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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be really pissed off with justgiving

51 replies

badger2005 · 15/05/2023 13:16

They took an extra £80 from my donation, as a kind of 'tip' to themselves!
Now I know, I should have been more careful to check everything at every stage, but I did not expect this. I had put in my donation amount, and then I clicked on agreeing to giftaid it, and at this point they just added it on!
I've emailed to ask for a refund, but the emails I get back don't fill me with hope. Lots of 'Hope things are now resolved. If not, please do this extra things' - I think they are waiting for me to give up.
Looking on trustpilot I'm not the only one this has happened to!
Please be v careful to double check at every stage if you make a donation via justgiving - and if you are setting up a donation page then please use some other platform!

OP posts:
Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 13:22

Sorry - the title should be pissed off with justgiving - not trustpilot! I've asked mnet to change it.
So pissed off i can't type straight.
For voting:
YABU: your fault, you should have checked
YANBU: they are arseholes and deliberately scamming people.

OP posts:
Pacques · 15/05/2023 13:27

YANBU- I think they rely on people not noticing.

Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 13:29

Thank you Pacques - that's definitely how it felt. I was confused because I thought that the new figure related to the gift-aid that had been added, so just clicked 'confirm' or whatever.
I feel like it's a really shitty thing to do with a charity donation website.
I would feel a lot less irate if they dealt with my complaint and refunded it, but I think they are just chat-botting me until I give up!

OP posts:
Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 13:30

Sorry 'chat-botting' looks like a rude word.

OP posts:
LindseysDoily · 15/05/2023 13:36

Yes, happened to me a couple of weeks ago. It was a donation of £20 and they added on a "tip" of £2 - tried to change figure to zero and thought I had but obviously hadn't checked a box or something because they charged me anyway. Luckily it was only £2 but i still felt a bit cheated. And I consider myself reasonably IT savvy!!

Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 13:39

Yes LindseysDoily it feels like they are doing it on purpose to trick us. So rubbish!

OP posts:
Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 14:19
Archers
OP posts:
howdoesyourgardengrowinmay · 15/05/2023 14:32

I noticed at a national trust property recently the entry fee was £13, but if you wanted to add gift aid entry was £15.

I thought gift aid was about the govt giving back the tax paid by the visitor to the charity, not lobbing a couple of extra quid on the entry.

Casdentwo · 15/05/2023 14:43

So annoying they charged me £2.50 so not much but felt conned as I said yes to gift aid then got this extra charge .I too thought the government paid the extra ?
Then had a questionnaire about how I'd supported there investments in technology by my donation!!!!! Then asked how I felt ...cheated !!!! Only small amount which I would have preferred to go to the mnd charity not technology

Ktime · 15/05/2023 14:44

'Hope things are now resolved. If not, please do this extra things'

This made me lol.

Aren't there free alternatives to justgiving now?

Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 14:49

Yes Ktime it literally says this:

OP posts:
Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 14:49

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch.

We are very sorry that we have not been able to get back to your email yet, we’re currently dealing with an incredibly high volume of queries to our customer support team.

We hope your issue has since been resolved, but if you still need our help, please reply to this email and we'll prioritise getting back to you.

You can find answers to most questions in our help area at help.justgiving.com/hc/en-us.

Thank you for your understanding during such a busy time.
Thanks,

OP posts:
Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 14:50

I mean, no, it hasn't since been resolved - how would it have?
I've replied to the email... will they prioritise getting back to me?!
So annoying!

OP posts:
Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 14:51

Yes Casdentwo same! I did not want to support an investments in technology charity! It is so shameless.

OP posts:
Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 14:54

Voting-wise I am heartened to see that I'm not being so unreasonable.
I was worried that people would say 'well, you should have double-checked at every stage' - which I will definitely do in future (though in future I will try to give in a different way from using justgiving) but I also think that they just shouldn't be trying to sneak chunks of money into their own bank account, and make you actively remove them to avoid this happening. It's like having a hand reaching into your handbag to steal your purse, and it being your responsibility to keep an eye out at all times so you are ready to push it away.

OP posts:
Systemagic · 15/05/2023 16:51

I don't agree that Justgiving were trying to sneakily steal money from you. Sounds like they also haven't dealt with your enquiry yet, so may still refund you.

The text that donors see is below. The optional fee defaults to 1.25% but you can change it to something else, or remove it completely if you don't want to contribute.

Justgiving used to charge a platform fee to the charities as well as the per-transaction cost. They now just charge the transaction cost to charities, and have introduced an optional extra fee for donors, to cover their platform costs.

Fundraising platforms are invaluable to charities, many of whom are very small and couldn't hope to develop equivalent fundraising page functionality on their own websites. The platforms do need to invest in order to keep up with technology and to be resilient, otherwise the fundraising sector and the fabulous fundraisers themselves suffer when a platform folds, like when Virgin Money Giving suddenly closed down a couple of years back. There are other platforms out there, all using different payment models and with different pros and cons for charities, but Justgiving still does a very solid job.

To be really pissed off with justgiving
SewingBees · 15/05/2023 16:57

The frustrating thing here is that they charge charities to enable people to set up charity pages as well. When I worked for a charity we used Virgin Money Giving as our preferred latform because it was free to set up a charity profile.

PuffinsRocks · 15/05/2023 16:58

Systemagic · 15/05/2023 16:51

I don't agree that Justgiving were trying to sneakily steal money from you. Sounds like they also haven't dealt with your enquiry yet, so may still refund you.

The text that donors see is below. The optional fee defaults to 1.25% but you can change it to something else, or remove it completely if you don't want to contribute.

Justgiving used to charge a platform fee to the charities as well as the per-transaction cost. They now just charge the transaction cost to charities, and have introduced an optional extra fee for donors, to cover their platform costs.

Fundraising platforms are invaluable to charities, many of whom are very small and couldn't hope to develop equivalent fundraising page functionality on their own websites. The platforms do need to invest in order to keep up with technology and to be resilient, otherwise the fundraising sector and the fabulous fundraisers themselves suffer when a platform folds, like when Virgin Money Giving suddenly closed down a couple of years back. There are other platforms out there, all using different payment models and with different pros and cons for charities, but Justgiving still does a very solid job.

Looks like Justgiving customer service arrived just in time. 🙄 The screenshot literally proves it's scammy, with the total amount greyed out in size 6 font at the bottom of the screen and a big £10 making it look like that's what you're paying.

FWIW YANBU OP I can't believe they robbed you of £80!

Systemagic · 15/05/2023 17:01

howdoesyourgardengrowinmay · 15/05/2023 14:32

I noticed at a national trust property recently the entry fee was £13, but if you wanted to add gift aid entry was £15.

I thought gift aid was about the govt giving back the tax paid by the visitor to the charity, not lobbing a couple of extra quid on the entry.

This is because of HMRC rules about gift aid on entrance fees to charitable attractions.

If someone gives at least 10% as a donation on top of the entrance fee, then the charity can claim gift aid on the whole amount (ticket + donation).

If you just buy the ticket then they can't claim any gift aid at all.

So you can see why the attraction would want to offer it as an option, but it's not compulsory.

Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 17:08

Systemagic I don't get why you say that it is 1.25% when the text you copied said that it is 15%?
And yes - now I can see it I am more convinced that it is scammy! I would have thought that I would need to click to agree to add this - rather than have it added automatically. And it happens at a late point when you are adding gift-aid, so there is already an amount being added to what the charity is getting that you know you don't need to worry about checking. So this extra 15% gets rolled in with that and yet you do actually need to pay for this extra 15%.

OP posts:
Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 17:10

So... update. Justgiving have responded to say that they will refund it. I'll wait to see if it goes back in my account. So that's good!
But on the bigger picture... who else is getting this money siphoned off them without realising until they see their bank balance?
I'd be totally fine with this if you had to click something to add the extra money - but it really shouldn't be the default.

OP posts:
Original poster
badger2005 · 15/05/2023 17:12

SewingBees that's so rubbish that they charge the charities too - I didn't realise that!

OP posts:
Systemagic · 15/05/2023 17:48

SewingBees · 15/05/2023 16:57

The frustrating thing here is that they charge charities to enable people to set up charity pages as well. When I worked for a charity we used Virgin Money Giving as our preferred latform because it was free to set up a charity profile.

Unfortunately, Virgin Money Giving turned out not to have a long-term viable strategy, as they folded in November 2021, with only a few weeks' notice. A really poor deal for the smaller charities with limited time and resources that depended on VMG for donation and fundraising pages, and had to find a new solution at short notice.

(I work in the sector but am not and never have been a Justgiving employee).

Systemagic · 15/05/2023 17:51

badger2005 · 15/05/2023 17:08

Systemagic I don't get why you say that it is 1.25% when the text you copied said that it is 15%?
And yes - now I can see it I am more convinced that it is scammy! I would have thought that I would need to click to agree to add this - rather than have it added automatically. And it happens at a late point when you are adding gift-aid, so there is already an amount being added to what the charity is getting that you know you don't need to worry about checking. So this extra 15% gets rolled in with that and yet you do actually need to pay for this extra 15%.

Apologies, the 1.25% was a typo on my part.

Systemagic · 15/05/2023 17:52

badger2005 · 15/05/2023 17:10

So... update. Justgiving have responded to say that they will refund it. I'll wait to see if it goes back in my account. So that's good!
But on the bigger picture... who else is getting this money siphoned off them without realising until they see their bank balance?
I'd be totally fine with this if you had to click something to add the extra money - but it really shouldn't be the default.

Excellent! Glad you got your money back - I thought you probably would. When I worked in a charity fundraising team, Justgiving always had pretty good customer service.