and enjoy life a bit why the hell should the homeless not be allowed booze in their crappy lives.

I HATE IT! Took my dd for lunch today after pottery painting and Monterey jacks had added a £1 charge to the bill for their “good will fund” and it if I wanted it removed I had to speak to the server…. Which I did! Absolutely ridiculous
if I donated to every single one I’d have no money!
had to save up to to todays day out and then that was on my food bill!!

I do give in Poundland from time to time as they support make a wish and my daughter has had a wish from them because of her many health issues which will limit her life so we have personally benefited from MAW uk so I do donate in there when I can. But simply can’t afford to do it every single time I shop somewhere

I agree, I do usually say, please be careful,

Depends on the charity - I asked recently which one it was for - answer was - 'don't know'..... so no, I didn't contribute to an unknown 'charity'.

It's such arrogance, isn't it? Expecting people to hand over their money without even knowing where it's going. All you know is that it's (presumably) a registered charity; but there's such a massive range of them that it could be anything.

Indeed, I would be extra cautious that, if they carefully just say "for charity" rather than "It's for the [our/nearby town] hospice", I would probably assume that it wasn't a particular popular cause - maybe even one that many people find objectionable - and the only way they could get funds was by surfing on the backs of the more agreeable ones and people's assumptions of what charity means and/or not thinking to ask.

I agree with you: even if they're only asking for 1p, if they can't even tell me which charity it is, that's 100% an instant No from me.

A lot of people seem to think of 'charity' as one great big homogenous lump - so if you give to one, you kind of give to all of them; but of the limited funds that I have available to give, I definitely want to target it at causes that I want to support and not waste it on charities that I disagree with, I feel unnecessarily waste their money or I just don't value as much as I do others.

You may as well just admit you think charity begins at home.

Of course it does.

Yes, obviously our primary responsibility is to look after ourselves and our families. After that, most of us would seek to help close friends in need; and then local/national/international causes that are important to us.

The problem is that plenty of people don't have spare money to give away to charity; many really struggle to look after their own families and have to make sacrifices themselves. Do you think that, if you're going without meals yourself so that your children can eat, or if you're sitting in a freezing house in winter, you should be socially expected to randomly hand over 25p/£1/£5/more to a charity - especially one that doesn't even bother to introduce itself as anything more than 'charity'?

Would you send me a cheque for a few quid if I promise to pass it on to some random charity of my choice - and if not, is that because you're just a selfish big meanie, and no other conceivable reasons or considerations?

Even Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos couldn't fund every single charitable need in the world themselves - not even more than a tiny fraction. Most of us do our best to support the causes that we feel passionate about, with the money that we have available.

Corporations are effectively trying to control us when they seek to donate our money to their favoured causes, by forcing us to act if we wish to decline whilst we're busy trying to do a mundane activity (and assuming that we realise this) - with all of the social pressure and potential shaming that goes hand in hand with it too. It's gone way, way beyond having a collecting tin on the counter or somebody silently holding a bucket in the high street for you to make an active choice IF you have the money available AND wish to donate it to their charity rather than any other.

@nomas

I think it must be, as it's still a choice for the customer - they're not being forced to part with extra money. They have a choice of two buttons to tap - one to round up, one not to round up. The question will come up on the screen for each transaction, though, prior to the sale going through, so the till operator has to point it out every time.

Another new thing that Oxfam (at least some of the shops) are selling is lottery tickets. (Not the National Lottery, Oxfam's own personal lottery that they've created.) Luckily, us volunteers have not been told to push this, and I've never asked anyone if they'd like to buy one. I'm not opposed in principle to Oxfam selling lottery tickets, I just think the onus should be on customers to ask for them if they want one.

it's still a choice for the customer - they're not being forced to part with extra money. They have a choice of two buttons to tap - one to round up, one not to round up.

Is it a proper free choice, though? Even if we ignore any social pressure that customers may feel - including staff who ask them loudly just before if they would like to give - what about people with poor eyesight; or wheelchair/walking frame users who may not be able to get to a good angle to see the terminal properly; or people with learning difficulties; or those with dementia or other cognitive decline; or people with no/very little English?

If I were visiting a country where I don't know a word of their language and was presented with a terminal when paying in a shop that said "Hsiendgs 25w kdbxksgvhbhd? Wksbsudbdbeff bsjdjebdh dg ksbshsjebdjdj" - whatever their equivalent was of "Add 25p for charity? Press green or red" - I would naturally assume that, like internationally standard traffic light colours, green meant Go (to confirm the transaction) and red meant Stop (to cancel the transaction). I'm sure non-English-speakers visiting the UK would assume exactly the same.

It also makes a mockery of the idea of contactless. For most of us, it saves a second or two over chip and PIN; but for people with any of numerous disabilities, forcing them to press an unnecessary button anyway before they can pay for their purchases will not be appreciated or welcomed.

@SprayWhiteDung

"Is it a proper free choice though?"

In some senses, no it's probably not - my point was simply that I doubt the scenario I described is illegal because, at least in the sense of being "the letter of the law", it comes down to what the customer decides to do.

I want to make it clear that I don't like this feature of the new tills; I'm not trying to defend the practice as such, just explain why I think it's (likely) legal. I wish Oxfam had not decided to introduce this automatic 'round up' option, because asking people if they would like to donate any additional amount feels a bit crass to me. People making purchases are supporting the charity already and it feels unappreciative of what they're already doing to ask if they would like to give more.

If I could put the sale through on the till without mentioning anything to the customers, I would - but like I said, the question pops up automatically before the sale can be processed, so the till operator is forced to explain to the customer. Like I said before, if I'm on the till, I will explain and sort of encourage the customers to select 'No'. I usually say something like, "This screen is asking you if you'd like to round up. The 'No' button is right there." I try to frame it in a way that presumes someone won't want to round up, and those that do want to can tap Yes.

I had an issue using my card once and they automatically pressed no for me. I felt a bit miffed they presumed I didn't want to. They can't win. 😂

Thanks a lot for clarifying and apologies if I misconstrued any of what you said before; but I get that you were looking at it objectively and weren't giving your own perspective on it.

I wonder how far people can legally go before 'you have a choice' becomes inertia selling, though? Wasn't that a big element of the PPI scandal - where customers could have said No, but they were misled to believe that they couldn't if they wanted a loan; or just that it was a routinely 'standard' part of the purchase, rather than an entirely optional extra?

I'm thinking also of things like the Britannia Music Club (which younger MNers won't have the faintest notion of!) - where you didn't have to buy every 'recommended CD of the week', but if you didn't specifically send them the postcard to say that you didn't want it on time (or indeed if they somehow failed to receive it), you were automatically sent it and charged/pursued for the money.

Obviously that must have been legal, as it was allowed to continue - and I suppose people did sign an agreement (however fully they appreciated the terms), unlike a one-time event of picking something up off a shelf and taking it to the till.

Nevertheless, just because something is not illegal, that doesn't necessarily make it a moral and honest way for a business to conduct itself.

For the avoidance of any doubt, I'm talking here about the owners/big bosses of a business and the specific business decisions that they make; I'm absolutely not blaming the customer-facing staff who had no decision in the matter.

I think the default assimption should always be No, though, if there's any potential doubt or confusion.

It's not like that was your one single opportunity and means to give to whichever charity it was and you can now never give to them ever again!

Yes but he must have thought I looked like a tight woman which offended and upset me very much.

@SprayWhiteDung

"Nevertheless, just because something is not illegal, that doesn't necessarily make it a moral and honest way for a business to conduct itself."

Oh, I definitely agree there. Just when someone specifically asks if such scenarios are legal, the answer is (likely) yes.

I’m getting more and more annoyed at all this grabby behaviour.
I really am.
No, I don’t want to round up, no I don’t want to stop and talk crap to some random chugger. No I’m really not interested in your broadband/mobile phone/gas/electric/ starving children/deaf people/ heat disease/RSPCA/NSPCA/local hospice/local kids football team/starving animals/starving adults/food bank/YMCA/children in 33 unheard of countries/religion or any other crap you thing you can interrupt me with.
I’m busy and do not want to spend my free time nodding stupidly along with your scripted shit.
I have done plenty for charity in my time and non of it was paid for. Unlike the annoying people trying to glean money out of me.
It really is becoming a nuisance.

Oh, I see what you mean. Might they have thought that your issue was because of the charity option - maybe that it was confusing you, or you objected to giving to that particular charity (if specified), or even that you couldn't afford it?

In Savers (owned by Superdrug), where they seem especially enthusiastic about it, they do some of the cheaper branded shampoo and conditioner 10p less than it normally costs in the supermarkets (£1.89 instead of £1.99) - so if people are having to watch the pennies and have specifically gone in there to save 20p on a couple of bottles, asking for (actually verbally asking, not even 'just' having a button to press) an extra 25p could be very insensitive indeed to some people.

Even if you aren't quite that hard up, it defeats the whole USP and raison d'etre of the shop in being a bit cheaper than the others, but then trying to pressure 'strongly encourage' customers to give back the saving that they've just made - and more.

It could also have been that the assistant was one of the people on here who objects in principle to the scheme and just leaves it be when everything works as normal, but always presses No on principle if he ever has to get involved?

Absolutely. It's not technically illegal to pull up and park on a stranger's drive - and even to leave your car there for a month whilst you go on a long holiday; but you'd have to have a seriously questionable perspective of moral fairness and social acceptability if you actually did that (unless you'd agreed in advance and paid them, obviously).

Yeah, probably gets abuse every day off a customer for it so shouldn't take it to heart. I could easily go online and make a donation.