The Salvation Army USA
Reviews and Complaints

I was at the Salvation Army thrift store #28 at 9434 Highland Road, White Lake, Michigan 48386. My ticket number is T102802-0189152.
I typically love shopping at your stores, unfortunately on this day I had purchased $18 worth of items and at the register all I had was a $100 bill. The cashier was unable to give me change so we called for a manager. We started the checkout process which is stated on my receipt at 5:17 p.m., the woman at the register had to call for a manager repetitively over four or five times. The woman working at the registers name was Denise and did her best to keep me and the entire line behind me calm while we waited. It took the manager over 15 minutes to finally come to the register. At this time there was a line of about 15 or 20 people and they had to open another register just so that the line would remain moving. When the manager finally showed up whose name was Dominga, not only did she not apologize for the wait, but walked very slowly while on her cell phone to the register. When she finally was able to give me change, it seemed out of spite that she attempted to give me $1 bills and $5 bills, at which time I had to tell her I could not accept that many ones and fives. She was very rude and snobby & had no remorse for her actions. After the entire ordeal was over and I began leaving the store I said "the fact that it took you over 15 minutes to come to the register while there was a huge line isn't the worst part about this, but your inability to apologize to me and the dozens of people in line behind me for this inconvenience is what's going to get you in trouble." At which point she responded "I'm the manager here and there's nothing that you can do to get me into trouble" as she smirked. She was extremely disrespectful, and seemed totally unaware that everyone there including myself have other things going on that they may be running late for, which in my situation was the case, which was all caused by her incompetent behavior. I did not leave the register until 5:36pm.
Dominga acted as if she was superior to everyone in the store including those that are shopping. Any one of the much more polite and humble cashier's would be more qualified to fill her position. Also I will add that there was actually 2 managers on duty. I have no idea what the other one was doing at this time, but this was totally unacceptable.

So I found a framed picture in Salvation Army on Bisonet st.in Houston, Tx. I had one of the workers to take pic to the back and price it, she put 5.99 on picture... I also pick up 2 packages of adult diapers 1 was open so it was marked at 3.99 the other 5.99 I'm on my way to register and another tells me there are 3 more matching pics to the 1 that I have so I got those too, so I asked the worker to price the other 3, she said they will all ring up for same price. NOPE I get to register and the [censored] at register says the other 3 pics are $9.99 and both packs of diapers are 5.99... he would not honor the prices that were there. That's horrible business, I'll Never shop there again!

September 29, 2018

I bought a flat screen tv for 63 dollars. I bought it for my son to play video games on. When he tried it out, we discovered damage that I hadn't noticed in the store. It had been dropped, not by us, and had a big dent in the back, the screen had huge scratches in it, and both of the HDMI ports are so loose they push into the tv. None of my son's electronics would port through them.

I tried to bring it back not even an hour later, and the store refused do anything for me. The receipt said no returns, which I did not notice until after the fact, the lady claimed that it had been tested out before I bought it, an in that case it was way overpriced, and she wouldn't give me an 800 number. She said I needed to call the manager next week, or I could re-donate the tv and lose out on 63 dollars. I would never re-donate an item that is defective so someone else can get screwed. I would expect a store to not sell an item that doesn't work.

This happened at the Salvation Army Store in Gaylord, Mi.

I am a frequent Salvation Army Family stores customer. Recently I spent over $250 in the stores and earned a promotional coupon that gives me right to have 50% off all items I purchase in one transaction of my choice.
On September 26, 2018 my family members and I were shopping at Salvation Army Family store at 22 Quincy St, Brooklyn, NY. We spent there multiple hours and picked a lot of items. During the checkout I noticed that the cashier is not applying the coupon discount to all the items. When I mentioned it to her she said that there are some exceptions and I do not have to tell her how to do her job. I mentioned that she is overcharging me and I need to speak to the manager. I explained the problem to the manager but the manager instantly got furious and said that she is cancelling the transaction and taking all the purchases back from us. She literally jumped on my cousin and ripped the bag out of her hands and voided the receipt. I witnessed some manipulations of the manager with the cash register like processing the returns of multiple transactions at the register. I apologized for misunderstanding and expressed the intention to finish the transaction, but I was told that we are not welcome in the store and should leave. I asked for the manager's name and supervisor's phone number I can call, but the manager refused to provide me with that information. I Googled the phone number and started calling the supervisor. The manager called the police to remove us from the store. Police officer Ms. Lopez (car number 3305) asked us to leave and advised us to call the Consumer Affairs Office. She also told me that the manager's name is Terena. The police officer explained to me that the manager does not care if I buy the items and continue being a Salvation Army stores customer.
I called and spoke to Salvation Army store supervisor Evan Colfield, but he just asked me for my phone number and never called me back.
The bottom line is that me and my family members have wasted a lot of time and did not buy items we found and got verbally abused by the Salvation Army store employees. The fact that the store manager Terena abused her manager's powers exceeds the scope of customer/manager relationship and, in my opinion, lays in the area of mental health problem. She showed no respect to customers one of which was a senior citizen and the other one was a baby and arbitrarily kicked us out of the store.
Please investigate the incident.
I shop at that location all the time and have never till now had any problems but only pleasant experience and good rapport with the employees.
Best regards,
Lena Bernatsky, 9/27/2018
Tel. [protected]

Complaint directed towards:

Store Manager: Vincent Tedesco

Store: 27040 Wesley Chapel Blvd, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544.

Subject:

To whom it may concern,

Mr. Tedesco has been very rude and vocal towards our family in last visit, he did not want to honor 50% off a purse claiming that it was not on sale. There was no sign to specify that. Please contact back.

I went to the santee thrift decided to purchase a recliner 75%off day, went to put in suv didn't fit, so I said never mind, just refund, the big mean guy there said no refunds- I hadn't even left the parking lot, it's not a refund, just cancel. He was rude and yelling. He does that alot! Miss George being manager there.
So, he had me talk to a girl, asst. manager, she said same thing- no refunds. It's not a refund when didn't even leave... give me a break. I almost started crying. I had no other way to get it home, my guy was out of town.
I said at least give me store credit. She said oh no problem and put her name on the reciept. The other guy didn't even give me an option.
He should not work there. Big tall rough looking guy, yells for everyone to get out 15 minutes before the store closes.. he is very, very rude.
Was mean to me.
I am owed my $40. back.
Leona [protected]

I just left the Salvation Army thrift store on 87th & Cicero in Oaklawn, Il I am a frequent shopper at this location but some of the employees & especially the new manager they have working in the evening is beyond ignorant I asked about a price of a piece of furniture because it had no price & I went by where he and another employee were at I originally asked the employee & he told me that the manager would tell me well I stood there & stood there Never assisted me his priority was to count the money in the register. Last time I checked a customer should come 1st by not at this place thet are so concerned about getting out of there asap they always rushing people, it's a joke that they make they announcement about may God bless you because they are I'm sorry I shouldn't say they cuz it's only a select few not all of them but definitely the African American manager that has absolutely no business being in customer service.

Your store on Rising Sun Ave in Phila 19111 has a giant parking lot for customers that is CLOSED during business hours! how is this possibly happening? I have been going to that store for 10 years and will start to NOT dump money into it if this continues to happen. That should be available for customers during EVERY hour of operation and the staff is too lazy to monitor it, so they just LOCK THE GATES!

this is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE

I had a scheduled pickup of my donation on September 20th at www.satruck.org. The track never came and nobody called me about the cancellation. When I called the 1-800-728-7825 number, the lady who refused to give her name, said that the track was overloaded and the pickup would have to be rescheduled. She said she would call me back and try to reschedule the pcik-up to the date prior to my move-out day, which is September 28. She never did.

My donation included furniture, school supplies, kids books, sport and medical equipment, clothing, bedding, musical keyboard, and more that could have benefited a whole family. I could have given these things to the local schools or other charity organizations. Now, I will have to throw it away because I don't have the time to arrange all these one week prior to my move. I booked this pick-up on August 2019, a month in advance.

I am asking for the immediate resolution of this situation. If it does not I will report this to the Senator Schumer office as well as the local press.

Thank you,
Rimma Belenkaya

My mother passed over two months ago, it took a few weeks to remove everything from her home. A entire garage was filled with her beautiful things over a truck load. I was given a date for pickup, on that day (which I waited for a month) got a call saying not enough drivers? The home was sold, now I have a garage full of things I wanted to give the Salvation Army and there are not two men and a truck that can drive 20 miles. I was told that 22 pickup's were not going to happen today. Not real happy today, I am screwed because of workers not showing up. Looks like this company needs a backup plan.

To whom it may concern my name is Ann Smith by the way this is not really my name but don't want my husband to get reprimanded for what I'm going to say. Well my husband has stayed at the salvation Army off and on on several occasions. My concern is that the person who is preparing the food that is served is serving molded bread and out of date things and sometimes the food or main course ex. They fed them baked chicken and it was still really raw and bloody and when someone said something about it they were told that they didn't have to eat it if they didn't want to. On other occasions there is a lots of race discrimination. The guy that runs the place will only tell my husband to leave the premises but the other people there can stay which is 3guys who coincidentally are of the black ethnicity and I lady who can sit there . I was a witness to this I dropped my husband off at the salvation Army and Glenn approached him and told him he could not be on the premises but failed to say anything to anyone else. Glenn has also stated that he bends the rules when he wants and in forces them when he wants. I just don't think that as a place that is supposed to help all people from all walks of life and that it don't matter whether you're black white red Brown anyting everyone is treated the same. A couple of days ago the news crew was there my husband was tempted to say something to them but afraid of repercussions being as how he had nowhere else to go he didn't say anything I Wonder how people would react to knowing how your facility employee treat people and how many would still donate to your cause. You need to hire more humane people.

I am a regular customer of this store which I frequent about once a week. I have purchased furniture, clothes, cookware, and pictures from here and donated the same. Today I was treated like a criminal for .no reason.

As a firefighter I take my fitness very seriously and when I am off-duty I ride my bicycle all over town. Because I am on a bicycle I wear a backpack to carry my food, water, wallet, etc. While visiting the store today on my bike and wearing my backpack, the store manager (very thin female with brown hair) confronted me and said that backpacks are not allowed and that I would have to leave it behind the counter. Shocked by this since I have worn the backpack in there before, I asked her if purses are allowed. She told me yes and that the policy only pertains to backpacks. In order to avoid conflict I placed the backpack behind the counter.

As I was walking away so was she. So I stopped her asking who was going to keep an eye on my backpack. She told me that no one would and that I need to take anything valuable with me because she has no control over who may go behind the counter. At this point she was down right rude. As I walked around the store I noticed two ladies wearing backpacks and multiple with large purses. I took pictures and attempted to show her but she did not acknowledge me.

I feel that I was targeted by this store manager who was accusing me of being a thief before I even walked around this store. I believe that had I walked in there in clean clothes, not on a bicycle, or a female then store manager would have not said a word to me about the backpack.

Date: 04/2015-Current
Location: Harbor Light Center. Downtown Denver, CO

The residing resident manager is sicker than the residents. This Harbor light center is set up as a transitional residency with an in-house stay of 6 months for men with addictions and convictions of crime. The residing Corp Sergeant Major/ resident manager has consistently been heard mocking and bad-mouthing residents and uses threats to get his way. He has been in this position for over 10 years so the other staff members let things slide. However having a leader and Resident manager that regularly abuses his power and mocks recovering and struggling men is just wrong.
This Corp Sergeant Major is an ex-addict himself and yet is clearly a "dry drunk" because he does not attend meetings, practice any rehabilitation practices and is clearly on caffeine and medication ans a means of recovery. It is believed that addicts can help addicts recover and this may be true, but when the addict in charge is doing more harm than good it is time for that Corp Sergeant Major/ Resident Manager to STEP DOWN or BE REMOVED form his post.

I was just yelled at by an employee because I asked for her name. Very very rude. I wanted her name to reference as giving correct donation information and to report someone who gave incorrect information. I'll take wrong information from a kind employee over correct information delivered rudely. Refused to give her name...as did her coworker. Yelled at me. Because I was told I could bring couches there by another employee from different store..whom I will now not name..because at least she has good customer service. This woman was vile. Hire better. Good day.

I have been trying to locate a lost family member and was advised to contact the Salvation Army who provide this service. I have called and emailed numerous times over the last 12 months. I have been given the direct contact by the Army for the person responsible and have emailed them directly and left phone messages. In addition I have contacted the management team twice by email. Not a single call back or email response despite verbal assurances when I have called them seeking to speak to the person responsible. They are funded to do this work and yet clearly they are not. People like myself are already suffering the lossof a loved one and would be better off not being offered false hope by an organization that clearly has no I text to assist.

I was shopping at store #07 and using my 50% off clothes coupon to get sweaters for the cold weather. As i approached the counter the cashier her name was Amy... Looked at my full cart of clothes and rudely asked me to remove all my own hangers as to do her job for her, apparently she didn't want to. She didn't say much at all. She was huffing and puffing ringing in the clothes as I had to pile them in front of her because she couldn't remove the hangers as EVERY other employee always does... She then dropped my clothes off the counter and made a dramatic sigh because she dropped it. I also had two bric items along with it and a 25% coupon for them as well she ripped off the clothes coupon and just slide back the bric one to me. As she rang up my total, she rudely looked at me n said my total, then I said well don't you need the other coupon... She bobbed her head at me with an attitude and said to me "no you cant use both" and i explained how she didn't even explain that to me or bother to and how was i suppose to know when she just didn't tell me.. then she gave me my change didn't even say anything and i had to look at her and say thank you so much have a great day. I always find friendly people at this store. But this is the 3rd rude customer service ive had at this store with this lady. If she works for a company promoting your name she needs to fix her attitude and be trained more on her customer service when interacting with customers. Because her attitude was with everyone not just me... And having an unpleasant experience as her being so rude makes me want to not to go back and avoid it completely. Im very upset not only by this incident but the multiple encounters with the same lady. So it's not just an excuse of a bad day its her entire attitude and poor customer service skills. And by saying poor service im wording that as politely as i can.

I'm really having a hard time making this complaint, I don't want to get into trouble. This is going to be under the whis blowing. I have been with the salvation army in St. Johnsbury Vermont for 4 years this December. The person that hired me was Chris West. Then we had Capt. Chris Street, for 2 two years. We now have Lt. Chris West back he has been back for 9 weeks, he has not been to the store once, he sends secret shoppers, to check on the status of the store. We have been making out request for supplies every week and we have received a case of toilet paper, no trash bags, we have had to make copies of the paperwork out of our own pocket, I have bought trash bags almost all the time. We now have no truck driver which means we don't get recycles picked up. If Capt. Chris was back he would drive the truck himself. He calls the store and discusses what the mystery shoppers have seen and told him. We are so backed up that I myself and my co worker said to my husband when he mentioned he could get a dump trailer to clean some of the back room out, we said something has to be done. I did not get it approved by Lt. Chris we just did it to help out the store. We now are getting written up and being told by Lt. Chris that we have make a plan me and my co worker to pay the bill for the trailer. What can be done to get thing cleaned up and not get into trouble for trying to help clean up the store.

I'm informing you of several complaints regarding your "Head Store Manager" Vanessa. I have witnessed her mistreating the employees at this location 2258 N Clybourn Ave, Chicago, IL 60614. I have also witnessed one of your District Managers " Dimitrius" who doesn't do much of anything to help the situation. Also i've notice that (3) men hired during the daytime shift sitting in the docks smoking and talking on their cell phone and give no assistance to anyone. Vanessa your head store manager and Dimitrius need some training. Only one hispanic gentleman that works in the evening seems to know what he's doing and doesn't get any help from anyone. One Co-Manager who i spoke to in the store seemed like the friendlier person and more professional (Marilyn), it's like everyone likes her the most. She treats her employees with respect. Please do the customers a favor and get rid of Vanessa once and for all! Plus get rid of your daytime male workers who are getting paid to do nothing and lazy as hell!

I am complaining about the protocol used for entry into the Sacramento CA. shelter.
They use a number system (?). I am on walk in status, and was told to get a number.
This is an emergency shelter, and it has taken 7 weeks, to be returned to the number #57. I started at #50. and by weeks end I was 25. I sat at #5 for 2 weeks. I made 2 trips into Sacramento after being told I would be allowed entrance. I was not. Protocol, missing a TB test. I returned with all documents, and was snuffed at and asked "What do you want me to do with these ?" Most receptionist give the documents to the person they were brought in for. Goes in a file. He gave them back. I left. 2 days in the last 5 working days, This man refused to answer his phone, put me back the first time to #15 ? his error I am asked to pay for.? well he didn't answer yesterday, and the woman who answered to day let me know I was off the list. My complaint is : Because of his inability to do his job, I am now #57. Again. He also cant tell time. I phoned in before 1pm and he stated it was after 1 pm refused to give a number. When I explained to her, NO ONE answered the phone yesterday, or last week. Politely of course.
He has miscounted more than once.. the first time we went to 4 and I was bounced to 35. 3 times I have tried to get in (job) and he has managed to play it as a joke, and I am outside now.. If I was black-afro American or even a [censored], I would be in on the day I was told to come in. He has allowed as many of his own to come through the door, and let the Whites, Chinese and others sit in the dirt. Which is not my complaint. He is rude, he is not the owner of this company, and I agree, he is only following company policy. (haha)This is not a disaster center. It is an emergency shelter. Please do the Sacramento area a favor, help out the local Police departments. get rid of some of these people. they are not interested in helping, have no compassion, and are not empathetic to anyone but their own agenda. I appreciate you letting me air my grievance. Thanks for having one of these shelters here.(no one gets in, when they need) and please stop calling it Christian based.
My first time I had to be here, I was sick.
Thanks so much

My name is Erik Crespo and am currently an employee at the ARC on 745 S 3rd Avenue, Mount Vernon NY. On the date of August 28th 2018 I arrived at work by 7:10 am. I we t upstairs like any other day, greeted my fellow workers. I was immediately notified by Supervisor Elmer that a urinalysis was going to be conducted. After about 5 minutes there I was told to step into the bathroom that the people who live there use. A counselor greeted me, handed me a cup and told me to provide my urine. As I proceeded to walk into a stall the counselor told me I have to use the urinal. I told the counselor that I never in my life use the urinal. He told me I did not have a choice and that I have to get out because that's how it's done there. As I left I told the counselor that I am an employee and not a patient there and that it's ridiculous that I have to be watched as I urinate into a cup. I then said he's bugging out for how he treats employees. He then became aggressive and at this point we were in the recreational area where Elmer and other employees were. As I explained to supervisor Elmer what transpired the counselor began approaching me saying I cursed at him and I'm a liar for denying that I did while raising his hands talking to me. At this point I felt threatened by this aggressive counselor who is paid to give advice and be level headed. I do not understand how something so minuscule escalated so quickly. Never in my life for any job I've worked or applied for was I told I have to provide a urinalysis while being watched. I find it perverted and invasive. At this point I went to step outside for air to cool down and think about what just happened and how to diffuse what just occurred when I passed by the same counselor who began calling me a coward and why am I walking away from him as he was speaking. This is a workplace where all employees should maintain professionalism at all times. I feel disappointed that I was spoken to this way and forced with an ultimatum to either pee in front of this man or leave the job. The captain was not yet in the building so I had no higher authority to digress my dilemma.