My Weekend as a Chugger

Dragan

My Weekend as a Chugger.

I spent some of my time this week end collecting money for charity. Seeing as the term "chugger" gets bandied about After Hours so much, and because such a percentage of our population here on boards.ie seems to have a problem with them I thought it would be good to do from an experimental point of view. Also I would get to help out one of the charities that I like to support, in this case Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind.

As part of my little experiment I decided I would, over the course of the weekend, adopt different methods of chugging and to a degree, different personalities. So here is a run through of the different types that I trialed, and the responses they got!

The Bucket Shaker ( personally I hate these, so tried it first to get it out of the way ) : Standing there, banging out a little tune with my bucket! This one got a bad response and rightly so, because it's annoying! I knew it was to me, but wanted to check if the same applied to other people. Donations during this time were minimal.

The Hyper Hippy : You know the one, they actively tell you about how bad everything is and how happy they are to do there part. This did not affect donations, but it was obvious that people were not enjoying my forced conversation!

The Guilt Tripper : Purposefully misinterpreting peoples body language and stepping forward as if I expected a donation. Mild increase in average of donations but no doubt long term ill effects on those peoples willingness to donate in future.

The Shouter : "Support the Guide Dogs for the Blind!" was the catch call. Much like the bucket shaker this seemed to just annoy people and keep down donations.

The Me and You : The type who walks up to you and actively asks you if you would like to support the charity, a quiter more intimate verison of the shouter crossed with the guilt tripper. Worked well enough but I didn't enjoy it as I felt it made people uncomfortable.

The Guy with the Bucket : Just standing there holding my bucket thanking people who donated. This was the winner I think. People can check which charity you are with and donate as they want to. You simply thank them and are nicely out of everyones way. I imagine people think being noisy attracts attention, but it just seems to bother people ( and rightly so ) and stop them donating.

Overall it was and interesting weekend and I am happy I was able to help out the charity. It was very interesting some of the people who would donate, as you would have a gang of 14 year old young lands wander past and everyone of them would give something! I have to say I never expected that. It was also heart warming to have people come up and actually thank you giving your time, as they might have a relative of friend who is blind and has been lucky enough to receive a Guide Dog.

All in all, while I know people here bang on about chuggers and seem to hate them, the response I got from the public over the weekend was very positive. Hopefully one or two people who volunteer will read the above and maybe stop the whole "in your face charity collection" as I find just being visible and there meant people would donate.

So, as a final word, if you were in Cornelscourt Shopping Center this weekend and happened to give a few cents to the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind while you were there, on behalf of me and the people collecting with me, thanks very much!

Gordon

Fair play to you!

However, just to point out that the real chuggers are the guys that work on commission, these are the people that many have a problem with I think.

nobodythere

Did you get paid for it? You scumsucking chugger

qz

God the amount of times we were forced to shake buckets in school for different charities. It was a horrible thing to do asking people for money.

Dragan

Gordon wrote:

Fair play to you!

However, just to point out that the real chuggers are the guys that work on commission, these are the people that many have a problem with I think.

AH!! Fairly typical of me to have missed that part of the whole thing! ANy charity work that i do myself is always unpayed. I don't see the point otherwise as it's really just a job that way!

muckwarrior

Dragan wrote:

The Guy with the Bucket : Just standing there holding my bucket thanking people who donated. This was the winner I think.

This is the only kind of person I give money to. I'd often walk right past on purpose, if they bother me I keep walkin, if they say nothin I turn around and give them some money.

Rb

Lol, fair play Dragan

Sleepy

TBH, I never mind the collectors with a bucket. I've never really considered them to be chuggers, paid or not.

It was par for the course around Christmas when I was in school to be sent out with a bucket to collect for the school and again in May for the Irish Wheelchair Association (tip for if you do it again, stand beside a trolley bay, the vast majority of people will give you the euro from their trolley when they return it).

What does get on my nerves, massively so, are the amadáns with clipboards trying to get you to give over your bank account details in the middle of a crowded street!

lostexpectation

dragans weekend as not a chugger

mike65

Its the Clipboard merchants you have to watch for!

Mike.

BlitzKrieg

friend of mine was a chugger (commision paid) in london for just one weekend, he walked out of the job at the end of the weekend.

told me over msn he never felt so villified as he did when he got some of the looks and responses from people he approached.


I did warn him by giving him the link to the 10+ pages of rant against chuggers on here at the time.

poor guy

biko

Great to read the story from "the other side of the bucket". Thx, OP.

Miguel_Sanchez

A friend of mine used to ask female chuggers out for coffee. It seemed to work - he never signed up to their charities but got a few dates.

JohnCleary

Sorry OP but you are not a chugger. You are a good person doing your bit for charity

Chuggers get paid for what they do.

I used to do what you did quite a lot. Did it one St Patricks Day (And had to dress up as a leprauchan - how fscking embarassing) and made a fortune... USed the nice and smiley approach.

Did it another time for the Lifeboats. Again, people gave generously, they knew we werent getting paid to walk around sweating in dry suits

And another I was raising money for some Cancer thing. Pushed a hospital bed around Galway city. Raised a fortune

FlutterinBantam

mike65 wrote:

Its the Clipboard merchants you have to watch for!

Mike.

Thats it! The Cluggers.

randylonghorn

Dragan wrote:

The Guy with the Bucket : Just standing there holding my bucket thanking people who donated. This was the winner I think. People can check which charity you are with and donate as they want to. You simply thank them and are nicely out of everyones way. I imagine people think being noisy attracts attention, but it just seems to bother people ( and rightly so ) and stop them donating.

I agree ... a friendly / hopeful face, rather than someone barking at me or shoving something in my face, is always preferable. That said, I will normally support volunteer collectors anyway. Also, if people are putting in something extra, carol singing or whatever, that will encourage me to be more generous.

I don't normally give to paid collectors. I don't actually have that much of a problem with those actually doing it ... it's just a job, when all is said and done. I just don't think the charities should use this method, and if I am donating I want what I give to reach the charity, not a sizeable chunk going to some collection agency.

That said, if it's summer, and it's some good looking blonde in a tight white tee-shirt ...

dSTAR

Here's how chuggers work in Melbourne...

They are usually young good looking 20 somethings with tight blouses and short skirts or smartly dressed guys with perfectly set hair. They can be found hanging around busy train stations or airports. They operate from a little table which is usually concealed and stand a little distance away. They act inconspicuously and when they see someone they give them a look of don't I know you, come here and lets chat... .

So they reel the unsuspecting traveler in with their charm and sheer good looks. After they are done with small talk and phony friendliness they try to hook you with some guilt trip or try to play your friendliness with more inane questions to try soften you.

I worked for a marketing company that had a team of young people working on their charity campaign. Every morning I would see them arrive at the office at 7am and get their pep talk. Then they would bang a gong if they got a certain amount of sign-ups with the rest of the team whooping and clapping as if they were at a baseball game.

Then for an hour or two they would train with the top dogs divulging the secret to their chugging success boasting how much commissions they earned. After they did voice training(!) and role play it would usually culminate in the entire group standing around in a circle with each hand on top of the other, letting out a huge big roar as they waved their arms in the air. The manager would then proudly shout GO GET THEM as they rushed out the door.

Whilst the OP might have though the whole thing was an interesting experiment or deluded himself into thinking he was doing good I think it is a tad immoral that such companies (and chuggers) with zero interest in helping the world's poor and misfortunate were playing on peoples charitable nature, making a massive profit whilst a small fraction of the money collected even reached the charity let alone the people who needed it most.

JohnCleary

What i'd really love to do the next time i'm approached by one....

Let them catch you, let them talk sh1te for as long as it takes, then at the end of it all just say "Oh sorry, I don't have a bank account, ah well"

dSTAR

Just remembered something.

These chuggers don't usually expect you to toss a few coins into a bucket. Hence the hidden table. Once they have reeled you in and over to the table they are filling out a form and getting you to commit to donating a set amount per month. Within 5-10 minutes they have all your personal details, bank account number and a signature all the while laying on the phony smiles and friendliness. It all happens really fast but as the poor sod sits down on the train (s)he realizes that they just got soaked for a few hundred bucks or more!

Thrill

Its the clipboarders i dont like. They just stand there watching and waiting, looking for that certain something that says "pick me, im a sucker who cant say no".And for some reason they always seem to pick me.
Unfortunatly for them, i dont even give them the chance to open their mouths. Just as they are about to speak, i say "no thanks" and carry on walking.
I always give something to the bucket carriers though.

skyhighflyer

JohnCleary wrote:

What i'd really love to do the next time i'm approached by one....

Let them catch you, let them talk sh1te for as long as it takes, then at the end of it all just say "Oh sorry, I don't have a bank account, ah well"

Haha, reminds me when i was first accosted by a bank account seeking chugger as opposed to the coin box kind. I actually didn't have a bank account at the time and had to tell them so after a five minute prep talk...

That said, the OP wouldn't be what I call a chugger. I've collected for Temple Street children's hospital as part of UCD Law Day. I think people have adopted a far more cautious approach regards who they donate to thanks to the antics of knobs from the Hanley Centre, et al.

I just stood with the bucket in my Temple Street/ UCD T shirt and smiled at everyone walking past, without approaching anyone. Lots of people stopped to ask me who I was collecting for and when I said Temple Street it was always straight out with the wallet or a couple of quid. Collected over 150 euro in an hour and a half.

Irish people are the most generous people in the world, they're just tired of being pressurised into donating into some spurious charity by an aggressive tool with a clipboard, and rightly choose to ignore such people IMO.

skibum

skyhighflyer wrote:

Irish people are the most generous people in the world, they're just tired of being pressurised into donating into some spurious charity by an aggressive tool with a clipboard, and rightly choose to ignore such people IMO.

Spot on!!

I always throw a few bob to the kids who collect and pack your bags at supermarkets, or to the bucket collectors who don't get in your face.

Skittlebrau

dSTAR wrote:

Here's how chuggers work in Melbourne...

.

Compared to Dublin, chuggers are practically non-existent over here (one of the many things I love about this city). This thread just makes me think of walking down Henry St. and having to avoid 10 chuggers all from the same charity. There's two things that define a chugger in my mind 1) asking for bank a/c details instead of cash donations and 2) hunting in packs.

I once had a guy physically stop me on Henry St. I have never come closer to inflicting violence on a total stranger.

c - 13

THe best bucket collector approach i've seen was these two young lads adopting the "shake the bucket technique" (cant remember what they were collecting for), walked past anyway, and heard one of them say "fúck it this isnt working, i'm trying something else" he then proceded to jokingly sing "OOOOhhhooohhhh, support our charity .... etc. etc.", so I went back laughing, and donated, fair play to him for his sense of humour anyway.

Dan133269

fair play to you OP

BlitzKrieg

I havnt seen any chuggers over the christmas holidays?

are they hibernating or something?

Dragan

BlitzKrieg wrote:

I havnt seen any chuggers over the christmas holidays?

are they hibernating or something?

They used all there commission money to buy a Ballyfree 5 slice pack of turkey and are having an extended Christmas!

jor el

BlitzKrieg wrote:

are they hibernating or something?

There were a bunch of them on Cruise's St in Limerick last Friday morning anyway. Can't remember which charity, I just ignored them and walked on up the street, they didn't come near me. Didn't walk back that way though, didn't fancy pushing my luck.

Fair play to you Dragan for trying out different methods though. Interesting that it's the silent standing there and not intruding that gets the best result. I usually give to these, especially if it's a worthy cause, but "in your face" gets nothing.

kevmy

Dragan wrote:

The Hyper Hippy : You know the one, they actively tell you about how bad everything is and how happy they are to do there part. This did not affect donations, but it was obvious that people were not enjoying my forced conversation!

The Me and You : The type who walks up to you and actively asks you if you would like to support the charity, a quiter more intimate verison of the shouter crossed with the guilt tripper. Worked well enough but I didn't enjoy it as I felt it made people uncomfortable.

I hate these to the most. Maybe it's my natural aversion to hippies but can't stand being talked into something. If I want to give I'll give for all they know I've given money to their pal up the street. They alos always try to stop me when I'm in a rush and they don't realise that if actually suceed in stopped me they will get punched.

Dragan wrote:

The Guy with the Bucket : Just standing there holding my bucket thanking people who donated. This was the winner I think. People can check which charity you are with and donate as they want to. You simply thank them and are nicely out of everyones way. I imagine people think being noisy attracts attention, but it just seems to bother people ( and rightly so ) and stop them donating.

I give money to these guys and don't expect thanks. Makes it feel like your own free will and not your wallet being prised open. I give money to them so that it will eventually be realised that these people make more money from not annoying us regular folk.

fish-head

mike65 wrote:

Its the Clipboard merchants you have to watch for!

Mike.

How can they seriously expect you to give out your bank details in the middle of the street?

It's madness..

jor el

And yet people do give out their details to random strangers on the street. Why you ask? Because the person looks the part. It's social conformity and was covered quite well in the BBC series "The Real Hustle". If someone looks the part then generally people won't question them.

I'm actually quite surprised that this hasn't been hit by scammers yet. Anyone could print up fake IDs and get hi-vis jackets with some random charity name printed on them. Then all you do is stand in the street and let the details roll in.

Never give you name, address, bank account and signature to someone you meet on the street. When people stop giving, the chuggers will stop pestering.