AIBU to hate these people knocking on my door?

[FeralFruitloopFairy]

In the past week alone we have had THREE people knocking on our door, wanting me to give them my bank details so they can sign me up for £15+ a month for their charities.

One knocked after dark and when I politely made the excuse I couldn’t find my purse he then said “that’s ok, you have your phone just give your bank details from your online banking app”

They start by saying they don’t want money “today”, the one who knocked today I said I don’t want to give my bank details as soon as he spoke but then he said it’s ok you don’t have to you can do it through a text on your phone. He meant there and then before he left.

I’m bloody sick of them, if I didn’t have Christmas presents coming I’d not answer the door! They make me feel so awkward on my own doorstep. I know they have a job to do and it’s a way to gain trade but if I’m going to donate to charity it will be to ones close to my heart not just cos I was pressured on my doorstop.

I wouldn't slam the door in their faces, but I don't see anything wrong with saying "No thank you" as you close the door assertively.

The job they've actively chosen is to make money off the back of a charity. They (almost always) aren't people working for a charity that they are passionate about and earning a living from the charity as an employee so that they can continue to do so and pay their bills; they're told the name of some random charity by their supervisors at the start of the day/week and have to persuade people that they care about it, rather than just wanting the money for themselves.

If you speak to a genuine charity worker, they would be just as thrilled however you give to their cause. By contrast, watch these people's faces if you say that you're extremely keen now that they've told you about all the good that they do, but you don't have your bank details to hand, so you promise faithfully that you will go on to the charity's website in the morning and set up your DD.

As part of the deal, they/their fundraising company get the first several DD amounts as commission before the charity see any money at all - iirc it's the first year's donations.

Depending on the charity's agreement with them, at best, all of that money in those six months will go straight to the business and not a penny to the charity; but at worst, they may even have a guaranteed deal that means they get the first six months' money from your giving PLUS the charity have to pay them the same again for the other six months out of actual charity funds.

Either way, you're just giving them money for themselves and the charity will either get nothing, as well as admin costs (if they're lucky) or otherwise incur an equivalent bill as a result of your actions.

OMG! I had no idea! That's terrible.

I just give them a big smile, say 'I'm not interested thanks' and close the door! Or you could get a ring doorbell so you can see them and just not answer the door.

About 10 years ago, my daughter worked for one of these companies.

They're dropped off in a certain area of a town, and picked up after many hours work. Their wages are dependent on the amount of sign ups they get, and they have to deal with a lot of rudeness and abuse, it can also be a bit dangerous, some people try and get them to come inside the house.

I know they can be annoying, but please try to bear in mind that they're treated like absolute shit.

A house near me has this rather wonderful sign on the door.
NO
HAWKERS
CIRCULARS
PREACHERS
OR
POLITICIANS

You’re being too nice Op & entertaining the notion of their charity. Big mistake. Don’t let them start with their spiel cut them off with a polite but assertive I already give charitably via x,y or z channel, thanks very much, goodbye. You don’t owe them any more politeness or kindness. Just because the cause may well be good, their sales tactics are far from it. You are not obliged to entertain them. Making excuses will only set up barriers they are skilled at overcoming & that they will always have an answer or solution for. If it doesn’t come naturally to be assertively curt, try it a few times & see how easier it becomes. I mean why on earth should you give your private details to a total random that may not even be a legitimate fund raiser & a complete scam artist?

I'm sure it's not many people's idea of a dream job; but... the same as - as you say - it can be dangerous if people try to get them in their houses (I'm guessing most people are just trying to be 'hospitable' or 'polite', or are terribly lonely and want a chat, but obviously some could indeed be very dangerous), for all some of the householders know, THEY could also be dangerous to them.

If somebody knocks on your door unexpected, you have no idea if they're going to be very much wanted, helpful, irritating but easy enough to get rid of or downright dangerous - physically, high-pressure or seeking to outright scam you.

Even if it's a friendly-looking petite woman who knocks, you have no way of knowing that she doesn't have a couple of big burly blokes with her, hiding off to the side, waiting to force their way in as soon as she gives them the signal that a woman, elderly or otherwise vulnerable person has answered.

Also, I'm sure your DD has always been polite to people; but a lot of these chuggers equally quite happily treat their targets like absolute shit too.

I used to be oh so kind and answer and at least say “oh, I’m sorry, not now, I’m working/ cooking dinner/ can’t control the overexcitable dog.”

Now I just look on the doorbell and say no via that.

I don’t think the people who come are bad people, but I do resent being pestered in my own home. I would never buy anything from a doorstep chugger or vendor. Goods and services are 99 times out of 100 a scam, and charities, well, I pick my charities and donate to them monthly.

I feel absolutely no shame in saying a flat no to these people. Single parent, not enough money to go round. It’s depressing this is still worthwhile for chairities. You’d hope they would get better returns from corporate bodies looking to morality wash their profits …

OP, as soon as they start their spiel, just say, “I’m sorry, but I’m not interested” and close the door. The end.

One problem is that, quaint as it is, a lot of younger callers wouldn't actually know what the words 'hawkers' or 'circulars' actually mean... or, if they do, they might claim that they don't, considering they aren't nearly as commonly used nowadays as 'salespeople' or 'leaflets/flyers'.

Also, although they are essentially salespeople working on a commission basis, many chuggers would argue (might even actually believe it themselves) that they are fundraisers, charity collectors or similar - thus even if the sign did say 'no salespeople', many would still knock in hope and/or ignorance.

No need for rudeness. Just say you already donate to charities of your choice and can't afford to donate to anymore.

These people hang around in supermarkets too. It pisses me off no end.

However as soon as they start their spiel I always say, " If this is about signing up to a direct debit the answer is no." That stops them in their tracks.

You're lucky.
Round my way they all ignore that, feign ignorance, and then get highly offended when I say I don't do business transactions at the door.

Not that you owe them any explanation at all, but I always find it better to say "It's not in my budget" rather than "I can't afford it" whenever anybody is trying to cajole you into giving money - especially if it isn't a stranger on the doorstep but a colleague whom you have to see every day.

If you tell them you can't afford it, they'll often see that as a challenge for them to 'help' you to find a way - and they'll probably come out with the old chestnut of 'if you just bought one fewer coffee out each month' or taking your own sandwiches into work instead of buying them etc.

'Not in my budget' is suitably vague, more dignified and empowering, puts you more in a position of strength and can be repeated ad infinitum until the askers eventually get the message that it's most definitely a No and then give up. It can also equally mean that you are skint and simply could never dream of affording it, you're channelling Phoebe from Friends in saying "I wish I could... but I don't want to!" or anything in between!

Why do you try to make up excuses for them? You don't need to. It's absolutely fine to say something like "I have my charity giving sorted out, thanks, and I'm not going to add to the list". If they won't take no for an answer, tell them you have to go and close the door.

We’re getting loads of them at the moment too.

I always just say “sorry I’m feeding my toddler” and they soon rush off

The charity probably won't get a penny of what you send for that 6 months. :(

No matter how lovely the chuggers are, you are being conned.

I used to work for a charity who used chuggers, I freakin' hate them. They give a bad name to the charities who use them.

Even more so if you replace 'toddler' with 'pet tiger'

should be illegal IMO

all it does is to pressure people who are uncomfortable saying no. Absolutely disgusting.

Sign up on door “No cold callers”
Stops most of them

If they still knock, just say you already donate to charities you chose.

I always offer them a couple of quid. In cash. Then of course they refuse and go into their spiel about direct debits, blah blah, and I say ‘no direct debits, bye’.

That way they are forced to refuse my actual donation in cash, cash that I would have happily given them. Chugging is a stupid way to get money for charity.

If it’s a charity I tell them that I already give to the causes most important to me (none of whom do doorstop sign ups, or not that I’ve ever experienced anyway). Religious people get told I’m a humanist and I respect their opinions but won’t change my views and don’t want to waste their time. Anybody else gets a firm but kind “no thank you” and the door closed. DH on the other hand is a bloody liability - signed us up to some mad weekly biscuits thing because he couldn’t say no!

I do think that using chuggers is a very bad PR move for any charity. A lot of people who otherwise would have given will deliberately avoid giving to a charity - even directly, not involving the chuggers - when they learn that the charity does use chuggers.

They neither want to do anything that could be seen to endorse the practice, nor to give to a charity that merrily gives away a large chunk of their donated money to third parties.

Many of the big charities have become so arrogant, bloated and dismissive of the ordinary everyday people who actually give and keep them going, using chuggers does mark them out as being much less trustworthy and reputable in many people's eyes. They just rely on snaring the people who don't think about it too much, or don't really understand how it all works.

As a bit of a side-note, I've seen occasions where third-party 'fundraising' businesses, or even the charities themselves, cite Gift Aid as a 'justification' of giving away money with deceitful assurances that "100% of your donation goes to the charity".

It's often framed as mysterious extra money that comes from literally nowhere. In reality, it's an expected, planned valuable boost to what they receive - which would be available for an extra 25% thoroughly good charitable purposes if used wisely and not just seen as disposable. Also, if you want to be ultra hardline about it, technically, taxes given to charities by the government by way of Gift Aid must result in a loss of public spending and services somewhere, so we all pay in that sense - that money hasn't magically dropped from the sky.

Exactly this. If they ask me why I say “personal choice” and close the door.

Many years ago, we signed up to a 'family magazine' charity club whereby you paid £5 every so often (it seemed to vary as to the frequency) when the man turned up at your door. The 'magazine' was a very small pamphlet - maybe 16 A5 pages at most - filled with rubbish word searches, generic boring content, hilariously obvious 'tips' and a write-up about the charity that it was all 'in aid of'. Except for Christmas and the summer, when they were double-price 'double issues', which curiously contained no additional pages to the normal ones.

We foolishly assumed that the man was selling the magazine on behalf of the charity, who would thus receive the vast majority of the money after publishing and printing costs, with a small proportion paid to the distributors. Until one time when we were bored enough to actually bother looking at the magazine, instead of just dropping it in the recycling after paying for and receiving it - and we discovered that it was a business enterprise, with the publishers and collectors getting the vast majority of the proceeds, with something like about 2.5% of them 'donated' to the charity!

We cancelled it from the next time he turned up, ignoring his "But the charity!?!" protests. That said, charity Christmas cards are mostly the same: where shops sell them at a premium price and people choose them over cheaper ones 'for the charity' - yet it's often shocking how tiny a percentage of the sale price the charities usually end up getting, when most customers will naturally be led to assume that most of what they pay will go to the charities, with the shop taking a very small commission - not most of the profit.