Beware - charity phone spam from Supporter Insight

meggitt

My telephone number is ex-directory, and yet I received two phone calls last night from Supporter Insight conducting a "survey" which they maintain exempts them from TPS. I demanded to know where they obtained my number from and was given a scripted reply by the caller and also by his supervisor. I have therefore tried to contact them to complain - the number on their website just rings out! I tried the number given in the forum which takes you to a company which is "part of the same group". I left details of my complaint and was told that the MD of Supporter Insight, a Mr Stephen Barr, would call me back when he gets back to the office. Will update further if/when he contacts me!

fantasia322

I think I would be correct in assuming that Supporter Insight as part of the Panther Group is also connected with Pell & Bales, and the process of these surverys is called 'harvesting' as a way of finding new donors. databases and .
I apologise if I have this wrong, but is the idea not to generate income for charities regardless? I've been contacted my self in regard to a survey and then asked if I would like to donate.
http://www.pellandbales.co.uk/?xhtml=pb/xhtml/ourwork/supporteracquisition/harvest.html

fantasia322

meggitt wrote: »

My telephone number is ex-directory, and yet I received two phone calls last night from Supporter Insight conducting a "survey" which they maintain exempts them from TPS. I demanded to know where they obtained my number from and was given a scripted reply by the caller and also by his supervisor. I have therefore tried to contact them to complain - the number on their website just rings out! I tried the number given in the forum which takes you to a company which is "part of the same group". I left details of my complaint and was told that the MD of Supporter Insight, a Mr Stephen Barr, would call me back when he gets back to the office. Will update further if/when he contacts me!

A mister Stephen Barr replied last night to your post Meggit, and it was still here this morning, very strange, when I came back to see if there was any reply to my above post, the one from Mr Barr had magically disappeared. Hmmmmmmm

lindos90

Yes I read that post too, couldnt make my mind up if it was genuine at the time, was expecting it too develope into some elaborate funny or sarcastic 'henpecked style' response, but it didnt!

fantasia322

Thanks for confirmation Lindos, was starting to think I had imagined it. Thing is, a lot of what @Mr Barr@ posted was accurate about the TPS and stuff, but my link shows exactly what Supporter Insight do (or get their sister company to do). The survey is just an excuse for contacting these people back again to ask them to sign up for direct debit. Oh well. If it was genuine I think Mr Barr (if he was real) could have explained it lol;)

Savvy_Sue

Mr Barr should have asked for permission to post on behalf of his company / organisation, as per the Forum Rules.

biggus1984

I work for Guide Dogs, and I can assure you that we have no affiliation with Supporter insight. We did once take part in a analysis programme with them over 18 months ago. But since that time all connections have been severed. Under no circumstance are they operating on guide dogs behalf. That I can assure you.

Also to the gentlemen who writes about charities using paid fundraisers, maybe you should see the scale of amazing work that gets done because of the money raised by those fundraisers. The notion that people think charities should not pay fundraisers is truely a narrow minded one. If any charity who pays fundraisers did not do so they would not have anywhere near the same impact on those they help as they do right now. How can people not see that paying £1 to a fundraiser in order to raise £5 for the charity is not a good thing, would you honestly rather that didnt happen and the charity was £4 poorer!!!! think about it, charities aren't out to con you or make money they raise funds to fund the amazing life changing work they do and so it is imperitive to pay for these fundraisers in order to maximise the impact the charity can have!

Obviously charities have volunteers who also do amazing work but it just isnt logical to think that the work volunteers do is ok to settle for. Why not invest in order to raise more money?

People read headlines and see figure like charity spends £X amount to chuggers or whoever, but the £X amount they pay out is always much less than the £X they gain and can then use for good causes! Charities work to ROI and if something was a waste of money or not worth doing believe me they would not do it.

For those who feel harassed, I can honestly say that, that is never the intention of any charity and most charities will do whatever they can to avoid supporters feeling that way!

lincroft1710

Biggus 1984 - suggest you read this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2401203 before singing the praises of chuggers.

Savvy_Sue

I think it's important to make a distinction between employing fundraisers, and using companies which use chuggers or telephone to solicit donations. There is a lot which can be done by the former without resorting to the latter.

WhiteSpace

We too have been pestered by "Supporter Insight" over the last few weeks on and off. Had two calls yesterday, two today. There is a delay in answering, strong Indian accent and, at times, an inability to pronounce our surname! Despite telling the caller that they have already called dozens of times, they deny the fact - according to their computer system. What I guess this means is that they have not 'successfully' called, since I have not yet consented to their "survey". The call usually ends with one party hanging up! Despite telling them to stop calling, they repeatedly do so!

We already donate to a number of charities via Direct Debit, including Cancer Research (mentioned on the previous page of this thread as possibly being connected with "Supporters Insight"). Yet still we are hounded by begging letters and now phone calls.

We are registered with TPS, although (as mentioned above) this appears to have little influence over callers from abroad! What I find laughable is that "Supporters Insight" themselves are registered with 'corporate TPS'!?
http://corporate.tpsonline.org.uk/tpsc/html/Subscribers.asp

Supporter Insight
Address:
Floor 3
211 Old Street
London
EC1V 9NR
Contact: Ms Hannah Munns
Tel: 0207 1877187

Frankly, this is all having a rather negative effect on our willingness to give anything to charity!