[Closed] Sad News - Avon Gorge death last week

Apparently she also felt harassed as was getting 250 calls a month from charities asking for donations and saying no to them all was getting to her.....

That's miserable.

Very, very sad.

I wouldn't have believed the way charities prey on the elderly if I hadn't seen the way they pestered my grandmother. After she died, for several months we were getting at least one phone call a day from one charity or another asking for money. Eventually had to change phone numbers.

Poor lass. 🙁

Strangely heartwarming story though; lovely way to live a life, awful way for it to end.

wouldn't have believed the way charities prey on the elderly if I hadn't seen the way they pestered my grandmother.

That's heartbreaking
Some charities are plain ruthless

Oh, that's desperately sad. I'm genuinely scunnered by that story.

Merak - Member
Oh, that's desperately sad. I'm genuinely scunnered by that story.

[i]"It was the loss of faith. She always had a lot of faith in people and expected people to be the same."[/i]

It's a shame that people don't behave the same with strangers as they would with their friends/family. Especially when it comes to 'business'.

I don't really want to derail the story into a rant about charities, but I've long been very sceptical about the way some of them conduct themselves.

Oh dear. So very sad.

Jeremy Whine just done a bit on it.

I read about this the other day. Terribly sad.

For some reason the bit that got to me was that she took a stepladder with her to help her do it.

I hope some of the people who harassed her take a good look at themselves.

It sounds as if charities pass around lists of easy marks just as much as con men and fraudsters.

When I saw this story this morning it reminded me of the previous owner of our house. Six years on I've managed to get the targeted charity and spammer mail addressed to her down to one or two letters a day from charities and also overseas (Netherlands) addressee's.

A month ago I found invoices totally 11.5k for a house alarm system paid over roughly a one year period. The alarm was gash. One of the neighbours told me subsequently it was always triggering daily.

She was apparently fit and active but died of a heart attack in the house. She'd been living with a bath/shower that leaked into the kitchen ceiling as soon as you turned it on, knackered central heating and only one functioning gas fire.

Oh and a 11.5k fire alarm that went off daily.

Yes very sad. Not all the charity calls where for money, some where to ask for assistance. She found it very difficult to say no. My parents don't answer the phone anymore, they've always given to few charities but found the calls asking for money just too much guilt.

Charities obviously do a great deal of good, but, and it's a big 'but', they're continually looking to raise more money for whatever their chosen area of concern is, and if they find some donors are more generous than others, then it's obvious there's going to be a tendency to keep asking for more money.
Trouble is, that's where it can so easily become a form of bullying, when the enthusiasm of the callers goes beyond what is reasonably acceptable.
I'm in a position to actually see mailing databases, and there's one charity in the animal welfare 'business', for want of a better term, who don't seem to pay any attention to those who return mail asking to be removed from the database.
There are people with as many as nineteen different entries for different appeals, and most have been ticked, frequently by me, as 'gone away' sometimes deceased, and [i]still[/i] mailings go out to them!
Most charities, though, pay attention to the amended client lists, but they then need to make up the numbers of those they've lost, and they do this by buying lists from agencies who specialise in this, and send out 'cold' mailings, in the hope that a good percentage will respond favourably.
Enough do, to make it cost effective, but there's still a huge amount that get returned unopened, and it's a royal PITA.
I know when a cold mailing goes out, just because of the tray after tray after tray of returned envelopes that decend on me afterwards.
Mail is easily delt with, though; you write 'RTS' in big letters on the envelope, and do a scribble through the address, and stick it back in the post. Just don't obscure the little box that looks like a miniature crossword grid just below the address, because that's what gets scanned to update the database. It's a real chore having to open the envelope to scan the 2D barcode, or tap in a sixteen digit or longer number if it's been damaged. Sadly, the posties stick bloody great red labels on the envelope, and frequently over that little bar code. Which pisses me right off!
The difficult thing to deal with are the charity cold-callers, especially if, like this poor lady, you feel in your heart you have to help others, and can't bear to say no.
We have our own internal call centre at work, but it only deals with our existing clients, and, I hope, are more scrupulous at accepting NO for an answer.
I'd be very disappointed if they don't.

Interesting CZ, thanks.

I struggle with the methods deployed by many charities, between their need to raise their profile & income, and their tactics - I guess I'm not alone in that thought and they probably rely on that very unanswerable moral quandary for justification of their tactics, should it be questioned.

I do despair with Shelter, who bombard me with literature as a result of £20 of donations.

I stopped guide dogs after a couple of years, they just sent me one offering to donate less, and that's it. Much more sensible.

None of the charities I've donated to & then stopped, have every phoned me though, which makes me feeling really concerned if there's any truth in the harassing/phoning the older generation, as intimated in the story of this lady.

Surely that can't be a policy...can it?

^ 'bear I gave £10 to Samaritans and they hounded me. Some of their posted literature seemed design to shock. I complained about one 'school boy/suicide' letter on their facebook page. This was after countless times asking them to stop.

We 'admire' their good intentions but tbh alot are just about income/generation now IMO.

alot are just about income/generation now

The hard sell types are usually third party companies who collect on behalf of the charities and take a cut.
I decide how much I can afford to give to charities, choose a few (Oxfam, Water Aid etc) and then give by monthly direct debit. No third parties taking a cut, easy to sort Gift Aid and I don't get the hassles that come from occasional 'text a fiver to help Nepal' type donations.
Just sayin

The missus gets two or three calls a day at the moment, always around putting the kids to bed as well.

She won't let me answer as she knows my past form 😉 I realise the poor sods on the end of the phone are just doing a job, but the charities must realise the amount of damage they are doing to their brands?

Personally the cold calling and chuggers mean I don't see them in the same way anymore and I'm alot more choosy when donating. Charity is meant to come from within not be leveraged out by a faceless organisation.

Tbh the callers arent probably directly employed by the charity. Prob phone (private company) versions of chuggers. Otherwise why are they so pushy?

I gave to TearFund for quite a few years, but stopped after a cold caller phoned me 'just to let you know about how we are spending your donations', and promising me, when I asked, that he wasn't going to he asking for me to increase my donation. Lying shit. I cancelled it and wrote to the top boss.

Salvation Army don't bother me with anything more than a couple of letters a year, so they get something regularly. And the local BHF get a lot of outgrown clothes and toys, and they send a thank you letter each year telling how much my stuff raised, so they're ok too in my book. And the nearest to the car park.

We have various standing orders to charities totally about £50 a month.
Recently had a call from British Red Cross asking for £10 a month. I said we already give a lot and said I'd give £7.50 a month. The salesperson eventually said "that's no good to me, I won't get my bonus" or something similar. Told him it was £7.50 or nothing, he lost interest.

^ 'phuggers'?

So so sad, poor lady.

Could we have a list of the charities hassling her?

So we know who to not support.

So this hassle to set up a direct debit is cos they can 'count' the number of regular donors and they can get top up cash from the govt based on those numbers. A one off donation isn't counted.

Apparently.

I was hassled after texting a donation to what I thought was a one-off appeal, only to find my number on their, and other, databases. I've decided to donate cash only, and pretty much once a year to the poppy appeal.

I realise that the cold callers and chuggers aren't directly employed by the charities, but this makes it worse in my eyes. It's like Apple and other large businesses saying that they look after their supply chain but then do nothing to stop said supply chain employing all and sundry to make 'cheap' products... Absolving themselves of responsibility this way makes me wonder what morals they have in deploying the money raised. Probably getting a tad cynical in my old age 🙂

I don't think it's a list of charities as most big charities are nothing more than big not for profit businesses. Some of the executives at these charities are on eye watering salaries.
Again as most others here I have had bad experiences with getting on their calling list. Also the door to door collectors who don't want your cash but for you to sign up to direct debit, even getting to the point that I had to push them out of my driveway. These tactics are poisoness to their future as I point blank refuse to give to big charities now and only give to the smaller more direct ones now.

We operate a rule of "If you phone me/Bang on my door/try to stop me in the street you are getting nothing from us." And if they have no problems with being curt or rude to me then they can expect it back.

To the original story - really sad situation. Nothing but sympathy for the woman's family.

Is it only me wondering how a 92 year old woman climbed over the safety railings?

Didn't realise all this aggro charity stuff went on.

Although now I think about it, my Mum offered to sell raffle tickets in her road in the past, I think for the RNIB, and they now hassle her every year to sell them. She has stopped doing it because some people in the street we're quite abusive to her.

I'm gonna ask her further about this and perhaps ring them about it.

She took a step ladder with her, apparently.

Oh no, it just gets worse. Moved to tears, ****ing parasite's.

Had the RSPCA around last week, was very polite and told them "no". In response to the "we need money to prosecute people" I pointed out that they had not covered themselves in glory in recent prosecutions.

I wish I hadn't been polite as a few days later I found out that RSPCA's advice to someone could have resulted in the deaths of some ferrets whose owner had died.

Hedge Fund masquerading as a charity!

I don't answer the phone to any number I don't know. If they leave a message I'll listen to that. Any caller who doesn't gets barred.

man that's horrible 🙁

Really sad.

While not being on the receiving end of these calls and letters personally, I can understand it getting to you.

I've worked in the charity sector for the last few years, but with much smaller, regional charities - not the kind of organisations who do mass fundraising.

I live near the uni in Edinburgh, so it's chugger central around here. They are very persistent - you can tell they're working from a script/go to little 'how to pester people' training days.

We also get young guys in shiny suits buzzing into the tenement and going round the doors. I'm pretty vigilant about who gets buzzed in as we've had bike thefts, people shitting and shooting up recently.
Someone rang all the buzzers at 930 pm the other night. When noone came up the stairs I went down to see who it was - a charity collector. Guess I was in a bad mood cos I told him to piss off and he wasn't coming in the stairwell.

For me, it's meant I don't give money to the big national/international charities. Just the smaller, local ones. My shop is full of charity shops and I only give stuff to or buy from certain ones.

Interesting anecdote. My old work (a volunteer centre) were doing an awards ceremony where charities could nominate their volunteers to get awards - part of volunteers' week. We had a few events for the week and made a poster about them. I said I'd take some to put up in the charity shops in my neighbourhood.

Most of them were cool about it when I went in, other than Oxfam, Shelter and the Barnardo's shops who said it was 'against policy' to have anyone other than their own posters up.

Had a wee look at the nominations when I got to work the next day - each of those shops had put in nominations for their volunteers for the ceremony we were advertising on the posters. Dicks.

I was highly pissed off about it - considered turning them down for the awards (I was in charge that year) but didn't want to punish the volunteers. Each of those shop managers got a proper talking to at the ceremony. And no pudding.

I was scouring the news for a few days after but a friend sent me a link to the news story the other day. Very sad and I really wish I hadn't wasted time checking the parking restrictions and then walking the long way round to the observatory as maybe I would have spotted her getting up on the stool 🙁

I used to make donations to the guide dogs amongst other charities but the guide dogs had my details from making regular donations. I was getting a lot of stuff through the post which in simply didn't want and saw as a waste of the money I was giving them so I stopped and decided to just make donations as and when I saw someone collecting. But that only seemed to increase the stuff I was getting sent and i felt really bad doing so but in the end when they called me I told them to stop wasting money by calling me and sending unsolicited stuff to me and I would donate as and when I wanted to.

I'll be making an extra donation to the poppy fund this year.

. Is it only me wondering how a 92 year old woman climbed over the safety railings?

She had a little silver plastic foot stool and the fence is just that green coated wire mesh so is quite flexible and sgged in places. She used a small tree on the gorge side of the fence as a hand hold by the looks of the positioning and probably just rolled forwards over the fence looking at the way the stool was kicked over. Her walking sticks and a green plastic bag were left neatly against the fence.

Seen a few deaths but it was the neatness and peacefulness of the scene that struck me and its a location I would describe as being quite romantic overlooking the bridge and with lots of plaques on benches remembering partners so one that I expect someone would choose due to happy memories.

Heress one that came through the door today with actual money inside. To an older person it'll feel like you are accepting money/you owe them something... to reply?

Inside it claims that the three pennies symbolises that the charity has touched 1 in 3 people.

If so how come I've never heard of them- have you?

[img] [/img]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-charity-investigation-hospice-aid-uk

I found another link that they'd raised 260k in a year and it'd cost them 200k to employ a direct marketing company. With 60k in grants. It didn't say who the company was or..if there were any links between any parties though. It'd be a nice earner though if there was.

I've reported them to the charity commission with links/pics.

Whenever I said back letters in the post with 'left/etc or even passed away please stop'. Sometimes new mail comes out without the persons name on this time!

But that only seemed to increase the stuff I was getting sent

My elderly parents have just cancelled their monthly donation to the Red Cross (one of several they have chosen) because of harassment. My Mum was getting 2-3 calls per week, presumably from a marketing call centre and eventually called RC directly and told them if she had any more calls she would cancel. The calls continued until the final straw was someone calling and telling her it was not for the usual RC donation and saying "you have to help with Nepal" as a regular donor.

The 'hard sell emotional blackmail' and aggressive attitude of the caller annoyed her so much that RC have now lost over £100 a year.

Woody they may only have lost £60 a year or less.

I think Chuggers, beit on the phone or in person should feel more heat. I've always said a polite no thanks but maybe I should say 'isn't it lovely that you are giving up your time for charity and not pursuing personal gain'..