From Craig

Why is donating a car so difficult?

So, last December, my mechanic told me to get a new car. I started looking (although not too strenuously) in February. I wasn't seeing anything that was acceptable to me, so I started riding my bike everywhere. Eventually, a few weeks ago, I found a new car and purchased it. At the time of purchase, I arranged with the Kidney Foundation to pick up the car. I originally called them on July 20 and they told me that they next available date for pick up was August 3. A two week wait, but that's not too much trouble.

On July 31 (Tuesday), they called me to confirm my address and told me that the car would be picked up on the Friday. August 3rd rolled past and they didn't pick up the car. I didn't receive any calls from them so I called them late in the evening. I received a call from them to tell me that one of their tow-trucks had broken down and they were unable to complete their pickups. Originally, when I had seen that the car hadn't been picked up, I was a little annoyed, but once I heard the story it's all ok. After all, these things happen. They told me that the car would be picked up on Tuesday the 7th or Wednesday the 8th.

Well, it's now the 9th and the car is still sitting in the driveway. I had to call them again this morning and wait in their call centre queue (I've waited in that queue for over half and hour in the past). Now the story is that last week two tow-trucks broke down and that the rescheduled pick-up dates are the 8th and the 9th.

At this point, I'm starting to get peeved. Firstly, I can't imagine that the list of cars to pick up in a given day is so large that they couldn't call and leave a message so that I know what happened. It annoys me that I'm having to keep tracking these people down to find out what is happening. Secondly, it really bothers me when I start to get different stories about what has happened. As soon as this starts happening, you begin to stop believing anything they tell you.

Hopefully, the car will be picked up today!