To be annoyed with a charity mugger

[feeimcgee]

I stopped to speak to a charity mugger the other day - I had no intention of signing up though. Anyway, DS was asleep in his pram and this guy started his spiel by saying how lucky my child was, as he has access to education, immunisations, etc.
Now, I know that he is lucky in terms of awful issues such as third world poverty, but it really got my back up that this 20-year-old student used him to make me feel guilty.
I said no thanks, and started to babble on about having no money and being at the end of the overdraft, while this bloke's face fell. AIBU to feel guilty? We are trying to cut our outgoings - but I know that it was for a good cause.
He was so patronising - "have you heard of Unicef" and "have you heard of polio"

They are a pet peeve of mine.
If they cared so much, surely they'd be better off getting a proper job and donating to charity themselves, rather than pissing people off for commission.

And they always, always accost me after I have just checked my bank balance and seen I am overdrawn on my overdraft.

All charity fundraisers collecting on the street should be complying with the Code of Practice.

In my experience, they comply with some of it... they certainly don't seem to start off by saying that they are paid to speak to me.

"1. We always tell potential donors clearly that we are paid to speak with them, and that we are not volunteers ? if this is the case ? and we explain the basis on which we are paid"

Will have to give this one a try - "I have already spoken to your other colleague".

quick google revealed that one guy was earning £10/hour thats crazy, he just had to sign up 5 people a day to keep that wage.

I hate these idiots. Spotty 20 year old students who know fuck all about the world.
My stock response to them when they approach and say something like, how are you today.
My response,- busy, or my favourite one in response to Sorry to disturb you , but this wont take long. you're right there sonny!
If none of tese are appropriate, i tell them to fuck off!
Seems to do the trick.

When I was about 8 months pregnant, a chugger made the catastrophic error of stopping me when I was on my way to the loo.

Before he could get into his spiel I shouted, "No! I need to piss!" and waddled away quickly.
It was a very effective deterrent

I do some work for a small charity, and if I can be bothered (instead of marching straight past) try and convince the chuggers to donate to mine instead. You have no idea how confused they get when you manage to say the next bit of their script before them.
Best thing is to donate directly and to give to either smaller charities (who can't afford to employ fundraising people) or to charities which you know directly benefit people with specific conditions/animals/hospices/whatever, they tend to be more local ones.

I hate them and wouldn't give them money and I'm a bleeding heart who worked in Africa for several years. Was walking past one with my pushchair this morning when he stopped me by saying something was caught in the pushchair wheels. "Only joking! I just wanted to talk to you!" Yuck.

Not seen chuggers with a TV camera in Manchester. I would have thought that it was illegal to do this without your permission/licence from the Council?

Oooh I hate chuggers and their smarmy, patronising approach. I usually manage to spot them in good time and then power past them with an unapproachable face on.

I think it gives charities a bad name and gives people an excuse not to donate.

Both charities I do donate to on a regualar basis - one I rang on the strength of a TV advert and one I signed up with after I had taken part in charity run for them.

So for me, advertising and organising events works better than employing smarmy gits to harrass people in the streets!!

I can't stand them. If I wanted to donate to a particular charity I would ring them up and go direct rather than interact with these annoying people.

The other day I witnessed a chugger yelling abuse at a woman because she wouldn't stop and talk to her. When I told a chugger that I didn't have any income so wouldn't be able to contribute he told me to use my family allowance benefit, another one spotted a bottle of wine poking out of my shopping bag and told me to give up alcohol. I have also had one say to me that he thought I had a caring face but he was obviously mistaken. Now I just give a firm "not interested" and walk away briskly, the mistake is to give them the time of day.

They were outside Boots. They were claiming to be collecting for disabled children and I think were from an organisation called 'Trinty' which might be a religious group.

Urgh, hate them.
I can't understand why more and more charities are employing them when they are universally loathed.

I've stopped direct debits to charities that use chuggers and ones that ring up asking me to up my contribution on the basis that they are wasting my donations employing fundraisers rather than using my money for what I intended!

i admit that i get a bit intimidated when approached directly on the street - and the trouble is i try to be polite but they dont take no for an answer ...... so i confess that i pretend my mobile phone is ringing and say `must dash - car park inspectors on the way/my ticket runs out in 5 mins/family emergency' (delete as appropriate) and make a run for it

They don't appear to need a license from the council, as they are not collecting Money as such.

PFRA accept complaints from members of the public who feel they have been harassed by charity collectors. Complaints Form

I had someone phonong me from Help The Aged a few years back, and he actually made me cry. He went into great detail about cases of abuse of the elderly, and when I said "I'm really sorry, I can't give anything" (8m pg and DH was made redundant...) he said, "that's a shame. Elderly people with bruises and cigarette burns really need your help, but if you can't bring yourself to give anything..."
Arsehole.

One them (I assume she was new) once told me they have a policy of approaching Mums with children as we're more likely to give I disproved the theory!