External Brain & Home 10 Aug 2005 11:22 am
The NW Center: incompetent and pesky
It’s happened so many times that I don’t even bother trying anymore. I wrap up my donation in plastic so there’s little risk of it being harmed by the elements. I tape the provided yellow sign to it. I put it out on the curb by 7 in the morning. And then at the end of the day I bring it back in again, because the goddamn NW Center truck has not picked it up.
I used to call them to say, “Hey, where was your truck?!”; eventually I gave up on even that. My donations go elsewhere: thrift stores, the wonderful Sharehouse, the Jubilee Women’s Center, even the NW Center’s own clothing donation bins.
Inspired by the news that I could stop getting the weekly fistful of ADVO flyers in the mail, I’ve gone on another round of de-junk-mailification around here, and that includes the junk from the NW Center. They may not pick up our household’s donations, but they’ll send us beg letters and pester us with recorded phone messages. How about they go away?
So today I called the NW Center to say, “No more phone calls! No more mail!” and very briefly explained why I’m not interested in donating to them. I had to call back after the sighing, dull-voiced receptionist transferred me to customer service — after a couple of minutes of being on hold there, my call was disconnected. (Are these people completely useless?) With any luck, the message will get to somebody who can take me off the lists.
If you too would like the NW Center people to take you off their lists — phone, mail, or both — you can try calling them at (206) 285-9140.
on 10 Aug 2005 at 11:58 am 1.Savannah said …
I would like to tout Community Services for the Blind. They have a better track record for picking up, and they leave you a nice Value Village coupon (that’s where your stuff ends up).
I know that they’re also a decent charity because a friend of mine with impaired sight has received help from CSB from time to time.
on 10 Aug 2005 at 12:18 pm 2.Cam Sculpin said …
Cool — CSB has online scheduling.
on 10 Aug 2005 at 3:14 pm 3.Mia said …
They are good people. Though the kind of odd phrasing of their name always made me think “partially cited” for some reason. “Community Services for the Blind and Inadequately Footnoted”!
on 10 Aug 2005 at 6:13 pm 4.Sean said …
Interesting. I wonder if different people handle the pickups for NWC in different areas. We’ve given easily 5 or 6 loads to them, and they always pick it up when promised. They’ve even done a special trip, on a day they weren’t originally scheduled to be here, to pick up some stuff from us.
on 10 Aug 2005 at 6:17 pm 5.Cam Sculpin said …
I think that may well be the case. NWC showed up pretty faithfully several years ago when I was in Capitol Hill, as I recall.
on 11 Aug 2005 at 6:45 pm 6.Cam Sculpin said …
I just got another pre-recorded message from the NW Center. Man, I’m growing to dislike these people.
on 16 Aug 2005 at 4:47 pm 7.Cam Sculpin said …
Damn flyer in the mail again. And we’re getting hit by some kind of autodialer that doesn’t leave answering machine messages; last time that happened it seemed to be the NW Center.
on 06 Aug 2006 at 7:00 pm 8.Cam Sculpin said …
Good heavens! They actually showed up the other week! I am amazed! Maybe they have a new driver for this area.