Australian Red Cross Reviews 16

Continuously receiving letters, feels like you are being pressured to donate. I have previously voiced my frustration to them about the exact same issue, but the letters keep coming, recently I got 2 in a week. On top of that, I am now getting phone calls from them for the same thing. How desperate are you? They are like pests, blood suckers, this is borderline harassment! I will no longer support this charity for these reasons.

They helped my friends grandfather Adolf James.H

Very poor service treatment people differently due to their race . I have applied funding support from their grant and keep asking document one to one different format and still refuse make a payment in very bad medical condition. I believe they miss use funds for their known people instead of need people
People who support them be aware

Dodgy. Treat staff poorly.
Numerous negative reviews. Incompetent management.
Donation funds miss used.

So today I received a phone call from the Red Cross & spoke to Chris. I had received a txt msg a few days prior informing me that they would be contacting me to discuss a few things. For those that don't know, the Red Cross offer a free & valuable service called Telecross. It's a wonderful service, especially for people who live on their own and/or have no support network (young & old). Every morning (or on your nominated mornings) a volunteer rings you b/w 8am - 9am to check in with you & to make sure you're ok. It's similar to a wellness check & provides peace of mind. Like I said, up until now it's been a FREE service. Well today I was informed that things may be changing. Moving forward it looks like they will ONLY be offering this service to people who are either registered with My Aged Care (you have to be a certain age to qualify for that) and/or to people who are registered with the NDIS. Now you'd think the person with whom I spoke would've had all my details in front of him, including my age, but it appears he didn't. Red flag number one. This person just assumed I was already registered with My Aged Care & that I was receiving aged care services. When I told him I wasn't registered with My Aged Care he proceeded to ask me if I would like to register on the spot & that it would only take about 15 minutes. Red flag number two. Again, he assumed I was of a certain age. I practically had to spell it out for him that I am not registered with My Aged Care because I don't fall into that age bracket, I'm younger. He then asked if I was with the NDIS. I am not. Red flag number three. By this stage I was getting suspicious & voiced my concerns. At the beginning of the call he was able to confirm some of my details (name, address, etc), but didn't know how old I was?? All that information was provided to the Red Cross when I initially signed up to receive the phone calls. Red flag number four. The number he rang on is a Sydney number. i.e.
(02) 4428 4971. Unfortunately, I've just realised that this is a different number to the original number that they initially said they would ring on. i.e.
(02) 9229 4222. Therefore, if you are a Red Cross client & have received a txt msg or a phone call from them, PLEASE verify it's them. I have since confirmed that both those numbers are affiliated with the Red Cross & that Chris is one of their support workers. But if moving forward they will only be offering the Telecross service to people from whom they can profit off, then I will no longer be supporting their so called "charity". If their incentive is now only money/profit then it's a business & that's a shame.

Today I received a newsletter from Australian Red Cross that clearly indicates that they are of the belief that I am their client and have a care package with them. I am not.

I called the number and asked for an explanation, and the very young woman on the other end of the phone refused to give me an explanation. She tried to forced me off the phone call by speaking over me and refusing to listen.

When I requested that someone call me to explain how they had my private information and how this mistake occurred, she clearly didn’t want to help me and kept interrupting me while I was speaking and spoke to me in a condescending manner.

My request was clearly not unreasonable, yet she acted like it was. I hate to imagine how these people are treating elderly vulnerable people.

Edit: No one ever called me back in regard to my complaint about how they obtained and misused my private information. Obviously they dont think that privacy laws matter.

Friday received a call from Harry from Red Cross reactivation team. He knew all my details, I provided updated credit card details and was promised a Welcome Pack via email. This was not forthcoming so I locked my cc but rang Red Cross three times, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Each time no mention was made of my concerns but was told the marketing had been outsourced and I could not contact them directly. By then I was aware that it was a scam (Reverse Caller ID reports). Thanks Red Cross, by cutting costs, security and outsourcing processes you have lost my trust and potential donations. The thing is, each person I spoke to didn't seem overly concerned that my private information I entrusted you with was in the hands of scammers.

I am a contractor to Australian Red Cross and provide a co-working space to their staff in a regional area. This provides their staff with desks, printing facilities, parking, storage, internet, kitchen, private meeting room and everything they their staff need to run operations locally.

They had left another co-working space, who also complained of late payments for their services and explained that it was virtually impossible to get payment out of Red Cross.

A local storage facility employed by Red Cross found the situation the same.

And now it's my turn. **So is it the same across all Australia for other contractors?**

For me, it's invoices well overdue, it has taken endless emails, legal advice, requests for a change in contract and payment in advance. Even though I'm housing their staff, head office simply don't care.

Australian Red Cross promises aren't worth a thing, they've made a new agreement to pay me in advance but now inexplicably are paying me nearly $300 of dollars short every month. Out of the blue. Followed it up, and no responses to emails.

I've received advice they've had issues with their finance system causing problems with payments. Funny. It seems to work extremely well in getting nearly a billion dollars funding annually from the government and donations.

Very hard to swallow the caring humanitarian ethos that they shout from the hills when they so flagrantly disregard home grown, ground up, mum & dad businesses (who are actually making change by contributing in their own regional communities.)

I rang the 131495 number because their online system was not allowing me to make a ‘booking online. I tried 4 times….always with the same outcome. Ring 131495 and speak to one of our staff (see message at end of review). A process that should have been really simple turned into a cumbersome difficult process and the guy I spoke to on the 131495 was just a sook. You are not allowed to question anything. You are not allowed to be frustrated. They can be rude and indignant…but you can’t.

I then get an email from the Australian Red Cross titled:

Erin, you did something extraordinary today. All you need to do now? Book your first donation.

Guess what? I click on the link to “Book my first donation”…..and it tells me to get in touch with one of their friendly team.

Their incompetence is breathtaking.

In closing, i notice they ask you whether or not you have had, or plan on having, the COVID Vaccine. Interesting, considering some of the greatest medical/scientific minds around the world are estimating 17M dead from the COVID 19 Vaccine.

Thank you for wanting to make a life-saving blood donation.
Find out more by getting in touch with one of our friendly team.
CALL 13 14 95
RESTART
Erin Livingston

I would like to officially thank the Robina Red Cross team for all they do! They are always extremely friendly, helpful and there to give the best customer service possible, no matter the time of day!

From the moment I enter, Lisa greets me by name as if she is my long-lost friend, which makes me feel totally valued and makes me want to return time and time again to give blood or plasma and help others who are not as fortunate as me.

The staff who assist with the donation are equally as lovely, they chat and ask questions and make me relax and enjoy my time there.

If you have never given blood or plasma before and are nervous of doing so, don't be, the team will take very good care of you - go on, give it a try - they also give you free drinks and snacks afterwards as a reward and occasionally run special events such as movie days or breakfast days to encourage as many people as possible to be spoilt rotten whilst they donate. 

Thank you all - you do an absolutely amazing job; I look forward to seeing you again very soon. 

Emma Brooks

I stopped donating blood when I found out that they extract the plasma and sell it off shore.

I have blood cancer and been accepted for free venesections by life blood, I have being doing these averaged out to 9 weekly for 22 years and wasting 450mg blood each time, my blood was automatically thrown in the bin, now days i can at least give my plasma to help a cancer patient and it will be worth it.
We all should be more aware of the needs of blood in Australia.
Please donate,
Yep it's a big needle and if your worried about it hurting wear an Emla patch before and you feel nothing.
Free sausage roll and coffee at the end, even better 😀
Thanks Michelle for your perfect customer service.

I was a donater to the red cross until around the time they started supporting the influx of millions of refugees into europe. I contacted the red cross and asked if they could give me statistics on the demograph of people transitioning into Europe. They had nothing. I was surprised considering the quantitative contact they had. I cancelled my payments. I really like to know what my money is supporting. I am stunned to learn that the Red Cross is doing absolutely nothing to get medications to the hostages being held in Gaza at present. They haven't changed since the second world war. Put your money elsewhere.

Red Cross Blood collection is a fantastic service as are many of their volunteers. No doubt I would give 5 stars for their comprehensive services except I have been trying to give blood a few times this century and there seems to be a 'clinical deferral glitch which appears as a code on their system which cancels my appointment.
I have made two respectful calls to their volunteers (of which I have been one last century) and spoke to lovely people, listened to incessant marketing verbage whilst waiting on the phone, and was told firstly that a clinical person would call me back before my donor timeslot four days hence with the hope of my donor appointment being reinstated.
No return calls. No messages.
So on my second call, the nice receptionist again put me on hold listening to their marketing, only to be told there were no appointments and that if I made a future appointment online it would also be cancelled by the system due to the 'deferral' originating as a glitch last century.
So will I persevere? Probably not. Life is too short!

Red Cross is a absolutely fantastic charity helping people in need..
I met 2 beautiful ladies yesterday on Sunshine Coast.. one lady was named "Pamela" and the other lady was named "Airlie".. these 2 lady's were out in the hot sun doing an amazing job for Red Cross. I was so touched when we got talking and Pamela gave me the most beautiful hand made crochet teddy bear.. I was so touched by this.. it really melted my heart and made my day to have 2 beautiful ladies reach out to me with such kindness and support.. two beautiful caring souls who deserve to be acknowledged for their hard work for Red Cross and their beautiful nature's and Kindness.. I really felt so touched by this beautiful moment. Well done Pamela and Airlie.. you are such beautiful souls. God bless you both 🙏 🫂😇🌺💞