Athens Habitat Restore West — Attraction in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

Update: Thank you for responding - this makes me glad when a company stands behind its mission and yes, I would be glad to offer more information in the hopes of creating a better experience for others moving forward. I appreciate your time and look forward to helping any way I can.

Collected items over several months and came to donate some brand new and gently worn items including new towel set, new twin bedding with blanket, frames, candles, clothes, shoes, household items, humidifier, etc.

Upon arrival, no signs of humans but after a few minutes a young man came out from around a gated area to collect the donations. After a little small talk, the young man grabbed two of the smaller bags and as he tossed them (yes, tossed) into a nearby shopping cart, one of the bags did not make it; landed on the ground and broke many items in the bag into pieces. Oddly enough, there was no apology...he just simply went about his day and left the items broken on the ground.

I asked the young man if he was going to bring the other items up underneath a covered area as to not be left out in the elements since there were items that would be damaged if left out. The man shrugged but didn't move. At this point I decided to just put all the donations up under the awning myself.

I know not everything that is donated is in mint or new condition but these are still items that other people can use and in no way should they be destroyed by the place that's accepting them as a donation.

I donate items of good to great quality; nothing broken, nothing torn or ripped, items functioning as they should and working as they should, clean,etc and oftentimes new items.

I've never donated to this spot before and had seen good reviews online so I drove out of my way to donate here. The way in which the donation was handled was not acceptable in my view.

Sad that these wonderful donated items will now be thrown out, instead of being donated and used by someone else as originally intended because of a workers carelessness.

As for my future donations, I will continue to donate....to facilities that are more...

Habitat for humanity prides itself on being there for the community and helping. I have been to locations that do that. This location however, does not. It is by far the most demeaning experience I have had at any location. I am a single divorced mom of 7. Due to covid, we have lost everything and are just now recovering. Replacing everything for 7 children is tough. I went to the Restore East and found two matching beds. I spoke to the manager because one we couldn’t confirm had all the pieces and he helped my family. No questions asked. No haggling. He understood. He was wonderful. He had no mattresses. I want to the Restore West and found 1 twin size mattress. Two of my daughters and my mother was with us. They wanted almost 300 for a twin size mattress. He said because the person who DONATED it paid almost 800. I expressed to him that we need the mattress. I went over our situation. I told him we had 100 but we had to get beds for all kids and even that would be tough. He said no, i can get more. My mom darn near begged him. In front of my kids, she asked him is it his decision alone. He said yes. She said please have a heart. I’m helping her even with the 100. He said no. I know I can get more. Do you need a buggy. My girls were gutted. My mom was livid at how he could be so cold then offer a buggy. For what… we couldn’t take the mattress. I told my girls no worries. Doesn’t God always provide. But inside i was very angry. This is an unacceptable experience for a company that prides themselves on helping others and receives for free on that premise. I personally have given so much before we were hit with covid. Shame on...

Used to be a great place to shop and get a great deal of nice things used when it first opened. The awesome lady that was there most of the time to begin with ( I believe her name was Anna not sure if she still works there) would give you great deals on everything in the store and she was very personable and loved kids. I bought a small computer desk that was marked $75 and I offered $50 and she let me have it for $40! Now you go there and things are priced like they're new, they refuse to bargain on anything and if they do budge even .25 cents on anything they will not allow you to use their coupon. Don't show up 30 minutes before closing either, because you will be rushed out of there on account of the floor staff aren't staying there a minute after closing. You aren't allowed to return anything either even though their prices seem to be competing with retail and Goodwill. My wife purchased a white jacket that looked nice enough, but on account of being rushed out the store trying to wrangle 3 small children she wasn't given adequate time to look it over and trying not to inconvenience anyone and feeling hurried she purchased it. Upon further inspection she found it had purple ink spots on the back of it. They wouldn't even consider letting her trade it for the other jacket she wanted and maybe paying a little bit over the cost of the original. For a store that relies on donations from their clientele for revenue they seemed to have lost the allure made the store great in the beginning. I will have to find another thrift store to help in the community with donations...