Yesterday afternoon, on only his second day of Uni, my son was approached by a Greenpeace rep. The dude asked my son (Josh) to donate $1. When Josh said he didn't have any money, the dude told him he could donate online and shoved an ipad in his face. Josh was nervous he was going to be late for his lecture and didn't want to be rude, so he signed up for what he thought was $1. Turns out, he signed up for $35 per month. He was definitely misled by the dude. Josh closed his account so they can't take any more money and asked the dude for a refund. Dude said his manager would call. No call so far. I have called Greenpeace directly, emailed and messaged on Facebook, as well as posting on their page. This is what I posted (again and again):
Gonna keep posting this until I get a response. Yesterday afternoon, my son was ambushed by one of your charity muggers and asked to donate $1. When he said he didn't have any cash, he was told he could donate online and he signed up to donate $1. It was not made clear to him that he was actually donating $35 on an ongoing basis. The money has already been deducted from his account. Not informing him of the amount and the frequency of the donations is in clear violation of the Fundraising Appeals Act 1998 PART 2—PROVISIONS APPLYING TO ALL FUNDRAISING APPEALS 7. False statements while seeking donations (1) In conducting or participating in a fundraising appeal, a person must not make or give any representation or oral or written statement in relation to the appeal to another person that misleads or deceives, or that is likely to mislead or deceive— (a) the other person; or (b) anyone else to whom the other person may make, repeat or give the representation or oral or written statement. Penalty: In the case of a corporation, 15 240 penalty units. In any other case, 120 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months or both. I have emailed and called your organisation about this matter and am looking forward to receiving a refund in a timely manner.
Still waiting on any sort of response from them. I know they have read at least one message on FB. What else can we do?
In this instance I think you need to hit them where it hurts - the planet.
Yeah spamming their facebook page with defiantly hurt their cause, but if you want your message to get accross I think you need to use more serious measures. Use more fossil fuel, oppose any sort of environmental protection they propose, support the development of new coal mines. Also you could flush your plastic bags down the toilet (untold damage to fish and wildlife). Also, stop recycling - and I'm pretty sure they will get the message and take your concerns a bit more seriously. They are also taking an active interest in endangered wildlife, with a bit of research you can probably work out how to directly undermine these efforts - especially when it comes to Australian wildlife. I heard somewhere that moving non-native ducks into native areas is terrible for the environment (I'm not sure who I heard this from probably you need to research it). They also have an environmental hotline that you could continue to call to express your concerns. Once the line is tied up by your legitimate complaint then you can be sure they will refund your money.
If we dont do something about these people then who knows who will be next to have to pay $35 to these people. And that is something I dont think that we can or should live with.