Chrimbo cards from Mouth & Foot Painting people!

Fruitcake

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Wouldn't it be better to have one umbrella charity, with lower overheads, splitting the money up between the different branches?

It's called the National Lottery Commision. It's a very well respected organisation that gives lottery cash to lots of good causes, once they have deducted their administration charges.
What one person thinks is a good cause, someone else thinks is a joke and a waste of money. That's why I prefer to donate money to a specific cause rather than a bucket that will go to causes I may not wish to support.

Fruitcake

You Only Listen To Me When I'm Wrong

Tea3

I donate to charities I choose and I think as an adult I can make up my own mind about who I like to support - continually gettings pens etc through the door is irrtating as people have donated money to these charities in good faith to help others less fortunate, however how many of them would have donated had they known their money would be used to by pens etc to send to other people? I realise charities have to make money and a large part of this is their advertising however it can be done cheaper for them and with less 'blackmailing' tactics than currently done by some.

I used to donate very regularly to a well known animal charity and also buy items from their shop, donate items, buy raffle tickets, even collect items from family and friends and take things to their shop etc then a year or so ago I went into their charity shop to find they had complete new decor done, new counters, shelves etc - ok these things need done sometimes but this made it look very posh and must have cost a fortune - and when the staff member boasted about how much the underfloor heating had cost them I left and now another animal charity receives my donations!

With mouth and foot photos I would write to them saying the cards are of no use to you and could they remove you from their mailing list and thank them for these cards and say you will hand them into your local charity shop so that the money from them goes to a good cause. Then you are helping a charity you support and the mouth and foot people will prob stop sending you the cards if you are basically giving them away each time.

hannoja

I received these the other day and it's been bothering me. I keep reading the leaflet to work out what I'm supposed to do with them, but it seems my options are: pay £5.95, or keep them and feel guilty (or return them, but I've opened them..).

Anyway, I've draughted the following letter which I intend to send tomorrow.

Dear Sir,Madam,

Thank you for the cards you sent me recently. Although four of them are not to my liking, the other four are, and I will be sending them out this year.

Whilst I appreciate the artistry of the cards, I would never consider spending £6 for eight cards, especially when I’m not sure how I will use four of them. I bought some lovely little 50% recycled cards from Oxfam the other day which were £1.99 for 20 cards. This is much closer to my budget!

I do not appreciate being sent unrequested items in the post, especially when I feel that I am being emotionally blackmailed into paying for them. What am I supposed to do? I can either keep/use them and feel guilty for not paying for them (due to the only obvious way of doing this being to fill in the enclosed form and pay £5.95). I can throw them away/recycle them, which I cannot bring myself to do. I can return them, which I assume would cost me postage once I have opened it..? Or, I can do what I am doing on this occasion and enclosing a cheque for £2, which as I stated earlier, is more than I would normally pay for Christmas cards, which most people, unfortunately, will throw away after Christmas. I am also returning the four cards which I do not want.

Please remove me from your mailing list, as I won’t be paying for any more cards which are sent in future, and have quite enough things to feel guilty about already. I apologise if this seems harsh, and don’t wish to upset anyone, but I feel this is the best way of dealing with this, and better than the alternatives.

Yours faithfully,

I won't be entering into any kind of agreement or anything if I send money will I? Or breaking an agreement by sending only 1/3 of the price they asked for (an agreement entered into by me responding...?) ..?

Thanks in advance for any (sensible) input regarding the purple part.

pulliptears

Advice? Bin them and move on.

badmumof1

we been getting them for years now and i have never paid for them.
I have never binned them as it is a waste of money so i send them to hubbys work mates

blue_monkey_2

I got some this year and I thought it was a bit hypocritical to give them out so I binned them. It does make you feel bad but only for a day or so. I did not ask for them nor order them so I do not feel I should be emotionally blackmailed into keeping them!

thermalaudio

So long as you have an address for the marketing scams, you can just put it in the envelope they usually provide, write the address on, pop it into the postbox with no stamps on it, it goes through the mail system as normal until the mail track system picks up they have no postage stamps on them.. therefore the companies that annoy everybody with their rubbish unsolicited marketing have to pay the full postage in stamps not on the envelope as well as the full cost based on the weight + £1.00 for being understamped..

Another ploy is that marketing companies also include 1st & 2nd class pre paid envelopes, when that postage is already printed onto the area where you would normally put the stamps, they also employ lots of people in post rooms to open all these envelopes.. i collect them & then just send them umpteen amounts of totally random stuff like pizza menus that i equally don't want through my door.. its cost me nothing but vents my anger which is totally untracked back to me for posting the marketing teams piles of garbage

rancid-a

Anyone got the pen from the NSCCA along with the apologetic letter by them saying 'they wish they didn't have to write but...' eventually getting to the 3 depressing stories of various children in distress. Yeah, emotional blackmail
Don't get me wrong though, I don't mind atall putting my hand in my pocket for lots of change for the chap standing in the hall of the local supermarket shaking his bucket - without getting in my face.

lush_walrus

We used to receive these too. After sending them back for years without putting any details in, we eventually wrote a note attached to the cards saying that as we had had the courtesy to send back the cards to them, we hoped that they could show the same courtesy and take us off the mailing list. This was a couple of years ago and we haven't received anything from them since, so perhaps it works!

mspig

i got these last year and threw them in the drawer under the bed incase they contacted me for them, never have done, so i suppose i can chuck them out now - as i have sent all my crimbo cards out that i'm sending.