ShopGoodWillReviews 651

Have bought many items but am starting to get very weary of being charged "handling prices" plus "shipping prices". I buy jewelry and am charged $3 and $4 for "handling" plus an over-inflated cost to ship (sometimes $11). They over-inflate the weight to charge more - jewelry does not weigh pounds which I have seen. One would think you would receive expedited shipping at these prices but they allow themselves 7 days to ship and usually take all 7. I ship the same items for $2.66 USPS first class. This is truly is robbery. Not sure why they can be called a CHARITY with this sort of UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR!

Shopgoodwill routinely cites any existing appraisal to set a reserve, even though appraisals are 200% to 300% more than what you can buy the same thing at Costco.

Shopgoodwill flogs very poor diamonds coyly presented for sale without any meaningful description. If you can live with a low-quality diamond, you can get a pair of 3mm, I1 clarity diamond stud earrings on eBay for something in the neighbourhood of $100. Don't get screwed on Shopgoodwill.

Goodwills Ventura and Santa Barbara, 130 Lombard St. Oxnard, CA *******. I contacted shipping requesting items be combined only to be informed they were to heavy. I asked if they would justify the shipping cost considering one estimate had a lower price for the largest item. They adjusted weight with no explanation, once again reminding me they were to large to combined. The boxes they used were absolutely ridiculous causing a higher price in shipping. After my complaint they just said "Thanks for Feedback. They items were packed with care. Was anything broken". I doubt they took the time to look at my photos.

I recently started shopping online with Good Will within the past 6 months and I've gotten pretty good deals on a lot of things so far. Most of the time, I find pretty interesting things. I've gotten very good condition shoes, an brand new comforter set, even a snowboard.

CONS:
- A lot of things are pretty used and I don't think they should be selling for the price they are... with the added shipping costs, sometimes those used items can amount to more than the actual item bought new in stores. It's pretty ridiculous considering these items were donated at no cost, but I'm just hoping that Good Will really does use the profits for charity.
- Another thing I do not like is that, sometimes they list the minimum bid price for you to bid, but it's already been bidded at a higher price, and by the time you place your minimum bid, it's already at a higher not-shown price, and that can cause a delay for you to re-input an amount, load the screen and lose the auction.
- Very hard searching for specific items because they are not always properly titled.
- The description of the items are pretty vague, and you might end up with something that does not work or have all the pieces.

PROS:
- You can find a lot of name brand and high-end items in very good condition, without the retail price tag.
- A lot of items can be found brand new, with tags or in their packaging
- 1 cent shipping on a lot of items
- Pretty fast shipping in my experiences
- Less time consuming than actually going out to the Good Will stores and digging through everything (unless you have time and you're into that)
- They give you a good deal of time to pay for the item, once you've won the auction. (Keep in mind, too many unpaid items will result in you not being able to continue placing bids)
- Giving back to charity while saving money is always a plus right?

All in all, buying things from the website has been pretty positive. You must know what you're really buying before you place the bid and should always calculate the shipping to see if it's worth it. The feeling of winning an auction is fun, especially when you're sitting behind the screen and no one can be mad at you. Have fun!

As a employee for Good Will, I thought it would be convenient to do aome christmas shopping online. Discourage with my purchase of what was supposed to be good condition Victoria's Secret bras. I received my package today to my surprise, my shipment was used nasty bras. As a employee we would have salvaged these garments, and never posted them on shop Good Will. Upset with shop Good Will, being I paid a good amount of money for these nasty garments.

The goodwill online auction business practices continue to decline. There is no accountability from the various stores that sell on the goodwill auction. Complaints continue to mount from the public and fall upon deaf ears. Their mission of putting people to work is not a reason to rip off the public and provide awful customer service.
Just to share a personal experience first hand a Manager Ray once told a less fortunate Mom with small children who said she had a fire in her home and asked for a few items of clothing for her small children. His reply to her was " We are a business not a charity".

Needing to limit or discontinue buying from this site due to some of the sellers. It's a shame that some stores do a great job describing items and being fair when something was damaged or inaccurately described, while other stores could care less when the buyer received an inaccurately described item. There is no set standard policy for all the stores. Some expect the buyer to be a mind reader in knowing all the defects that an item has. When contacted, some stores basically say, "too bad." Plus, some jewelry prices seem suspiciously high as if some insider bidding is occuring to drive up the price. It's becoming too much of a "buyer beware" situation.

I recently bought an older Asus computer. The system was listed as including a 120GB SSD which is an expensive and sought after component and caused the system to sell for likely twice what it would have otherwise. When it arrived it didn't have an SSD or any drive of any kind. I reported to *******@shopgoodwill.com and was given a "low" priority and told that it had been forwarded to Goodwill of Silicon Valley who was the actual seller. After a week I called the store and spoke to an employee who took my ph number and said his manager would call me. I never received a call and my account was disabled which from what I've read is typically what happens to anyone who registers a complaint. I was not unhappy with the computer itself as it was very nice, I was polite and told them I didn't want a refund or anything else just wanted it known so it wouldn't happen to anyone else. I was willing to overlook the fraud on the part of Goodwill of Silicon Valley and just buy from other locations but apparently politely reporting misconduct with no demands is enough to get you banned from their service. I gave them a 3 out of 5 because the computer itself was nice even though because of their misrepresentation I paid likely twice what it would have sold for otherwise.

Shopgoodwill.com internet auction site has many Goodwill stores participating on the internet auction around the country. There does not seem to be any consistency from one location to another in how they do business. Each site is left up to their own judgement as to the method of testing or not testing electronic items, describing, picturing, packing, shipping carriers, etc. For example an audio video receiver: one facility may not even plug a receiver in to see if it may power up or not. Another facility may plug it in and if if powers up they are done and off to the internet auction it goes. Personally I have purchased four high end receivers(my price over $300/each plus shipping) from shopggoodwill.com and only one ever worked. My percentage is about 75% failure when it comes to purchasing electronic items on the internet auction site. It would seem there should be some minimal consistent testing procedure for high dollar electronic items sold on the shopgoodwill.com site. I am sure there are thousands of disgruntled customers around the country who have purchased electronic merchandise only to find out their purchase was merely a very expensive non-usable item worthy of the dump. I wonder how many folks take their recently received non-working item they purchased from shopgoodwill.com and take it to their neighborhood Goodwill store as a donation just to start the process over with the non-working electronic item.
No one is making out other than Goodwill for the above described scenario. The packaging and shipping procedures varies greatly. Some stores do in house packing others send the items out to UPS stores, FedEx, mom/pop shippers etc. The real problem lies in stores that chose to package their own items for shipping. Some stores do well and bubble wrap fragile items others simply throw the item in a box with no packing material at all. Some stores allow a third party to pick up an item for shipping such as a UPS store others will not allow anyone other than the buyer to pickup the item even if you are out of state from the Goodwill store from which you purchased the item from on the shopgoodwill.com site.
It seems shopgoodwill.com is not accountable to any governing body or law enforcement agency otherwise how does Goodwill get away with selling damaged or non-working electronic just because they state the items are not tested or sold as is. I suppose there are thousands of us gullible shoppers out there that keep Goodwill in business.

I love looking for deals on shop goodwill, but be prepared to add about $10.00 to the final cost of your item due to handling and shipping charges. Handling is usually $2 to $3 and shipping seems to always be around $7 give or take a dollar or two.
I buy from eBay all the time and never pay this amount for shipping and handling. I am shopping less and less on goodwill, because I don't want to pay $10 to deliver a $3 pair of earrings. Double check shipping charges before you buy from goodwill.

I first started buying ShopGoodwill online in Hawaii because I live here; I started out bidding on, what they called at the time, "Unsorted Lots of Jewelry" they were good for about a month; then, I finally called to ask why the boxes were looking different?
Were being sorted? I was no longer finding any vintage, silver or on the rare occasions gold; I was told that the boxes were now, "Called Grab Bags" and are now
Being sorted. Which means the prices are still high but the quality was gone.

So, I took a chance and started bidding on Boxes in: Salinas, Ca (The worst Bait & Switchers) they would place pieces on top with 925 & name brands pieces & the bidding would go through the roof & then you get hit with the shipping. Sioux City, Iowa; Mobile, Alabama all went from: "Unsorted Lots" to now, just Grab Bags.
"There Should Be A Law Against ShopGoodWill's Run Amuck Policies!" There is no
One to complain to because they are all independent. "Let's all Boycott!"

If you want to buy something and the auction ends on a weekend or a holiday, and because they DO NOT answer questions on that weekend, and you take a chance and buy it, because you dont really know the condition, or if it is a collectible radio, and you need a certain part off of the radio, DO YOU take the chance and buy it? And if you do buy it, and it does NOT HAVE the part you needed when you receive it... DO YOU GET YOUR MONEY BACK? In other words if you cant get answers to questions that 100% you need an answer for... and buy it... will they refund your money because of this?
I have been in this situation in the last 3 months, and NO lie, have not gotten an answer for at least 20 times... I repair vintage radios and this site has a lot of radios I need, weather to fix it up or for parts... but because the shipping and handling is way out of control, I just cant bid on something that IS NOT going to do me any good... And I know for a fact that once an item has sold, forget about seeing or finding another one...