British Heart Foundation Furniture & Electrical Stores Reviews 

Arranged a collection of a leather sofa and other items. Waited 3 weeks for the appointment. Despite them saying in the (repetitive) messaging that they would be social distancing, the driver said ‘nah, we ain’t done that for a while’. I was concerned by this as I have a compromised immune system. They had a terrible attitude, turning their noses up at things which were listed for collection, but which they said they couldn’t take, such as power tools and a heater, even though on the job sheet they listed them as taken. The nail in the coffin came when they rejected the sofa because the leather was ‘coming off’. I asked them what an earth they were talking about and he showed me some ‘cracks’ in the leather. They said they wouldn’t be able to sell it. Do they not understand that leather ages? This was a quality leather sofa, not some DFS tat.
My bin men have a better attitude than these guys. When you are donating to charity, you expect a certain level of courtesy, not the ignorance that these two displayed. Their van said ‘house clearance service’, but they weren’t even offering that, leaving me with a living room full of things they didn’t think good enough to sell. I will now need to have a bona fide house clearer to remove these items, as my heart condition prevents me from moving anything. Thanks BHF!! I certainly won’t be donating to the BHF again, and in fact, I think I might just cancel my standing order.

Rude, greedy, heartless people. You want to give them your furniture FOR FREE, and they behave like they are making you a biggest favour of your life!!!! No understanding of circumstances, no kindness. Said they've knocked on my door, but they weren't even there, haven't even tried. Just bastards, nothing more.

Offered to donate a brand new £180 kitchen mixer set, told it's not worth the travel time from Reading to Newbury to collect it, apparently charity doesn't begin at home.

Worse place to work as volunteer i spent there 1 year as volunteer when i needed to have a letter showing how many hours i did they have giving false documents! Like xmas time i did 0 hours! Start date is wrong! I don’t know what they trying to hide! It is awful place to work!

GREAT EXPERIENCE THUS TIME FROM THE SHOP STAFF BOOKING AND KNOW PROBLEMS WITH THE DRIVERS THIS TIME.
TOOK EVERYTHING FIRST TIME.
GOT GOOD AND POLITE STAFF AND DRIVERS AT CHATHAM KENT STORE THIS TIME.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

I contacted BHF to donate a washing machine and dishwasher. On the day of collection they can at 8am without prior notification. They told me they wouldn’t take the dishwasher because they don’t sell them.( I called the shop later to complain and was told they do sell dishwashers.)They never even looked an it. They then spent 5 mins or more searching for mould in the washing machine. I said I had cleaned the machine thoroughly but was ignored. It felt like they were searching for a reason not to take it. I was giving it to them for goodness sake. Their attitude was terrible and rude and I will never donate to them again. Sue Ryder is a much much better experience. Wish I’d donated to them.

Hostile staff in both CS and collection

Sunny day outside, this is a charity, and I have a few heavy items for them to collect. I moved the items outside an hour before their arrival so it's easier for their staff (given it's charity, I want to make it easy).

The collectors were extremely hostile, I explained my intention, they threatened to just leave, and refused to collect the items outside.

That's alright, sent a feedback to the CS about the same. And got an even more hostile feedback, quoting:

"It clearly states "please do not leave items outside" I will re-send it for you to read again. In bold, underlined and highlighted.

We collect from inside not outside for many reasons and are clear about this in our email.

Obviously we cannot make people read the information, but we have let you know."

Woah. Understood, I should have saved all my trouble digging those items out from my garden shed and make it easy for your collectors.

This is the WORST donation experience I had, and the CS doesn't want to de-escalate.

Let down by delivery company.

Spent about £300 in furniture store and paid £30 for delivery, was told we would get a 2 hour delivery time slot which we didn't receive. Phoned the store who didn't have any information so just had to wait around all day. Wouldn't recommend or if you buy furniture from them at least arrange your own van.

On a seperate occasion ordered a sofa, did get the delivery time slot, but drivers couldn't have cared less, scratched the sofa and were really miserable and borderline rude.

Absolutely disgusted, overly picky and just down right rude, as an ex deputy store manager, I know what they are looking for, I understand sometimes there is too much of certain things, however when you are offering modern high quality goods that are in perfect condition, only selecting what you want means you loose out, Shame on you!
This is not a charity it is a multimillion pound business.
I will not separate matching quality items for you to cherry pick, it’s a disgrace you should be appreciative of goods offered, it’s not my fault your over stocked on unsalable items it’s called being greedy.
EDINBURGH FURNITURE INITIATIVE
Or the SALVATION ARMY
Are only too happy to accept quality bundles, I now know where I’ll direct my 48 luxury flats to donate there goods

Massively disappointed. Driver refused to park in my resident parking space in the parking lot to load the collection as they 'were scared they'd get a ticket'..even though it is my assigned resident space!So now a 6 month old expensive sofa is being taken to the tip instead, and they miss out on a decent donation.I expect they just didn't want the hassle of loading it.Won't waste my time trying to be charitable in the future and will just take it to the tip. Should've taken notice of all the bad reviews and not bothered in the first place!

Arranged a collection by Wakefield store. I was 9th collection out of 9 that day by 1pm. I received message saying with me “shortly” . I was in garden bagging rubbish, I checked door every couple of minutes . I want to check and saw collection van 20 yards away heading away from my house. I called contact number which is not driver , but office. Was told they were on a tight schedule and could not turn around( I’m guessing they were at end of street by this point.) thing is if I was the last person to collect from, according to the tracker, why were they on such a tight schedule?
My guess is , it was a warm sunny day-1:30pm : work out what you think from that. Called back to question info given but no response. Will not bother donating anything to BHF again. Drivers I have had delivering or collecting for other charities and council have always called me.

This review is regarding crystal peaks branch Sheffield, my mother wanted to make a donation of a beautiful bed settee and a small wardrobe which was also immaculate condition, she is 85 years old and on her own, she waited in all day the drivers eventually arrived and asked her to take the wardrobe to pieces other wise they won't take it. They removed the legs off the sofa and took that and left the wardrobe, lazy, surprised they didn't make an appointment for her to rebuild it for the shop. Never again will any of our family donate to this charity. Shower of ----

I waited 3 weeks for a furniture collection with the British Heart Foundation, only for it to be refused on arrival because one part of the bed didn’t have a fire label.

This wasn’t clearly explained in advance — especially that every component of a multi-part item must have its own label. The bed had a label on the main base, so this was not obvious.

A lot of time and effort wasted. This could easily be avoided with clearer guidance.

I booked a collection from a storage place. I was told, all day collection, but I would receive a text at 8.30am which would tell me morning or afternoon. I would then get a text half an hour before collection.

On the day, no text, and the office was not open to call until 9.30am. When I phoned I was told the collection would be lunchtime, I would get a call half an hour before they were due. I was at the storage unit for 11am, waiting.

By 2pm no one had been and no text had arrived.I phoned the office again Traffic had been bad I was told even though their office is only twenty minutes away from the storage place.
I was told they would definitely be there to collect by 4pm, if not sooner. The usual promise of a call. After 4pm I phoned again.

I was told they would get to me but they didn’t know when. I had waited at the storage unit by this time, five hours and been told twice they would arrive within a certain time slot. I told them to forget about it, I would donate the items to someone else who could be bothered to turn up when they say they are going to.

I could not wait any longer. I had changed my storage unit size from large to small as I thought the large items would be collected. I had to catch the receptionist before she left to change back to the large unit and move everything back into there before they closed. So a good deed cost me five hours of waiting and the extra cost of having to keep the large unit. I had twelve items including a king size bed plus five items added later to donate Most of the items were new and had never been used.
I’m sure I will find another charity, but I would never consider donating to BHF ever again.

I requested a house clearance and was shocked i had to pay £178 for the collection. I had to pay as there were no other options to clear the flat.
Anyway the person moving into the flat asked to buy all the furniture. I agreed .

Now the trouble begins i cancelled the collection from BHF 5 days prior asking for a refund. That was 3 weeks ago, the shop said HO do it, HO said the shop do it. !!
Eventually complaint after complaint I am get a refund.

Ask questions before committing!

Absolutely great customer service today when the two men delivered my sofa they were so polite and kind when they couldn’t get it into the room that I needed it and so they went out of their way to go and grab some tools and came back so they could take the arms off and put them back on just so that I could have my my sofa in the room that I needed it in today I appreciate this so much so Thankyou to the two men that helped me do this British heart foundation Saint Matthew Street Ipswich Dave and Nick.🫶💯

Would highly friends and family to the company, they have been so professssional through the whole experience from time I made the call to the collection. The driving crew from Kettering Simon and the assistant Carl for being so polite and professional when collecting the furniture. I can’t thank them both enough for keeping me updated throughout the process and the timings they was due.

I bought a fridge freezer from a British Heart Foundation. Before purchasing, I specifically asked whether they would take away my old fridge freezer, and I was told they would, as long as it was in working condition. Based on this information, I went ahead with the purchase, paid for the appliance, delivery, and agreed on a delivery date.
On the day of delivery, the new fridge freezer was brought to my home, but they did not take the old one, stating that there was no space on the van. I was then asked to contact the store to arrange a separate collection, which I had to organise the following day.
In the meantime, I cleaned the fridge freezer I had purchased and noticed details that are not easy to see in the shop, such as adhesive tape inside the drawers used to hold parts in place.
After a few days of use, the appliance started to develop water and ice build-up in the freezer compartment, which eventually formed a large sheet of ice. After investigating, I discovered that the internal drainage system had been blocked with a material (like rubber), most likely to prevent leaks during transport or in-store storage, which prevented proper drainage of defrost water.
This led to water accumulating and eventually leaking out, initially appearing as a serious fault. I was eventually able to identify and resolve the issue, but it required time, effort, and additional electricity consumption.
In addition, when collecting my old fridge freezer, they refused to take it due to a minor fault in the door seal, despite the appliance being fully functional. This condition had not been made clear to me beforehand, as I was initially told it only needed to be in working order.
Overall, the experience was frustrating due to a lack of clarity regarding the collection conditions, inconsistent information provided, and the condition of the product received without proper inspection before sale. I would strongly recommend checking all terms carefully before arranging purchase or delivery.

Turned their nose up at my wall unit because it wasn’t a popular choice. They had the cheek to say this to my face. Claimed it had mold on it when it was just dust. Left after making me feel really bad.

I’ve used this charity regularly over the past two years for both buying and donating, and the in-store staff have generally been helpful. However, I’m extremely disappointed with the house clearance team. First, they failed to turn up, and when they did come round they showed a distinct lack of interest and professionalism. Eventually we received a quote for nearly £9,000 to clear a six-bedroom house—over nine times higher than another quote—and completely unfathomable.
This experience has been hugely disappointing, I doubt I will ever use them again.