American Red Cross — Local services in Raleigh

I scheduled my appointment for blood donation since that was mandated with the Covid19 restrictions. I arrived and was promptly taken into an intake room after checking in. I had to wait approx 5 min after completing the intake information for someone to pull me out to get the blood donation process started. A typical wait when they are busy, but there was NO ONE else in the building giving blood at this time.

4 of the 6 paid staff were sitting in chairs and playing on their phones when I was taken to the donation chair. The person getting my donation started had to assemble the blood kit before she started asking my name and DOB, to get my donation in process. With previous donations someone assembled the blood donation tubing & tubes for staff to grab and facilitate donors getting through the process quicker.

A gentleman came in to give blood while I was in process and one of the staff got up to start his donation which left 3 paid staff sitting and playing on their phones. These people should have gotten up in pairs, one to assemble the tubing & tubes while the other prepped the donors. A much better use of a donor's time as well as the paid staff time.

After donation the refreshment person was sitting at the table on her cell phone as well. Typically that person is more interactive and helpful. This lady did mention grabbing a business card for a free pizza which I wouldnt have known about. At the end of my post donation wait time she did pleasantly say "have a good day".

I donated at this particular location because they had a time slot open on the date I was available. My 2 other normal locations were booked. I would not recommend...

Been donating blood at this location for years. Staff and volunteers are generally pleasant and welcoming. Today I went with a scheduled appointment at 4pm, and the doors are locked, lights off. Standing outside with two other people who also took time off work to make appointments wondering what happened. Called the general service number, they had no idea what was going on, they transferred me to the local phone number here. Of course, no one answered, so I left a message. It's especially weird considering the barrage of messages you get reminding you how important it is to donate, there's a desperate need for blood, you need to complete your rapid pass yada yada yada. Whole experience really just sours looking forward to doing this again and makes me wonder if I should even donate here because I'm not even sure if they're going to be open. Maybe there's a really good reason they're closed without notifying people with scheduled appointments and I hope everyone is okay, but this just seems like an incredibly sloppy...

I gave blood in Feb. O Neg and have for years. The App made me think all was good. Found out today that it was contaminated after my donation and is being destroyed. So not only did someone not take proper care of it, but the ARC is misleading me in the App making me think all was fine. Lack of transparency makes me lose trust. They must not need O Negative blood like they would have you believe if this is how they treat...