Being Harassed whilst shopping

rushnowt

I agree they are everywhere these days, my mum cant abide them and thinks nothing of barging past ignoring them or speaking rudely to them :eek:

I however dont mind them, if i dont have time to speak i say politely sorry cant stop, no time as i walk on, I take the view that they like anyone else are just trying to earn a living.

Otherwise we would be adding them to the list of people scrounging off the state instead of working :rolleyes:

Noozan

Justin_Credit wrote:

There are Big Issue sellers on every corner

My OH is in the fire service and they do routine visits at shopping centres to check fire escapes etc. They got chatting to the security guy who watches the CCTV cameras and he noticed a Big Issue seller. The security guy knew him by name and asked the firemen if they knew how much he made in week.... he can easily make £700 over a busy Friday and Saturday! I wonder ig Big Issue sellers have to pay tax and NI??

jaimeo

Chuggers are a nightmare.

Just tell RAC/British Gas that you already use them. Or that you dont drive. Or that you rent and the landlord retains control over utility suppliers.

After doing several of these types of jobs I would say I appreciate it if people just say "sorry, really too busy to stop". When people are rude it makes my blood boil. I know I know, you dont want to be hassled, but if we never talked to everyone who tries to sidle past, we'd never make a living!

By the way- just saying NO has an effect.
Try these:
"I'm sorry, but i really cant stop"
"No thanks"
"I am already a customer"

If someone persists and does it in an annoying way, tell them. If someone took my hphones out of my ear I would ask them what the hell they think they were doing!

Just be honest with people. I know some street vendors are annoying but the majority of sales people just want 30 seconds of your time.

If you cant stop, just say so. You will be targeted if you put your head down and keep walking- sales men assume you are not confident enough to tell them to sod off if they stop you!

j

Austin_Allegro

I agree these chuggers are incredibly annoying. You never see the same ones twice however - I suspect doing the job is so god-awful that nobody lasts longer than a day. I find just a curt 'no thank you' gets rid of them.

If anybody tried to take my headphones off, however, they would find their arm bent up behind their back before you could say 'common assault'. :mad:

Anwen_2

" he can easily make £700 over a busy Friday and Saturday!"

He'd have to sell about a thousand copies to do that... Which is probably about one a minute.

nearlyrich

My DH always responds to "can I ask you a few questions" with " Certainly I charge £50 per hour for my time and the minimum is 1 hour." Sometimes they laugh and launch into Q1 and he then says "I accept payment in cash and always in advance" which usually has them heading for a sharp exit.

We went on holiday last week, there were extra road works on the way, we hit the car parking place just as a bus pulled out and the check in wasn't working properly on the day Man U played Milan, it was heaving in the departure security area. We made it through with about 10 mins to get to the gate and were running through so we didn't miss the flight when this halfwit jumped out with a clipboard. I almost knocked him out of the way and he probably thought I was really rude but I wasn't going to miss my week in the sun.;)

Noozan

Anwen wrote:

" he can easily make £700 over a busy Friday and Saturday!"

He'd have to sell about a thousand copies to do that... Which is probably about one a minute.

Roughly £700 over 2 days is £350 per day; sells at £1.55 a copy = 225 copies a day. To be honest, I don't think it's impossbile. Sometimes when I buy the Big Issue (not from him though) I often hand over £2 and tell them to keep the change so maybe other people do this too. Once, I won £20 on a scratch card (about 3 years ago) and used it to buy a Big Issue, telling them to keep the change.

juno

Noozan wrote:

Roughly £700 over 2 days is £350 per day; sells at £1.55 a copy = 225 copies a day. To be honest, I don't think it's impossbile. Sometimes when I buy the Big Issue (not from him though) I often hand over £2 and tell them to keep the change so maybe other people do this too. Once, I won £20 on a scratch card (about 3 years ago) and used it to buy a Big Issue, telling them to keep the change.

Yeah, but they have to pay for their Big Issues. When it was £1, they had to pay 60p for each copy, which is only 40p profit.

And it's £1.40, not £1.55

culpepper

I nearly always stop for market researchers as it is a free cup of tea and a sit down.
We havent bought biros for years as they all come from market research.I recently was given £3 in high street vouchers for a survey which was nice.
I dont like the chuggers or the petitioners though or those awful people trying to fill in your details for free holidays(time share hard sell) or catalogue reps.

Noozan

juno wrote:

Yeah, but they have to pay for their Big Issues. When it was £1, they had to pay 60p for each copy, which is only 40p profit.

And it's £1.40, not £1.55

Sorry, wasn't aware they were £1.40, I had the figure of £1.55 in my head. I'm well aware they have to pay for them as I asked one of the sellers once how much they took from it. I don't begrudge buying a copy occasionally and it's infinitely better for them to be actively trying to earn some money rather then sit at cashpoints and beg, like some people do, I've been approached by quite aggresive and persistent beggars and I find it very imtimadating if I'm alone.