I'm always very cautious about dealing with chuggers and doorstep callers believe me. I don't think it was a scam as they weren't asking for money - in fact the guy who knocked at my door refused a cash donation. He explained that they do have other sponsors but were concerned about losing their main one and the effect it might have on the service. Judging by the quite lengthy conversation we had (sadly we've been fairly regular ambulance users over the years due to our youngest's various problems) he was a very knowledgeable and articulate guy and certainly knew all about the various conditions my son suffers and the emergency medication he has to carry (which is not even carried by ambulances). I find it hard to believe that an opportunist scammer would know much, if anything, about such things.
Given what I've read here I reckon it was more a case of he and his colleagues (I saw a number in neighbouring streers a bit later on) garnering long term support for the service using the Virgin 'decision' to raise awareness of the situation (i.e. it being run on a charitable basis) and spur people to donate. Not necessarily entirely honest, but not really a scam either.
I'll be having a chat with some of my neighbours later and see if I can shed any more light on this.
Found their website:
http://www.londonsairambulance.co.uk/be-involved
No sign of anything related to Santander but Virgin still prominent.
Update:
Curiouser and curiouser...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...Ambulance.html
Quote:
The Spanish-owned bank – which since 2004 has bought the Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley franchises in the UK – secured the financing on LAA's helicopter, with support from Virgin Group, the charity's major sponsor.
The financing is thought to be around £2m, with the charity which runs LAA needing to raise another £1m a year to keep the service running.
|
This article from 2011 states that the Santander money is in addition to Virgin's sponsorship so I wonder if Virgin has very recently decided to review that situation and that's what my visitor was referring to?