Help Handling Charity Collectors?

Former Member

This may seem like a weird one, but I'm really after some advice! 

Me and my partner often to into our local shopping area throughout the week as we live quite close by, not always to shop but also because it's the easiest and fastest route to most places in the area and also pretty much the only way to get to the supermarket without going well out of your way, and we've noticed over the last 6 or so months that there's usually a particular charity around the same area. It's a local charity that's fairly small from what they've told us, and I've never focused on their name tag (though I think I will next time) so I'm not 100% sure what the charity is called. 

Anyways, when we first started noticing them, we didn't mind too much. Their way to draw people in is by explaining that they're only after a one off donation instead of asking for monthly payments, and sometimes they'll have badges, bands, stickers etc you can get when you give a certain amount. The first few times we saw them we gladly gave the change we had, but then we noticed a bit of an issue. 

9/10 It's the same guy who catches us because of the time we go into the area, and at this point, although he pretends he doesn't recognise us by saying as we walk past "Hey, do you guys like helping people?" (Or whatever he decides to use), he doesn't explain the charity really anymore, just gives a basic run down of why he's there, so he knows that we know who he is. It's becoming an issue because he clearly sees us now and decides to stop us because he sees us as easy money, it didn't happen straight away, but gradually he began going out of his way to stop us more and more, over the last 6 weeks or so he's stopped us almost every time we've gone into the shops as he's right in the middle of the area, he even waits and lets others go past when he sees us coming now. The last few times we've said no, sometimes genuinely because we don't have change, and others because we're a bit fed up now, but he hasn't gotten the hint.

I wouldn't be so bothered if he just gave in either, but as soon as we say we have no change, his tone changes, he looks over our shoulder when we're looking through our bags/wallets for change to check we're telling the truth, when we try to walk away he starts asking us to donate by card, and if we try to walk past him he stands in our way. When we do give to him, if he sees we have more money than we give him, he asks us to donate more. His tactics are getting a bit aggressive now, and we've gotten to the point where we're giving this charity at least £10 a month in change, if not more, so their tactic of telling people it's a one off donation is no longer working.

The time before last my partner told him we've given lots of money to this charity and since we're students we can't afford to keep giving every time we walk past the shops, but that still didn't stop him!

Really, my question is is there anything that can be done about this? I've spoken to the other people who fundraise for this charity on the few occasions we've gone in later and seen them, and they've all been perfectly polite even when we couldn't donate, it's just this guy. Are we just going to have to deal with being stopped every time we walk past him? Sorry the question was so long!

Siena

Heyy,

Sometimes chairty collectors are really pushy. Have you thought about asking for more information about the website for more info and then will look about giving it on there? So its not saying you wont give any - just not now. Or saying youre in a rush & dont have time to speak. But if dont wanna give to the chairty anymore - im sure if you keep saying no every time - youll eventually end up fading in with the people he ignores too. But if they do get really pushy and aggresive you should maybe question if theyre fake. Sadly happens but probably not prob rare but does happen. But hopefully not and they should have a website and charity registeration number