An act of carelessness that cost RM2000

Believe it or not, I have been donating to WWF (World Wildlife Fund) for the past 4 years without my knowledge. Yes, I did however consciously donate for the 1st one year since 2005.

Donations are indeed a good act and have to be lauded but not when you do not know that you are doing it. This article is not to put the blame on WWF but rather a lesson to the rest of you guys out there not to repeat the same mistake.

So the story goes like this. Some time in 2005 I was approached by these people from WWF to contribute some amount of money to the fund and they promised me a tax return and I thought “hey, why not?!” I mean the money is going to good use and it’s for the future of our children (actually the fact that it was tax deductible, weighed more than the future of our children…yes, that’s the bitter truth).

The volunteer told me that I could do this for just one year and I agreed as it was only RM40 a month and did not really feel the pinch. I remember that there was a section to tick only for 1 year but I could be mistaken (WWF has to get back to me on this as the lady I spoke to today mentioned that there is no such clause on their forms but they would check). So 1 year had passed and I received the letter from WWF to use it to do my taxes. So, at that time I thought ah well, 1 year has passed by now I do not have to pay already….I was far from right.

Today, I went to withdraw cash from the ATM and I could have sworn that either the bank was up to something because I remembered the amount I had in the bank when I withdrew the money and RM40 was not there anymore or if I got too drunk and could not remember withdrawing RM40 (the latter is very much possible).

So I checked online and I saw this term “debit advice” so I called the bank and told them that I had not authorized any standing orders nor am I contributing towards any charity. So the customer service dude told me that it was WWF that I was contributing to. So I told the customer service guy that, that was a long time ago and it should not be debited and I have only come to notice it now. The customer service rep said that this is something that I have to take up with WWF as this has been going on for some time and not only this month. I was dumbfounded.


I Googled up WWF and got their phone number and I was connected to this lady with a very firm voice and I did not want to mess with her because she knew her “shit”. She told me that I am a very much active donor and have been contributing since 2005…and I went like…shit, all the money that I could have used to get me stuff that I could not afford. But then again it was for good use but I decided to cancel the donation because I was disappointed of the fact that I was not given proper information in the first place when I decided to donate to the organization.

The mistake that I made was by being careless with my spending in the sense where I did not check how much money has been credited or debited or sticking to a budget. I am a lavish spender and bad at saving. But all this had come to an end when I got married because now I have a personal banker and a banking system built in together with my wife .

The mistake that WWF made was by not educating their volunteers on keeping potential donors informed on the clauses. With the letter that I wrote to WWF, I did also state this very same point so that people will be in the know of how much they will be contributing. Please note that I am not holding WWF responsible for what happened as the fault is mine for not managing my funds, if I had, I would have known about this earlier and also another mistake I made was by not informing WWF that I had moved as if I had done that, I would have been receiving the letter and the magazine from WWF and it would have served as an indicator that I am contributing to the society.

So, dear friends, please check your account balance if you are not doing it already and do not be as careless as I was where it had cost me close to RM2000.

Score:
WWF: 1------------Vixstarr: 0