I know I promised not to write on this subject ever again, but.....
Because I live alone I have no-one to whom I may air my grievances, leaving this blog as my only recourse.
This morning I rushed to the door as an avalanche of mail crashed through the letter-box. I was waiting for one item (still am), and found instead seven items of mail, all of them appeals.
This is not unusual as I have said many times before, I have a system in place and stick to it for the sake of retaining my sanity.
What has totally incensed me today is that four of the seven items were from the same charity.
Now perhaps no-one else thinks the way I do and maybe they believe, as does the charity in question, that four appeals in one post is not excessive, but I am at screaming point with frustration over their total lack of common sense, poor organisation and highly suspect method of fund-raising.
I have looked them up on the 'web' and they have no phone number listed (probably just to avoid this very scenario) , had there been one this diatribe would have been verbal not typed.
Just to compound the felony, I gave them a donation last month, which those of you who have read my previous posts on this subject will know, means that they will get nothing more for 3 months.
Because I support and approve of their work I have so far restrained my desire to 'go public', but this is the last straw.
The charity in question is The Pony Sanctuary and they have received their last donation from me.
Grrr! I feel for you, Ray, I really do. That is an inexcusable waste of donors' money and I'm not surprised you've had enough. Why not email them at contact@swep.org.uk and tell them what you've just told us?
ReplyDeleteThankyou for that Perpetua, have just done that.
ReplyDeleteSee http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2010/08/chris-stoddard-and-those-chari.html but read 2 of the comments in particular which suggests that SWEP is but has been impersonated (my interpretation). It does seem odd that they have a diffrence charity names to the one they use of on the website.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information Colin. I have read the whole thing, including all the comments.
ReplyDeleteSounds quite a can of worms.
I don't regard myself as particularly gullible but must say I hadn't suspected half of what is suggested there.
How sad that a genuine charity may be deprived of revenue because they have handed over the running to an agency.
Sadly this just reinforces my decision to stop sending them money.
I agree with you Ray...99% of the mail I receive is now (thanks to my recycling efforts) going to the recycling bin. And of that 99%, 95% is from organizations wanting money, wanting me to use their credit card, wanting to sell me life insurance (at my age?), wanting Don to re-subscribe to DirecTV (he's been dead over 3 1/2 years and one of their representatives was told this in 2010). It is sad about the charity you were giving to though!
ReplyDeleteI too recycle absolutely everything I possibly can, and mail addressed to me gets shredded first then recycled, but what I'd like to do is send all four letters back to the charity in question.
ReplyDeleteAs this would cost me postage on top of aggravation I'll simply keep them for a while, then if there is no response to my complaint, shred them then.
I am very sorry about the charity losing out but refuse to be bombarded in this way.
They really don't get it do they? We too get the mail but as well the phone calls are mounting up daily. David has now cancelled several of his direct debits after some very insistent calls.....
ReplyDeleteEvery charity is strapped for cash right now but their methods are having the opposite effect ! Which is a great shame for those in need.
Absolutely Jean. The methods are my main cause for complaint.
ReplyDeleteI did, by the way, get an email reply from the Chief Executive of the organisation which acts as an agent for The Pony Sanctuary.
They gave me a long rambling explanation as to why their Dec mail shot had reached me in May, but failed to explain why I had two copies of the Dec one along with 2 dated May, all on the same day.
Having assured me that they valued my years of donations they then made everything even worse by addressing the email to Mr Barnes.
My response was "my decision stands"!
Sorry Ray.... You Left me a lovely message on my blog .And I then hit the wrong button.
ReplyDeleteIt then deleted itself and I couldn't get it back so I've had to copy and paste it
I did not want you to think that I done it on purpose sorry.
Dinnae fash yersel Jean, or whatever it is they say in the frozen north.
ReplyDeleteI think it was quite clever to delete itself. My golden prose will not suffer.
Thanks for bothering to reinstate it.