For the past several years, the Red Cross has been offering various gifts for people who came in to donate blood. Some of it was things like T-shirts or hats; in 2006 they upped the ante and started trying to entice potential donors with free raffles for $100 worth of gasoline. Instead of gimmicks, maybe what they really need to try is treating their donors with some respect.
Back in the summer of 2006 I had a rather annoying series of calls come in that the Caller ID could only identify as “Unknown ID.” The calls would go to voicemail and leave no message, or else I would pick them up and there would be nobody on the other end. This seemed to me to be the kind of behavior you expect from telemarketers; where they call multiple numbers simultaneously and hang up on everyone except the first person to answer. On top of that, my only phone number is a cell phone, so I was getting these calls, no matter where I went.
Things finally got to the point where I contacted Sprint about the problem. They advised me that although there was nothing they could do to block these calls, they could trace the number. But in order for them to do that I’d have to file a subpoena. I went ahead and requested the paperwork, and thought about it for several weeks.
While I was debating my options, I found out that in order for the trace to work, I would have to actually answer some of these phone calls. Apparently without the call being answered Sprint has no record of the call ever taking place. Having decided to go ahead and do the subpoena, I started answering the phone. The second or third time that I answered a call from “Unknown ID”, I found a live person on the other end. It was the Red Cross calling to ask me to donate blood.
I went ahead and scheduled an appointment to give blood, but after receiving that very annoying series of calls without knowing who they were from, I also asked them to please remove my phone number from their records. That was the end of the matter. Or, so I thought.
As we got into the holiday season. I started hearing on the radio about how there was a shortage of blood and started thinking about donating blood again. Donating blood is a good thing to do for the community, and it’s something I used to do on a regular basis. Unfortunately, between my busy schedule, and the Red Cross shortening hours at the donor centers, it just wasn’t something I could do on a regular basis anymore.
The week before Christmas, my phone rang. It was another call from my old friend “Unknown ID.” Not certain who it might be, I answered the phone. It was the Red Cross, calling to ask me to donate blood.
I was rather surprised. They had promised to not call me anymore, and for five months they hadn’t. I did agree to give blood again, but I also expressed my disappointment that my request had not been honored.
The Wednesday after Christmas. I arrived at the Red Cross donor center at about 6:30. Despite all the talk on the news about how the Red Cross was facing a shortage of donors and how there was a “blood shortage emergency” I was rather surprised to see that the donor center was quite full. When I arrived, there were three people in the back in the process of donating blood. There were perhaps two or three people being interviewed for their medical histories. And there were about six people waiting to have their histories taken.
Having given blood before, I knew some of the drill. My first step was to sign in. This was unexpectedly complicated; instead of one sign in sheet, there were two; and no clear indication of which one to use. The Red Cross typically uses a system where they call you by number. Once you sign in, you take a number and wait for your number to be called. Along with the two sign in sheets, there were two stacks of numbers; and no indication of which one to take. And nobody at the desk to tell you. I made a guess and took a number from the white stack and then waited for instructions.
After I’d been waiting for about five minutes. They finally called someone’s number. The number they called was from the blue stack, but I didn’t know what that meant, so I continued to wait. At this point, there were several of us who had come in within three or four minutes of each other, and we were all waiting for someone to give us instructions.
At this point, someone finally did notice that we were waiting for instructions. This woman proceeded to yell from across the room that we couldn’t stand where we were and had to go sit down. Ironically, we were standing in front of a sign, which promised we would be treated courteously. So much for that.
I found a seat, and sat for another ten minutes. After ten minutes, I noticed that the person who had been called to give her history ten minutes earlier was still waiting for someone to take her history. Not only that, but of the six or seven donor stations at the back of the room, there were still only three being used.
So let me sum this up. I’ve been at the donor Center for fifteen minutes and so far the only person who’d spoken to me at all had done nothing more than yell at me. The person who was waiting to give her medical history was still waiting ten minutes later. There were approximately eight people waiting to get their medical histories. There was certainly no sign of any shortage of blood donors.
So I left.
The Gaithersburg donor center has been going downhill for some time. Back in, I think, 2002, the donor center shortened their hours, closing an hour earlier, while at the same time, the Red Cross was declaring a blood emergency due to a lack of donors. It used to be that the donor center had privacy screens so the people donating blood weren’t “on display” the moment you walked in the front door. Those went away several years ago.
This new business of yelling at people who are trying to do something good does nothing to make me want to go back there. I’m still willing to donate blood, but not to the Red Cross. The only problem is, they seem to have a monopoly on blood donations in this area. That gives them no incentive to change their behavior. That also makes it unlikely I’ll be donating blood anytime soon.
Now, I suppose you could say I have a bad attitude about this and I probably won’t argue too much. But I’m willing to change my attitude. Will the Red Cross change theirs?