S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers

[cwm]

Beggar, yes.  Moocher or Scammer, no.  Annoying, definitely yes.

Yesterday we received a letter with red letters that said, 'URGENT! THIRD NOTICE!'. 

It was an appeal from the ASPCA. 

I think I posted about this earlier, but after a brief respite our daily calls from the Red Cross have started again. DH has donated blood in the past and they want him to again, but they don't seem to grasp that the best way to get him to do it is not through constant harassment. I can't really imagine that that would work for anyone.

There are probably a few people who do, "just for the sake of a quiet life".  I'd probably do the opposite.

I donated to Red Cross once. Got calls for months. I got calls within two weeks after donating asking me to come in again. Um, no. Sorry. I like not passing out when I stand up, thanks.

I was sorely tempted to tell them that I'd taken up all sorts of illicit drugs and been tested positive for some sort of horrible bloodborne disease to stop them calling, but I ended up having to change phone numbers anyway. And the place I donate now only does one reminder call when you're eligible to donate again asking if you'd like to set up an appointment. Just the one call, which is great.

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

I haven't given blood for a few years because of this. I would go somewhere else, but Red Cross is the only donation center in my area afaik. I was getting weekly calls (sometimes twice a day when they did), always during dinner time or some other very odd hour (like 8:30am). They also once called because 'they had a shortage of my blood type' and someone near me needed a transfusion.

Now, I completely understand why they would try to call close donors in an emergency situation. And I would want to help, if I could.
But my type is O+ — the most common type.
And 'near me' was a much larger city over four hours away from where I live.

It just seemed like they were massively inflating the urgency, especially from the caller’s reaction when I pointed out that it was 4 hours away. I got a distinct high-volume call center vibe after that.

[Thipu1]

Beggar, yes.  Moocher or Scammer, no.  Annoying, definitely yes.

Yesterday we received a letter with red letters that said, 'URGENT! THIRD NOTICE!'. 

It was an appeal from the ASPCA. 

I think I posted about this earlier, but after a brief respite our daily calls from the Red Cross have started again. DH has donated blood in the past and they want him to again, but they don't seem to
grasp that the best way to get him to do it is not through constant harassment. I can't really imagine that that would work for anyone.

There are probably a few people who do, "just for the sake of a quiet life".  I'd probably do the opposite.

Mr. Thipu has a rare blood type.  He's been getting calls from the Red Cross sporadically for about 40 years.  These we understand and don't mind.  We would mind if we got the calls every day. 

[tiff019]

Beggar, yes.  Moocher or Scammer, no.  Annoying, definitely yes.

Yesterday we received a letter with red letters that said, 'URGENT! THIRD NOTICE!'. 

It was an appeal from the ASPCA. 

I think I posted about this earlier, but after a brief respite our daily calls from the Red Cross have started again. DH has donated blood in the past and they want him to again, but they don't seem to grasp that the best way to get him to do it is not through constant harassment. I can't really imagine that that would work for anyone.

There are probably a few people who do, "just for the sake of a quiet life".  I'd probably do the opposite.

I donated to Red Cross once. Got calls for months. I got calls within two weeks after donating asking me to come in again. Um, no. Sorry. I like not passing out when I stand up, thanks.

I was sorely tempted to tell them that I'd taken up all sorts of illicit drugs and been tested positive for some sort of horrible bloodborne disease to stop them calling, but I ended up having to change phone numbers anyway. And the place I donate now only does one reminder call when you're eligible to donate again asking if you'd like to set up an appointment. Just the one call, which is great.

I too don't mind the one call when I'm eligible to donate. The one that cracked me up was when they deferred my eligibility for a year due to where I traveled (malaria risk - though I never even got bit by a mosquito - didn't even see one as I wasn't in the part of the country with mosquitoes!) Even though I wasn't eligible, they were calling me monthly. I finally had to tell the guy 'I'd love to donate, but you won't let me... don't call me until after October please!' Definitely a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing!.

[SCAJAfamily]

Ugh Red Cross.  Dh did Apheresis for a long time and my blood type is Oneg (universal donor).  We donated but dh doesn't have time now (Apheresis takes 2 or more hours) and I've been rejected the last three times due to low iron (yes I tried to eat the right foods - still no), plus the Red Cross is 45 minutes away.  So we have stopped, but the phone call requests have not.  I've told them numerous times to stop calling, and they do for awhile and then start up again.

I donated 15 times or so when I was in my teens and early 20s, I did my share.

[faithlessone]

Red Cross is the worst! I used to donate blood regularly. About a year ago, I was rejected for being underweight (which I discovered only applied to under-21 year olds, I was 23). I tried again a couple of months later, only to be rejected again because the donor nurse thought I looked "too pale" (I wasn't even allowed to take an iron test).

Yet, I still get texts, phone calls and letters, urging me to make an appointment!!

[White Dragon]

Beggar, yes.  Moocher or Scammer, no.  Annoying, definitely yes.

Yesterday we received a letter with red letters that said, 'URGENT! THIRD NOTICE!'. 

It was an appeal from the ASPCA. 

This made me smile, because it reminds me of my vet.
Our vet sends a postcard when our pets' vaccinations are coming due.
And, I usually forget to book the appointment. 

A couple of weeks later, the vet sends another letter.
This one says something to the effect of
"Hi,
We recently sent Kiera (the pet) a letter asking her to book her appointment for her annual check up.
We haven't heard back from her and were wondering if you could find out why she hasn't booked or maybe help her make the appointment..."

Yeah, it's cutesy, but it makes me smile everytime. (Possibly because often ask the dog when she's going to grow opposable thumbs so she can help with chores.  )

[exitzero]

Beggar, yes.  Moocher or Scammer, no.  Annoying, definitely yes.

Yesterday we received a letter with red letters that said, 'URGENT! THIRD NOTICE!'. 

It was an appeal from the ASPCA. 

This made me smile, because it reminds me of my vet.
Our vet sends a postcard when our pets' vaccinations are coming due.
And, I usually forget to book the appointment. 

A couple of weeks later, the vet sends another letter.
This one says something to the effect of
"Hi,
We recently sent Kiera (the pet) a letter asking her to book her appointment for her annual check up.
We haven't heard back from her and were wondering if you could find out why she hasn't booked or maybe help her make the appointment..."

Yeah, it's cutesy, but it makes me smile everytime. (Possibly because often ask the dog when she's going to grow opposable thumbs so she can help with chores.  )

There was no way any dog I ever had would do anything other than chew that letter up! There would be NO making vet appointments!

[MommyPenguin]

Yeah, if they did have opposable thumbs, I think they would consider going to the vet a very low priority for the use of them. 

[Julian]

My vet always sends a cute postcard addressed to the pet in question.

I usually look at the pet, tell them 'ooh you got mail from the vet!  When are you going to make the appointment?'  When I get the uncomprehending look in return, I heave a heavy sigh and say "OK, I suppose I have to do it for you...' 

Lazy critters.   

[cwm]

When I was working the grooming salon job, we'd do reminder calls for people who hadn't been in for a while. We were told always to address the calls to the pets rather than the people.

We had one lady call back screaming at us because of how stupid it was that we would call her dog, and don't we know dogs don't make appointments and people have to EARN that money for things like grooming and if we wanted to do ANYTHING we should call HER instead. Somehow the whole time I was there she never came back and we never called her again.

[Spring Water on Sundays]

When I was working the grooming salon job, we'd do reminder calls for people who hadn't been in for a while. We were told always to address the calls to the pets rather than the people.

We had one lady call back screaming at us because of how stupid it was that we would call her dog, and don't we know dogs don't make appointments and people have to EARN that money for things like grooming and if we wanted to do ANYTHING we should call HER instead. Somehow the whole time I was there she never came back and we never called her again.

I understand that addressing the pets might be a little cutesy for some people's taste but to be so ANGRY about it that she had to call and SCREAM at you? Silly. I'm glad you didn't have to deal with her in person.

[cwm]

New one! Not a scam at all, but oh holy heck, this guy thought it was...

Without getting into too much detail, I work for a company that works with other companies around the country and provides services for their members. We don't do anything in person because we work with so many people in so many states, nearly everything we do is by phone or email. And the end of the line clients we work for can be a bit SS. Our base of operations is in Kanas, but we have a toll free number to call.

We get leads on clients needing our services from the client companies. And there's one client company located in Oregon whose members are more SS than most. We've had three in the past month insist that they WILL NOT do business with us and will go back to their LOCAL company. Except for the type of service they want, their local company contracts it ALL to us.

There was one of my co-workers who called a member and gave this member his phone number. Member went crazy, saying how dare we ask for his personal information, this was a scam and he was never going to do business with us. We tried to tell him that we were doing business on behalf of his local company, but he would have none of it. We even tried to tell him that if he wasn't sure about it, he could look up my co-worker's information online (the line of work we do is nationally licensed and you can look someone up by their license number to see if they're legit) or go even into a local location of his local company and have them call us and make sure we're legitimate. Nope. He went somewhere else with his business absolutely convinced that we were running a scam on him.

The sad part? This happens a lot, and most of it is from that one specific company in Oregon. The rest of the companies from around the country and their members are usually perfectly fine.

[mumma to KMC]

Possible scammers of I was missing the bigger picture . Last Saturday, I was driving through town and saw two women standing on the side of the road holding handmade signs (plain white posterboard and black maker) that said "Donations Oklahoma City" and that was it. They may well have been collecting money for OKC, but I certainly wasn't going to give them my money.

[siamesecat2965]

I don't know if this is truly a scam, or just something I don't want any part of, but I ahve a lot of credit card debt. and I keep getting mailings from companies who can guarentee a reduction in my debt,and so on. Yeah, I think not. So if I owe 20K (and I'm making up these amounts) they can help me "negotiate" my debt down to 12 or 15, and pay it off. And pay them, I'm sure, a VEry hefty fee to do so. I'm guessing they don't do much more than negotiate with your creditors, which you can try and do for yourself, for free.

But honeslty, i got myself into this, I can get myself out.