American Red CrossReviews 74

I have attempted to donate blood twice this week with the Red Cross. The first time was on 2/10/21 it was at St. Peter's Church in Monticello, NY. My GPS sent me to the wrong address, I called the Red Cross to let them know that I may be a few minutes late. They said I have a 15 minute window. I thought it would be okay.

I finally found the church, knocked on all the doors, and a priest finally answered and directed me to a building at the end of the block. Well. By the time I got there, they turned me away as they were leaving for the day.

I rescheduled for today at 6pm at the Downsville Central School in Downsville, NY--in the downstairs gym. When I got there, I saw the Red Cross truck & van. The doors were locked on the building. I banged as hard as I could on all the entrance doors. Nobody responded. I saw another side entrance, saw a maintenance guy, banged on that door. He either didn't see or hear me, or ignored me.

There were no signs anywhere directing anybody to go any particular place. Once I got inside, as the guy finally heard me, he informed me that the blood drive was in the auditorium. The Red Cross workers once again turned me away, as it was 6:05pm. The lady was very rude and said that nobody else had a problem getting in.

According to your FB page, blood is needed constantly. But the people that organize your drives are doing a terrible job at planning, communicating, and most of all, made me feel like I wasn't important enough to allow a 15 and a minute time discrepancy which was not my fault.

Sooo... I attempted to donate blood 2 times in the past 3 days. I feel very disrespected and discarded by the Red Cross.

I should at least be eligible to get 3 amazon gift cards or a gas card? This is quite a lot of driving and gas for me. Please let me know what the Red Cross will do to fix this situation. This organization needs to be dismantled & rebuilt from the ground up. Obviously those in charge give zero cares.

Every day and week I receive e-mail after email stating they are in a blood shortage and need blood and to please come donate. I feel obligated to donate and have never had a problem donating blood in the past. In fact I have given plasma for many many years.
My last 2 experiences donating blood were horrific. The staff was very young and NOT trained professionally to deal with the public day after day. They were not prepared with enough supplies so they had to use a blood pressure cuff to tourniquet my arm. There was no tape to anchor my needle in my arm so it ended up falling out. My phlebotomist was nowhere in site at this time because he and 6 others were observing a 1st time donor that was crying and freaking out. When I finally got his attention (after a couple minutes) he hollered for someone to go and grab some gauze. He brought only had a couple of 2x2 gauze pads and told him they were all out and this was all that was left. The blood was all over the chair, my arm and my shirt and pants. He took the needle out and gave me a band-aid to put on hole. All he could keep saying is how they were out everything today. He gave me a paper telling me if I had any problems with my arm or if I couldn't get the blood out of my clothes I could call the phone number on the paper and they would help me. He assured me that they would still be able to use my blood for testing purposes but was considered "contaminated" and couldn't be used on people since the needle partially came out. I was so frustrated because I have O- blood and anyone can receive my blood. The next incident I came in for an appointment at 7pm. I arrived at 7:04pm. I arrived late because I also had a patient that left my office later than expected. When I arrived I had the rapid pass pulled up and ready for them to scan They told me I could not donate because the system shuts down at 7:05pm. It was 7:04pm. I only know because I was looking at my phone. If they had the computers up and running still they could have seen me but they were already shut down and closed. They were very rude and told me that it wasn't there problem the system shuts down at 7:05pm and they could not see me. I quickly looked up to see 4 other people still hooked up and getting their blood drawn. The impression I got was they were done with the day. I will NOT be back. I'm SUPER FRUSTRATED with how this was all handled. Young kids with no experience and no leadership/PR skills. If this is where the American Red Cross is headed I am super disappointed and will not be back to donate.

I have donating gallons of blood for the RED CROSS. I have stopped due to the Red Cross administration's involvement in politics. Instead of thanking members it insulted all by telling us who we can support or not. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE. AOC? Your position on this will make the streets run RED and you are supposed to collect blood not spill it...

After I recovered from Covid in late July, I decided to donate my platelets. After determining that the closest facility was in Princeton, NJ, which was 2 hours away, I made the appointment. Overall the experience went fine. Based on that, I made another appointment to return. They called me the night before to confirm and after driving 2 hours in a major rainstorm, I arrive at the facility only to be told that the machine had not been functioning. I did not receive an excuse as to why I had not been notified, nor did I receive an apology. Based on that, I will not be back!
I find it incredible that in this time of such great need, the only group that can perform this service is that incompetent. Very scary!

I know 3-4 other people who have had same experiences as me. They will take down your information and make an appointment for you and it is hard to find an appointment and when you finally arrive at the appointment you are totally at their mercy. I arrived at my appointment on time and I could not find the building since all the doors were closed and no one was at the entrance so I called and no one picked up. 10 minutes passed by and I saw another donor leaving and ask another her how to get in and when I knocked at the door a red cross employee tried to ignore me. After I kept knocking they finally opened the door and said they were closed. And I told them I had an appointment and it had only been 10 mins since my appointment time and they said sorry we are closed we can't do anything. I told them I was there on time and they closed early and they wasted 10 mins of my time by not opening their doors and not picking up the phone and they wouldn't admit their fault or take my blood donation. I left and told them I never want anything to do with Red Cross.

Another person I know went to his appointment and was told he can't donate blood cause he may potentially have a disease since he travelled to another country a year ago and none of this was ever mentioned before the appointment was made and the country he visited was not included in the list of banned countries that are in the questionnaire before making the appointment. Another person I know couldn't donate blood cause he is gay and apparently red cross doesn't accept blood donations from sexually active gay members due to risk of AIDS/HIV even though anyone could have HIV/AIDS and the blood can be tested for it anyways. They can't rely on people's word to scan the blood for diseases.

Overall Red Cross is a scam and asks people for donations so their employees get paid and they can keep the organization running meanwhile innocent people who just want to donate blood have to jump through a lot of hoops to be able to donate blood. It should not be this hard to donate blood. Red Cross is always the first one to be present at natural disasters to collect peoples money and they have no shame at all. Most of the money donated to red cross doesn't even go to the cause or towards helping people, it goes towards maintaining the organization. The salary of Red Cross CEO is almost $700,000 a year. When I saw the red cross building I was shocked at how big it was and how much it would be costing them to keep this running. Employees of red cross don't care either since they are being paid no matter what.

Aug 21 2020 I show up for my 230 appointment at Highlands Hospital in Connellsville Pa and after waiting my time reading and filling out the rapid pass and saying no to conditions I really dont even know what are and answering very personal and in appropriate homophobic questions. I get inside to donate. 3 screening and temperature checks later. I am denied because of a small hardly noticable scratch on my arm. Not a cut or hole. Paper cut is what we are talking about. Why wasnt that in all the fancy questions in the rapid pass. At least i know what a f@#& ing scratch is. I will not donate ever again. And hard working healthy young people need not donate either. Because they apparently dont need the blood that bad if a paper cut is a determining feature to fail a donation. Thanks for wasting my time and putting my health in jeopardy with the Covid at a hospital just to send me away mad over a scratch...

I have been a willing and diligent blood giver for years. In the midst of this global crisis and with all the desperate pleas for blood donations, I simply do not understand how the American Red Cross can not fit me into their schedule. Time and time again, I am encountering donation drives that are filled to capacity - which is great - but also frustrating for someone who truly wants to give. Then, I scheduled an appointment at a local donation center only to have the appointment cancelled on me 8hrs prior. I don't understand. If the Red Cross is in such need - why am I continually being turned away?

I took a training course with Red Cross in Denver over three weeks ago and I STILL haven't gotten my certificate for it. I need this certificate in order to start my job, and have called their customer service line many times and relayed that info to them. They say there's "nothing they can do" except contact the instructor, who apparently doesn't check their email for three weeks. I drove into Denver and got the phone number of my instructor's direct supervisor, called her, and she told me she had emailed someone who could help. I haven't heard back from her and it's been three days. This is the WORST treatment from an organization that I have ever experienced and so, incredibly unprofessional and disorganized. I have bills to pay! Three weeks without work is UNHEARD of! I have never been more frustrated in my life. I should sue them!

My name is Tammy Battles... I can not believe the way you guys are treating the victims of hurricane Harvey here in Houston Texas... you give out Confirmation number on September 11,2017...
You say the system crashed... and that is a lot of bull... Now everything came to a stand still... Until September 21,2017... Redcross is not honoring the first set of confirmation numbers that they gave out... When calling your on the phone 2 and 3 hours at a time and then they pretend to hang up on you... And the the denying any applications now there's been turned in... Knowing you cannot send an email to your cell phone from redcross and when you give the number they don't even want to look it up they don't want to honor it at all for the $400 help for victims family... Red Cross is a joke two families here in Houston Texas... My my confirmation number ZL*******... Please anyone out there who reads this... Who is looking for a hard worker... Single mother of four. Who lost her job to Harvey... In need of work please call me at *******534. Just in need of a little help... work Please

There is nothing more noble than an organization dedicated to helping those in need.

I merely wanted to inform everyone that if you do decide to donate to the Red Cross to make sure you use an e-mail address that you don't use often.

I didn't realize making a contribution meant subscribing to almost daily e-mails. (8 e-mails within 7 days. Some days I got 2, some days I got none.) Really, Red Cross, really?

Luckily, there is an unsubscribe button.

Well, that's my experience with the website! Just thought I would share.