this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
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A Boring Dystopia

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The staff were pretty kind all around, facility was clean.

The dystopian aspect was how many people I saw denied, because they had donated yesterday. You can give twice a week, but have to wait a day in between. I saw at least four or five people get turned away, and they were all pretty upset. The line was extremely long - there are tons of people desperate enough to wait in line for hours to go through the painful process of having their blood sapped out.

I also got a preloaded card as my payment, which has a ton of fees associated with it - I’ll get charged if I use it at an atm or check the balance. I know these cash cards are often also used to pay people who work at like McDonald’s - it just seems like so much of the US is designed to nickel and dime the shit out of the poor.

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 2 days ago (22 children)

Is that not for health reasons? Donating twice in a row like that seems like it would take a real toll on you.

I don't know why that's dystopian, if anything what's dystopian is that people are relying on doing this to support themselves at all.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 days ago (2 children)

You're right. But the payment card is definitely dystopian and designed to maximize fees from the users for every aspect. It should be required by law that these businesses give alternative options for receiving payments, or remove any sort of fees.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Most prepaid cards such as prepaid visas can be checked for free on the site, no? That has been my experience anyway...

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Its not VISA prepaid card, theyre talking about the scammy shit that places like fast food or grocery stores try to use to pay their employees.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/are-there-fees-to-use-a-payroll-card-en-403/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

ohhh, so a slightly different thing that is basically like a regular debit card account, but a bit more predatory? Got it. Ewww

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

When I used to donate there was an option to transfer the funds from the card via ACH. Of course, ACH is slow as hell and another big problem of its own.

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