I've donated here a few times--normally everything goes well, although they're always slow. Today, my appointment was at 2 o'clock; I showed up on time, but it took an hour and a half before I was even on a bed. After seating me, they brought over multiple other doners who were helped before me, and thirty minutes later someone finally came to assist me. Mid-donation, they told me they had put the needle all the way through my vein, which resulted in a hematoma, and they gave me a kit to take home. After waiting countless minutes to get unhooked so I could leave, they informed me I had to finish my donation on the other arm. Three hours later, I'm finally home with both arms wrapped. I wouldn't go through that again for $500, let alone $45... read more

Why do you require appointment times and then allow SO many people to come donate at the exact same time? Horribly understaffed. If you go, prepare to stand around for an hour before you even get tested to make sure you can donate. Then once you are accepted, you will stand in another line for an hour before you even get a bed. The staff is not nice and clearly overworked. They have no respect for your time. read more

Biolife is a beautiful facility that only wants to help people in need and every one of their workers care about the job they are doing! They are kind and curious. They are attentive to your every need and make sure to provide the best and equal care. Help and donate! read more

Criminally understaffed, employees there are clearly overwhelmed but doesn't excuse their rudeness, and always have wayyy too busy. Go find another one, you'll have a better experience read more

For a place that is big on advertising for new people to donate they sure don't treat new donors very well. I've gone in over a dozen times and have waited multiple hours each time for them to tell me I'm not able to donate. Not only that when I do make an appointment I'm having to sit for over an hour before they even take vitals. I went in today at my scheduled time and had 10 people who had just walked in get helped before me. What's the point in advertising and scheduling appointment if they're going to do what ever the hell they want anyways. That type of service is making me not even want to continue donating because what's the point to sit at a place being ignored for hours just for them to try and give me 40$. I'd make more working my actual job for 3 hours then ever thinking it have a good experience at ANY OF THE BIOLIFE CENTERS! read more

I've had an overall good experience. Minimum is 1 hour. Sometimes I think they over book. The Staff has been great. I eat eggs or real meat before I go in, never had a problem. Junk food with sugar is not a proper diet. Neither is a Vegan lifestyle. I'd give them 5 stars if I never had to wait in line more than 5 minutes. I've see the donor line 10 deep before. With scheduled appointments that makes no sense. read more

Not only did they fail to inform me that I had abnormal test results but they permanently deferred me. I had to find out in a packet on the weekend where I couldn't get ahold of anyone to ask questions about my test results. I was never told my blood would be even sent to a lab to be tested. Even though I got extensive testing confirming their results were false. I also found out that they failed to do confirmation tests before deferring me. I'm completely healthy and I can't donate because of their faulty tests and their mistakes made in their labs. Also trying to get ahold of anyone there is nearly impossible. I'll gladly donate somewhere else. And if you're looking to donate DO NOT GO HERE. read more

Closed my card and will not donate any longer due to your rude front desk African American female at the West Des Moines location, who refuses to give me her name after asking multiple times, even hanging up in my face. I schedule today's 2:50 pm appointment two weeks ago, only to have her call and cancel at 2:40 pm. Asked her what her name was three times and she refused to answer, and hung up in my face. Walked in to the location since I was already nearby to ask the nurse how often this happens and other questions. He kindly walked me to the manager's office who was not even there. While I was waiting outside the door, the African American lady was talking disrespectfully about me in front of another employee and other donors out loud. I confronted her, and the other employee pursued to threaten to "defer me" for not being "compliant". We are plasma donors not psych patients, with all respect to all patients. He even told me to leave the premises even though I was standing waiting for the manager. Later accused me of "antagonizing staff" and being "disrespectful", just after him disrespectfully talking about me behind my back in front of other donors! I asked him to close my account, to which he replied with "I don't know how to do that" and "I need to review how to do that". Do you only know how to be disrespectful and threaten to kick people out? Biolife presumes the donors are needy individuals with no self-respect. I am a physician who decided to take time out of their day to help others, but my interactions with some of the staff particularly that African American lady have been nothing but disgusting. I have previously reported her behavior as well (nothing happened and nobody reached out.. surprise!) read more

I'm a college student traveling back and forth between grimes and Cr iowa , donating plasma when I can. I was recently diagnosed with ibs and had a flare up that caused me a lot of medical issues but they have been resolved. The treatment i've received since trying to go back is time consuming and inconsiderate. I walked into the west des moines location, it was a non busy day and everyone seemed confused as to where they were supposed to be. They had the physical ready for me, and I had shown them proof of address on my phone before and to which they responded " no one should have let that pass", and " you shouldn't be doing all the back and forth" when i'm accompanying my medical issues. I've been back and forth being sent to one location to the other and am officially done with biolife!! Isn't a great experience spending gas and time. read more

I decided to start donating plasma through Biolife, so I made an account and signed up for my introductory physical, which according to the website was supposed to be up to 2 hours. Upon arriving, staff was condescending and unclear and I was shuffled from place to place, then asked why I was sitting there (because I'd been told to sit there). I was given very little idea of what to expect for that initial appointment and it wasn't until 2 hours in that I was told what a regular plasma visit would be like. I was left in the dark and just shuffled from seat to seat and asked personal questions. My social security card was left in plain view of staff and other customers, sitting on the counter for nearly half an hour. Later, I was asked to verify part of my social security number out loud in front of other customers, which made me feel uncomfortable. Everything seemed disorganized. The vibe that was given off was: "we don't want you here and we don't know what to do with you." I felt like a nuisance and wanted to leave within 10 minutes of arrival, but stuck it out to give the benefit of the doubt. I wish I'd left. I was there almost two and a half hours. I found out after two hours that I was also expected to give plasma after my physical, though this had never been told to me prior and was not clear online. At the point when I was told this, it had been four hours since I'd eaten (I'd already been there for over 2 hours) and I had begun to feel lightheaded from the stress of the experience. I requested to leave and reschedule that part of my appointment because I didn't have another hour to wait--and because it had already been such a mess than I was looking for any way to graciously excuse myself. Before I left, they drew one vial of blood, which bruised enough that my arm hurt to move for over an hour. If this is how they treat a new "member" who is considering joining, I can't imagine how rough it is once you're in the program. I would love to help people, but don't think I can bring myself to go through that ordeal every week. read more

The people who work here are great. That being said, I'm currently standing in a line outside 10 people in front of me and at least 40 behind me. And we've been here more than 35 minutes in windy, 59° weather. And they still have many "open appointments" on the schedule. It's time that management either open fewer appointments and get more people hired and trained. And the extended wait times started before the pandemic but have gotten progressively worse over the last few months. It's beginning to feel like BioLife doesn't value the time of the donors and are more motivated by the money they make from our plasma. read more

Horrible service. Got in early, 3:30 not rush time, waited over 40 minutes in chair to get connected to plasma machine. When the girl came I made the mistake of complaining. The attendant poked me twice, messed up the vein, then just dropped everything and called for help...then just left. The same attendant did the same to two other people in less than 30 minutes. This place is horrible! STAY AWAY! read more

Donating plasma... more like donating your life away. If I could give a half star, I would. The people are mostly nice but it's the slowest service. Honestly, I don't even know why they have you schedule appointments - you wind up standing in line, often well beyond an hour of your appointment time. If you spend less than two to three hours here donating, you're lucky. They appear to always be understaffed so I believe it's the corporate office that's the problem read more

BioLife Plasma Services - The line outside wraps around the building, and yet an entire half of the donation room is unstaffed and unoccupied. - Blood & Plasma Donation Centers Near Me - West Des Moines, Iowa

I normally donate in Ankeny but came here a few times. Both experiences were horrible. The first time, the tech going to do my needle stick for the donation was wearing the same iodine-covered gloves that she wore for the needle stick on the previous person and I had to ask her to change her gloves. I don't care how busy it is, there is no excuse to not change your gloves when you're poking into someone's vein. The second time I came, I was given a pager and sent to wait in my car for 40 minutes without getting a buzz. I went in to tell them I wouldn't have enough time to donate anymore. The line inside the building to donate was so long it was nearly to the front entrance. Why even bother having appointment times? Limit how many people can sign up for each time slot if you don't have the staff. So horrible! Don't even waste your time! read more

I think the front desk workers get paid to be bitches lol. never had a pleasant interaction with them, and they never let me donate. too high heart rate, need bills to show you live at your address, like why does that matter. do you want me to donate or not read more

What a joke! I don't know why I even bother! My appt was for 710am...it's now 745, I just got inside from sitting in my car with a pager, now I am #20 in the pre screen line & still have to get to the line that gets me to a bed so basically I won't be getting stuck until 830ish. I have donated at all of the plasma centers at one point or another & this is the only place that NEVER makes any changes! Something is clearly not working & it nobody seems to care! I wish I could give zero stars! read more

All the reviews are accurate. The people at the front desk are beyond rude and I helpful. If I have a 7 am appointment I'm not out of there until 9:30. Awful. Try talking to a manager, impossible. They don't care. waiting outside in rain, cold, etc. seems like they have a serious problem with time management and people skills. I gave it a 1 star but would give it a zero if I could. read more

What happened to customer care? I walked into bio life and it was my first time donating. The phlebotomist was rushed, crabby, and extremely rude. I actually asked if she liked her job and she replied "not really". I could tell. She insisted that I was not squeezing my arm hard enough because no blood was coming out. What was happening was my blood was leaking out of my vein into my arm. She had missed my vein completely. She told me she had been trained on site in 2 days. There needs to be a whole lot more training than that. I am 6 days out from my first donation and my arm can't straighten and is so painful to move. The bruise I have is the size of 2 fists and is a nasty color. They sent me home with a hemotoma care sheet and some ice. Unacceptable. I called and spoke to one of the managers and he was far from helpful. I wanted to note in my chart the womans name who had poked me to ensure I never had her again. I guess they don't keep track of their techs names. He told me I should head to my primary physician. I was trying to do somthing benefical for others since I have recovered from covid and it did not work in my favor. Maybe enforce more training on your techs before you give them a needle and work on your customer care. read more

Again I have time to leave another horrific review. Besides some of the attitudes here nothing has changed. Currently still waiting in line for an hour now. With about 16-18 people. Only 3 sections open.I understand this is my choice to come here and do this. But I have yet to understand why this BioLife always has the wosrt time management skills... You would think that time after time of this happening to them, and employees getting rail roaded into the ground something would change. read more

I do not understand why they require appointments when we have to wait 30-60 minutes in line. Recently they implementEd new rules you can't be 10 minutes before of after the appointment time. If they are holding us to our appointment time then we shouldn't have to wait in line for our appointment time since they can't keep a schedule due to not enough employee. i feel like I'm at the DMV in the old days and nobody cares we have to wait to give plasma for a good cause. read more

I go to Biolife often, it's a great way to earn extra money, Most of the staff is quite friendly however there are a few that are rude and abrasive. The thing that concerns me the most however is that I'm not seeing a lot of glove changes. As a medical person this is highly disturbing. In general I'm very happy with Biolife but there is always room for improvement. read more

I really don't understand the point of having an appointment here.. every time I've came I've waited over 30+ minutes sometimes up to an hour because "they are behind" well then have a first come first serve if you can't handle angry people.Now they have a list where you write ur name and number down and they'll call you EXCUSE ME??? I have an appointment wtf do you mean "you'll call me?"... They make you wait OUTSIDE sometimes or in ur car but if u sit outside it's hot as hell. The receptionists are usually not very friendly, all over the place. They need to hire more nurses to do vitals there's only 3 or 4 and there's a line of 20+ ppl waiting to get vitals. They also need more nurses for the actual blood donating sometimes I'll wait 10-15 mins just for a nurse to come hook me up or disconnect me, I can say all of the nurses are friendly and helpful. read more

This might be the worst-run business I've ever seen. I've never had less than a thirty minute wait even though I had an appointment, and today it was over an hour after my appt just to get in the door. Then it was another hour plus just to get a bed to donate. What a colossal waste of time. Three plus hours when it used to take one hour. Most of the staff are friendly, but until they get a new schedule figured out Don't waste your time. read more

Been to multiple locations of BioLife in Iowa and this is by far the worst location of them all. Making people wait outside in the -4 weather because sitting in the lobby is too dangerous. Only to let those same people sit next to each other giving blood when their appointment is ready. Speaking of. You have to schedule an appointment to donate plasma, pretty normal, except everyone has waited 40 minutes passed their appointment time. Not only is it very annoying considering you have to schedule this into your every day life but also anything you have scheduled for the rest of your day is now being pushed back or canceled even though you specifically had to schedule an appointment. What a waste of mine and everyone else's time. I will never come back to this location. read more

I don't understand why there's an extremely long wait when appointments are made ahead of time. People are doing this to give a donation... Not always for the cash. You're making it very inconvenient to do a good deed. Many of us take time away from our jobs and don't have the time to sit around and wait because of your poor scheduling. This is very poor customer service. My last appointment was a Thursday at 11am with a 45 minute wait (I left). Returned Saturday at 7:45 and waited an hour and 15 minutes (was told 45 minutes). It sounds like this is a corporate issue, but I'm not returning until I hear improvements are made. read more

This place just keeps getting worse. Make appointments two weeks out that they don't honor. Wait an hour IN YOUR CAR to get screened. Don't understand how a business can be run this way - management doesn't appear to care either. Awful!!! read more

The worst location. They're beyond slow and don't give a damn about how long you've been sitting in a chair waiting to be stuck. They are also very rude if you bring any of this up. Currently been sitting in a chair waiting to be stuck for 30 minutes now. Something needs to change read more

Very, very poor time management. The staff has always been incredibly friendly, but it doesn't really count for much if you have to wait for hours to even get screened to donate. I understand sometimes schedules get backed up, but then offer fewer appointments. I'd rather not be able to schedule at all, than get there anticipating being able to donate and seeing a line of 12 people out the door. Don't offer appointments if you don't have the staff to keep up with them. read more

They require appointments, but it seems no matter what time of day you go you have to wait in line for an hour. This is horribly run. I am actually deterred from donating due to the time it takes. I typically spend 2-2.5 hours here each time. The blood plasma part takes 30 minutes and the rest of the time is spent waiting. They must do better! read more

If you're getting $20 for waiting 2 - 3 hours, dont waste your time. They get much more money for plasma than they give you for wasting time. Donating plasma is great, this location is rude, and could care less about your donation. I could get a serving job making more for less time. Thought it was a good way to make extra cash during a busy schedule. You HAVE to be there on time for your appointment but then they send you to wait in long lines that take up to an hour - EACH LINE. read more

Very disappointed. Went in for my first time appointment; physical & donation. Was informed my breakfast of an English muffin with peanut butter and a glass of chocolate milk might not be considered a full meal so I had to see the nurse. Nurse then said peanut butter is too fatty and could cause my donation to be unusable. Never did I read on their website or was I told on the reminder call Not to eat peanut butter! To me peanuts are a natural fat, a good fat that we need not one of the bad fats. So after driving 25 minutes for my appointment I was turned away. This experience was a waste of over an hour of my time, not to mention a waste of my gas. I will say the nurse was polite and apologetic. She offered to reschedule as early as the following day, however that didn't work for me. I would request the website provide a list of specific foods that you should NOT eat to avoid being turned away after scheduling your appointment and then wasting that time, energy and gas to get to your scheduled appointment. This has me very frustrated! read more

Staff is great! Appointments suck. My appointed time was 6:45. It is 8:44 right now and I am sitting in chair still waiting. Nuff said..... read more

If you make the bad decision to donate here, plan ahead. They will have a line of 30+ people with only 2 people working through it. Personally I scheduled 2.5 hrs before I had to go to work and I couldn't even get it done by then. Every time I've gone into this location it's been at least a 40 minute wait. Be warned read more

Very rude and unhelpful! Kept sending me to the wrong area or ignoring me at my first donation to a point where I started having a panic attack and had to leave before even getting my physical. read more

Got a push banner notification for a promo. Was not honored at the location. Apparently it was an error

This was my first time donating, and I was a little weary as I've fainted from a draw before. Very knowledgeable staff but a few are a little brash if you're not sure what you're doing yet. They made the process a little more difficult than need be, asking questions I had no answers to since I hadn't been exposed to certain diseases I couldn't pick out which symptoms fit such disease making you feel dumb, but I got through the physical and questionnaire in about 2.5 hours. (You have to list out where and how long ago each piercing and tattoo was placed!) It helped that the guy actually taking the plasma was cute, but didn't replace a the need for tvs placed in the draw areas though! read more

Clean, friendly environment. There have been time or two when newer people will make you wait longer than you need to to get started or to wrap up so you can leave. If you come here, I would just allow extra time on your schedule. Otherwise everyone here is very helpful and knowledgeable. read more

I've been here twice now. I've been going to the Ankeny location and I'm really happy West Des Moines has one now because it's closer to home. Both times I have been there has been a quick and very pleasant experience. I have had some bad pokes in the past at the other BioLife's from newer people so I was nervous I would get someone who didn't know what they were doing. I didn't. Both times they have done a great job. They do have regulations they have to follow because if your iron and protein levels are not high enough they can't use your plasma so it's useless for their products. If you come in and your iron is low take a break, same with protein. These facilities are super nice and the techs seem knowledgeable from what I have seen. read more

Wow, just walked in here with my husband and the receptionist was kind but a woman behind her in the middle compartment next to the computers was a complete capital B. Let's call her angry lady. Not allowed to give blood myself, the hubs asked me to come and check it out and see if it was safe and clean and whatnot, all of which thankfully it is. B+ for that. After asking the receptionist the what do we do questions, we go stand by the computer and hubs fills in his questions. Suddenly there's a banshee like howl and angry lady yells as if I just kicked her puppy (an animal I would never entrust in her care) from across a tiny path that I'm not allowed to be there. Ok. I'll move. I'm not oblivious to privacy rules. But there are ways to speak to a first time guest, and that was not the way. Maybe she's having a bad day. Maybe she sat on a needle. Either way there's no need to be blatantly rude. Thankfully she appears to be part two in the checking in process with limited human interactions. Lord knows I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of angry lady with a needle. read more