There was an email from Wendy waiting for me when I got home from work today. She sent me the name of one of the “appropriate folks” to address my concerns. It’s a name I recognize. Tracy helped me out a few years ago when I had a group of people who wanted to come in together to donate blood, but needed the donor center to stay open an extra hour. With luck, she’ll be able to help out again.
I expect her first question will be to ask what I want them to do. It’s a short list.

1. Fix the appointment system.
2. Treat people with courtesy.
3. Bring back the privacy screens
4. Bring on more staff so they don’t have a situation with half the donation stations empty and eight people waiting for their medical histories to be taken.
5. Stop making phone recruiting calls with an autodialer.
6. Fix the recruiting phone system to identify the caller.
7. Remove my phone number from their records.

1. Fix the appointment system.
The Red Cross appointment system has been a fraud for years. When the Red Cross asks you to donate blood, they want to schedule it for a specific time. I’ve never seen a scheduled appointment time have any bearing on the actual donation. Once you get to the donor center, you’re taken in the order in which you arrived.
For my appointment on December 27, I busted my butt to get there on time, including taking time for an unplanned and unwanted fast-food dinner (you’re supposed to have something to eat before giving blood). When I arrived, donors were being taken in the order they arrived (with some bizarre, unexplained, scheme with two sets of numbers).
This could be fixed by simply faxing the day’s appointments to the donor center and having someone check people in.
2. Treat people with courtesy.
When I was at the donor center on the 27th, I was apparently standing in some sort of “forbidden to stand” area. It wasn’t marked. The only way I found out was when one of the staff people yelled at a group of us from across the room. As mentioned before, we were standing in front of a sign where they promise to treat donors with courtesy. Would it really have been that difficult for her to walk across the room and speak in a civil tone?
3. Bring back the privacy screens
Blood donors are not cattle. Why do the people in the process of donating need to be on display the moment people walk in the front door?
4. Bring on more staff so they don’t have a situation with half the donation stations empty and eight people waiting for their medical histories to be taken.
This was one of the most frustrating parts of my experience. The Red Cross was doing their annual media push about a supposed lack of donors. I saw plenty of people who weren’t even past the medical history part of their visit. Just imagine how bad the situation would have been if the place had been packed like I’ve seen on other visits.
5. Stop making phone recruiting calls with an autodialer.
The Red Cross claims they don’t use autodialers. What triggered my initial complaints back in the summer was a series of phone calls coming in from “Uknown ID.” When I let the call go to voice mail, there was never a message. And when I did answer, there was nobody on the other end. These are all symptoms I recognize from before the Federal “Do Not Call” registry went into place.
6. Fix the recruiting phone system to identify the caller.
There’s no reason for phone calls from the Red Cross to come from “Unknown ID.” The truth is, I’d have been a lot more likely to answer – maybe even call back – if the call had been identified with the 800-GIVE-LIFE phone number (800-448-3543).
This shouldn’t be a difficult thing to do. Even small companies have their phone systems set up so all the outgoing calls are identified as coming from the company’s main number.
7. Remove my phone number from their records.
I want my name removed from the Red Cross’ phone list. Permanently. That shouldn’t be all that difficult. Once they clean up their act, I’ll call them.