British Heart Foundation Furniture & Electrical Stores Reviews 

I have had a few dealing with BHF over many years and never had issue when it came to donating items wether they were to be collected or I took the items myself to store.
I really do not understand what has changed in there ability to collect items from donating customers there scrutiny is mind bogglingly unbelievable, I recently had several large items to donate so I went through the online procedure of listing what I had and times and dates they could be collected, within about hour of sending in my request for collection I received a phone call from a BHF representative telling me in no uncertain terms that they didn't want any of the items I had for donation, no real explanation was given at all, just that, they didn't want them. The woman I was speaking with came across as a bit abrupt, and even condescending, in my opinion. I was left thinking after phone call what a disgusting attitude this person had and I was quite upset and angry at this so called charity's total disregard for customers service.

These donations are the very life blood of charitable organisation, so for one like BHF to point blank refuse salable goods is nothing short of DISGRACEFUL.
Come BHF get your act together what on earth is going on with this charity and there terrible attitude to donating customers.
I noticed BHF respond to reviews with the standard excuse that warehouse allocation and or shops are full and not taking donations, absolutely utter rubbish, you are are responding and using the same nonsense excuse to justify laziness.
I will Never consider BHF, myself in future for any kind of donation.

Had a piece of furniture collected from my property. The delivery driver drove into my gate and the entire thing fell down damaging the electrics on the gate. The insurance company for these people have not managed to get in touch with the British heart foundation or the delivery van people. And said that if they don’t get in touch, then the case just simply closes.
I’ve sent a letter of complaint to British heart foundation in which I’ve been ignored

So not only have I donated a piece of furniture they have left me with thousands of pounds worth of damage to my electric gate

I wish absolutely everything terrible on the British heart foundation and I hope they have absolutely no luck in what they try to achieve

I absolutely hate them. I wish you terrible things.

I should never have donated to you in the first place as you test on animals. I should have known better you’re a disgusting lot.

I offered my leather recliners, 2 seater and 3 seater, both were in a good condition. I had safety labels on both. I also had 2 Indian style coffee tables and pine chest. When the men came they looked at the sofas and I'm sure saw how heavy they may have been. I'm appalled at the excuses they made not to take them. They went on to take just the coffee tables and pine cabinet. All I can say is they must be getting very high quality donations and are extremely selective. I will never donate to them again and that includes cash as I do. Other charities are more deserving.

Sad to be reviewing a charity 1 star. But the experience I just had with the furniture collection man was horrible. A very rude, unhelpful person. A couch, table and chairs all in perfect condition - not looking for a cent for it just thought it would be nice to go to charity or someone in need - and just because the driver woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided every single 1 of my 10 solutions to get the furniture to the truck would not make his life easier (including me taking the furniture to the truck). What a horrible and rude man.

Wow! Wish I’d read the reviews! Seems they do this to everybody trying to donate. Booked a collection, transportation lads turn up and won’t take the items because wardrobe comes apart in 2 to make it easier to transport and the dresser has a small mark on. Why don’t they vet this stuff beforehand and then decline the donation instead of wasting everyone’s time!!

Absolute cowboys. Yes they are a charity but that does not excuse incompetence, breaches of the law and rudeness by their staff. My son bought over £1000 worth of furniture from their Bridgend store in April 2026. Paid for it to be put together. They took 6 weeks to deliver even though everything was in stock blaming delays in assembling. This was a lie as nothing was delivered assembled. 2 weeks later nobody had contacted him to come and assemble. I finally rang the store to chase and the store manager was both incompetent and extremely rude. I would avoid these people like the plague. They are just crooks

I wanted to donate some furniture they refused.

I tried to donate a wall unit using their website and had to wait just over a week for pickup.

When they came to pick it up, they said it was too large (the site listed a specific size), so they refused to accept it. They took a picture to confirm with the shop before refusing it.

They could've asked for a picture first to confirm, but they didn't. When I spoke to the store, they said it's not their process, even though they rejected it based on a photo from their pickup team. A true contradiction in process.

I'm now stuck with a unit, a new one arriving, nowhere to put it, and they're arrogant enough not to care about their rubbish process.

I booked BHF flat clearance several weeks in advance of my move and paid £350 - (even though I was informed that the furniture I was donating was of exceptional quality ( the assessor said that they typically only receive such items around once a year).
On the day of the clearance, drivers didn’t turn up. When I phoned, the shop stated that one of the team had been taken ill and that there was no back-up. As I had an end of tenancy clean booked and needed to vacate the apartment the following day, this was obviously extremely stressful.
Clearance was rescheduled for the following morning and fortunately they did turn up. The 2 guys however didn’t really appear to be trained/experienced movers (knocking furniture into walls and therefore compromising my tenancy deposit)

The British Heart Foundation do not explain that they will only accept practically new furniture. Be careful donating. The donation staff will look over your donation with a fine tooth comb and only take the best. I would suggest checking other, less critical charities that welcome stuff with the odd blemish.

Arranged two weeks ago for them to collect a three seater sofa and two armchairs. Only four years old and looking brand-new. I was offered Monday, the 25th of May between the hours of 10 and four. Friday prior I contacted the shop and mentioned that on Monday the 25th was a bank holiday. Fine for me, but was that still okay for BHF to collect as planned. I was told that was not a problem. They collected on a bank holiday. On Sunday, I received a text message saying that they would be coming Monday to collect the sofa and chairs. No one turned up. I rang multiple times Tuesday 26th of May left messages no answer and no one rang me back. In the end, I arranged for a local man with van to collect the settee and sofa and take them to the tip for me and I paid him for doing so. What a waste. Potentially they could’ve easily been sold for £300 or more. Not only did they waste my time but they lost money for the charity. I can only say that they are unreliable and I would be very wary if I were you of using them.
Whilst I appreciate it is a charity you do expect them to be professional and if nothing else would be good enough to ring me. Or in fact everybody who was going to have furniture collected on the bank holiday. If you are relying on them collecting furniture, just be careful because you may be left in the lurch.

Firstly they took about a week to get in touch with me and I had to chase them multiple times to offer my furniture.
The men came to collect and they were extremely dismissive, almost like they didn’t want to take the furniture in the first place. The sofa and chair were in really good condition. No stains, just a bit worn. Because obviously it is second hand. They started pointing out “stains” which was just the pattern of the sofa. And saying it wasn’t in good condition (it is) I’d never encourage someone not to give to a charity, but this company, mainly the people who collect, I would avoid and give your goods to a charity who would actually be grateful!

Refused to take my chaise langue sofa as there were signs of usage and a very minor dip where it has obviously been used! Fire labels all in place, no rips, tears and absolutely clean. This is at 7am on my day off with the addition of adding gift aid. Drivers stated that their Finchley branch have higher standards than some other stores (Holloway). I have donated many items to BHF in the past and this is honestly down to drivers discretion/mood. I sell furniture for a living and regularly recommend BHF to my customers for removal and always inform them that it must be in saleable condition with relevant fire labels. No longer will be doing this as the service is way too ambiguous and mainly used by older and more vulnerable customers. My advice is save yourself the hassle and stress of being patronised in your own home. Repulsive snobbery from a so called charity.

I would have purchased an armchair from croydon branch. When I enquired about delivery I was told that you have to wait from 11.00 till 7 that they dont do time slots. Unable to wait in all Not customer focused. Real Shame
This needs to be addressed as it is easy to do and would save customer time

I bought a dining table and donated a table and chairs. They collected at the same time as they delivered the new table but although the collection is free and it was the same van as the table delivery I was charged £35.00 for delivering it a distance of less than 600 meters a 5 minute walk to my house. The table was only £50.00 so they were in effect adding on an extra 70% to the original price for delivery. Then you are told the delivery will be some time between 8am and 5pm but they will ring you between 8 and 5 to tell you what time. The best they could do was to text me at 1.30 to say it would be between 3 and 5 .30 then again at 5.11 to say he would be there shortly. They eventually showed up at approx 5.20. Not bad wasting a full day waiting for a van to drive 500 meters and paying £35 for the privilege. Would be better off at community furniture store they deliver for £15.00. If a charity like them can charge 133% less and still make money it just shows what robbing sods the heart foundation are

I was let down twice. They cancelled on me the Monday and assured they would pick my sofa up on the Thursday. After spending all morning ignoring my daughter the drivers showed up and said “we can’t take it” because apparently it was 20cm over the length of which had not been specified. As I was literally about to move out with the landlord coming back the *next day* I was not happy.

When I took it up with the manager at Kingston BHF, she was rude, insincere and had obviously pissed off a load of people because she had all her excuses lined up. She ended up walking off on me midsentence and laughed at me when I said she needed to arrange to have the sofa removed as agreed and she couldn’t withhold a 210cm limit then get all self-righteous when you’re called out on it.

She said the charity commission would go after her and her budget was £20 to buy her staff some water (what a generous boss)

When I said I had actually bought the sofa from her shop initially and how come suddenly they’re not able to take it, she made up with some excuse about her stairs.

I will be making a complaint to BHF about her conduct. I also might bill her for the £180 extra the post-tenancy cleaners charged me due to the sofa being here, and the subsequent £110 I had to spend to get it removed myself after being twice let down. I am not a rich person, and £290 extra is a LOT of money for us.

What a sour experience that was. Donating unwanted and preloaded goods to a charity shop should have been an easy and satisfactory experience. It took two attempts to arrange a pick up and, after waiting in all day, a further phone call to organize. When the team arrived, in an unmarked van, they wouldn't even look at items the shop said they would take. Their manner and indifferent attitude appeared to show they were not collecting directly for the shop but possibly for a third party organisation who only wanted pristine goods, and then only took reluctantly. Please note, other, more professional charity organisations and shops are available!

A date was booked for today for BHF to assess the house for clearance. Their arrangement was to come at any time during the day. I needed to pop out for a few minutes to a neighbour but wouldn't be far so I phoned asking to give me some notice to enable me to get back. I was told they give me 30 minutes notice as standard practice. I popped out at about 12 ish but later in the afternoon found a card in the door that they called at 12:28. I checked my phone and there was a missed call at exactly the same time. I always keep the phone on me and there was no way I could have missed the door bell and also the phone call unless it rang just once. Anyway what is the point of phoning and coming to the door at exactly the same time? I phoned the office and tried to explain all that and also that I dedicated a whole day to this inspection and tried to explain that at the very least they breached theit rules to provide the 30 minutes notice. I found myself going round in circles with my fundamental question about the notice just being evaded. I got more and upset but instead of understanding and apology the lady threatened with terminating the call. I had other serviced people in the house at various times and I always got a courtesy call and there was never any friction. I cannot abide this lack of courtesy which is why I will not be engaging BHF.

Arranged for a three seater sofa to be picked up, excellent condition apart from a couple of cat scratches on the back. They refused to take it. What a waste of my time and the two men who came to pick it up. Why was I not asked during the phone call the condition or asked to send photos. What do you want BHF brand new furniture with no imperfections!!

Poor experience with The British Heart Foundation. A collection was arranged for an armchair, but when they arrived they refused to take it because of a stain. This could have been clarified beforehand and ended up wasting my time. I understand charities have standards, but clearer communication and more realistic expectations would improve the service. Why not ask for pictures when filling out the online form?!