Quick tip. If you are donating to The Salvation Army, be present when they come to pick up your furniture.
Someone we know had a large hall mirror broken last week by the departing men carrying a sofa. He did not discover it until he returned home, when he called them to find out what happened. The Salvation Army denied the accident, and a loud angry phone call ensued. To no avail. The damage? At least $800. No good deed goes unpunished.
Donating is great, but be careful with large objects going in and out of your apartment. They don't care as much as you do. MGR
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Comments (4)
I'm sure these words of warning apply to any service or trades (or friends!) you let into your home, not just Salvation Army.
It is also best to mention that The Salvation Army as a whole has changed over the last few years. Living near D.C, my local Salvation Army has to be running some kind of racquet. I went there a few weekends ago to make a donation and looked around the 'show room'. They were selling (gently used obviously) dining room sets and bedroom dresses for like $500-800 dollars.
The Salvation Army was created to help those in need, but how are those in need supposed to afford these prices when I cannot.
I sat from 7:30 to 4:30 today for a Salvation Army pick up and they never showed up. My window was 7:30-2:30 and they hung up on me 4 times when I tried to find out after 2:30 where they were. I made the appointment 3 weeks ago. At 2:45 the pick up crew was 16 blocks from my apt and they swore they would be there in 30 minutes. When I called back at 4:15 they yelled at me and told me I should understand that things happen and the driver was done for the day and do I want to reschedule. They make a person not want to donate. Never once did they apologize or think it was wrong to make me sit from 7:30am all day and never alert me to the fact that they may never show up. They did not even call me to tell me they were not coming - I had to call them. I have never been so disappointed by any company. They actually thought that what they did was no big deal and I am crazy for being upset. I will never give them money or goods again.
I was also sort of screwed over by Salvation Army. I scheduled a pick-up a week in advance, and stressed to the man I talked to that it was a very large, very heavy piece. I gave him my address with my apartment #, and even told him that the day he'd scheduled me for was the very last day of my lease and I'd be turning in my keys right after they came. When the pick-up guy arrived, he just said, "Bad news. We don't do 3rd floors." What?! This couldn't have been addressed a week before when I would have actually had time to arrange an alternative? I honestly felt like I had to take an ax to a $3000 piece of furniture to get it out... I called my husband sobbing (yeah, I know, probably an overreaction), and he ended up finding someone on Craigslist to get rid of it for $100...
Ugh, but I definitely won't be donating to Salvation Army again. I just read about their backwards politics, and I'm sort of glad they didn't get the piece anyway.