The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association Reviews 

We have been giving £4.33 per month to the charity for sometime and just noticed in the past two months that they have increased this to £8.50 without telling us! This is a 100% increase and how can this be justified? We have cancelled our direct debit as no longer trust this organisation and believe they should be referred to the charities commission for this underhanded practice which no private company would get away with.

Having been a supporter for years, I was disgusted when I received a message from guide dogs that they were increasing my donation via direct debit. Rather than getting thanks they decide I am not giving enough and increase MY donation. Now when I look into it. Over the last 5 years it would seem from various press reports they have abandoned the Buddy system, are producing fewer guide dogs (though demand is not falling) and have written off millions in failed IT projects. I am going to stop donating until there are significant changes at the top and a nationwide apology sent to its contributors. Is there anyone else out there who is successfully training guide dogs?

My direct debit has been increased by £3 a month without my consent and with no notification. Surely it is up to me how much I contribute. I have emailed to ask why but have not received a response. I will be cancelling my direct debit if I do not get a response.

I have just cancelled my direct debit, my subs were increased from 10 to 13 pounds I havnt been informed of thus so cancelled

I have given £4.33 for years to guide dogs for the blind under the sponsor a puppy. But I can see now that the organisation is run appallingly. They decided I should increase my donationt £8.50, and they would just take this unless I opted out. They have gone down in my estimation.I cancelled my direct debit completely, as I believe others will.

Donation Increase Notification, just received the email instructing me my donation would increase from what I was prepared to contribute. Cancelled my direct debit !!. Who decided it was a good idea to tell vountary donors how much they will contribute. They need to look at their salaries if costs are increasing to force them into this action.

For 10 years, my daughter has donated £5 of her pocket money to Guide Dogs for the Blind via a monthly direct debit from my bank account. But I’ve just cancelled it after I received an email this morning, notifying me that they were planning to increase the donation to £8.50 - an increase of 70% - unless I clicked on a link to say I didn’t want to increase it. I think it’s outrageous that a once well-respected charity is exploiting its regular supporter base in this wholly unethical way - there will no doubt be many kind elderly people who miss this email and will be taken advantage of. Surely this is criminal?

I have supported Guide Dogs for the Blind for over 10 years. This month I noticed that my direct debit had increased by £3.50 without my knowledge. When I called their customer service I was told they had sent an e mail informing me of the increase but I had not opened it.
It had obviously gone to junk.
Despite this they went ahead with the increase.
I am appalled that a charity can just choose to increase your donation!
When I asked for the extra money to be returned to me so I could donate it to a charity of my choice, the response was a sigh. Guide Dogs please treat your supporters better than this or you will loose them!

I believe Guide dogs for the blind do great work and have been donating to them for 18 months now, yesterday I got an email telling me my donation was increasing by 33% unless I told them otherwise. I appreciate costs are increasing but my donation is voluntary and it should be upto me what I give or can afford not Guide Dogs for the blind, seriously considering cancelling my standing orer and donating to another charity

I've been a donator for a few years now at £10 per month. I've just received an email via my junk mail folder informing me they are increasing my donation to £13 a month. I have the option to click on a link and review my options but it's not good enough. I've never known a charity simply to raise donation amounts and simply assume people will accept. Direct debit now cancelled.

Contrary to popular belief, I have seen first hand that a guide dog may not have a very good life. The organisation handed one to a neighbour who had no experience of animal care whatsoever, and no garden to speak of. Thankfully, he soon returned the dog, and I hoped it was sent somewhere more suitable. But that concentration for a young animal on "being good" all the time is nightmarish. When the Association brought two beautiful dogs to Tesco's in Halstead recently, the handlers got in everyone's way and you could barely get access to the store. Sorry, but this whole set up is not as wonderful as it seems.

My father donated to them during his life. When he died October 2022 I informed them he had died. The following March/April 2023 they sent him some address labels. I was extremely distressed and telephoned them. They apologised.

Today, 26 August 2025, they wrote to him AGAIN stating he hadn't signed up for Gift Aid. Their behaviour is UTTERLY DISGUSTING. Do NOT donate to them. All they do is cause untold distress.

Our kids pet hamster died and we decided the best way to soften the blow was to say we were sponsoring a guide dog each for them at £5 a month. My daughter got a puppy called "Honey", a golden labrador which she adores. 3 months later an advert for Guide Dogs.org.uk pops up on Youtube encouraging you to sponsor, yes you guessed it, Honey. They claim you're sponsoring a dog but does Honey exist or is it just another Charity baiting for your hard earned?

I’ve donated regularly to the Guide Dog Association, however, when I tried to apply to re home a dog, they didn’t even respond to my request and follow up email. Hence I no longer consider them a viable association to try and help.

I am very keen to support the idea of Guide Dogs for the Blind. It feels like a good cause, and I wish it well. However, their fundraising tactics have totally alienated me. I gave them a donation online some time ago, and since then I have been bombarded with post. I have calculated that they have spent every penny that I gave them - trying to get me to give more !!!! Seriously, someone in the Chartity needs to think about what its fund raisers are doing. I wanted to help fund the dogs - and thats all!

SERIOUSLY OUTDATED TV AD WITH SOME FEMALE WHO WAS GETTING MARRIED LIKE 5 YEARS AGO & HERE WE ARE YEARS LATER STILL GETTING MARRIED WITH A DOG NAMED AFTER A SWEET! THE DOG IS PROBABLY LONG DEAD BY NOW. NOT EVERYONE IS THAT GULLIBLE.

I was please to sponsor a puppy but seriously not pleased to get begging mail and emails for more money. You cannot email them; I returned the mail; wrote to them but to no avail. My puppy was nearly ready to go to a blind person but has been found to have a disease. I was offered sponsorship of a named puppy = no choice given. It is black and I have cataracts so need a golden one and without begging letters. Surely this is not too much to ask

Came across your stall at the Driffield Show yesterday. A friend of mine died recently and asked for donations to your organisation amongst others instead of flowers. I was initially interested until I realised the woman talking to me was more interested in getting her quotas up, her words, and probably getting some sort of reward for recruiting my daughter, rather than helping guide dogs. It was a hot day and all the other dog related stalls and many of the others has bowls of water provided for dogs. Her colleague actually said to me "People have asked if we have water for their dog as they go round. Why should we? It's their dog not my responsibility." What a poor attitude for a dog based charity! Seems to me your organisation is more money orientated than charitable and i would be interested to know exactly how much of the donations its receives goes to towards providing dogs for blind people and how much lines the pockets of the committee , management etc. It was an uncomfortable experience talking to your very pushy saleswoman and made me sure I didn't want to donate
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