Just Giving 14 December 2020 at 1:52PM in Praise, vent & warnings 10 replies 607 views

Freddythefearlessfish

Perhaps it is just me, but I'm livid after having made a donation to charity to discover that Just Giving charged my card more than I agreed to, to line their own pockets. 
I have no objection to them asking if I want to make a donation to help their website and me having a choice.  But to have an untick box in a tiny font on the screen when the large figure is shown in large font is the amount I have agreed to donate seems completely inappropriate.  I then look like I am mean complaining!  They already charge the processing fees to the charity.  In my opinion this is one step too far.

JJ_Egan

Hope you make an actual complaint to them .

Mnoee

They don't charge a platform fee. To me, it's clear enough - it shows the donation amount, the platform amount and the total, and although the font sizes are different, all of them are the same size or bigger than the text on this forum which is readable enough for me. Just my 2p. 

Freddythefearlessfish

JJ_Egan said:

Hope you make an actual complaint to them .

I have done, but I'm not hopeful.  I know its only a pound.  But it leaves a bad taste in the mouth when I was only trying to be generous at Christmas.

missile

Just Giving is a for profit organisation. It is a good way for charities and others to reach those who do not normally donate. Much cheaper than employing door knockers. If you want to maximise your donation, give it directly to the charity of your choice.

p00hsticks

Freddythefearlessfish said:

JJ_Egan said:

Hope you make an actual complaint to them .

I have done, but I'm not hopeful.  I know its only a pound.  But it leaves a bad taste in the mouth when I was only trying to be generous at Christmas.

It's not the amount, it's the principle.  If you are genuinely correct in that you didn't agree to the deduction, then the amount is immaterial - it shouldn;t have been taken. However, going by my past experience, I suspect that it was clearly stated and you just didn't notice it.

Penguin_

Has this stemmed from you not selecting "other" & £0.00 from the drop down?

Pollycat

p00hsticks said:

It's not the amount, it's the principle.  If you are genuinely correct in that you didn't agree to the deduction, then the amount is immaterial - it shouldn;t have been taken. However, going by my past experience, I suspect that it was clearly stated and you just didn't notice it.

Penguin_ said:

Has this stemmed from you not selecting "other" & £0.00 from the drop down?

I think this is exactly what happened.

A friend was doing a charity walk and I donated but elected not to pay anything to Justgiving.

It was very clear.

Takmon

Freddythefearlessfish said:

Perhaps it is just me, but I'm livid after having made a donation to charity to discover that Just Giving charged my card more than I agreed to, to line their own pockets. 
I have no objection to them asking if I want to make a donation to help their website and me having a choice.  But to have an untick box in a tiny font on the screen when the large figure is shown in large font is the amount I have agreed to donate seems completely inappropriate.  I then look like I am mean complaining!  They already charge the processing fees to the charity.  In my opinion this is one step too far.

Take this as a good lesson to read website before clicking and especially before making any kind of payments. There are far too many people who seem click click click without reading anything.

Freddythefearlessfish

Well I got my refund, and a lesson learned.  People above are correct there, is an option to scroll down the page, select other and £0.00 from a drop down menu.  Personally I still think that that is a con, and most people wont bother writing and complaining for this sort of money.  Will avoid just giving in future where possible and check very carefully if there is no alternative.  However, I still don't agree with some of the comments above that this is totally acceptable - it feels a bit like hypothetically buying a TV from Argos listed at £135, click to the full description big price says £135, confirm your purchase here botton, then in small print at the bottom of the page them saying 2 years warranty £10 uncheck this box if you don't want it.  So the average customer has already clicked confirming purchase without scrolling to the bottom of the page for small print.  For the record Argos don't do this!  I don't deny that it was in the small print, I just don't agree that extra charges should legitimately be in the small print.  Given that in this country (actually potentially things could have changed in the past 24 hours) it is illegal to have opt out clauses for far less significant things such as storing of cookies when you visit a website, I am surprised that it is legal (if it is) to have opt out clauses for extra hidden charges.

Pollycat

Freddythefearlessfish said:

Well I got my refund, and a lesson learned.  People above are correct there, is an option to scroll down the page, select other and £0.00 from a drop down menu.  Personally I still think that that is a con, and most people wont bother writing and complaining for this sort of money.  Will avoid just giving in future where possible and check very carefully if there is no alternative.  However, I still don't agree with some of the comments above that this is totally acceptable - it feels a bit like hypothetically buying a TV from Argos listed at £135, click to the full description big price says £135, confirm your purchase here botton, then in small print at the bottom of the page them saying 2 years warranty £10 uncheck this box if you don't want it.  So the average customer has already clicked confirming purchase without scrolling to the bottom of the page for small print.  For the record Argos don't do this!  I don't deny that it was in the small print, I just don't agree that extra charges should legitimately be in the small print.  Given that in this country (actually potentially things could have changed in the past 24 hours) it is illegal to have opt out clauses for far less significant things such as storing of cookies when you visit a website, I am surprised that it is legal (if it is) to have opt out clauses for extra hidden charges.

I believe it's my responsibility to check what I'm buying (or donating to).

So even if a company has 'small print' that adds an amount for something I may or may not want, I'd not 'click confirming purchase' without being absolutely sure what I was purchasing.

As I said in my earlier post:

Pollycat said:

A friend was doing a charity walk and I donated but elected not to pay anything to Justgiving.

It was very clear.

Maybe I'm just more careful.

Maybe I just pay more attention to what I'm doing.