General Chat

We're on the Do Not Call list (in Oz), we don't get calls from businesses, but we do get calls from charities.

If we gave to every charity that called, we'd need charity!

We had a rotten year in 2013, and are just catching up, so we don't have money to spare.

This morning, calls from...

The Heart Foundation
Rescue Helicopter
Someone I couldn't understand a word she said

and a few minutes ago............. Save the Koalas!

:-(

Hi LS,
So are we (but not in Oz!). I have noticed recently that the charities we do support are no longer having an 'annual appeal' but are coming back 8 or 9 months after we last donated. I sent a cheque to one of them with a note that they were early and I didn't want to hear from them for another 15 months or they'd get taken off the list.
Yeah - Save the lefthanded frogspittle ladybug.

They will not overcome.

B

We gave to one charity a few years ago (I won't name them).

I was working at the time, doing contracting. My contract wasn't renewed & it was months before I found another job.

The charity called...... I said I couldn't donate anything because I had been let go at work. The caller said "Oh, you don't have to give very much, $50 will do". What a nerve! I gave him a blast.... and didn't give them any more money, ever!

A year or so later, that charity was being investigated, because the directors had sticky fingers. Not nice.

We do give to charities, but much prefer to give to local organisations, including the Surf Lifesavers, the Rescue Helicopters (who called this morning), Legacy etc, but this is the first time I've been asked to help save a koala. :-)

Best not to name them, but tactics of Scope are getting right up my nose. They are as welcome as Jehovah's Witnesses on my doorstep now.

They knock on your door and yesterday were haranguing everyone in a supermarket foyer like AA usually do (Alcoholics Anomymous, I think ;-)).

You can't put £1, £5 or even $50 in their box. No, they must sign you up with a direct debit. And I believe very little of the dd goes to the needy causes, and an awful lot goes to slick salesman.

I have stopped giving anything to charity

The reason

Most of the money donated is wasted on admin, Ever larger salaries for CEOs and all the costs involved employing professional managers assistant managers and their own individual secretaries of should i say PA's and large plush offices and last but not least advertising and now with the move towards cold calling call centres


Roy

I do think it is important to give to charity. For example, many hospices would have to close and many of us are alive due to gifts to heart and other medical research.

But we also have to be good stewards of our giving and make sure it hits the spot. I donate to Christian Aid week and poppy appeal and do it with a good heart knowing the collectors get nothing and it goes to right places.

I usually avoid collections in supermarkets and High Street unless it is a local charity that I actually know something about.

Many years ago our adult grandaughter signed up to the NSPCC she did a monthly direct debit contribution to them .

She then came to live with us when her mum remarried as we would be closer for her commute to work .

Her branch of the bank closed down and money was tight so she cancelled all the non essential payments from her account

She got another job but is in London so the travel costs are very high so she coudnt afford to make charity cons again

She then moved from ours 4 yeas ago when she bought her own flat after saving very hard for the deposit .

The NSPCC are constantly on the phone asking for her and have been told every time she doesn't live here anymore,they then try to sign me up every time too .

I wouldn't give to them anyway because their tactics really pee me off

When my Mother died, I stayed in her house for a couple of weeks to sort things.

Every day there were calls from charities. I told them Mum had passed away, and got the same response from all of them "so sorry, your Mother was very generous". Some of them had the cheek to ask if I was interested in donating... I told them their request was inappropriate.

I bet she was generous. She gave to everyone who asked! She was on a pension.... I often wonder just how she managed.

For anyone who is thinking I wasn't looking after her......I only saw Mum a few times a year, we lived in different states in Oz, and for nine years in different countries...... and if I'd stuck my nose in she would have told me where to go!

<3

I don't give to the Heart Foundation any longer........ they're not interested in a "small" donation....... they want you to sign up for the monthly direct debit!

AArrrrrrrrrgh! The Error Message is Back!!!!!!!!!! :-P :-P :-P

I clicked Submit....... waited for ages.......... and there it was....... TEM!!! :-P

I'll copy this, just in case :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\

Guess what?

Yep, I got another Error Message!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-P :-P :-P

and duplicated posts............ I've removed the extras.

:-P

Good post though, Scozz. I always say if its worth saying something once on Genes, its worth saying it 3,4 or 6 times :-) ;-) TEM only appears when you have slaved over a good post, and it is long and detailed.

TEM is very annoying!

There's a problem locally with Internet connections & telephones......... the boffins with the toolboxes keep "fixing" things....... and mucking them up! We had no telephone for almost a week.

The internet keeps dropping out........ this morning it dropped out six times in an hour..... I gave up in disgust.

What with dropping out and TEM, I'm getting frustrated.



:-(

If you want to get rid of Charity Phone calls, Just ask the Caller how Much the Head of their Charity recieves as income from it.they usually hang up.Also those people wanting you to Sign up for donations are on Commission for every one they get,Getting more like the Mafia every day,they,ll be putting Horses Heads in your bed soon if you don,t donate to them.**M**.

Many years ago my ex husband worked for a travel agents.....one of their accounts was a very big charity organisation.

Lord and Lady whatever who were heads of this charity always travelled Concord to the US all paid out of the charities account.

Even if I ended up with this illness which is probably one of our biggest killers, I wouldn't want donations given to them

My daughter and her boyfriend lived with me about 7 years ago.
5 years ago, they didn't. Since then, they've split up and daughter has been married to another since last year.
For 4 years, every 6 months I had a call from Greenpeace asking to speak to her ex. Last time they called, I asked if he had a pen.
He did. I then asked that he put a line through daughter's ex's name and my phone number, as he wouldn't be living here again.
Daughter's ex has an unusual surname, so I suggested they look on 192.com to find him.

He thanked me :-D

We're lucky enough to have Caller ID on our phone so I use it to screen my calls-if I don't recognise the number,or if it's Private number or Overseas number,I don't bother answering it.We are on the Do Not Call Register too,so we do seem to get the odd call from the charities.If anyone rings from a charity,I don't donate to that charity,because the person is getting paid for the call,which means that most of my donation would be swallowed up in administration costs.I know that there are a few charities which take minimal amounts of money out for fees;I would prefer to donate to those.I will never donate to any charity which takes your donation and tries to sign you up for direct debit;my donations are on a once-only basis.

Someone rang me the other day from the Alannah and Madeline Foundation -he didn't allow me to get a word in edgewise,rattled off a great spiel about how generous I had been in the past etc etc and then asked me if I would be donating amounts, starting at $50 and finishing at $100.to help prevent bullying of children etc. I said that I knew that they were a worthwhile cause,but so were many others,and that I couldn't afford to support them all etc,so just hung up,to his protests.I felt that I had been patient long enough,and listened to him.The outcome would have been the same anyway! :-) :-)

We are on telephone preference for both mobiles and the house phone so we don't usually get random phone calls.

The problem is if you have given your number to an organisation then they can ring you for sales calls .

I try not to put telephone numbers when I am ordering or even enquiring online as once given you can't control them using it .

Will often put a load of noughts in where it asks for tel nos if it won't accept a blank space

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Telephone rang a few minutes ago ...

Hello

Good afternoon ma'am (sounded like an American accent)...... My name is Brian, and I'm calling from BlahBlah Surveys.

I don't do surveys........ and how did you get my number? I'm on the Do Not Call list.

We're not trying to sell anything, we only do surveys.

I told you..... I don't do surveys.

This will only take a few minutes

Bye!

:-P

Advice -- Don't give to "Save the Children" unless you like mail. Mum gives to them every Christmas, one of the charities she gives money too, and for the last year or so she has been getting letters every couple of weeks asking for more. The lowest amount is $75. :-0

And phone calls -- we're always getting ones from Microsoft saying I have a problem with my computer! *Gulp* First I said if I did I'll get my nephew to fix it, “well he might not know how or make it worse,” he is a computer programmer so I doubt it. They hung up on me!!!! :-0 Now I lie and say I don’t have one, as I sit here looking at the screen, (saves me time, and they can go bother some other poor person) Mum keeps saying she doesn’t own one and asks why does she need one. She’s not lying has this is mine all mine *insert evil laughter here*

We moved here 7 years ago, immediately put our new telephone number on the Do Not Call list.

No annoying calls for at least a year, then a charity (local) called.

I am convinced they passed our number on to all the others... because the callers addressed me by my first name (which doesn't appear in the 'phone book).

We found out a couple of months ago that the Do Not Call list has to be updated every 7 years.

:-(

It's easy (sort of) to deal with charities who telephone.......... but what about the door-knockers?