The Salvation Army

I called to donate a piano that was in perfect playing shape. It did have some veneer peeling on the top, but plays perfect! And the rest of the wood is beautiful! The driver told us he throws away piano’s in better shape than this? WHAT you don’t want a FREE piano? If it sells for $ 50, you made $ 50? WOW is Salvation Army getting picky and wanting items that LOOK new? I even had it at the curb ready to go.
COME ON! We’ll your competition took it graciously! I really wanted the piano to go to Salvation Army, as my brother completed a program there. OH WELL?

WARNING: I just spent the past four hours waiting for the Salvation Army truck that was scheduled to come to my house to pick up some furniture today. Moments ago, I got a phone call from the driver. Turns out that they are «done for the day» and have no room left in their truck. They are not coming to get my donations. Does that put put me at the top of their list for tomorrow? NO. They have a whole new schedule to start in the morning!
My last day in this apartment is only three days away. And now I am stranded with all this furniture and other worthy donations that I consolidated and organized for the Salvation Army to pick up. I have no place to put this stuff or manner of giving it all away.
Yes, they are a wonderful, charitable organization. But their policies and protocol around working with donors is abhorrent. DO NOT TRUST THEIR PICKUP SERVICE.

Our experience with the pickup service has been excellent. We’ve used them twice, once for a big, heavy rear projection tv and stand, and once for a large loveseat.
You can schedule online then check on the day of pickup to see a 3 hr pickup window. On both occasions they’ve arrived within 15 minutes of the start time.
Our apartment is on the fourth floor with no elevators. I was very grateful to (a) see our saleable items go to a good cause and (b) have someone carry them down the stairs.
Highly recommended.

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.