'Should I have given him the money?' blog discussion

xara

I worked for deaf childrens charity last year and it was door to door fund raising. It was probably one of the worst jobs ive ever had. Not because it paid bad or anything it was actually really good and the cause was brilliant but people were understandably very suspicious. I left after a two months because i just couldnt do it. We couldnt collect money because of fraud which meant we had to ask for direct debits which made it even worse! People who actually wanted to donate were usually elderly people who didnt have bank accounts. To top that people were constantly calling the police to check our ID's. Had to work in rain walk for miles and miles in not very pleasant areas. It was a shame because the charity did some good work. But i felt more like a sales person than a charity worker it is not an easy job at all! All i can say is that it was an experience.

Sue-UU

I don't think I'd have given him anything as I suspect a conner at work and we've had too many of them around our village recently. The very fact that he had no ID, to my mind, is a complete give-away as surely the home would have anticipated people asking him for that and made sure he had it at the ready.

A conner at work, I'll bet a bob!

Sue

Bogof_Babe

I disagree with anyone calling at private homes unless invited or for a very good reason. It is an invasion of privacy to me, not to mention an interruption. If charity collectors started doing that here, they would get very short shrift. Damn cheek.

We give to several charities of our choice by standing order (been set up since before direct debits became popular) and often drop a £1 in collection boxes in the street or shops, but I draw the line at the emotional blackmail of being pestered at home.

Can you tell I feel quite strongly about this?

xara

Charitys have contracts with fundraising companies because its cheaper for them. The biggest reason why there are charity workers fund raising door to door is because it costs more for them to advertise and this is cheaper(or so i was told). We were even told not to give out leaflets if we could help it as it cost the charity money and just to direct people who were interested to the website instead. Personally i would've done the same thing given a bit but not so much that id regret it! Its only because im a mug and would feel bad if i didnt and the person had been genuine.

DocProc

I'd have done pretty much exactly what you did. Namely, given him a few quid and a smile.

I still prefer to be an optimist and believe that about 97% or so of these kind of experiences are to do with honest folk.

That way, I calculate my loss to a scam artist would actually have been 3% of, say £5, or a mere 15p.

My wife and I were once stopped in the middle of Manchester and told a 'hard luck story' by some nice young guy about how he needed the taxi fare to go home to Altrincham and get his other set of car keys. He explained in advance that, although his house key was on the same ring as his car keys and locked in the Manchester car, he could get into his home because the cloakroom window was ajar and he would be able to climb in through that.

He wanted £10 for this. We generously gave him £20 and our business card to allow him to return the money to us.

We never heard a thing from him. We therefore knew him afterwards to be a clever scam artist.

I would guess he eventually somehow got his just deserts because 'what comes around usually goes around.'

However, as you can see, the bad experience of ithasn't spoiled my thoughts on this kind of thing.

I think the important thing is that you shouldn't become too cynical with people who appear to be down on their luck and try to adopt a policy where you give them the benefit of the doubt.

DocProc

After typing my piece and hitting the button on it, I re-read the whole thread once again.

If my own experience had been like the one with the pet Owl and the two boys, then I'm afraid I surely would be a '3% are honest versus 97% are crooks' type of guy instead of the other way round.

I'd just like to say I now think that the way one reacts in this type of situation, has definitely got to be about how you were brought up (taught)and also what your own personal experiences to date have been (learned for yourself).

kezza12

reading the posts it looks like this ....he's knocked on 17 doors 18 including my post and made 30 quid counting all the posts that probably would have given in. seems like a good return to me, the charity makes £30 in shall we say an hour (spending 5 minutes explaining the charity to those that donate and those that are suspicious, and less time to those that close the door or don't answer) or a con artist is making £30 an hour on peoples good will.(wish i was on £30 an hour) i must admit that i probably would have given him a fiver and then been anoyed with myself later and convinced myself that it wasn't a reputable charity and another charity had been ripped off as i could have given it to them!! my husband however is a door slammer and this is why i try not to go near it!!

GARDINER

I'm c**p at judging people - fortunately I have a nine stone fabulously gorgeous Darby dog and he answers the door with me and if he likes them then I pay up. Otherwise Darby tells them to push off in the nicest possible way. Funnily enough he didn't like the RSPCA collector - who was obviously on commission.

emilyx78

I think you have done the right thing in this instance,

however I dont think that any charity should be allowed to call at your door or on the phone. I think that its an invasion of your privicy.

my husband does now and I have in previous jobs donate to charities via our wages.

the choice to donate or not to donate is or should be just that a choice,
sponser forms should be presented in conjunction with a registration number, well I was given one for race for life.

emilyt

emilyx78 wrote: »

[however I dont think that any charity should be allowed to call at your door or on the phone. I think that its an invasion of your privicy.]

I agree with you. I think if we want to give to charity we shouldn't be bullied into it.
Also don't like it when young childen come to my door asking for spoinsership money for their schools.