warning rspca collectors taking advantage of folk

pamplemousse

a man called at the door of an elderly relative asking her to set up a d.d. to help the animals. she agreed to give £4 a month an gave her details .bank and phone number. she later noticed that he had put £6.5O on the receipt. with rspca on it ,she asked me to phone up about it , l suspected that he wasnt who he said he was but the agency who take the calls said o.k. they will make it £4 if thats wht she wanted originally wanted.. about two weeks later the same RSPCA collectors phoned her and said * could you give more money it will make such a difference to the poor animals* so she agreed to give £6 and later told me she couldnt afford it being a pensioner. l advised her to cancel it altogether because they will keep on upping it. l advised her to give donations to animal charities like Celia Hammond Animal trust in Barking rd E.14 they do very good work rescuing strays and kittens and free nuetering of animals for people on benefits and have a very basic premises. l am not advertising for them as such but l do think they are very deserving

hollydays

How could they change an agreement like this over the phone.Wouldnt have thought it was possible.

pamplemousse

do you mean change the amount ? l can assure you they did because the when l phoned to check , the first thing l asked was how much have you got the d.d.for? the first time they said £6.50 and the second time after they phoned and asked for more money they said £6... it is the same when you take out d.d.for gas and electric you can change the amount you pay monthly anytime if you think it is too much or too little to cover your quarterly bills or cancel it if you changeyour mind and want to pay quarterly

maninthestreet

Never a good idea to hand over personal banking details to someone who knocks on your door asking for them. I suspect this collector was working on a commission basis, and got paid depending on how much revenue he managed to generate.

Sooler

It's the agency who are taking advantage of folk rather than the RSPCA, although the RSPCA have responsibilty by chosing to use the services of the agency.


Have you alerted the RSPCA directly of the malpractice?

pulliptears

I managed to get one of the agency employee's the sack a few years ago...

He came out to my mother who is also elderly. She told him that she couldnt afford to donate monthly, but that she put what she could afford into collection tins.

At this point he became abusive and accused my mother of being uncaring. As he marched down the drive he called back something to the effect of "Oh its ok, everyone in the street now knows you would rather see an animal die than give £4 a month"

I hit the roof, called the RSPCA and was informed by letter a few days later that the "gentleman" in question had been "let go".

Its unfortunate that these people are being paid comission for every new DD they get. If the door knockers were voluntary it would solve all the problems.

hollydays

To stop a repeat of this,I would also make sure you get them to take her telephone number off their system-at the very least. She should have been given some paperwork- it should say how she can cancel completely.I would ask them if it is their policy to make phonecalls to try to increase payments-i wouldnt think it was.

spuds_2

I have a friend who has a dd to the RSPCA - she gets lots of mail asking for more money. Also, Maninthestreet is right, as I understand it these "chuggers" (charity muggers) who persuade people to sign up for direct debits are on commission. I vaguely remember reading it was as much as £50 for each person signed up. It may take a year before their fee is covered and the money is put to charitable use.

Here is a report by someone who did street fundraising. He says he wasn't on commission, but was paid £8-10 an hour.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2090680.stm

caleo

We had someone at the door twice in one day, from the Red Cross. I told them that wesupport our own charity at the local hospital, and she went away.

Came back with a man later and got my husband. They were trying to be very persuasive, trying to get my husband to talk to me about it , as he told them i was feeding the baby.

They were just so insistant, saying DD is the best way to go about it etc. He was very huffy when my husband told him to leave.:mad:

This type on canvassing is going to put people off. I would prefer an envelope through the door, put some money in and it gets collected.

saveaholic68

I can't beleive some of the comments on this post, I sometimes wonder if these charities target the elderly and vulnerable on purpose. I live in quite a poor area and have noticed I don't get many of these types of people at my door. My mother, however, lives in a nicer area and gets them all the time - at the door and phone calls asking for money.

Kzlnd

I've had something similar happen, someone 'working on behalf of' the red cross knocked at the door and I stupidly let her in. I agreed to donate each month by dd, I said I'd give £4. It wasn't until later that evening when I read over the papers, I saw she'd written £8! as the monthly amount to take :eek: :mad:
I called the number given and explained I had only agreed to £4 each month as I couldn't really afford much more, I was furious that she dare do that. The lady I spoke with cancelled my direct debit, apologised and said a report would be sent to head office about her, whether that was actually done I don't know. :mad:

We've recently moved and yesterday, we got a visit from someone on behalf of the NSPCC - no chance. I think it's terrible they even do this, I'm more than happy to donate when I want to but I don't agree with door to door demands :mad: