ShopGoodwill

I've won about 15 auctions in my month of bidding. Of those, about 1/2 are worth my time and money. I have had china arrive broke, but on this auction I still felt what arrived safely was worth my bid and the shipping. However, I recently bid on bull horns, won and paid immediately. A few days later I was notified with an apology that they were sorry their store didn't have the supplies to ship my horns safely and would be glad to reimburse me for my bid and the shipping. The problem with this is they've sold horns prior and shipped them, they even had a bid one day later for horns that were 6 inches shorter than the horns I bid on except that the shipping for those were $32 and my shipping was $14. So, I was left wondering if they felt they needed more money either in my bid or in shipping for it to be worth them fulfilling their obligation to honor my bid plus the shipping I had already paid. Look for yourself under advanced auctions that have ended in the last 60 days for bull horns or Western Horns and you will see that they state they are ship-able. I sincerely felt ripped off while they called it an error on their part. FYI - this is the store in Southern and Western Colorado so beware. What else? I've watched items that I had planned to bid on which suddenly, a day before time to bid, the photos disappear and only the description is left. What else, you will definitely pay more for shipping and handling charges are most ridiculous. I've paid $14 for a small cow hide to arrive in an envelope, not in a box as expected, but a manila envelope. So, while I've won some auctions and like 1/2 of the items I've won, I've also felt ripped off as well. It is buyer beware, they are in it to obtain the highest price possible and in the end none of these auctions are for the needy. Don't pretend to be fooled, they are for those that can afford the gamble! Seriously, who are you kidding? Good will is a gesture we wish for those that need it but an auction as this is for those that have a nice place to lay their head, this includes me. The shipping prices alone are more than what many of these items are worth and someone said it well, do your homework before bidding, look at those additional costs of winning. Etsy and Ebay obtain prices near the same without all the headache one may experience when told an item they purchased and paid for can now NOT be shipped because they haven't the resource to pack it safely. Nobody likes to put their energy in to watching an item, researching it, bidding, and then winning only to hear those words uttered days later! It will make you skeptical and that is what brought me here to write a review and mention I'm just not convinced of their practice or service, it's more about the money with GoodWill.

Apart from possibly excessive postage and packaging, although I did receive the item overnight, and the concern about possible shill bidding driving up the price, I bought a vintage replica ring in perfect condition, it looks like new, and I am very happy with it. The remaining few new ones of this ring were being sold on ebay at the time for over 3 times the price I paid. I would be wary of buying anything else from this site for the reasons given by other people here, with which comments I mostly agree, but in this instance I'm very happy to have this ring.
I am revising this review because I have since bought a second item which I just received today, this time a necklace from Middle Tennessee, and although I have no complaints about the necklace itself, the postage charges were excessively high. They charged me $7 for sending a flat necklace in a small, barely padded envelope, and depending on whether it was considered a letter or a large envelope, it only cost them either 68 cents or $1.15 plus the cost of the flimsy little envelope that shouldn't have cost more than 50 cents if that. I think a couple of dollars of what I was charged was a handling fee. Like others have said, everything these people sell has been donated to them, and they are supposed to be helping people who are disadvantaged in some way. They certainly don't need a handling fee, nor do they have any good reason for charging so much more than the cost of the postage and the envelope. They can be a good source for discontinued, vintage items that are rare and hard to find, as long as there isn't much that could be wrong with them (like jewellery in my case) and that's the only thing I've been interested in buying from them, but with their dubious business practices that they seem to have been able to get away with due to being a charity, they are going to alienate more and more customers, I think, judging by the bad reviews here. Many more people probably have bad experiences than actually take the time and trouble to write reviews. At least this time, thanks to the reviews here, I knew better and didn't make anything but the smallest bid at a time so as to try to not invite shill bidding. I'm now starting to use shopgoodwill.com as a source of some available older items and then searching elsewhere for them on websites where the sellers are held more accountable for their actions.

I am embarrassed to say how much I've spent at this site. I will admit that some items were really great and I got a good deal. I shop for items that are rare, unique or very hard to find as well as items I can get a good deal on. Everything went well until I decided I needed a new flat screen tv and thought... hey... why not. So far I've always had a good experience. I saw a smart tv and the description was good. Stated it turned on, but didn't really elaborate on whether all the functions worked. So I thought... eh... what the heck I'll put in a bid. Once I put in a bid, I realized it had a reserve of 200.00. I contacted the store through the message system at the site and asked them if all the functions worked and expressed my concern that they had such a high reserve with very little information on whether it actually fully worked or not. I received a message stating that they were unable to test all the functions and that they would lower the reserve to 150.00. I ended up taking a chance and won the bid. The TV arrived, powered on, turned on netflix and guess what... ZERO sound! Now I can see not being able to test certain things like the smart tv functions but the SOUND!? Anyway... I was able to get around that by plugging in external speakers, but it's still horrible sound. That was my first disappointment with goodwill.

The second purchase I made that was a total disappointment was a brand new, in the original box air fryer. The pictures all showed it still in the wrapping, Styrofoam... etc. So I thought... how can I go wrong here... right? Well, I got the air fryer, plugged it in... and NOTHING! They can't check these kinds of things!? Come on!

The other thing I have recently noticed is that the shipping and handling fees are getting outrageous. When I first started on this site a couple years ago, it didn't seem that bad. I did noticed that the stores closer to my location were cheaper, but I noticed the other day an item that I could ship for less than 5.00 had a handling fee of 4.00 and over almost 30.00 shipping. That put the item well over NEW price from the store up the street. Why on earth would anyone bother? Not ALL stores charge ridiculous prices, but the ones who do are ruining it for the others.

I will admit I've gotten some great deals on things I couldn't have gotten anywhere else, but lately it's getting worse and not worth the bother. I no longer purchase anything electronic and if the shipping and handling is crazy... forget it. I find myself looking at the site less and less now. It's really a shame and turning into a scam!

Sometimes I get what is advertised... and it's ok. I try to purchase multiple items from the same location because some of them cap their handling fees at $10 and then shipping is combined... Sometimes these work out ok...

Issues...

They take crappy photos and deliberately hide damage on items they list as NWT... You can return items If they are not as stated BUT they don't refund the handling fees or the shipping or the sales tax... even though THEY made the mistake. So... they profit anyway even if you return the item.

They don't tell you that certain items can't be combined with others for shipping, even though SOME items are clearly marked "Can not be combined for shipping" in big red letters under the shipping tab... and you don't know that until you're done and try to pay... then that one $3.99 item costs $22. Because for completely unknown reasons you can't combine that one bikini bottom... if you ask, they take days to respond then say "Oh, that's weird. You better email customer service"... that takes 4 more days and they respond "Those can't be combined"... And if you don't pay for it then it's a black mark on your record. 3 of them and you can no longer shop there.

When they can't find an item you purchased... they give you a refund. For the cost of the item. They do not refund the handling fee, the shipping, or the sales tax. If you try to open a ticket... they ignore you. Pretty sure they can't legally just keep the sales tax they charged you on an item that they didn't have and you never received... but they do. How much trouble am I going to go to for $2... but it's one hell of a profitable scam for Goodwill when they profit from their own deception...

If you are having an issue with an item and are trying to work it out... they may simply not respond and your item then goes unpaid and, as I mentioned above, 3 unpaid items and you are banned from the site. They note that Covid has slowed things down (yes it has) so they may take longer to reply (which I totally get) but they haven't extended the time a buyer has to pay for an item... which means that if you want it... you have to pay the extra fees that they don't have listed and that you din't know about until after you've made the purchase and that you're trying to work out... or take the black "Unpaid item" mark...

The mold... "NWT"... that's all it says under "condition"... except the mold (you know that "it was in a flooded basement then tossed into a pile of debris for a month" mold) was heavy enough that simply opening the box... caused an asthma attack that lasted a month. Of course they have a disclaimer that all items are donated and they do their best... Maybe whoever listed that item (2 of them actually) had Covid and had lost their sense of smell...

Be careful about which locations you purchase from. Some are more honest than others... however management can change and you can get royally screwed just when you think you're ok.

Best advice... just don't.

I have gone from the biggest fan of Goodwill, to dreaming of the day when people just STOP giving them, anything.

I can appreciate and even admire a company that is set up to help people that would otherwise struggle in the "normal" workplace. Here is what I don't admire. When you are flat out fraudulent and hide behind the "charity" guise, I am literally disgusted. If you've never had the displeasure of shopping GoodWill online, stay away from it in the future too. I've been an active member for about five years now. By active, that means I check their listings about 3x weekly. I've bought only one item since being a member simply due to their repulsive practices. Please keep in mind that EVERYTHING they sell was given to them free of charge. And not only was it free, it was delivered to their doorstep. It is then tested, if applicable, to the extent of plugging it in. They will tell you if it powered on or not, and that's the extent of their testing. Now if it's an item that they believe will bring a considerable amount of money if it was working, they somehow found a means to test it. This isn't the exception, it's the rule. Remember, I've been watching this happen for five years. Next is the shipping charges. I've had an account with UPS for about ten years now and I ship far less packages than Goodwill does. I know from experience what their minimum discount is. Yet they charge fees that are beyond even what the UPS website would charge you. But we're not done yet. They are going to charge you a "handling fee" too because they had to carry the item from the drop box to the table to photo it. Doesn't matter if you pick it up at the store either. You are paying the handling fee. Some of these are as much as $8 for a single item. Some are 5% of the selling price which means a $500 item which means you will pay an additional $25 for someone to pack it with some more free stuff. Don't think so? Look up item# *******. What does the selling price have to do with anything when it comes to handling fees? And to think of all the buyers that participate in this corruption all because "it's for charity". If ANY retailer conducted business in this fashion, I can about guarantee you wouldn't shop there. There is so much corruption in charity, you'd swear they are run by government and religious affiliations. What is probably the most disgusting is that people continue to buy from them. There can't be a murder without a murderer.