Rules governing doorstep charity collectors

tesuhoha

Pollycat wrote: »

Set the Bengals onto her.

Excellent idea especially as Mia has just seen off a cat 3 times her size in the back garden.

Peter333

Luckily, I live in a village now, with only a couple of hundred residents, and it's a bit 'off the beaten track' with not even any public transport, and only one tiny village shop. Also, it's 3 miles from the nearest (small) town. No-one comes to this village unless they live here, so cold callers are rare. Also, there are many disabled and elderly here, and a neighbourhood watch scheme, and there are always people looking out for people. So it's unlikely anyone would get bullied by cold callers.

Where my front door is located, I can see it from the lounge window, but they can't see me very well, as there is a net up on the side window that looks onto the front doorstep. If it is nobody we recognise, we don't answer. If we are not sure, we open the front window and ask who it is and what they want.

Occasionally, a bunch of people in 2 or 3 cars trawl through the village, selling stuff or trying to get people to sign up for things. When I see them, I watch them to see what they're doing, and whose house they're going to (eg to see if the elderly or vulnerable are being targeted,) but I don't answer when they knock on my door.

Peter333

tesuhoha wrote: »

Slightly different I know but I got one on Easter Sunday at lunchtime.

I said I don't give to charity and she said she wasn't after money. She was a Chinese woman and she asked me if I could spare some time to hear about the Children's Head Injury Trust. I said no I couldn't. She asked me if my neighbours had told me about them. I said no and tried to shut the door. She tried to persuade me otherwise and asked if she could come into the kitchen or living room for just five minutes. I said no we are having lunch. She repeated it will only take five minutes in your kitchen. I said to her no, we are having a family lunch in the kitchen/diner. This was partly true but it wasn't a family lunch. However , a lot of people would have been sitting down at that time.

I'm just wondering if she thought I lived alone and if I had invited her in, how safe my purse would have been.

Wow, pushy! What an annoying woman!

duchy

I have a sign

They annoy the heck out of me as I work from home .

I had one from Virgin knock and tell me he'd seen the sign "but obviously it doesn't apply to us" !!!!!! ????? I simply said - Yes it does- and slammed the door. Cocky little git.

Usually I'm more polite - ask them if they can see the sign in the window or has it fallen down. They always helpfully tell me it's still there so I thank them for checking for me with a big fake smile ( as fake as theirs) and firmly shut the door.

gayleygoo

I hate to be rude to anyone, so I tend to wait patiently until the caller takes a breath, then explain that I won't be signng up because we already donate to several charities and don't hand bank details over on the doorstep.

OH didn't know what to do with a Red Cross collector one day. It was 8pm, raining outside, and the man said it was his birthday. What did he do? Invited him in!! So he came in for a cup of tea while OH signed himself up to give £10 a month. Now if he answers the door to a charity person he calls for me to deal with them!

The energy company "switchers" annoy me more, they are much harder to get away from the door and really don't like to take No for an answer.

Indie_Kid

This has got to be the only time I''m glad I have a broken intercom. :rotfl:Currently, if you press it, it gives the impression that I've heard it and I've either not answered it or I'm not in.

We do have a "no cold callers sign" on the door. No idea if anyone takes much notice of it though.

Guest101

Once had one ask me if my parents were home... told him to pop down manchester airport, fly to russia and check!

jaylee3

duchy wrote: »

I have a sign

They annoy the heck out of me as I work from home .

I had one from Virgin knock and tell me he'd seen the sign "but obviously it doesn't apply to us" !!!!!! ????? I simply said - Yes it does- and slammed the door. Cocky little git.

Usually I'm more polite - ask them if they can see the sign in the window or has it fallen down. They always helpfully tell me it's still there so I thank them for checking for me with a big fake smile ( as fake as theirs) and firmly shut the door.

:rotfl::rotfl:

Why did the guy from Virgin think it didn't apply to him?! What an arrogant twott!

At the last house we were at, on an 'private' estate full of cul-de-sacs and upper working class people, (who they they must have seen as a good target!) we had a sign too, but it was almost always ignored! I actually got pretty shirty with quite a number of people to be honest, as I felt it extremely rude to ignore a request like this. It's so disrespectful and arrogant.

This one time, a group of men were crawling around the cul-de-sac (about 5 of them,) trying to peddle tarmac drives. Ours was clearly new. We had a sign and I opened the door and said 'can you not SEE we have a new drive?!' And I said to him - 'we have a 'no cold callers sign; 'can't you READ?!' He said 'actually no I can't.' I just rolled my eyes and closed the door.

He then went on to yell through the open lounge window 'it's yuppie scum like you who make this world the crap place it is, looking down on people who they think are beneath them.' And he spat on the window! He continued with 'You better watch yer back!' Then he walked off. Straight away, all five men got into their van and drove off. But not before I got the registration number.

I immediately called the police and told them what happened.

About two hours later, I got a call saying that these 5 men had been detained at the police station after police caught up with the van around 10 minutes after I reported the incident. There had been a number of complaints about what appeared to be these men, over the last 5 or 6 weeks, from people in my town.

Turns out they had robbed people, and conned people, and their van had a fake numberplate.

I also had a few incidents where someone called on me to tell me my soffits and guttering needed replacing, or my trees needed lopping, or my roof tiles were coming loose, and I said 'no they don't; why would you say this?' They just went a bit red and held their head down and scuttled off.

Then they went to their van/car and drove off out of my cul de sac immediately, without going to ANY of the other houses. It's almost like they knew I was 'onto them.' :rotfl:

Where we live now isn't too bad, as it's not in a big town or city.

Jagraf

How about asking them where they live and that you will pop around to their home when its more convenient.

ciderboy2009

My house is the first one on a cul de sac so I always get the chuggers/salesmen call here first.

As soon as I open the door and see that it's an unwanted caller I pick up the phone and call my two nearest neighbours to tell them not to bother answering the door. They each then phone two other neighbours and so on.

The caller rarely works out what's happening so I normally have to explain to them that there's no point in knocking on any of the other doors.

It works a treat!