American Red Cross
Reviews and Complaints

I have been giving blood for 20 years to the red cross. I went today, did the required tests and during conversation I mentioned that I began to donate after a doctor told me it was good to give for many reasons. Keeping iron levels low was one of them and helping others. The woman pulled back in her chair as if I said I had full blown aids and told me they would not take my blood and she was putting me on a list so I could no longer donate. I was shocked. I never said I had anything wrong with me. My comment that it all began with an idea from a doctor was it. If anything was wrong with my blood they surely would have found it during the last 20 years also. She was way out of line to do such a thing to someone so dedicated to helping the cause. I never once indicated I have a disease and know the blood is tested anyway. They state in the handbook if something is found I will get a letter to see my doctor. The blood would be destroyed too. I hope I can get this undone because I enjoy knowing my donation helps so many. It was shameful that I was treated this way and feel I am owed an apology and a new appointment quickly. It was not a good experience and this lady had no reason to over react as she did. Terrible waste of an hour.

It was never a big deal but now I am applying for jobs in my medical assisting field and I do not ha s the money to retake a class and I never received for the second time my cpr card. I took the course through Uconn hospital and again through Bridgeport hospital in February 2015. Please get back to me ASAP because I would like to know how to get a copy and why they two times I did them through the hospital I never received them.

I was donating blood at a blood drive and was there for some time due to the wait time. It was 06/16/2016 at the Alameda Church in Pocatello Idaho.
I was just appalled at they way one or two of the Red cross Phlebotomists was treating her supervisor. The one specifically, I heard her answer very rudely to her supervisor, when she was asked to do something while they were setting up the blood drive, and didn't look at her when she spoke to her etc.
She was a tall women, with reddish short hair that was so rude and disrespectful to her supervisor. I am a business owner and if one of my staff spoke to me and acted like that to me, they would be written up or fired.

I couldn't believe that the supervisor was so nice to her, even though she spoke to her and treated her with such disrespect.

It makes me think that something is wrong with higher management that they won't support the supervisor in expecting respect from the staff.

It makes me not want to donate blood with the American Red Cross. With people like that working for them, that turns me off.

I had a house fire on 2/17/2016, and while the fire was happening, I was told that the Red Cross would give me assistance.

Because I lived in Picayune, MS, my nearest branch was the Hattiesburg branch.

First of all, it took about four days for anyone to return my phone calls. Once I finally got in contact with someone, I was questioned about why I waited so long after the fire... well, because I kept calling and nobody would return my phone calls!

Finally, someone met with me, who I later learned was NOT my case manager. So, obviously, I never knew who my case manager was. This person filled out paperwork and asked me a bunch of questions.

One thing I was told during this meeting, was that counseling would be available to me through the Red Cross, as I stated during the meeting that I wished I had died in the fire. This turned out to be untrue. The day after the meeting, I got a followup call from [protected], and asked the caller about how to set up the counseling I was told would be available to me. Her response was "huh?" She didn't know what I was talking about or why I was told that.

Another thing I was told during this meeting, was that I would be given assistance with my first month's rent, when I found another place to live. I SPECIFICALLY asked if there was a statute of limitations for this assistance, and I was told NO. After three weeks of nobody returning my phone calls, I found out that is also untrue, because once 30 days have passed, you don't get any help, even if it takes more than 30 days to find an affordable place to live. Exactly WHEN were they planning to tell me this? I tried for about 3 weeks to get in contact with someone!

Finally someone answered the number that I had received a followup call from. She didn't know why I was even calling her, because after all, the fire happened in February, and Red Cross doesn't help people with fires more than 30 days ago.

I need to make a formal complaint about the Hattiesburg chapter of the Red Cross, because of the grave misinformation I was given resulting in my being denied help for my disaster. If indeed one has a 30 day limit for assistance with the Red Cross, it was a grave negligence to tell me otherwise, keeping in mind that some of us actually cannot find another place to live within 30 days.

I also need to formally complain about the complete lack of communication on the part of that chapter. If it takes four days for someone to bother to return my phone calls, they should not have implied that I was lying about my need for assistance since the fire was four days ago. It also took three weeks of unreturned phone calls, for someone to even bother to tell me about the 30 day limit that had already passed.

Please advise.

I received a call from "Tiffany" indicating she was with Red Cross and she was calling because she had identified some discrepancies/false information/tampering with CPR cards in our agency. I asked her to send me the information and she indicated she was calling because she could help us out and make this problem go away, she could fixed it for a fee. She gave us staff names and on December 29th, a month later sent us a copy of one of our staff provided CPR cards, from the American Heart Association, that looked tampered with. But it was not the card we had in our files for the contractor. On Saturday January 2nd she sent another contractor card. The card she sent us was an American Red Cross card, but it was not the card we had on file for the contractor that work for us. Their CPR was done by Red Cross, here at our facility. Since then she has contacted several times and has since requested money to make this issue go away. Indicating that we can be prosecuted and fined or jailed if she turns this over to authorities. Her recent request was for '60K' to make this go away. We have reported this incident to the local police and wanted to file this report with you. We do not have a full name, just Tiffany, and the number she is texting from is [protected]. However, no one answers this number when e call it back. I have only spoken with her on the phone once and the other correspondences have been through texting.

My wife called red cross to report that we had a family member death. Red cross wants information and saying that because it is not a immediate family member they cannot do anything but when my grand mother die i was able to go home for that. My chain of command is already aware of the problem and red cross said that it would have to be approved by a manager. This is outrageous. i am deployed and having to deal with this. This is an outrage. This needs to be fixed. my unit is just waiting on the red cross message.

On December seventh 2013 my girlfriend and I went to donate blood at 2145 Roswell Road Ste 250 Marietta, GA 30062. My girlfriend have been donating blood for 9 years and Saturday was my firs time donating blood. I went trough all sign up process and finally sat on the chair to give blood, my girlfriend was preparing to give blood at the same time as me. The employee of the Red cross that was taking my girlfriends blood, was unable properly to take blood from her arm by missing the vain and after that she went trough the vain. She experienced a lot of pressure followed by extreme pain. The Red Cross employee Told her that "she is unable to donate that morning". After i finished giving my blood, the red cross employee that took my blood spilled full pint of blood on the floor in front of me and other doners in the room.
The Only reason i am complaining is because i don't want anyone to have to go trough this, specially when we are volunteering to give our blood for other people or for research.
The donation process experienced by both of us was unacceptable and hopefully will never be repeated for another doner.
This is not the first Time this happens and i think there should be more professional people with more experience that need to be working in Red Cross. I am not 100 percent sure if i ever want to go to donate blood again after my first time went like that.
Thank you, Andre Laskey

We gladly donated to Super Storm Sandy relief when the stars had their benefit. However, our card was charged for what we donated and the an additional $50.00 second charge. We got our charge card company to reverse the charge but after contacting the Red Cross, they are now reissueing that charge. We are going to write off the $50.00 but never ever give to the Red Cross again and that includes my blood donations.

every 15 minutes the red cross automatically is calling my house, I have complained to the red cross but so for nothing is being done. The number that calls my house is [protected]. This goes on every 15 minutes without end. Please help me to get this to stop.

I have tried for three days to make a donation to the american red cross hurricane relief fund. The line was constantly busy. Finally i got an automated pick - up, but finally hung up after waiting on line for 10 minutes. I wanted to donate more than $10. 00, so i did not use the phone text. I prefer to make a donation to a live person, not on line. If this organization needs money so badly, why don't they have enough people to man the phones? I donated to katrina and certainly did not have this much trouble. ?

With a new Hurricane that might hit fla...You will see insurance company's want to leave the state...They hate to give out money..And another thing i was giving to red Cross for years and during the last set of storms that left us with out power for 2 weeks I only saw one red cross truck at the mall passing out food because no stores were open due to no power..Well they ran out of food in 20 min and never saw another Red Cross truck again...What do they do with all of there money they sure don't help like they say...I stopped giving to them after I got nothing at the mall and there were so many hungry people..And this was due because the weather people said the Hurricane would miss us...So nobody was ready..And forget the goverment ever helping they go on TV with there shirts rolled up acting like there are doing something but they don't do a thing to help out the people...It's every man for himself...The Hurricanes do one good thing they make people leave and not come back...You go threw one of these things and it is hell...

I was looking into purchasing a CPR course through their website when I received an error message from their server saying that the transaction had failed. And it suggested that I tried again. Long story short, I was charged twice for the item that I never received. No confirmation, no receipt, only money taken out of my account (processing). I tried to contact them and it takes at least 70 minutes now just to get through the line, and when I got to someone, he was very uninterested in solving the problem, and very unprofessional. This person then told me that someone would call me back. Nobody called back. That was 4 days ago, and I am still trying to reach someone there. No response by phone nor email. Very disrespectful. I wish I knew about the way this organization operates before. So I 'd like to at least warn future victims of this disrespectful service.

As a full-time volunteer for over 4 years I was "fired" by e-mail within 24 hours of filing a complaint against another volunteer. The person whom I complained about had been seen representing The Chapters Military Services Unit at the 2010 Memorial Day Ceremony at The National Cemetery in Springfield, Mo despite his not even being a volunteer in that unit AND despite been told by me personally, as The Military Services Supervisor & Event Organizer, that he could NOT represent The Red Cross at the event. This volunteer had previously been reported multiple times for theft and other violations of Red Cross Fundamental Principles & Policies. Administrative failure to act on these reports had already resulted earlier in 2010 in one resignation. I was called a liar to my face by the Director of Volunteer Services when I explained that I had personally told the person that he could not represent the Red Cross at the event. A few hours later I gave my 2-week notice in protest of their handling of the situation. Later that evening, after I had gone home for the day, I was sent an e-mail telling me not to return.
To make matters worse, I took my reports and complaints to The National HQ of The American Red Cross where they refused to investigate and only responded 2 months later after my repeated calls and e-mails asking the status of my case. I was told that there were no irregulariries in my dismissal and the case was closed. The volunteer thief, bigot and Policy Violator is still there despite the continued complaints of other volunteers and staff.
This is my complaint and warning to all person thinking of donting their money and/or time to The American Red Cross. Approach with caution!
Please visit my MySpace site with the full story and documentation:
www.myspace.com/545768914