ShopGoodwill

Bought a electronic amplifier from shopgoodwill and when I received it was totally broken and the box it was shipped in looked fine. I messaged them had to send pics to a personal cell phone not on there website. There blaming the shipper when the box looked new which I still have. Been 2 weeks I've heard nothing from them. To be honest isn't GW about people being able to walk in and buy stuff well obviously there hiding stuff because 90% of there items are auction so it's not on the floor. There e commerce is running a scam people donating this stuff is free and they're selling at over what e bay is selling at. Better off with e bay at least your covered these guys just back burner you. The CEO makes over 800k a year and people are giving him $. There taking good and selling to the highest bidder how is that helping people out that don't have much $ people need to stop donating and just sell the stuff on marketplace or yard sale or put it for free on Craigslist because all your doing is making the rich richer. I thought it was cool at first but now I see what's going on is there plite isn't to help the less fortunate it's to sell there free items at top dollar and screw the less fortunate. Think about it look at the auction items they cannot be bought in the retail stores there tucked away waiting for someone to pay the most for it. That's not ok that's not why people donated. I see a lot of negativity wrapped around what I just said people are upset because they thought they was helping the less fortunate but all they did was make the rich richer. I won't buy from them again ever nor will I walk into a store front you can go to Walmart and get it new prob cheaper. Look at what they're doing and tell me I'm wrong.

Their descriptions and photos are poor quality (horrendous) and misleading. They obviously put no effort into this. Always check the shipping & handling fees, which could very well double your final cost (win an auction for $15 and pay $50 for S&H). I had an item shipped to me in a very flimsy box that arrived badly damaged. If you contact the seller with a question, you will not get a timely response and the reply is not likely to be very helpful. You can end up bidding on what you think is an 14k necklace only to find (after you've purchased it) that it's 14k electroplate. They state that they test their "gemstones" but do not guarantee that the stone is real/natural because their testing equipment doesn't differentiate between natural and synthetic. They follow that up with stating that the items are being sold "as is", that they are not "experts" and therefore cannot guarantee that their description is accurate. Do not even think about returning anything as ALL sales are final with a no-return policy. For the money that they pull in on this site, they SHOULD be required to hire a few experts so that you know what you are bidding on. Just remember, you will NEVER win in a case against them even if you are right. If you initiate a claim against them because you purchased something that was not as described, they just ban you from using the site. (I was told that a lot of dealers now use the site as they can afford to bid high and can afford the risks.) The Attorney General should be checking out this site. If it was any other business, they'd be deemed "fraudulent." Great way to take advantage of customers -- and pull in tons of cash.

When the "new and improved" GW Auction website went into effect in November 2021, THEY REMOVED THE OPTION TO COMBINE SHIPPING ON "BUY IT NOW" ITEMS. You are now required to pay separate shipping on ALL "BUY IT NOW" ITEMS. This new policy effectively punishes any customer who likes to buy specific items in quantity. Instead of being able to have these items packed in the same box, and shipped at a reasonable cost, we now have to pay that same shipping cost for EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. Paying $12 to ship 10 pairs of earrings to a single address is reasonable. Paying $120 to accomplish the same thing is OBSCENE. Not to mention that it's more likely for small packages than larger ones to "get lost in the mail." I have written their help desk, to no avail. My next step will be writing a letter to Mr. Steven C. Preston, the President and CEO of Goodwill Industries Int'l, Inc. Additionally, I intend to contact anyone and everyone I can think of... the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, et cetera. If you can think of anyone else to write to, please chime in! The contact information for Mr. Preston should be as follows:

Attn: Mr. Steven C. Preston
Goodwill Industries Int'l, Inc.
******* Indianola Dr.
Rockville, MD *******

Phone (?) *******500

Buying from Goodwill can be good or bad depending on the store. The Tacoma, WA store is total trash. Bought a guitar from this location and the item totaled 29 dollars. Noticed after the bid the shipping was going to be 50 dollars plus a 10 dollar handling fee. I used their contact customer support feature on the site and basically was given a trash answer about shipping. So, I decided to call their facility directly and I asked why their Costs were so high. He told me it was due to the bulk of the item rather than the weight, however; I came prepared since I work at a company where we do regular business with dhl, fedex, and UPS. Concluded with the clerk that the price for shipping on all 3 sites was between 15 and 20 dollars. Told him that every other location selling guitars was charging 4 dollars in handling which was more reasonable. The guy on the phone seemed a bit taken aback and agreed to ship for 15 dollars shipping and 4 dollars handling. (Something tells me my item is coming with no packing and will be broke upon arrival.) These idiots hire ex cons and recovering drug addicts to run their stores and when someone makes them work, they decide to screw with their customers. Since then, it has been almost a week and this store STILL has not shipped the item. If goodwill online is this lawless and operates with zero ethics; how on earth do we keep getting baited into buying from them? I recommend staying away, ebay has reasonable rules for when a seller does not meet obligation; the goodwill company will NOT have your back if you buy something and the store fails to deliver as advertised. Absolutely no buyers protection. I will be reporting them to my bank and the FTC for deceptive business practices if my item arrives damaged, or if they keep playing games with me on shipping the item, period. This company MUST have some rules for this service otherwise, they will have to suffer the wrath of the angry consumer just as every bad business does. I recommend EVERYONE that has had negative experiences with them AVOID using the BBB as a soapbox. The BBB is notorious for being a pay to play accreditation service. The FTC investigates fraudulent business and deceptive business practice. That is all.

There are many complaints of prices being pushed up by ghost bidders online to improve profit. By this you are killing the hen of the golden eggs...