The Salvation Army

They never came by and I didn’t get a phone call that the pick up was cancelled 5 minutes before pick up time nor an email to confirm cancellation, which was a total waste of time. They are very unprofessional and not an organization I would want to donate.

Salvation Army is a designated place for REACH program, (Relief for Energy Assistance through Community) the program helps low-​income disabled people to pay their PG&E bill.
This year was extremely hard I was recovering from a financial burden and got behind on my bills. I called and spoke with the receptionist who was very nice over the phone. It was explained to me what papers to bring in. I was asked if I had a 48 hour notice to terminate, I did, so I brought that in along with the required papers to complete the application process. I was scheduled to come in the next day.
The next day I arrived, and met with Patricia, she gathered all of my documents and looked at my Lic /​Id to match the billing address and all supporting documents. Patricia then called PG&E and let them know the REACH program will be paying the bill. I was relieved to hear that the 48 hour notice was removed and I was no longer going to have my energy disrupted/​cut off.
I immediately thanked Patricia, who made me feel very welcomed. I also participate in their food pantry once a month Salvation Army does help people who are on a fixed income with food. I am so grateful that they have that service it helps me a lot to supplement food for myself.
Salvation Army does a lot of giving back to the community, especially around the holidays and year around. I know that they have other programs for families and children. As they are a faith based organization.
I have read the negative feedback, in my opinion it was done out of using Salvation Army as a dumping ground for junk, where people did not want to pay the cost to have the junk hauled away.
Salvation Army is a non-​profit organization which solely depends on donations. I am sure a reasonable person, would acknowledge you cant sell something broken or damaged or something that can not be used. I am glad to read that the drivers are selective in what they pick up. No one want to borrow trouble, or have it sold to them.
The Salvation Army on Garden Street is accessible, the parking and location is very easy to find and parking is available, and they have a disabled parking stall.
I thank God for Salvation Army in East Oakland, they have been a tremendous help, especially in these hard times.

All of the reviews below are pretty much based on pick up of donated goods, and though I agree that their experiences were troublesome, I disagree in criticizing the Salvation Army as a whole. I think in the big picture the lives that are restored and the opportunity given to people whom would be otherwise helpless far outweighs the bad work ethics of the drivers. Just my opinion. I have witnessed lives being changed because of this organization and will continue to support it because of that.

Beware — They will tell whatever it takes to get the donation
My mother recently died and I needed to get all her stuff out of her apartment as quickly as possible.
I called around and couldn’t find anyone who would take everything. Everyone wanted to cherry pick. Some just wanted clothes, while some just wanted (new) furniture.
Anyway — I called Salvation Army and they told me they would take everything. I even went over a list of everything that was to be picked up. I made a big deal that everything needed to be picked up and they said no problem.
When the pickup came, the guy didn’t want to take about half the stuff. Yes the chairs were dirty and needed cleaned and I told them that over the phone. Yes this item had a crack, and the dresser had been painted. I called the dispatcher who called the driver and told him to pick the stuff up. So the driver called his supervisor who told him he didn’t have to. After several phone calls back and forth the pickup driver left and I was stuck with some way to get rid of two recliners, a bed (frame, base, the works) and some other misc stuff.
If I had been warned before had that they would not pick up some stuff I would have kept looking or made arrangements to get rid of the other stuff.
Seems if the driver is lazy, or hot, or doesn’t like you — he can refuse to pickup just about anything. So be warned.

Absolutely horrible experience. Their pickup driver treated my girlfriend, who was home alone at the time of pickup, so badly that I am still furious about it 7 months later. He was rude, intimidating, hostile, ordered her to move around a bunch of furniture in another room just to be a tough-​guy, then intentionally damaged our door and wood floor moving out the sofa we were donating, and disregarded my girlfriend telling him repeatedly to stop. When this jackass was done tearing up our house he then intimidated her into signing some papers before he left.
After hearing about what happened, I immediately called their management. While their operations manager apologized and said all the right things on the first phone call, he ultimately dragged his feet and played the stalling game as we played phone tag over the next couple months. No doubt he probably hoped I would just go away. He had told me initially that they would pay for the damages to our house, but ultimately he pawned me off on some insurance agent and their lawyers who stonewalled us.
Quite a business the «Salvation Army» has: they get a bunch of merchandise from donors for free, and then re-​sell it for a nice profit. But to minimize costs they apparently send a bunch of incompetent rock-​head ex-​con douchebags with women issues into people’s homes, intimidate the donors, and damage their houses. Then the Salvation Army hides behind lawyers so they aren’t liable for anything.
Well let me tell you pathetic ass-​hats something. I don’t forget nor will I ever forgive crap like this. No business should treat a customer that way, and no real man would ever treat a woman that way. You are cowards. Screw the evil sham enterprise known as the Salvation Army. I will never have anything but bad things to say about them, all true, for the remainder of my life. Shame on the Salvation Army.

I have to agree with these other comments, much as it hurts me to do so. I want to give a great review so that people will have the confidence to call and donate things to charity. But I also had an appointment time set up 2 weeks in advance, and they called me the morning of to say they couldn’t come because a driver called in sick. I had a bunch of large, heavy, valuable things on my porch that I couldn’t bring in before the rain came. I told the dispatcher that was completely unacceptable and that he must find someone to pick up my goods that same day. After about 30 minutes, the dispatcher called me back and said they’d have the driver from the next region over come to pick up our items. And that driver was a GRUMP! I’m sure he didn’t want to come all the way out here, but at the end of the day, they need to realize that our donations help give them jobs, income, and sustainability. The only reason I gave 2 stars instead of 1 is because that dispatcher managed to get a S.A. truck out to me.

Very rude drivers some kick around my stuff and left. just because it was heavy for them to lift it. went somewhere got a pick up sameday.

It is true. I guess they took an early Friday. No one showed up and a perfectly good couch is probably going to be rained on! I called customer service and they said they could pick it up in 3 days. By than the couch would be uninhabitable. I would go with another agency or just not have them pick up on Friday.

I have to echo some of the sentiments of the previous reviewer — by phone, the Salvation Army really tried to make it very simple for me to make donations, promising ease of pick-​up and times.
But in execution not so. I didn’t actually have the driver turn away any of my donations since the drivers and truck NEVER SHOWED UP. Not once. Not twice — THREE times.
In fact, I arranged my day on Christmas Eve — taking time out of my preparations of cooking for 20 people — to make sure everything was visible, well-​marked, yet out of the rain to ensure easy pick-​up between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. I received a call at 3:30 informing me they weren’t going to pick up my stuff — again! Unfortunately, with a 4-​day Christmas weekend, finding alternative resources to remove the items was next to impossible and caused a great deal of stress between myself and former apartment manager.
I finally called EcoHaul, who came out and handled my stuff and were very easy to work with.
I understand that these are donations, but donations that are in great re-​sale shape are what keep this and other organizations like this going. I’ve been seeing in the news how many of these organizations are hurting because of the lack of quality donations. However, Salvation Army has made it extremely difficult to be charitable and assist in their donation short-​fall.
When it comes time to donate goods, time, services and money, Salvation Army has fallen to the bottom of my list.

We had a pretty bad experience with the agency, on the donation end. We wanted to give them piano, and by phone they were completely willing to pick it up, though they gave us a pickup date two weeks away and a pickup time of pretty much all day. I was clear on the phone that it was a heavy piano and that there were three stairs to the sidewalk. So, pickup day arrives, and the husband and I stay home from work so that one or both of us can be around all day. They send out a couple of guys, one of them not terribly strong-​looking, and of course they are not up to moving a piano. They further explain that they are not piano movers. They tell us that the Salvation Army will say yes to everything because they want donations, but that they really can’t move anything so large. That this problem comes up a lot.
So, my advice, unless you are donating a large item that can be easily rolled out of a garage, don’t donate to the Salvation Army. Otherwise this agency will just waste your time.