Qvc Cares

[Autumn]

Its great that some of the brands have chosen a charity and a few pounds from each purchase is going towards the charity, However I cant help but think what are Qvc giving to the charities ? There charging full postage which IMO should be donated to the charities, Its not like Qvc are offering Pre Xmas deliveries now unlike Ideal World.

Im sure people have especially bought items today just because a % is going to charity, but tbh its lining Qvc's pockets aswell , and we would be better off donating directly to the charities instead.

I think in principal these days are great and bought a lot of awareness to the charities, however Qvc also need to dig deep and support the charities and not just expect there customers to do it on there behalf.

 

[MinxyKitten]

I thought that it should have been done previous to today, when people were still in a spending frenzy knowing their items would be delivered for xmas. There is no xmas jingle or any mention today. It's like it's faded from existence! They would have made double the money if they did this earlier in the week. Still, it all helps raise awareness I suppose. I have just donated to Nowzad as I am drowning in skincare but the charity tugged at my heartstrings. I have bookmarked their site and will keep an eye on it. For this I am grateful to Q. But I do think a higher proportion could have been donated. They must have made a fortune out of the C word (it's very Basil Fawlty all of a sudden - no one mention Christmas!!)

 

[Scout]

However I cant help but think what are Qvc giving to the charities ?

l asked exactly the same question about Breast Cancer Care night. Nobody responded to my post, so l still don't know what Q contributes to either event. Seems to be only the brands and the customers who do the contributing while it all gets wrapped in a big QVC bow in the hope nobody notices.

 

[Autumn]

l asked exactly the same question about Breast Cancer Care night. Nobody responded to my post, so l still don't know what Q contributes to either event. Seems to be only the brands and the customers who do the contributing while it all gets wrapped in a big QVC bow in the hope nobody notices.

Oh sorry must have missed your post, But yes I agree for all these charity events, it seems its the brands themselves that donate and Qvc do sod all.

 

[Vienna]

I won`t donate to any charity via a third party such as Q because you know they`re only participating in order to line their own pockets. If I want to donate then I do it directly, by putting money in a collection tin for charities such as the Sally Army or the Poppy appeal or I make an online donation to something like Help the Heroes. You regularly get people stopping you in the street asking you to sign up to this or that charity but they get a commission for every person they sign and they don`t actually work for the charity they`re just employed as canvassers. I once gobsmacked a young lady who stopped me asking me to sign up to helping a homeless charity by asking her exactly how much SHE donated to it ?

 

[theresa b]

I once had someone coming door to door trying to get people to sign up to make regular donations to one of the breast cancer charities... unfortunately the opening line of presumable her script was -

"How aware are you of breast cancer?"

I think she wished the ground would open up and swallow when I replied -

"Well seeing as how I've had a double mastectomy because of it, quite a lot thank you for asking..."

Honestly what a ****** stupid thing to ask people... there are not only people out there like me who have had the disease, but also countless people who have lost loved ones to the disease and all the other forms of cancer...

 

[Akimbo]

l asked exactly the same question about Breast Cancer Care night. Nobody responded to my post, so l still don't know what Q contributes to either event. Seems to be only the brands and the customers who do the contributing while it all gets wrapped in a big QVC bow in the hope nobody notices.

The official line from QVC is that their company supplies the airtime free. I've never known what that means. I can't see that they bill the vendors for airtime, it's covered by their cut of the revenue from the sales of an item. The logistics, packaging and despatch, is still charge to the buyer in the form of inflated p&p. If the presenters and bland ambassadors are working for free that's still saving QVC money unless they donate those fees to BCC that would have been paid to the staff for their time.

Over on ITV they had Text Santa on Friday but the presenters and celebs were keen to stress they don't take any payment for their involvement.

 

[thatu]

I agree with everything said here. We can't all support every charity in existence, but we can choose which ones to support and very often the smaller charities are the ones most in need of funding. For any company to capitalize from charitable giving by improving its image and hopefully sell more in the long run, isn't particularly appealing.

 

[Boris Bear]

I saw an article in our local paper saying that the Tesco store I use had been one of the most successful in collecting donations for a food bank, I felt the emphasis should have been on the generosity of the customers rather than congratulating the company.

Any donation to charity is good but sometimes the donation of £x per item sold seems quite small compared to the cost of the item. It might make me feel ok about buying something I already really wanted but it wouldn't affect my decision to buy or not.

 

[Akimbo]

I agree, they just provided a box (sometimes covered in crepe paper) for food donations in several supermarkets local to me. Just to annoy then I'll take a tin of Asda Tuna and put it in the Tesco box! What they're doing is tempting you to buy ad extra tin of something to leave in the box on your way out which is boosting their own sales ffs!

 

[AndiK]

Very good points on here about the companies like QVC who get all the praise for their customers donating to charity! I never thought of it like that. I also agree with the point made about the tiny percentage that some companies donate - I always cringe when I see on the back of a box of Christmas cards that 5p or something paltry like that goes to charity. I know it all adds up but really! The mark-up on cards is astronomical so surely they could donate a bit more.

Sounds like QVC just jumped on the charity bandwagon with this dedicated day. "Free airtime" my bottom!

The 'uncharitable-ness' of QVC struck me when they stopped their association with easyfundraising.org. I do nearly all my online purchases via easyfundraising because most firms (John Lewis, Boots, Amazon, etc) are in the scheme and when you order they make a 1-5% donation to your chosen cause. It's a bit like quidco and other cashback schemes but the money goes to charity instead of the buyer. Of course QVC stopped their association with all such schemes a while back. This year I have raised nearly £50 by purchasing from other companies via easyfundraising and I have definitely shopped less with QVC as a result.

 

[Mazza]

I had never heard of easyfundraising so thank you for the heads up! I have just added it to favourites so I can read about how you use them when I have a bit more time!

 

[Julius]

I am very sceptical about the whole charity endorsement situation. I know that some people at QVC have had their lives affected by breast cancer and I am sure there is some sincerity there, but when a company whose main interest is in making money suddenly takes a public interest in some random cause I do start to ask questions. If they are really so sincere about it, why be so public about it? Why not privately make a donation? I doubt whether QVC and the like are actually losing out financially for they will rig the prices accordingly. I suspect that their margin may at most be pared down by one percent or so. Big companies do this as a PR game. It's largely about brand psychology and promoting a certain image / impression.

 

[louise66]

The amount donated from each purchase, is so miniscule, it would not encourage me to buy. What I do commend QVC for, is giving the charities, not the product guests, airtime to show videos and explain what the chosen charity is and does. This will, consequently, make people aware of it's existence, and it's need for funding. It costs the Q nothing, serving only to enhance it's reputation as a charitable organisation. But I'm sure the exposure is much appreciated by the voluntary charities.

 

[AndiK]

I had never heard of easyfundraising so thank you for the heads up! I have just added it to favourites so I can read about how you use them when I have a bit more time!

Oh, that's good of you, thanks. I know what you mean about doing it when you have time but just to assure you when you do sign up, you will find it's very simple to get yourself an account and nominate a charity large or small, then you just need to remember to go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk first when you buy anything online, type in "Amazon", "Tesco" or whatever to get the link to the website, and because you go to the shopping site via easyfundraising, your purchase will be registered. A few days later, you should get an email to say they have claimed 50p, £1.25 or whatever for the charity you selected when you created your account and you can see a running total of what you have raised. It's not just goods, by the way - I earned my charity £19 for organising my car insurance via easyfundraising!

As I say, QVC used to be in the scheme but they withdrew. Obviously decided to keep every last penny of our spend for themselves! Nearly every other retailer I shop with is in the easyfundraising scheme. I like shopping on QVC but this does annoy me.

 

[Mazza]

Thank you for the additional info. I do not do a lot of online shopping- even Q I prefer to phone - but I do use Amazon for my books and some other stuff so will deffo register once I resume shopping which will be when the post returns to normal after the NY.

Perhaps I could plug a charity whilst on here. If you have an old car you want to get rid of and would like to donate the proceeds, there is giveacar.co.uk who will arrange the collection of the car from your home, so it is completely painless. The removers then either send it to auction or sell it for scrap and send the funds to giveacar.co.uk. They take a slice for expenses and send the rest to the charity you nominate on their website (there are loads to choose from). I was dreading having to get rid of mine, finding a scrap place or whatever, and it was a real relief just to let them deal!!. All I had to do was send the completed transfer slip to the DMV. Clearly not the way to dispose of a six month old BMW, but my old Fiesta? Great! Thanks for reading this little plug!

 

[Mazza]

Well AndiK I have signed up and was pleased to see Marks and JLP are there, so my meagre online shops will total a bit more than just my Amazon books! I wonder if you could answer this though? If you buy a book and it raises about 5 or 10pence, do they pass it on or wait until it gets to a bigger amount? I could not see the answer to this in their FAQs.

Thanks.

 

[AndiK]

Well AndiK I have signed up and was pleased to see Marks and JLP are there, so my meagre online shops will total a bit more than just my Amazon books! I wonder if you could answer this though? If you buy a book and it raises about 5 or 10pence, do they pass it on or wait until it gets to a bigger amount? I could not see the answer to this in their FAQs.

Thanks.

That was quick! What happens is they credit the charity's easyfundraising account with each donation raised by all the people who have nominated that charity. In other words, all your little donations will go into a bigger pot but you will still be able to see what you have contributed personally. The charity can see all the donations coming in - 15p from one person, £1.15 from another, etc. The money is paid over to the charity quarterly as long as it has totalled over about £25 I think it is. As well as making my own donations by doing my shopping via easyfundraising, I have also been running an account on behalf of a small charity so I have seen it from both sides. We have only raised a (very welcome) hundred or so as we don't have many supporters, whereas a charity like Cancer Research will probably get thousands of pounds a year as a lot of people will choose it as their nominated charity. It is great though as smaller causes like school funds, for example, can sign up and get all the mums to open an account then shop with easyfundraising so the school ends up with maybe a few hundred quid in no time.

Sorry to go on! Hope that's clear. Once you get your head around it, it's very straightforward

 

[Mazza]

That is really clear and helpful. Thank you very much.

 

[Autumn]

Just a thought but mayb there could be a thread in the Drop about charities , the ones we support, what they do etc , and that way theres no pressure to donate, saves Qvc the bother that way