national Trust deceptive gift aid tactic and hard sell.

tomwakefield

hubb wrote: »

I have not heard back from NT yet. Perhaps it isn't a policy of the NT, just the man who is their rep and takes the money. Very very deceptive and underhand. It's bad enough you get mitherd to death to become a member.

Not sure - I think it seems to be fairly commonplace, even if not the official policy. Last time I went I asked for an adult ticket and got the gift aid price. I was aware of the two prices and was quite happy to pay the higher rate, but I agree they should certainly ask, or assume people will explicitly say they want a Gift Aid ticket

hubb

Well the house I visited got back to me and just emailed saying

Thank you for your email to our enquiries department and the feedback it contained regarding your recent visit. I am sorry to learn of your experience at our Ticket Office in which there appears to have been a miscommunication regarding gift aid for which I sincerely apologise. I will be passing your comments to the relevant manager to ensure that this situation does not arise again.

I am pleased that you enjoyed your visit and hope that we will welcome you again in the future.

The misscomunication was no communication regarding the real ticket price. I would have thought that at least they would offer to refund the difference. Obviously not.

roddydogs

The prices are clearly marked on the entrance, if you dont want "Gift Aid", just say so!

Pollycat

roddydogs wrote: »

The prices are clearly marked on the entrance, if you dont want "Gift Aid", just say so!

At the very least, the NT should offer both options and let the customer choose - not (as the OP says) just charge the Gift Aid price as default.

hubb

roddydogs wrote: »

The prices are clearly marked on the entrance, if you dont want "Gift Aid", just say so!

Have you read my post ? I said they charged me the gift aid price without me knowing and didn't tell me the real price.

hybernia

We've been NT members for years. And over the course of those years have often been asked at NT properties if we're UK taxpayers, and if we'd like to sign a Gift Aid form because that way, the charity can claim tax back on the entry fee paid. That hasn't happened once to us, but many times. So. . . did the NT get it wrong, then?

This year, we noticed that (a) many NT prices have risen dramatically and (b) if you've not seen the signage behind the desk -- because who the heck walks up to that desk and then looks above the head of the lady waiting to serve you? You ask her, or him, not stare at the bloody wall -- then you're questioned in exactly the same way as before, viz:

Would you like to Gift Aid us today?

You are not -- and we've been to five different NT properties this year -- you are NOT asked:

"Would you like to make a small charitable donation on top of the entrance fee?"

We've just cancelled this year's subscription renewal. Emotional blackmail is bad enough when it comes to charities devoted to the lives of human beings and animals. But being put on the spot about please please help us with this medieval building that we charge £18 for two people to have a look at. . . is nauseating.

The NT should charge what it thinks it needs to operate efficiently, and scrap all the sharp-practice begging bowl stuff now.

Pollycat

hybernia wrote: »

We've just cancelled this year's subscription renewal. Emotional blackmail is bad enough when it comes to charities devoted to the lives of human beings and animals. But being put on the spot about please please help us with this medieval building that we charge £18 for two people to have a look at. . . is nauseating.

The NT should charge what it thinks it needs to operate efficiently, and scrap all the sharp-practice begging bowl stuff now.

I hope that you told the NT why you've cancelled your membership.

As an aside, I was called recently by a woman from the NT who asked me if I would consider taking out a monthly direct debit for - wait for it - £10 per month!
On top of the annual amount we pay them!

I told her that I was retired (I am) and could not afford to increase any of my monthly direct debits to charities that are close to my heart, let alone commit to pay £10 per month to a charity I'm already funding to a greater degree than my other charities (e.g. RNLI).
I do appreciate that you do get something tangible out of NT membership though.

I don't like getting the calls and letters asking if I can increase my subscription, it makes me feel guilty and I don't like being made to feel like that when i've been supporting charities for many years.

I've decided that the next time they write to me, I'm going to write back and ask them to stop it and tell them if they don't, I'll cancel my subscription, which I don't want to do.

hubb

I was going to join but I don't think I will bother now, especially reading the above posts. The prices are inflated enough without asking for gift aid.

hybernia

Pollycat wrote: »

I hope that you told the NT why you've cancelled your membership.

No, we didn't. They won't take a blind bit of notice. The NT is in the hands of smart slick savvy people (allegedly) with Marketing degrees and MBAs and the Lord alone knows what else. That they've not the slightest idea how to run a business and retain fully paid-up subscribers is obvious only to the subscribers, not to them. We last complained about the idiotic NT Magazine. We don't want it. Don't need to savour 'celebrity articles'. And we certainly don't want (as happened with one edition) to read of wonderful opportunities at places over 200 miles away from where we liv e. The NT responded by saying ah, well, they also send us a 'regional' supplement. Yes. They do. But why send anything at all?? It costs. It wastes paper. It wastes time. Anyway. Having received the glib answer we expected, we didn't renew our subscription four years ago. . but skipped a year and then rejoined. See later note.

Pollycat wrote: »

As an aside, I was called recently by a woman from the NT who asked me if I would consider taking out a monthly direct debit for - wait for it - £10 per month!
On top of the annual amount we pay them!

We never give anyone our number unless we can see that they need to have contact with us and we with them. With the NT, we did our usual trick of mangling our phone number's STD code. In the unlikely event the NT suddenly decided to run a prize draw and give us £1 million without us entering, they'd likely write us and only then would we have to say, oh dear, how silly of us, we made a real mess of giving you our phone number. So sorry.

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Pollycat wrote: »

I don't like getting the calls and letters asking if I can increase my subscription, it makes me feel guilty and I don't like being made to feel like that when i've been supporting charities for many years.

It's a point we nearly made this time around, but didn't, i.e.: the NT wants gilt at the expense of your guilt. That's no way to run a charity of which isn't saving lives but preserving old buildings -- whilst paying out rather a lot of dosh in salaries to senior management.

Pollycat wrote: »

I've decided that the next time they write to me, I'm going to write back and ask them to stop it and tell them if they don't, I'll cancel my subscription, which I don't want to do.

We cancelled, left them to it for a year, then re-joined using an NT discount offer via Top Cashback. Saved a heck of a lot. Then we left again at renewal time and rejoined some months later also on a cashback scheme or discount, can't remember from where. When you take out a new subscription like that -- it usually comes on the standard 10-months for 12-months deal, but then with a chunk of cashback on top, the form asks if you've been members before. We swap names, me one year, hubby the next, and as we both have amnesia, we can never remember if we've been members before or not. So we put 'no'.

It might not be the most ethical way of dealing with the National Trust but the National Trust seems nowadays by accident or design anything but ethical in its conduct towards its members. Quid pro quo, then.

pawsies

My parents bought me a life card years ago- I have the scrawly childhood signature to prove it but at least I get in free and can bring someone else.

Cannot believe they try to charge extra for gift aid and hide it!