Is it just me?

[Joeve]

Yes I have had this too... The guy actually asked me "Can I ask why you are saying no?" I said "well at the moment DH is off work due to unforeseen circumstances and the tenants in our investment property- the husband had just lost his job, so they are 4 weeks behind on their rent, so we are paying 2 mortgages on one wage" and he said "Yes but surely you have a spare few dollars...." meh.... I hung up and felt ok as I always support charities that I choose to....

[misty]

Sometimes you just have to be rude. If the don't take the first "no, thank you - good luck" as an answer (my stock reply to anyone asking for anything) they get another "no" and hung up on. because they don't let up. They do seem to mistake being polite as a sign of weakness. My thing isn't usually that I don't have money, but rather I do not like being cold called. I donate when I want to donate, on my terms or not at all. There are so many causes out there nowdays that it is simply impossible to give to everyone without yourself going bankrupt.

Don't feel bad about it. You are not being rude in hanging up, they are actually being rude in calling to ask for money - I mean if random people (those you know and strangers) suddenly started ringing up asking you for money and not taking 'no' as an answer, you wouldn't put up with that.

[briggsy's girl]

i hear the introduction at the moment and politely interrupt with "as much as i would love to support your charity, we simply don't have the money to help at the moment, so i'll let you get off this call and onto another"

i have had one person push it. they got a firm but polite no, have a nice day, and i hung up

i guess working in a call centre (esp as a supervisor taking the calls that have escalated) i'm probably more confident with call control and i don't allow myself to be pushed
i GET that they need to call or they'd get nothing, and i regularly donate what i can, but if i'm rudely pushed by someone, they go to the bottom of the "maybe when we have money" pile.

[~Hestia~]

Sometimes you just have to be rude. If the don't take the first "no, thank you - good luck" as an answer (my stock reply to anyone asking for anything) they get another "no" and hung up on. because they don't let up. They do seem to mistake being polite as a sign of weakness. My thing isn't usually that I don't have money, but rather I do not like being cold called. I donate when I want to donate, on my terms or not at all. There are so many causes out there nowdays that it is simply impossible to give to everyone without yourself going bankrupt.

Misty you took the words right outta my mouth!
I once had a charity ask me "what, you can't afford $10?" when I said finances were tight! First of all it's none of their business, second it's just plain rude.

[krysalyss]

Sometimes people calling are scammers. It doesn't happen often but if people start to be really pushy, and they can't provide credible evidence as to who they are then it could be a scam. I am pretty careful about giving out my details. Because I already give quite a bit (for my income) to charity I rarely give when approached. There are a couple I do, but I always ask them to send me the form in the mail. I then check the return address when I get it to make sure it is the right one for the charity.

[OceanPrincess]

No, not just you at all Snacks!!

Back in my single, disposable income days, I regularly supported lots of charities - including several sponsor kids through World Vision. Once I got married, I kept it up, as I'm Christian and believe that giving is a big part of our faith, but once DD came along and I stopped work and we had the mortgage coupled with DH trying to start his own business, things became very very tight - like my IL's paying a mortgage repayment for us once I had to ring all the charities and cancel our donations as it was seriously crippling us, our budget just couldn't allow it - as DH said, God doesn't want us to starve ourselves to support other charities.

Well - when I rang World Vision, the woman made feel like absolute cr@p. She went on about how I'd been a supporter for so long and then how my children would miss the support and they'd struggle to find another supporter. It got to me so much that I ended up in tears on the phone. I told the woman that it was lovely giving when I was able but that I just wasn't able at the moment and I had to think about my own child. That shut her up... until she started on about suspending my sponsorship instead of cancelling it

I appreciate that there are targets and stuff... but seriously, she should have let up when I was crying!!!

[OceanPrincess]

Double post

[Early Kids]

I never do the phone ones, but if they are standing outside the shopping centre I drop my spare change in the cup. I also regularly support the PMH foundation, red nose day, breast cancer foundation and there's another that sell things too... bonne babes I think it is?

I find the ones that ring just push too hard, if I say no it means I have nothing to spare.