A few years ago, I was moving out of my apartment in Vegas. I had some old furniture which, while in good condition, wasn't all that valuable. Rather than try to sell it for modest amount of money, I decided to do the charitable thing and give it away to the Salvation Army. I had used the Salvation Army in the past in California, and everything went well.



I needed the apartment all the way up until moveout day, so I scheduled the Salvation Army to come pick up my stuff at 10am. I had to be out by 5pm, so this gave me plenty of time.

At 10am, nobody showed up. I called up at 10:10, and asked if they were close. At this point they broke the bad news to me that they were very busy and running behind, and that they would have to come at 12pm instead. I wasn't thrilled about this, but I accepted it.

Starting from about 11:45am, I was waiting right by the door. I didn't want to miss them knocking, and in fact was paranoid that perhaps this would happen, and I would be stuck with very heavy furniture that I couldn't remove on move out day.

12pm arrived. Nothing. Then it got to 12:15. Nothing. WTF? First they delay me for 2 hours, then they still don't show up?!

I called up the office again, and I was told that they would get a hold of the driver and have them call me.

About 10 minutes later, I got a call from the driver.

"Sorry, but we came to your apartment, and no one answered. We are very busy today, and can't come back. We knocked several times and stood there for 10 minutes. You'll have to reschedule."



All of my worst fears were coming true. How was this possible? I was certain they were either lying or had gone to the wrong place. I verified the address and unit #. They insisted that they had gone to that exact address, and that I simply did not answer. They claimed they were there at 12pm sharp.

There was ZERO POINT ZERO chance this was true. I was right by the door the entire time, and did not have anything loud like the TV on.

I finally talked them into coming back. I told them to please verify the address again, and to make sure to come to the right place. They said that they would. On the surface, this seemed like the matter was resolved, but I had a feeling that more fail was coming.

20 minutes passed. Nothing. I was beside myself. How could this be happening? And why?

I called them back on the cell number that called me. The driver answered.

"Yeah, we came back a second time. Still no answer. Verified the address twice. You just weren't there. I don't know what you're pulling on us, bro, but we're very busy and can't keep wasting our time on this. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to reschedule."



I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. I was right by the door. In fact, I left the door wide open this time, just to prevent any further confusion. Nobody showed. So how could they be repeatedly verifying the address? How could the be sure they were in the right place?

Now, normally I would just give up at this point and find some other option to get rid of this stuff. But it was already getting late, and I had to have everything out by 5pm. I didn't have time to arrange another option. I counted on the Salvation Army, did everything they asked, and now they were leaving me in the lurch.

I called the main office. It got even weirder. I explained the situation to someone, who seemed helpful and sympathetic. They put me on hold. I sat on hold for 10 minutes, and no one came back. I hung up and called again.

This time I got someone different. They didn't know who I was talking to before, so I explained it all over again. This person was less cooperative, and basically told me that there was nothing they could do, and that I'd have to reschedule. When I asked for the manager, they said she "was out of the office" but would be returning at 2pm. I left a message to have her call me back, and was promised that would happen.

2pm came. No call. I called up and asked for the manager. They claimed she was "in a meeting" and couldn't talk. I again explained what was going on. In the middle of my explanation, I heard a dial tone. I had been hung up on.

I called back. As soon as they recognized my voice, they just hung up on me.



I called back another time. This time I heard a voice on the other end that I didn't recognize, and I tried one more time to find out WTF was going on.

This guy was nicer, and he leveled with me.

"I don't understand what's going on here," he said. "'I'm on your side. I've been trying to reason with them here. They just want you to go away. I keep trying to tell them that we probably made a mistake on our end, but no one wants to deal with it. The manager told everyone just to ignore you and keep hanging up on you until you go away, but I just can't do it. I don't think this is your fault. I wish I could help."

FINALLY someone with sense. But it sounded like he was a low man on the totem pole. I asked him if he could put me in contact with a district manager or something, but he said he didn't know who that was. Furthermore, he didn't want to get further involved.

"If they knew I was even telling you all of this, I would be fired," he said. "I'm sorry, man. I really wish I could help. This is messed up. I have no idea how it got to this point, but honestly, if you need to get your stuff out by 5, you should really rush and find another option. Nobody here is going to help you."

I felt frustrated, trapped, and powerless.

If I left the heavy furniture in the apartment overnight, the complex would have likely moved it out at their own expense and dinged my security deposit for big money for its moving and disposal.

I counted on the Salvation Army and they screwed me over. Now I was stuck.

Then I realized that if I wanted to solve this, I had to get creative.

END PART 1