The Big Issue Avis 

The big issue sales person near where I live regularly takes money without selling the publication . She is situated outside Sainsbury and seated often at cafe tables nearby . She is in fact using the magasine as a cover for begging .

I remember when the big issue was £2 but now it's £5 bought it a few times but with the cost of living crisis its too dear and not much in it to read lots of adverts.

I have happily bought the big issue for years. My seller is very genuine unlike other sellers who use it as a front to beg or are part of an organisation/family.
I can’t believe the price is now £5 and genuine sellers have to travel long distances to collect their weekly issues.
I feel more and more people will stop buying and something has gone drastically wrong with Big Issue

Wrote to the Big Issue recently about being sworn at by a group of female sellers. Copied in Sir John Bird. No response from anyone. Clearly the big issue is not what it was as such sellers are clearly toleranted and know they can do as they wish. They should stop espousing a code of conduct if they don't enforce it.

Bought a copy of Bi Issue in marybone lane, whilst enjoying a drink with close friends. Despite my supposed help for the charity, the seller was overly aggressive to me and others around me who refused to buy a copy. Will not buy again. There are many other charities deserved of my money

I along with hundreds of others were saddened & angry to hear yesterday, it was Kevin's last Big Issue day in Totnes. The rumours and claims he's mistreating his dogs who are Kevin's family, are not true. They eat better than Kevin does, they are very well behaved. These claims are simply not true! As for his explicit joke claims, he is Totnes free entertainment no worse than Jim Davidson or late Jethrow and we get him for free we don't have to buy tickets! Many suffer depression, like me, and Kevin cheers such people up, makes us smile. How dare people tell lies about a man trying his best to keep himself and his family (dogs) safe and fed. Please reinstate Kevin's pitch and realise just what a great person he is. Look on Facebook pages Totnesians and Totnesians in Totnes Missy Lynn posts, see the upset and wanting for Kevin to stay in Totnes! Please, ring Kevin and put this right!
Regards
Lynn Blackmore
Totnes

The guy who sells The Big Issue in Totnes is great, keeps the whole town amused, a Totnes icon.

Idea great SERVICE awful. Why sell a paper endlessly while many of the Vendors are TRAPPED in homelessness? If the aim was to help men and women get into a house or work It has not. Further the Paper is no longer involved in exploring ending homeless ness political lobbying OR learning how other lands deal with the human pain of lying in filthy streets while elected politicians do zero on homelessness in 2025? Ideas are no longer part of the goal of the paper nor its founder as far as I see.

The Big Issue couldn't care less about the real causes of homelessness. Instead it focuses on bandaids and temporary fixes. They are bourgeois liberals making money from human suffering.

More illigal immigrants who arent homeless jumping out of mercedes cars and stealing thrlr homeless people only life line plus they bully old people to buy one alrwady complained and knothing done more snobby middle class nothing done

Only illegal immigrants sell this rag.
Good idea stolen by WOKE illiterates!

Each issue contains lots of interesting articles. A very useful alternative voice in favour of progressive politics in the UK. The founder and regular columnist John Bird frequently makes the argument that we need to focus on tackling the underlying causes of homelessness rather than just dealing with its consequences. I agree.

Not telling the truth. They are fake.

I am homeless and i tried to get some food for today and tomorrow as it's xmas but I was met by a small gang of big issue sellers who just started verbally abusing me and threatening me with voilence, there was another girl on the corner with the 2 in the video i took but they then tried to grab my phone once they saw i was filming. Since when can big issue sellers use their big issue id to have their friends beg for money aswell. This was at sainsburys in kenton Harrow, middlesex. It's xmas and im going hungry. Thank you big issue, it's obviously plain to see that you don't care for the homeless and it does look like this is a front for gangs to make money. Id like to of loaded up the video.

Bought one once nothing in it interested me, it's a really boring magazine, the other day it was cold I was jogging into the entrance of Aldi and the female selling the Big Issue stood outsidr shouted Hello to the back of my head as I ran past her she was facing away from me and didn't see me aproching how desperate, I never carry cash anyway just my VISA card.

I am 81and not very well off. I bought magazine but had no change, so offered a £5 note. she took it , but said she had no change. Do you want one, she said. Strange question since she had my money.So, I took it having paid £5 for what I discovered was a September issue! no mistake, as she handed it to me. This also happened with a previous vendor in Letchworth.never again will I buy one.

I've been having ongoing problems with a Big Issue seller who stands outside my local supermarket and makes angry comments at me every time I walk past him. He's never hello to me but is angry that I didn't say hello to him first the first time I walked past him and has continued to hold a grudge. He makes me extremely uncomfortable and triggers my PTSD symptoms such as hyper vigilance, anxiety and flashbacks to previous conflicts. Due to this I am unable to access my only local large supermarket, and since I am unable to travel to any others due to my mobility issues, I am unable to adequately buy food for myself because I find his behaviour too distressing.

I have complained to The Big Issue four times now. The first time, they apologised and told me they would speak to the vendor about the agreement he signed. The second and third complaints were completely ignored. I sent a fourth complaint from an anonymous email to see if I was being purposefully ignored, and received an almost immediate response, proving it was deliberate.

My fourth complaint was met with not an iota of empathy or apology for what this vendor is putting me through. Initially the person responding mistook me for somebody else and lied to me, telling me this vendor has worked that spot for several years and had no complaints - and this point I had already complained three times and this Big Issue employee was confirming that another person had also complained about this vendor recently. When I called them on this lie, they did not give me any kind of explanation or apology. I also received no apology for my complaints being ignored without explanation.

I was then passively aggressively reminded that many Big Issue vendors have experienced homelessness and told that they could not justify moving this vendor's pitch elsewhere so I could access local grocery facilities again. Part of my PTSD actually comes from experiencing homelessness myself for over 6 months, and from the sexual assaults I endured from dangerous men in this time, which is why I'm so uncomfortable with this vendor being hostile towards me.

Apparently The Big Issue is only capable of empathy towards people who've experienced homelessness and mental health issues if they work for them. I am absolutely stunned and disgusted by the lack of empathy and apology. Being told my need to access food shopping facilities i.e my need to eat is less important than which pitch this antisocial vendor uses is retraumatising and gross.

Any reason you are ignoring emails and not fulfilling your legal obligation to issue donation receipts? Will cancel the automatic donation is you don't action asap!

Why don't they get a job same people for years

the big issue is a huge positive 😊 helps the homeless so much and gives them the opportunity to get back on track! Thank you big issue!