St. Vincent de Paul Society

Reviews 3

IS

Isaac Sherman

It really pains me to write this because I love thrift stores. I basically rely on them for furniture, clothing, house ware, trinkets, art projects, etc. However, I need to make this horrible experience public. I purchased a desk from this location last week that was infested with bed bugs. The next morning they were crawling all over the walls and ceiling of my room and I had 130+ bites all over my body. At first I had no idea where they came from until it dawned on me that it must have been the desk. We called an exterminator and when she showed up she took one look at the desk and told me it was completely infested with bed bugs. A part of me feels guilty for not catching this on my own, but then again, I never had to think about bed bugs before. I will admit that when I inspected the desk in the store I noticed what looked like paint splatters, only to find out later that this was, in fact, bed bug excrement. On the one hand, maybe Im to blame, but on the other hand, I feel it is this business responsibility to inspect everything they sell for signs of bed bugs, assuming the average shopper, such as myself, is none the wiser. The manager of the store informed me that this is already their practice but I find it very hard to believe it’s actually enforced given the state this desk was in when I bought it. Our exterminator bill was $675 and I am in the process of trying to receive full compensation from this store (though weve spent nearly a thousand dollars at this point trying to get rid of the bed bugs). That may seem absurd, but I feel it is completely unethical, perhaps even criminal, to sell something so obviously infested with bed bugs. Had the signs been not so clear, I would probably let this slide, but if they truly train their employees to look out for this kind of thing (which they claim to do), that desk would have never made it to the floor - signs of bed bugs were easily visible by opening a few drawers and even on the outside/front part of the desk. Its totally insane that this piece of furniture was ever allowed past those doors. Any ethical part of me that feels uneasy for trying to squeeze $675 from a charity organization is immediately obliterated when I think of how many low-income families and individuals would be or are completely screwed as a result of the negligence of this store. And lets be honest, Saint Vinnys isnt hurting for this kind of cash. I consider ourselves lucky that we were able to scrape together enough to get an exterminator immediately after our discovery. Many people might not have that luxury and would thus be forced to deal with this on their own - a nightmare I cant quite fathom, despite the rigmarole of the intense boot-camp-style bed bug-prevention-and-extermination training course I unwillingly received this past week. I wont go into detail about what having bed bugs is like, but its basically hell. And when youre an establishment whose sole purpose is to resell used clothing and furniture in a city ranked amongst the highest for bed bugs, the least you could do would be to train your staff about how to prevent that kind of hell from spreading. I dont blame any one individual for this mess; this is the result of an irresponsibly run business as a whole and I want to make sure it never happens again. Perhaps its totally my fault for being naive when buying used furniture, in which case, lesson learned. But perhaps its also not okay for a store to sell something so obviously infested with bed bugs and expect to be let off the hook so easily. Im not talking about a broken table leg or a bed frame with missing hardware; Im talking about an extremely expensive, traumatic, serious health hazard that takes over the lives of those experiencing it - sometimes for a very, very long time. Please educate yourself and others on what to look for when buying used furniture and clothing. When a $16 desk turns into a $1,000 desk literally overnight, whoever sold you that desk needs to be held accountable. So far all theyve offered is to return my $16.

A

A Private User

Jay- this is true. The furniture is overpriced for a few reasons. #1 This place accepts Vouchers and a typical church will give a Single Mother a Voucher for $300 for furniture. That leaves her getting 1 set of mattresses or a Sofa or a Dinette at SVDP. It is pure GREED, I have witnessed first hand the men they hire to drive the trucks and pick up donations. I have seen them lie to donating customers and turn away donations due to laziness. I have also witnessed complete donations thrown directly into the dumpster. I have also witnessed the Store Manager Carol ask truck drivers to take something decent such as a TV or Stereo,Good Furniture to "my house"..or "my sons"...She has had items stashed and on hold marked "sold" for months on end and it eventually disappears. She doesnt pay fairly if she pays for anything at all. I have witnessed what is donated and I have witnessed what makes it to the sales floor. Sadly 30% makes its way to the sales floor. 50% of the clothing is bailed. Reasons i was given is "we do not have the room" or "we get more money for the bails". Have you seen the size of this store? They have the room. You would think the clothng should at least get put out and get a chance to be sold before being bailed. NOPE..Directly into the bailer. I have witnessed nice new clothing,clean,tags on,just tossed into the bailer. Another sad aspect of this store is their Housewares and Knick Knack Area. Have you ever noticed there is very few older items? Vintage Clothing? Jewelry? Very few Antiques? Maybe once or twice a year they hold a Antique and Collectible sale and the items offered are VERY overpriced? I have witnessed how much of this is HOARDED in the basement. I have also witnessed it never making it to the sales floor. NO it does not get auctioned online...(That is a Lie told by Carol) So where does it go? 90% of it ends up at Dime-A-Dance in Cedarburg,WI There is a Volunteer (Chuck) who spends a few hours a month at SVDP who helps himself to most of it before it hits the floor. The store manager (Carol) sells it to him underhandedly. I have witnessed armloads of vintage dresses and boxes of vintage hats not to mention full large plastic totes of jewelry sold to his "Volunteer" for Pennies. It is very sad how this Religious Organization that is here to help the poor and unfortunate is being used as a tool to line the pockets of the Store Manager and her Associates.

A

A Private User

I tried to donate a MATCHING living room set to them and they would not take it due to a small rip being on one side of the love seat, I thought I was doing something good for people in need but apparently the needy need perfect furniture! The two gentleman who came were very rude and seemed less than enthused about doing a job that required a little manual labor and I am guessing that is why they didnt want to take the furniture. I thought about calling Salvation Army or Purple Heart to offer them the stuff but instead I put it on Craigslist and made profit off of it, I guess the needy can wait until St Vincent De Paul can find some brand new furniture for them...