Charity donation option on chip & pin machine, eccy road texaco

[Phanerothyme 12]

So this evening I stopped to refuel the car at the texaco station on Eccy Road South.

The guy at the till pushed the chip and pin machine towards me, I popped the card in and then he did a few swift presses along the top row of buttons.

He flicked past a Yes/No screen before I could read it, then asked me to put in my PIN.

I removed my card and asked him to show me the screen he had flicked past.

He did and it showed an option for a charity donation, no charity named on the dot matrix display, for less than a pound (don't remember the exact figure), to be added to the final sum.

I duly pressed the NO button and completed the transaction and left, checking the receipt against the pump - which tallied.

Anyone else experienced this at the Texaco, or elsewhere?

Never ever seen this before ... thoughts?

[alarmingmark 32]

It's on many petrol station chip and pin machines not just texeco....

[Phanerothyme 12]

I just thought it weird that he made the choice for me, and did so too quickly for me to see what the choice was.

 

[Resident 1,185]

14 minutes ago, alarmingmark said:

It's on many petrol station chip and pin machines not just texeco....

I haven't come across it myself. 

 

There does seem to be an increase, particularly online, of store checkouts offering to add a donation to a charity & it was only a matter of time that retail outlets would begin. 

I would hazard a guess that because people are using cashless systems more they aren't chucking the odd change in the charity tins by the tills. If you couple that with the seemingly increasing charity box thefts (seem to hear about at least 2 per week these days) people are probably less inclined to use them even if they do have change. 

 

Personally I don't like it, more for the awkward situation that it potentially puts the cashier in, having to ask if you want to make a donation and obviously the customer not wishing to and having to say no, most likely in front of a queue of people.

But then again I hate chuggers, door-step collectors, guilt-trip ads which ask you to text them then they harass you on the phone every month for more etc. If I want to donate then I'll do it in my own time and to a charity of my choice. In fact I'm less likely to donate to a charity that employs any of these "fund-raising tactics"

[*Wallace* 333]

The petrol station just round from the bus garage at Heeley is the same.

[dutch 68]

9 hours ago, Resident said:

I haven't come across it myself. 

 

Personally I don't like it, more for the awkward situation that it potentially puts the cashier in, having to ask if you want to make a donation and obviously the customer not wishing to and having to say no, most likely in front of a queue of people.

But then again I hate chuggers, door-step collectors, guilt-trip ads which ask you to text them then they harass you on the phone every month for more etc. If I want to donate then I'll do it in my own time and to a charity of my choice. In fact I'm less likely to donate to a charity that employs any of these "fund-raising tactics"

 

Government doesn't pay and says no all the time without any embarrassment whatsoever.

[kaytie 11]

Even worse in my opinion is Facebook pushing users to set up a charity fundraiser for their birthday.   I refuse to guilt trip friends in this way, but was harrassed by Facebook for days 'reminding ' me that I hadn't done it.   

[dutch 68]

21 hours ago, kaytie said:

Even worse in my opinion is Facebook pushing users to set up a charity fundraiser for their birthday.   I refuse to guilt trip friends in this way, but was harrassed by Facebook for days 'reminding ' me that I hadn't done it.   

I have been on internet longer than facebook. When facebook came I seemed to be the only one that smelled trouble, it is too impersonal, everyone else thought it was the development of a new human society.  I never used it although I had to make an account for other practical online purposes.

 

No child is born with guilt or embarrassment. We teach our children to feel guilty and embarrassed, it is not a natural phenomenon. 

Edited January 10, 2019 by dutch

[Cyclone 10]

Only sociopaths don't feel guilt.

[dutch 68]

45 minutes ago, Cyclone said:

Only sociopaths don't feel guilt.

That is not true. An enlightened person or someone in deep meditation will see the guilt as thoughts implanted by parents, family and friends. Most people in society are not aware and unconscious of this pre programming that goes on in their mind and will mistakenly think that those who are free again are sociopaths. Buddha, Jesus, Mansur Al-Hallaj, Socrates are not really sociopaths but many like them have been executed by mentally ill societies.

 

Charity is a sad poor substitution of love for people who don't really feel love inside. By giving to charity it feels like as if you are a loving person on the surface but real love cannot be created or made with money on the outside.

If this were really a real loving society in the first place charities would not be needed because everyone and everything would be seen for in the first place.

[Cyclone 10]

No they won't, guilt isn't implanted, it's a natural feeling associated with doing something that breaks the social contract.

[dutch 68]

When in meditation a natural warm feeling of blissfulness arises from nowhere, no such thing as guilt there. 

Social kindness such as giving to a charity can come naturally from the heart or artificially from your mind through a conditioned social contract. When it comes from the mind guilt and embarrassment will be there putting pressure on the ego.