Staff here is very rude and disrespectful. Especially the girl with the blind strain piece of hair…read more What happened to hospitality, and customer service skills. The employee's need to treat the donor with respect, and should not be allowed to treat someone so rudely and think that can get away with it. As if there attitude toward someone doesn't matter and no reproductions will happened to them. Customers have the right to be treated fairly and with respect, free from discrimination or harassment.

Great experience at Connecticut Blood Center in Middletown, Ct. The staff is knowledgeable,…read moreefficient, friendly, and welcoming! I will definitely be going back.

So this place deferred me for 4 weeks because during their "audit" I was screaming in pain because…read morethe phlebotomist who claimed to be there for 35 years stuck a 17g needle all the way in my vein. So during the return of cells it was burning, and I knew the phleb did something wrong. I am also a phlebotomist and I know not to go all the way into someone's vein. That's a sure way to hurt that person. A supervising phleb who was amazing fixed the issue. So, yes I screamed something was wrong and in a massive amount of pain, but donated prior and never had issues. They didn't like that I did that while they were being audited. I will be contacting a lawyer regarding this matter.

Terrible, wasted time and gas getting here at 7am WITH AN APPOINTMENT to only be told I'll have to…read morewait HOURS to be seen since 30+ people were there before it opened. Beyond ridiculous. WASTE OF TIME. 0 stars.

I've been donating platelets and plasma to the Red Cross for more than a year. I always go to the…read morecenter on Everett Road, which is generally a bit busy.There's a good size staff. They're all very capable and very nice. The donors are nice, too. Donating platelets -- and sometimes plasma too-- is a time consuming process. It takes 2-3 hours. Platelets are cell fragments needed to stop bleeding. Plasma is the liquid part of the blood. Together, they help people who are battling cancer. Having lost friends to cancer, I donate in order to help. My donations have been sent to hospitals across the country. I can track where they went through the Red Cross app. The Red Cross doesn't pay donors but they can offer $10 store coupons and fun merch. For instance, today was free beach towel day. They seem to be very popular. Regardless, I think most of the donors would give without coupons and freebies. Everyone has lost someone to cancer and it's touching to hear their stories about how they've been moved to donate.

I was stopped during the last donation without any excuse. People were staring and when my wife…read morecalled the red cross offices (we always donate together and she was accepted) and they told her that I had donated 6 times already this year. They don't accept donors to donate more than 6 times a year, but boy did i feel like a criminal, when I was told that could not donate. In addition, twice in the past the staff were not able to finish the donation due to inability to find a vain. Since then I warn the staff to get someone with experience and they comply. I don't think that the staff is very good, other than the supervisor. I guess that the capable ones work in better places. Also they lost my records from the past. I was a donor in the US Army but was stopped from donating due to mad cow disease, because I had served overseas for more than three years. S I started over. These idiots will not stop me from donating. It is bigger than them.

Red Cross does so much good for those in need. Having a universal system in place for such a much…read moreneeded natural resource such as blood is simply awesome! As a good human I enjoy doing my part for humanity in donating blood regularly. Heaven forbid I or someone I love needs blood I'll forever be grateful for the amazing humans that donate for the greater good of humanity. "Live Long & Prosper!" - Spock of the U.S.S Enterprise

Awesome people doing awesome stuff! Most comfortable chairs I've donated in! Plus they have TVs and…read moremovies for people donating double platelets and plasma!

Although I just started volunteering as a receptionist at this location just the other day, I do…read moreknow a lot about this place and would like to share this information with all of you. If you know a little about the ARC, come by and volunteer. Most of this office's opportunities are volunteer only(although most are field-work spots), you pretty much help out at other places, but this is a large regional office for the newly-combined Dutchess and Ulster Co. branches. (There are some paid spots within the office, but for the most part, most of the office is volunteer work. These spots tend to be the "director-level/executive level spots for paid spots, but it all depends on the situation.) This location does take donations, however clothes are not acceptable donations at this location(an ARC location in Maryland does this). If you're not sure, call this location and find out. Money(checks and cash), and MoneyGram donations are accepted, as well as supplies such as water and the like, are also accepted here. Drop it by. You'll get a tax-donation receipt for any monetary donation you can give. The American Red Cross needs your help in any way you can. You might even benefit yourself, if you have lost something due to natural disasters(or need help looking for someone, even someone who is in the military). Also at this location, they have a transport ERV(Emergency Response Vehicle) that provides the supplies to needy emergencies, based on other factors which I'm not going to get into here. Another thing they have at this location is a blood donation center, which is open every day that the main location is open. Come to the front door(nearest the parked ERV-and up the few stairs), sign in to the guestbook(and later sign-out) and give some blood.

My husband is O-neg, and tries to donate regularly. Then we got a call about Power Red, a donation…read morewhere you give double the red blood cells, and the other "stuff" is returned to your body with a little saline added. It takes about 30 minutes longer than a regular whole-blood donation, and my husband said he didn't feel the dehydration he usually does. The ladies who took care of him were just the nicest, friendliest people. We had an enjoyable time during the process (which hubby said did not hurt at all), and went about our day without a hitch. You do have to make an appointment, and things move a bit quicker if you do the Fast Pass online on the morning of your donation. You can do a Power Red about every 4 months. With his O-neg blood type, my husband was told that doing a Power Red was the most beneficial to them. The Red Cross website is very informative, so check it out there first. We will be back in 4 months. Lovely people. (I cannot donate because I have medical issues which prevent it. But I come to cheer him on!)

I had corona back in March and wanted to donate plasma to help out. I live in NYC and was visiting…read moremy parents in CT so I made my first appointment at this center in May. They took me an hour and a half late. The second appointment - I drove an hour to the center in 90 degree weather with a broken AC. I ran in and they took my temp. As someone who is ALWAYS in the 99s, I almost always reach mid 99s on hot days. They took my temp and immediately turned me away without the opportunity to cool down or to try again after a few minutes. I will never waste my time here again. I have always defended the hospitality of the ARC but my experience at this center has definitely cast a shadow on my feelings towards them. Disgusting.

I made an online appointment here because of the convenient location. I scheduled myself to give a…read moreplatelet donation at 6:00pm, which is really convenient for me. As soon as I walked through the door, I was greeted by a man behind the receptionist desk who immediately knew I was here for a platelet appointment before I can say a word. He led me to an area to fill out an application and as soon as I finished, a doctor with the name tag, Frank, took me into a cubicle where he asked for my ID, asked me to put a paper thermometer in my mouth, sterilized my finger, and took the side of my ring finger and immediately performed the poke finger test for iron levels all while in conversation. I'm not going to lie about the finger test. It hurt and Frank knows it does because he probably says it a million times to other donors. It seems within seconds, the results came back that my iron is satisfactory. He then measured my blood pressure and placed two fingers on my wrist to figure out my heart rate. All of this was done quickly, efficiently and probably under five minutes. I was instantaneously led out of the room onto an available donor chair, which looked like dentist chairs, but more high tech and clean. Frank asked me if I would like to give a whole blood donation at the same time and I agreed to it. Since I answered yes, I had to switch to another donor seat to make this double donation possible. I saw a few donors already giving blood, all of them calm and looking sedated. I was given a release form to sign that states I understand the risks of donating. The paper states there is no evidence to show that donating platelets does any long term damage to humans. Afterwards, I was asked which arm to use and I told them the last time I used my right arm, so the right arm was used again. Frank rubbed my arm with an alcohol pad as required for thirty seconds before inserting in the needle into my arm. I wasn't too sure how the platelet gathering system worked, but basically, I had to squeeze a pump with my donating hand in order to pump out the blood whenever I feel the pump is not full of pressure anymore. I ended up squeezing every three seconds regardless if the pump was full or not because Frank kept telling me that I'm not pumping enough. Every time the machine makes noise is because the machine is looking to suck in the blood, but I'm not giving it any. The machine was really cool to watch by my side, but I felt a bit nauseous turning my body to look at it as if I was on an airplane. When enough blood goes into the machine, the machine stops the pump pressure and I can relax for a minute while the remaining blood without the filtered platelets is pushed back into my body. This goes on for surprisingly 75 minutes. Sometimes the monitor would beep and Frank or somebody would touch it to make it stop beeping. The entire time, Frank kept track of my progress. After an hour, my hand was so tired from constantly squeezing the pump and I was getting a bit irritated from the same sitting position. Frank also showed me the TV attached to my chair. The headphones are wrapped with a soft cover and I had to adjust the headphones with my free hand to fit my small head. Later on, as soon as I sneezed, Frank came by and asked me if my mouth was numb. I said yes and he gave me an explanation of why I was sneezing or feeling numb in the lips. My body has lost some calcium so Frank gave me some TUMS to chew. It was difficult to chew since my jaw hurt whenever I chewed, but felt better after I ate the TUMS. Frank also asked if I wanted a drink and he brought me a cup of iced apple juice. Towards the end of the blood donation, my donating hand felt really numb. When the platelet donation was done, the machine beeped and Frank immediately hooked me up to an empty bag to do the whole blood donation. That lasted fifteen minutes at most, but by then, my legs felt numb too. After the donation, I was given more TUMS and ice cubed apple juice. Frank says next time, I should load up on calcium. When I had enough strength to get up, Frank walked me to the snacks area and another staff member called him "doctor." I thought Frank was a nice guy, checking up on me as I ate some snacks, even told me to take some for my husband, because he saw my wedding ring and thought I looked so young. Frank also introduced me to somebody that looked of high importance to this blood center. I used the bathroom, sat around, and watched TV for a while since I felt weak. I ate some oatmeal cookies, Oreo cookies, biscuits, and another bottle of apple juice. On my way out, there is a request list stuck on a door where donors can request or not request things for the future. Afterwards, I went shopping at Target and the escalator was not working. By the time I trekked up there I almost fainted and sat on the chairs outside Target until closing time. Rest is totally recommended after a donation, not shopping.

The problem with this place is smokers linger outside the building and the ventilation system,…read morewhich over hangs the front of the building sucks the smoke into where people are giving blood. Unreal...........

A great place to donate blood. It is one of the few places where you can donate blood and sit with…read morefriends and have a sandwich and other food. Also, they treat they donors well and almost always have t-shirts and other goodies to give away. I just wish that I knew when the next one was. They could use a website.