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chuggers, apparently
Thursday, September 14th, 2006 01:04 pmBBC news item on charity cold-callers.
I became very annoyed with a group of charity workers the other night. Walking home from Tonbridge Station, I was accosted by no less than three of 'em at different points, all wanting to ask me 'just a few questions'. On a busy High Street in daylight I might have been polite, but I don't take kindly to young men rushing up to me in a dark street, especially after a long day and 90 minutes of Southern Trains.
When they knocked on the door a little while later, we didn't answer.
And it's not that I don't support their cause (one of the breast cancer charities, I forget which) but this is not the way to collect money. Cold calling is bad enough, though I still reserve the right to refuse to answer the door, just as I sometimes ignore a ringing phone: it's my privacy. But being approached in a residential area seems rather more intrusive than being hailed in a shopping precinct.
I became very annoyed with a group of charity workers the other night. Walking home from Tonbridge Station, I was accosted by no less than three of 'em at different points, all wanting to ask me 'just a few questions'. On a busy High Street in daylight I might have been polite, but I don't take kindly to young men rushing up to me in a dark street, especially after a long day and 90 minutes of Southern Trains.
When they knocked on the door a little while later, we didn't answer.
And it's not that I don't support their cause (one of the breast cancer charities, I forget which) but this is not the way to collect money. Cold calling is bad enough, though I still reserve the right to refuse to answer the door, just as I sometimes ignore a ringing phone: it's my privacy. But being approached in a residential area seems rather more intrusive than being hailed in a shopping precinct.
