Red Cross Will NOT Stop Calling--VENT!

[kimblebee]

The same can be said for many jobs.

Anyone working in the tobacco industry is responsible for killing hundreds of thousands a year.

Anyone working in the firearm industry is responsible for killing.

Anyone working in the beer/wine/liquor industry is responsible for ruining lives and killing.

Do you lack respect for those human beings as well?

Let’s not forget televangelists who bilk people out of millions and millions of dollars a year. I hope everyone disrespects that.

 

[Pink Partridge]

Let’s not forget televangelists who bilk people out of millions and millions of dollars a year. I hope everyone disrespects that.

Heck no! Who would respect them calling your home and harassing?

 

[sam_gordon]

You have a much higher tolerance for harassment than I do. It really bothers me when a company that I have donated to harasses me.

The ringing, beeping in, and constant disruptions by someone that you have helped is highly aggravating. And when told to stop, they hang up on your face and call again.

This highly regarded non-profit. I expect more from them.

I would try to go through channels first. Meaning make some calls of my own to their office to try to find the right person who can get the calls to stop.

Failing that, I would make recordings of at least 5-6 calls, making sure they're time/date stamped. Then check with the AG's office and see if there's anything they can do. If that falls through, I'd try the media (and I hate suggesting that), or see if a lawyer will take it on contingency (and I hate saying that even more). I guess you could call the police and file a restraining order.

 

[MillauFr]

The real solution is to not answer your phone unless you recognize the phone number.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Tell them you moved. To an area not within the ARC blood center vicinity. Such as, find out where this

So Life South knows w

poster and blood company are. Or Las Vegas.

Or https://www.redcross.org/faq.html#Financial-Donations then select "How can I opt out of receiving Red Cross mailings or calls?", then fill out the form and in the Inquiry Type field, open the dropdown menu and select the Remove From Contact List option, describe your request in the last box, and submit.

And they get good money for it, too. I remember the hospital I worked at paid about $90 for a unit of blood, and that was 25 yrs ago.

Not defending, just explaining: it costs money to operate a blood donor center, never mind hundreds. They obviously don't charge donors, but need income somehow.

***

Having worked in a call center, we were trained, and advised customers, that it takes up to 30 days for a Do Not Call request to go into effect.

 

[kaytieeldr]

They are calling to harass, end of story

Wrong. They are calling to (in this case) schedule another appointment.

That multiple persons are calling multiple time is harassing, but they are not calling to harass.

There is a very big difference.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Then check with the AG's office and see if there's anything they can do

Also the FCC.

 

[mummabear]

Wrong. They are calling to (in this case) schedule another appointment.

That multiple persons are calling multiple time is harassing, but they are not calling to harass.

There is a very big difference.

I disagree, they are calling to harass you into making an appointment, an appointment may I add that you are doing in the first place to be generous.
The whole point of them calling is to coerce you u to giving more.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I disagree, they are calling to harass you into making an appointment, an appointment may I add that you are doing in the first place to be generous.
The whole point of them calling is to coerce you u to giving more.

I would be annoyed too at the constant calling and there's no doubt you gotta be nice not rude or mean if you're wanting someone to set up an appointment.

On the other hand we're not talking about a credit card offer or a political survey or any other mundane thing. We're talking about blood, plasma and platelets,etc all of which saves peoples lives every day. There also has been a recent critical level of needing people to donate not that it excuses behaviors. I don't put blood donations on my list of entities out there under the coercion side as to me that implies malicious intent. Tactics aside there is a real need for people out there to set up appointments (whichever way they do it) and donate.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Tell them you moved. To an area not within the ARC blood center vicinity. Such as, find out where this
poster and blood company are. Or Las Vegas.

The headquarters are in Florida.

 

[mummabear]

I would be annoyed too at the constant calling and there's no doubt you gotta be nice not rude or mean if you're wanting someone to set up an appointment.

On the other hand we're not talking about a credit card offer or a political survey or any other mundane thing. We're talking about blood, plasma and platelets,etc all of which saves peoples lives every day. There also has been a recent critical level of needing people to donate not that it excuses behaviors. I don't put blood donations on my list of entities out there under the coercion side as to me that implies malicious intent. Tactics aside there is a real need for people out there to set up appointments (whichever way they do it) and donate.

I agree there is a need to donate, as an O- I give blood regularly, but if I was being hounded by the blood bank that would stop.

You cant put tactics aside, that is the whole point of the thread, if people want to make an appointment to give blood they will, send emails or letters, advertise looking for donors but ring me repeatedly interrupting me to harass me to do it.

 

[sam_gordon]

Also the FCC.

What would the FCC have to do with it?

 

[kamik86]

You know I haven't donated blood since high school I have thought about sometimes when there are drives maybe I should. These practices convinced me not to.

I wonder how many people don't donate because their policies are so dumb.

Who would be convinced to book an appointment on call 4 if they didn't the first three times?

 

[nkereina]

I doubt that the person calling even has the ability to actually remove anyone from a call list. In a best base scenario they have a way to pass that request on to someone else who may not be doing their job.

Asking for escalation is entirely different then angrily taking out aggression on the front line employee who should have every right to hangup on those who are not behaving in a respectful manner.

Respect is a two way street.

If the person calling does not have the ability to remove a person from a call list, they should not tell the OP they will do that. Saying they will remove them and saying they will submit a request to remove them are two different things. I just had an issue with the GM web site and they told me that they would submit a ticket for it - it put me on notice that the phone rep had no authority or ability to handle it, so I knew that I would need to escalate it if it didn't get done.

And we don't know that the OP was "angrily taking out aggression" to the point where it would be acceptable for a person in customer service to hang up on them. A person in customer service who is supposed to be scheduling appointments should still maintain composure unless someone has become threatening or inappropriate, which I don't gather OP was at that level. Respect is most definitely a two way street, but not doing what a company says they will do is a lack of respect as well.

I don't answer my cell phone unless it is a number in my contacts.

I could be wrong but I get the impression OP is receiving these calls on a landline. Generally, you can't silence a landline. It can be difficult to block numbers on a landline. I get tons of bogus spam calls on my cell phone, but I can easily ignore them. Its much more frustrating when it happens on my landline, because there's not much I can do to prevent it short of changing my phone number.

 

[lynxstch]

What would the FCC have to do with it?

You can report phone calls to the FCC as well as the Do Not Call Registry, I think that's what they were referring to

 

[sam_gordon]

You can report phone calls to the FCC as well as the Do Not Call Registry, I think that's what they were referring to

From https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/115002234203-Unwanted-Calls-Phone-

We do not resolve individual unwanted call complaints, but your complaint provides valuable information that we use to inform policy decisions and as the basis of potential enforcement actions against callers violating our rules.

 

[cinnaminny]

We went through this for nearly a year. I have AB+ blood type, so on top of calling every single day about donating blood, they were calling at least a few times a week about going and giving plasma. Which I understand but calling every single day sometimes a few times a day has the opposite effect. Harassing us, just made me want to NOT donate to them. Which sucks, because if they had done it properly I would have no issue donating a few times a year. Finally after demanding a few times that they take us off their list they finally did. But it took forever.

I feel like my blood pressure went up just typing that out lol

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I agree there is a need to donate, as an O- I give blood regularly, but if I was being hounded by the blood bank that would stop.

You cant put tactics aside, that is the whole point of the thread, if people want to make an appointment to give blood they will, send emails or letters, advertise looking for donors but ring me repeatedly interrupting me to harass me to do it.

I was referring directly to your comments only.

they are calling to harass you into making an appointment

No they are not calling you to harrass you to make an appointment. The Red Cross, Community Blood Centers, and all the other entities out there are not calling to harrass you. They want you to make an appointment as a point of necessity. That's why I said tactics aside. Individual people may be rude, may be unkind in trying to set up an appointment but that doesn't mean the entire system we have set up in the U.S. with all the entities out there that collect blood for donation are actually harrassing you as their intent when a person picks up the phone to call you.

If you had said that the persons the OP has dealt you felt crossed into the harrassing territory I wouldn't have commented. You framed your comment as a general description of blood donations.

whole point of them calling is to coerce you u to giving more.

And my rebuttal was coercion was not what I was refer it to. It's blood donation. It's life saving. Now if persons on the phone were threatening people (like the IRS scams out there that are completely false where the person threatens to have someone come get you and throw you in jail unless you pay $X amount) that would be different. That would unfortunately be an indidivudal person's choice if they interacted with previous blood donors that way.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If the person calling does not have the ability to remove a person from a call list, they should not tell the OP they will do that.

To be fair the OP said in her OP that she told them to take them off the list and then the next day she got calls again. If they were able to take her off the list, even for just the month the OP was later told they could do, it may not be an overnight thing, especially if that it out of the caller's skillset.

I totally agree though on your comments regarding telling the OP accurate information. In this instance though I'm wondering if it would have been all that much better if the answer simply was "you need to remove yourself via the online form" if you want to be removed forever versus I can do it for a month (which I linked in my first comment, hopefully the OP has at least tried that venue by now).

 

[nkereina]

To be fair the OP said in her OP that she told them to take them off the list and then the next day she got calls again. If they were able to take her off the list, even for just the month the OP was later told they could do, it may not be an overnight thing, especially if that it out of the caller's skillset.

I totally agree though on your comments regarding telling the OP accurate information. In this instance though I'm wondering if it would have been all that much better if the answer simply was "you need to remove yourself via the online form" if you want to be removed forever versus I can do it for a month (which I linked in my first comment, hopefully the OP has at least tried that venue by now).

Agree. If the phone reps are telling OP (and others) "Ok we'll remove you from the list", that leads the caller to believe its immediate and no further calls will be received. If there's actually a time lag, letting the caller know that would be sufficient. I'd bet the OP would be more understanding if they were advised of exactly how and when they'd be removed from the list, so everyone is on the same page.