British Heart Foundation Furniture & Electrical Stores Reviews 

Appalling! 3rd time trying to get furniture picked up. 3 of us offered to carry stuff downstairs for them to put in their van (I'm 80). Said they were parked too far away(didn't follow instructions). Said they didn't have time (we carried all the furniture downstairs onto the lawn for them). Then lied to the shop that the table was too damaged and scratched - its beautiful/Georgian style/solid mahogany with a table top protector. Previous visit said the 2 sofas didn't have fire labels but didn't look. They are covered in them. They don't want the money and have just lost several thousand pounds in my Will. My advice: don't go there!

Absolutely bizarre experience with the Ipswich branch today .Was eager to donate sofas worth approximately £6,000 brand new and were informed on the day of collection they couldn’t accept due to a ‘mark’ on the arm of one of the chairs . We had booked this day off work to arrange for the collection . We phoned BHF to raise a complaint and were then informed that following reviewing the photos provided by the collection driver they were unclear themselves why the items were rejected . We wanted to do a good deed and donate our unwanted items to charity , however using the premise of an established charity , BHF are clearly operating like a business and are seeking to maximise profit . Would strongly avoid this ‘charity’ in the future and recommend donating to other more appreciative and worthy charities

Bizarre and needlessly stressful experience.

We had two 3 seater sofas in good condition that we were happy to donate, but one had the top half of one of those small buttons missing on the arm, which we explicitly stated at booking and was told "no problem", to then have the van drivers turn up, say "can't take this mate there's a button missing" and then take "the good one".

Who's given the *drivers* the final say on condition? Are they selling them? Before I started speaking to them they jumped straight into "gotta have a look at what they look like mate"

Looks like this echoes other reviews in that they seem to just take the stuff they feel like taking.

This sofa met your "saleable condition" criteria, in fact, we could have sold them ourselves for a fair bit!

I know it was a free collection so I can't expect much, 2 stars because it wasn't outright completely refused, but we planned this around the one day a week they work and this has royally messed up our house-moving plans, costing us time and money now, which is what we were trying to avoid, while helping a charity!

Thanks!

Disappointing experience

Honestly you try to be a good person and they just do not let you.

a) Dismantling: The very crucial bit about dismantling is ONLY mentioned in the email you receive as confirmation. NOT in any steps of the booking process is mentioned. It should be part of your Terms & Conditions and clearly noted PRIOR to someone booking a collection.

b) Fire Labels: BE SPECIFIC about the amount of fire labels you require. If a fire label, stitched on the inside of a seating, says "covers and fillings" it means covers & FILLINGS but somehow BHF do not accept that this label covers the whole couch, they said to me and I quote "oh thats only for the covers". HOW!
BE SPECIFIC about what you require! Be specific about IKEA sofas (which a very well know brand in the UK, its not niche) or other big brands.

c) Re pillows: I understand some people will try to donate their crusty old pillows and thats unacceptable. However, if in the selection for pillows you have it listed as "new/packaged" in the English grammar, slash as a symbol means either or. Its EITHER new OR Packaged.

Creating stress in an already stressful period which is moving is not the vibe guys. Honestly. Be specific about your requirements.

I just had a very negative experience at my local BHF in Kingswood. I seen a settee i really liked. I saved up the £100and went to purchase today only to find the price had increased by £25 since I last looked at it 2days ago. I asked the assistant about the price increase and he said the sale was over. There was nothing 2 days before stating about any sales starting or ending. This furniture is donated which means local people can buy affordable furniture whilst raising money. I also showed the assistant a photo of a cabinet which he said was saleable but said they cannot collect as there isn't enough money in it for them. I've donated a lot of stuff to this charity but will now find another charity to support. Very disappointing experience

Last week, I spotted a delightful old DVD in a British Heart Foundation charity shop in Whitby. Unfortunately, only three of the words on its cover were in English – the rest was a mixture of Spanish and French. (Occasionally in the past, I’ve unintentionally bought DVDs from charity shops, later discovering that they were in foreign languages!) So I asked the woman at the counter if it had an English track. She wasn’t sure, but offered to call the manageress down.

This manageress radiated an inflexible “take-it-or-leave-it” drop-dead attitude, inconsistent with the shop’s status as a registered charity. At that point, it emerged that this shop (and probably others like it) doesn’t even have the equipment to test DVDs before putting them on sale though still willing to sell them to unsuspecting members of the public!

I offered to buy it IF, after returning home and finding there was no English track, I could return it with the receipt for a refund. The manageress totally refused to give a refund, even though her refusal was probably breaking Consumer Rights law! So I left, vowing NEVER AGAIN to buy a DVD from any British Heart Foundation shop in future.

Sadly, charity shops today have evolved into unashamed money-making scams, in which CHARITY has been replaced by the desire to make hefty profits! These “charity shops” are charities in name only, all ethical principles as to pricing and suitability for sale abandoned in their scramble to make money.

So be warned: BUY AT CHARITY SHOPS AT YOUR PERIL!

This review is about the British Heart Foundation Weekly Flutter Raffle. I was persuaded to sign up to a monthly donation whilst shopping in Asda and assumed that the majority of my donation would go to charity. Only when I looked into it did I find that 20% goes to charity and 75% to the marketing companies that run the raffle!! This seems like an extraordinarily inefficient way of raising funds, poor value for money, and against the ethos of charitable giving. It doesn't sit well with me when charities start operating more like a large corporate business and less like a charity. I think the British Heart Foundation have negotiated a really poor deal with the marketing companies running this raffle. If you want to make sure most of your donation actually goes to charity, just go to the website and donate there.

Horrendous collection 'service'. Rude and no empathy. Lazy. Scraped vintage valuable furniture that was my late mum and more recently,dad's, by not lifting it. Back chatting. Banging furniture like it was worthless and looking at it in the same way. Saying 'Can't take this' even though they'd had photographs and booking info of what it was and how old it was. They moaned about taking the rest and so left it. Wanted them out of the house asap. I was in tears afterwards.

I purchased all my furnitures from British Heart Foundation, Bristol in 2024. We had a great experience with the team and all the items were delivered with great care. We were extremely satisfied with the whole experience.
But, it is entirely different, when it comes to donating the same items to them after an year & a half. We decided to move abroad and chose BHF to donate all items we purchased from them (all items were in the exact same condition), hoping that we are being part of something great. Unfortunately, the whole system became more of a used furniture business focused on profit.

They agreed with the list I gave during booking and had a call to discuss details. However, the driver refused to take half of the furnitures saying that they are not up for the market and that he couldn't take it since he had strict orders to decline such items. Although the driver was kind, he refused to collect most of the good furnitures because of tiny scuff marks, which felt unreasonable considering the same was sold by them. Some of those furnitures were in very good condition and might interest someone for a cheaper price, even though it is not so popular in the market.
The overall donation process felt like dealing with a highly profit oriented business, rather than donating items with some quality to a charity. Not going to choose them again. I would rather choose a house clearance.

I have donated to this charity many times over the past twenty years being items of clothing, bedding and furniture and have never had any problem in having my items collected, after all as a charity you would expect that a collection service would be extremely beneficial. I rang my local BHF store at Bishop Auckland and asked if they would like a "bean to cup" coffee machine, practically brand new in its original box with full instructions but a large and heavy item, I was told I had to take it into the store, I explained that I am disabled and as such unable to drive and that the item is heavy and difficult to carry, again I was told no, you have to bring it in. I was absolutely astounded at the fact that a charity I have supported for years would refuse such an item and contacted the head office of BHF, the phone lines were switched off despite being well within the stated opening times so I left a message, a couple of hours later I received a call back by what sounded like a young woman who had an appalling manner, she literally talked without pause, not even attempting to let me speak, what I took from the call was that basically the BHF shops can do exactly as they please when it comes to collecting items, there is no rule regarding this and they can just refuse to collect items even if the donor is disabled and physically unable to take the items being donated to them. I will never, ever support this charity again, from their manner and attitude it appears that they dont need to depend on donations and can quite easily pick and choose where they get their stock from, about a million miles away from what my definition of charity means, tbh they are the most uncharitable charity out there, AVOID.

I purchased an item from the British Heart Foundation that was delivered damaged. While this was disappointing, what was even more frustrating was the poor after-sales service. Although they initially responded to my complaint, communication then became extremely slow and ineffective. Despite my repeated attempts to contact them and resolve the issue, the matter was never properly addressed. The delays continued until the return and warranty period had expired, leaving me with a damaged item and no practical solution. I expected much better customer care from such a well-known charity.

Got a great sofa from their shop in Norwich city centre but was damaged by delivery drivers. Furniture isn’t even wrapped in basic protective plastic lining for delivery.
The staff in the shop are all rude as well.

I wanted to donate a sofa, in pretty much new condition. Fire safety tags, no rips or tears etc.
The website kept crashing on my laptop and also my phone.

I called to enquire how i could help and donate as the website was down, but was answered by a lady who quite frankly couldn't care less and didnt really want a donation.

Gave it to a local charity who were really happy to help. I thought BHF were meant to be one of the 'good ones'?
Ill think twice about offering to BHF in future

I’ve donated a virtually brand new Bosch washing machine, numerous items of furniture including an IKEA table in pristine condition in the past. Now I’ve a virtual new Ninja air fryer I need collecting, I don’t have transportation so it needs picking up. I filled an online form in, got a reference number as well. Someone was going to call and ask for some information,………nothing.!
I called the Halifax store and was told to drop it off because it’s not cost effective to pick it up.
This is very heavy, and if they think I’m catching a bus and bringing it they can think again.
The guy in the store was so unhelpful and uncompromising I gave up.
You try and help charity shops but they get cocky and disrespectful. I didn’t have this problem at Byker in Newcastle.
Reading reviews only proves to me they want everything dropped off. Pathetic.

Great shops, but the new "not plastic" bags are hopeless. The lady in front of me had her bag break before she left the shop. Mine got halfway home before the handle broke and the bottom went through. A paper bag would have been a much better alternative.

Absolutely useless. Moving house and have some good quality conservative furniture we tried to donate to the store. Waited all morning for them to come and collect and then found it was cancelled. Apparently they had driven to the property, telephoned once (we just missed the call and phoned them back immediately but no answer) and drove off again. Didn't bother ringing doorbell and, given we were actually watching out of the window for them, we don't think they actually drove to the property at all. All lies. Don't bother. Donate elsewhere!

I walked about a mile with a bag full of items which is quite heavy to my local British heart foundation store in Wandsworth. I previously donated a lot of things to the store, including clothes and books and all sorts. They're welcome was never super friendly in the past but it was okay. This time around it was a very frosty and rather obstructive meeting. The lady was counting cash in the till when I arrived about 5:15 pm. I gave her a cheerful hello and said I have a few things here for you to sell. She didn't say hello back. She just said what kind of things do you have for us to sell - and I said all kinds of things. I showed a pristine Tie hanger. She said no we can't sell that. I showed her some ties. She said no we can't sell that. We only do electrical and furniture - I said okay I've got some electricals for you. I had an IKEA lamp. It's a desk workspace lamp. It just needed a bulb to go in it. And she said no we can't sell that its too complicated. She says we only sell those lamps over there and pointed it a range a very awful looking bedside table lamps. They were huge angle poise lamps in the window for sale not dissimilar to the IKEA one I had. She said no because you need a really complicated bulb for that and the condition is not very good. There was no Grace in the communication at all. No appreciation for me walking down there with all this stuff. Everything was rather blunt. I trudged home with my bag full of heavy goods. Some of it I'll try to sell on eBay some of it I'll probably throw in the local tip. There are some other items I was going to take to British heart foundation but I don't think I'll bother now - it's just not a very pleasant experience. I see others reported a similar experience from their own local stores. I understand that they can say they can't sell something - but they could at least show warmth and gratitude for the effort people put in to try and raise money for the British heart foundation.

Really rude collection driver. To one look at my wardrobe (a £500 double wardrobe with sliding full length mirrored doors) and said “not good condition, too big) and walked out of the bedroom. Won’t be getting y charity ever again. I’ve got a nearly new washing machine, a dining table and chairs, an American fridge freezer and an electric reclining sofa I was going to give to them when I move in with my other half. They won’t be getting those now due to rudeness of collection drivers. They have just lost about 3 grands worth of stuff they could have sold for at least £500 now

Booked a collection of a lot of goods from my mother in laws house - to the Widnes, Cheshire store. Had to cancel this one due to a family emergency so rescheduled. The rescheduled date - the driver didn’t turn up despite me waiting an hour and a half. I was informed the driver had an emergency with his grandson - but no one told me that - I had to call to find out after two hours waiting,then spoke personally to the driver and rescheduled another collection. This appointment was then cancelled by the shop stating they had no room for anything. The appointment was rescheduled to today and as I have said on previous occasions that the van should be empty as there is a lot of things to collect and I had taken time off work to attend at the property where the items were.
I attended at 10.15am ( appointment was 10.30-11.30) by 11.45 there was a no show so I made enquiries with the shop who told me he will get to me but he’s on his rounds- I told her that this was an appointment we have tried to make on three occasions now, I had gone out of my way to attend by taking time from work and that the van will unlikely be empty if he “is on his rounds” . The woman said - No the van won’t be empty. I said then there is no real point in him coming then - and asked her to speak with him to find out what was going on and let me know.
I explained that I’m trying to help the charity and that things are not being adhered to in order to get the items to the shop. She did apologise and clearly it’s not her fault but someone somewhere here is totally incompetent. On our side of things , these items are holding up the furtherance of a house being photographed and going on sale ( for nearly 4 weeks now) and all we are trying to do is help a charity to make money. At the time of writing I have once again left the property with no contact regarding this collection of these goods.
Poor service towards the public who are trying to help the cause. I still have the items at the house

Back again at this well presented branch of British Heart Foundation home furniture outlets.

Having donated and purchased previously, I find this shop and it's staff to be helpful and customer focussed; good for them and for their charity.

On this occasion I got a good condition teak-veneered bookcase for my music and reading room and a nice desk (to sink a broadcast mixing desk into).

Good prices and conditions with much variety brought to all by friendly and professional team members including Jack, Jamell and Janice.

Great service, great charity and great to do business with.

Thanks again team BHF, Felixstowe Road, Ipswich.