BioLife Plasma Services review: Just bad in regards to patients time and pain

I was so excited to be able to use this service because as a full-time mother of two on a Pell Grant it's hard enough to do school full time and be able to maintain everything on what income we have.

With that being said, I am extremely disappointed in BioLife services. Specifically the one on 1960 in Houston texas. When I first made an appointment for an initial consultation it gave me an option to have my children looked after while I was there. It went as far as to ask how many children that I have so they could be accommodated. I made the appointment prior to August 1st. There was absolutely no correspondence with me regarding the rule change so when I showed up with my two small children I was turned away. I wasn't even turned away immediately, they let me sit there for a little while before telling me that they couldn't take me. I filed a formal complaint and in that complaint it asked if I wanted correspondence I said yes. Did I get correspondence? No, I got not one email phone call text message, nothing. I had to reschedule the appointment. When I finally did arrive the appointment lasted almost 4 hours. They are very short staffed and they over schedule appointments for new patients.

Once I got through the initial appointment I thought it would be easier. Fast forward to the second appointment. Whoever did my first appointment did not change the questionnaire to the shorter version so I had to go through the entire drawn out 20 minute questionnaire a second time only to be told that I had to see the doctor. So I have to wait I see the doctor they change the questionnaire and then I have to go get checked and get blood drawn. That appointment took 2 hours. Fast forward to my third appointment I sign in to do the questionnaire only to be told to see a manager. I put two hours aside forties appointments so every single time you have to see a different person and then wait to see that person it only adds minutes which can completely screw people over who might need to make it to school or jobs. After waiting a while a manager approaches me and explains to me that I am a small percentage of people out of all of the people who donate nationally they got caught up in a system error and that I would not be able to donate until my sample was not pending in the system anymore. They give me $20 for the inconvenience which is appreciated but after already being there for that much time and wasting gas money $20 barely covers it. Especially considering I was expecting $130 that day. So once again I rescheduled the appointment after being called later that week to be told that I can now come back in to donate. Once again I am referred to the manager as soon as I log in. Once again I have to wait for a manager to find time to come take care of me only to be told that they have absolutely no idea what's going on and that they never ended up taking my sample and I might not be able to donate until I give blood again for them to test. At this point I'm laughing because it's just ironic that I keep being the one having to deal with these fluke glitches. At a certain point it becomes a habit. So once again I wait and she comes back and informs me that I will in fact be able to donate and to go wait in line. In that small amount of time that I waited the line had ended up wrapping around the building and I have a job to get to after I leave. I ended up being an hour late for that job by the way. Once I get through all of the initial testing I sit down to donate and the lady ends up accidentally turning on the machine next to me so she makes me move over then she proceeds to dig in my arm for a vein after I told her that my veins were small and that she was going to have a hard time. When she gives up on that arm she tries to butcher my other arm only to leave the needle in my arm to ask for assistance and then the person who assists me takes a needle out wraps up my arm tells me I'm done. They do not explain the procedure for if they can't find a vein so I'm just sitting there wondering what the heck just happened. I get up I go to the front I talked to a staff member so they can explain to me what just happened. They told me that they were unable to get a sample but that I would get my money deposited in my account anyway and it would be counted as a donation. So after all of that I didn't even donate but on the bright side they at least still paid me and that's the only good thing that has ever happened since I've started to go there and it's the only time that they've actually really made up for something.

with all of that being said I urge people to make sure that you plan at least 2 hours of your day just to the donation part.

The older blonde woman at the front also needs to work on her customer service skills. She gets so upset even though she's the one who can't hear and people have to repeat themselves. I watched her get flustered with three separate people while I stood at the front