5 reviews
I want to give a heartfelt thank you to Doug at the Bedstart organization in Plano. He blessed me with a brand-new sleeping bed and several other high-quality furniture items, and I am truly grateful. His kindness, compassion, and willingness to help came at the perfect moment. My air mattress had completely and permanently deflated, and Doug contacted me right when I needed it most. Thank you, Doug, for your generosity and for the amazing work you do for me and so many other families. May God bless you and your family for the blessings you continue to share with others. Your support made a real difference in my life, and I deeply appreciate it.
I had already scheduled a pickup with BedStart, but when I called to confirm, the staff member answering the phone was rude and dismissive, making the process unnecessarily stressful. The person assumed emotions and misrepresented the situation instead of just helping confirm the pickup. Eventually, I had to hang up to avoid further conflict. The donation process itself seems fine once scheduled, but the phone interaction needs serious improvement. Do not have the guy who does pickups answering the phone. The lady scheduling pickups is helpful and professional, but the guy who answers is rude and dismissive. Makes a stressful process even worse. I was donating a brand new mattress to be kind and he had the audacity to just say no because I'm stressed out you have no clue what I'm going through. What does it matter? Either you're picking up or not! It should be that simple. Why make something personal or try to like twist our conversation? I expect maturity and professionalism and that is not what I got at all today.
I volunteered until I moved out of state in 2018. Fantastic organization ajd I miss this unique charity. I see a couple of negative reviews and wonder if the writers of these reviews know that: 1) EVERYBODY is unpaid. None of the drivers of the pickup trucks and full size trucs are even reimbursed for gas, miles, etc. 2) Goods are donated, but trash is not accepted. Bedstart is much less 'picky' than for example Restore: There are voluteers who can often repair a broken washer, drier etc. But the receivers are treated with dignity, so 'trash' is not given to them. I the past we accepted some unusable goods and if we could not use it, we could dump it. But these costs were piling up. And costed a lot of effort. Besstart gives everybody wio receives a bed, brand new sheets etc. My old church has Bedtart as a mission donating money to buy this bedding and sponsors for the storage unit. 3) The demand for furniture varies widely: Sometimes they have 5 cribs in storage and sometimes none, and the requestor is placed on a waitung list: If a crib shows up, it is distributed. That might not be a nice crib, but it's the only one in storage 4) Some days there are many volunteers (mainly highschool kids) and sometimes not at all. It is great for highschool kids to learn how to service others. Someone complained about lack of 'professionalism'. They are right: all are volunteers with many spending saturday and wednesday evening their spare time for Bedstart. And some have to get used to this kind of charity. 5) Receivers for donated goods are not screened for salary, background etc. If you need it, you get it, Logistics limitations and uneven deman can cause the receivers are placed on a waiting list until the goods, people and transportation is available. 6) Unlike Goodwill and many other charities, the donations are distributed to people for free and not sold to sustain the operations (read " expenses") of the charity. As said, 100% of the moneraty and goods donations are assigned to the receivers. Zero overhead! I am sorry (and it still hurts, even after I moved to NC 7 years ago) to read some negative reviews. I feel sorry for a negative experience, but hundreds of people would suffer whne headstart would stop. Be kind!
Scheduled a pick-up and was told via e-mail that a truck would be at my place between 8:00am and 11:30am. Was also told that someone would call me when they were on their way. 11:30am came and nobody showed or called. I e-mailed Doug (director) and politely asked if anyone was coming and received no response. Very disappointed.
Donated my sectional because I was moving and didn’t want to take it with me, wanting to downsize. I didn’t want to just give it away but give it to a family that could use it. We emailed back and forth to figure out a good time for both. They came and got it quickly from a third floor Apt. Sorry guys lol They even took the cubicle that I no longer needed.
