What a joke. I realize its a second hand store ran by disabled individuals for job training. But I'm not asking for much. I oredered 9 cell phones as a lot. They sent 8, and left out the most expensive one. And the only reason I ordered it. When contacted they said they "lost" the phone. When I asked for a refund they refused. Then turned around and accused me of lying. I'm not asking for much. Just that they ship the phones I ordered. Will never order from this site again.
Give to real thrift stores, those that actually donate money outside of their own organization. They say they offer "employement" for the disabled or mentally slow. Well so does Walmart & many other retailers. And they do it without asking for your donations.
I'm giving this site a so-so rating because as skeptical as I am, lets face it, I have no proof, just a gut feeling.
So I'm fairly new to the whole goodwill auctions scene, but I've been frequenting quite regularly in the last few months. I won my first auction a few weeks back in a last minute bid war. Since then I've been noticing a lot of valuable items reoccurring on the site so I did some research on the item I won. As I back-tracked through ended auctions I found that the same goodwill had listed my exact item previously, 7 times in 3 months, all with identical photos. All ended auctions on this item had a good 20-30 bids and none of the auctions overlapped. Now I know failure to pay happens on occasion but 7 times? the items value is $1500 and each time the auctions ended $500 to $700 dollars under the product value. That doesn't seem like something that would consistently be re-listed due to failure of payment unless Goodwill was winning through shill bidding to try and get more.
I handled my second auction a bit different. I had less interest in the product so I placed my max bid early on with no intent on watching the auction. If I won... great, if I lost... whatever. One bid was placed throughout the week and a second on the final day, none coming even close to my max bid. In the final minutes of the auction a rather large bid increase was place which, coincidentally, was mere cents under my max bid. I won the auction at my max bid. Now, considering that my max bid was only a third of the value of the item up for auction I find this a bit odd. Sure there's a chance I got crazy lucky against another bidder or maybe Goodwill was ok with my offer but wanted to make sure they got every cent they could out of me.
Now I might be new to Goodwill's auction site, but I frequent Ebay. And, in all honesty, this is my first posting ever online. I've never felt the need to before. I'm an avid collector and dealer of the products I've bid on. The fact that these, loosely described, untested, non-refundable auctions on Goodwill are, in early stages of the auctioning, reaching values above Ebay's guaranteed satisfaction listings is more than reason to be weary. And when they sell for what seems to be a steal, it magically gets re-listed? I've never felt so skeptical about a service. In mere weeks I've seen enough to make anyone wonder whats really going on here. And, unsurprisingly, today when I decided to search if others felt the same I stumbled upon countless complaints just like mine.
Sure I got a great deal on the auctions I won but, in my history of bidding online, I can't help but feel like I wasn't up against another bidder, but rather Goodwill themselves. They decide whether I win or lose, they decide how much I pay or attempt to shoot down my offer in order to re-list it and try again. Has anyone investigated this? I'm obviously not alone here and shill bidding is illegal, plain and simple. In my experience shopgoodwill.com doesn't feel like a buyers vs. buyer auction site, but a "let's make a deal" service between buyer and seller.
5 glass items were purchased on shopgoodwill website. There were 2 hummels, 2 occupied japan ducks, and 1 lladro statue. I paid 96.00 for these items, including shipping. These items were purchased in April. all the items with the exception of the ducks arrived broken. Many emails later, they are no longer responding to my requests for a refund . I hope you an help me.
I have been on eBay since 1999 and I have also been selling on Ebay constantly for several years flipping used items and what amazes me is that I see auctions on shopgoodwill.com ending at outrageous prices. Its cheaper to get it off of eBay where your gauanteed to get your money back if it doesn't work. So I ask you, why would auctions end at such high prices on items that have no guarantee of working? That's ridiculous. Something is definately fishy or there are a bunch of dumb people who have never heard of eBay but somehow have a Paypal account or a credit card and perfer to pay more at a lesser known auction site. Make sense??
I was the high bidder at $5 on a die-cast matchbox car, that weighs maybe 4 ounces? The shipping and handling charges were calculated at $17.86? Seriously???? Now these are DONATED items, and over the years I have donated 10's of thousand's of dollars of items to Goodwill. If you want a square deal, just shop on Ebay, with Goodwill, your just filling some CEO's pockets...........
I won an auction on Shopgoodwill.com- It was very odd because my high bid was 14.00 and the auction was only at 12.00 with no other bids. So i put in my maximun bid of 20.00. No one else was bidding on the auction but I was sent an email stating that I won the auction for 19.00. The shipping was rediculous coming from Maryland which is only one state away from me. I received the vintage cookie jar and it was cracked. I went back and examined the auction pics more closely and can see the break in the jar- It was listed as in good condition- A crack down the middle in my opinion is not in good condition it actually makes the item worthless and I believe that Goodwill knew this item was broken and listed it anyway. Needless to say they will not respond to any of my emails concerning this transaction. I will no longer shop online nor at any of there stores and all of my donations will go to the Salvation army!
First I want to say on the site Shopgoodwill, it says "Select Goodwill members now accept pay-pal" Under the description of the item I won, there was no mention of that store not accepting pay-pal. Why not read, "Not all goodwill memebers on this site accept pay-pal"
I pay with pay pal credit. I was informed after I won they did not accept pay-pal credit.
So now Im a non-paying bidder? I tried, even offered to pay the 3 percent.
Also why cant a person re-tract a bid without a lot of trouble?
Also you have no guarantee on any item you buy, if its broke, Oh well your money is spent.
So if your eye's are bad and you don't have the fastest computer or a direct line to the seller, then your screwed!
I have always supported Goodwill BUT the online shop is a rip off. They over charge on shipping, almost doubling the cost. You can purchase from one store about the same distance away for the same item ( shipping weight) and they will charge double the price.
They also over estimate the weight and shipping size but send a smaller package so they can pocket the difference.
ALSO they charge handling...WHY...the price is higher than the physical store, they are still employing the " Handycapped" yet we have to pay an handycapped to send it to us. Shop LOCAL, do not help a wealthy organization pocket more money than they already do
I recently spent close to $200.00 bidding on 14K gold jewelry. One of the pieces was a 7" 14K gold heart link bracelet (from goodwill of North Central Wisconsin). The descritpion said the jewelry was marked 14k gold (which it was) They also said the bracelet was tested for gold content and it tested positive for 14k gold. When I received the bracelet the first thing I did was run a magnet over it. It stuck to the magnet. I took it to a pawn shop who also tested it applying the solution directly to the bracelet. If the jewelry is true 14k gold there will be no reaction. When they applied the testing solution to the bracelet the solution ate the gold plating off the bracelet and turned it black.
It was fake. Obvisiouly they are just claiming to have tested it.
Another scam they will typically use to get you to bid on "14K gold" jewelry is that they will tell you it is marked 14K gold but not tested. If you ever see this on any of their listings stay away from it. Its fake and they know it so they just tell you they are listing it as it is marked.
I used to trust Goodwill to do the right thing. I have lost a lot of money buying fake 14K gold jewlery on the website. I will never shop there again.
Goodwill's auction site is doing something fraudulent in the bidding process that they refuse to explain. Goodwill's auction is done by proxy bidding, which means you enter the highest price you are willing to pay for an item, and then minimum bid increments are taken out from your maximum bid if you are outbid, until your maximum bid is reached and you are outbid. I placed a legitimate $400 bid for an item to ensure I would not be outbid. $400 was the actual resale value of the item, if it was actually of quality used condition. My bid was accepted by Goodwill and the item's price was then set at $52. I did this the day before the auction closed. The day of the auction, Goodwill banned my account from placing bids, and locked me out of the other autions I was participating in. Goodwill retracted my bid and closed my account. When I inquired as to why this happened, I was told I could only have one account. I only had one account, and I question Goodwill about the accusation, for which I received no reply. So essentially, if you place a bid for an item that has a high resale value, someone at Goodwill will report you for abuse, so that a lower bidder, possibly an employee, can come in and take the item at a lower price. Interestingly enough, I had placed a $700 bid on another item, but for some reason, that bid is stil in effect, as other bidders try to outbid my "willing to pay price", yet Goodwill has not retracted this bid, even though they closed my account, banned me for abuse and accused me of multiple auction accounts with no basis. Goodwill is happy to keep my $700 bid on the other item in order to inflate their profits. Goodwill will manipulate a bid to a low bidder or to a higher price if it is in their interest to do so. Technically, both of my bids should have been retracted, if I was truly an abuser, yet Goodwill want to ensure that the $700 bid is not canceled, so that someone will come along and outbid me and pay Goodwill a nice auction price! Goodwill's auction is shady, and so is their customer service if you have an issue. Goodwill could have said that it was s technical error that made me lose the auction and account privlages, but instead they outright accused me of fraud when I had done nothing wrong. I did not have multiple accounts. The likely truth is that someone running the Goodwill auction on the technical side is doing side deals to help themselves, friends, family or other resellers to gain high value items from the auction at the lowest prices. The items are probably then resold on Ebay, Amazon, craiglist or wherever. There is fraud, and it is a shame that this can happen in a company that has such a good mission to help others. Goodwill seriously needs to correct this issue.
ShopGoodWill.com Reviews
What a joke. I realize its a second hand store ran by disabled individuals for job training. But I'm not asking for much. I oredered 9 cell phones as a lot. They sent 8, and left out the most expensive one. And the only reason I ordered it. When contacted they said they "lost" the phone. When I asked for a refund they refused. Then turned around and accused me of lying. I'm not asking for much. Just that they ship the phones I ordered. Will never order from this site again.
Give to real thrift stores, those that actually donate money outside of their own organization. They say they offer "employement" for the disabled or mentally slow. Well so does Walmart & many other retailers. And they do it without asking for your donations.
Reason not to use Shopgoodwill!!!
1. Possible shill bidding.
2. Items untested.
3. Prices higher than eBay.
4. No buyer protection.
5. Clueless amateur bidders overpaying for junk.
6. Outrages shipping costs.
7. Ridiculous handling fees.
8. Crappy auction pictures.
10. Horrible packing.
11. Customer service does not respond to sent messages in a timely matter.
12. etc...
All I have to say is "BUYER BEWARE!!!"
shill bidding???
I'm giving this site a so-so rating because as skeptical as I am, lets face it, I have no proof, just a gut feeling.
So I'm fairly new to the whole goodwill auctions scene, but I've been frequenting quite regularly in the last few months. I won my first auction a few weeks back in a last minute bid war. Since then I've been noticing a lot of valuable items reoccurring on the site so I did some research on the item I won. As I back-tracked through ended auctions I found that the same goodwill had listed my exact item previously, 7 times in 3 months, all with identical photos. All ended auctions on this item had a good 20-30 bids and none of the auctions overlapped. Now I know failure to pay happens on occasion but 7 times? the items value is $1500 and each time the auctions ended $500 to $700 dollars under the product value. That doesn't seem like something that would consistently be re-listed due to failure of payment unless Goodwill was winning through shill bidding to try and get more.
I handled my second auction a bit different. I had less interest in the product so I placed my max bid early on with no intent on watching the auction. If I won... great, if I lost... whatever. One bid was placed throughout the week and a second on the final day, none coming even close to my max bid. In the final minutes of the auction a rather large bid increase was place which, coincidentally, was mere cents under my max bid. I won the auction at my max bid. Now, considering that my max bid was only a third of the value of the item up for auction I find this a bit odd. Sure there's a chance I got crazy lucky against another bidder or maybe Goodwill was ok with my offer but wanted to make sure they got every cent they could out of me.
Now I might be new to Goodwill's auction site, but I frequent Ebay. And, in all honesty, this is my first posting ever online. I've never felt the need to before. I'm an avid collector and dealer of the products I've bid on. The fact that these, loosely described, untested, non-refundable auctions on Goodwill are, in early stages of the auctioning, reaching values above Ebay's guaranteed satisfaction listings is more than reason to be weary. And when they sell for what seems to be a steal, it magically gets re-listed? I've never felt so skeptical about a service. In mere weeks I've seen enough to make anyone wonder whats really going on here. And, unsurprisingly, today when I decided to search if others felt the same I stumbled upon countless complaints just like mine.
Sure I got a great deal on the auctions I won but, in my history of bidding online, I can't help but feel like I wasn't up against another bidder, but rather Goodwill themselves. They decide whether I win or lose, they decide how much I pay or attempt to shoot down my offer in order to re-list it and try again. Has anyone investigated this? I'm obviously not alone here and shill bidding is illegal, plain and simple. In my experience shopgoodwill.com doesn't feel like a buyers vs. buyer auction site, but a "let's make a deal" service between buyer and seller.
5 glass items were purchased on shopgoodwill website. There were 2 hummels, 2 occupied japan ducks, and 1 lladro statue. I paid 96.00 for these items, including shipping. These items were purchased in April. all the items with the exception of the ducks arrived broken. Many emails later, they are no longer responding to my requests for a refund . I hope you an help me.
I have been on eBay since 1999 and I have also been selling on Ebay constantly for several years flipping used items and what amazes me is that I see auctions on shopgoodwill.com ending at outrageous prices. Its cheaper to get it off of eBay where your gauanteed to get your money back if it doesn't work. So I ask you, why would auctions end at such high prices on items that have no guarantee of working? That's ridiculous. Something is definately fishy or there are a bunch of dumb people who have never heard of eBay but somehow have a Paypal account or a credit card and perfer to pay more at a lesser known auction site. Make sense??
shipping and handling charges=price gouging
I was the high bidder at $5 on a die-cast matchbox car, that weighs maybe 4 ounces? The shipping and handling charges were calculated at $17.86? Seriously???? Now these are DONATED items, and over the years I have donated 10's of thousand's of dollars of items to Goodwill. If you want a square deal, just shop on Ebay, with Goodwill, your just filling some CEO's pockets...........
I won an auction on Shopgoodwill.com- It was very odd because my high bid was 14.00 and the auction was only at 12.00 with no other bids. So i put in my maximun bid of 20.00. No one else was bidding on the auction but I was sent an email stating that I won the auction for 19.00. The shipping was rediculous coming from Maryland which is only one state away from me. I received the vintage cookie jar and it was cracked. I went back and examined the auction pics more closely and can see the break in the jar- It was listed as in good condition- A crack down the middle in my opinion is not in good condition it actually makes the item worthless and I believe that Goodwill knew this item was broken and listed it anyway. Needless to say they will not respond to any of my emails concerning this transaction. I will no longer shop online nor at any of there stores and all of my donations will go to the Salvation army!
First I want to say on the site Shopgoodwill, it says "Select Goodwill members now accept pay-pal" Under the description of the item I won, there was no mention of that store not accepting pay-pal. Why not read, "Not all goodwill memebers on this site accept pay-pal"
I pay with pay pal credit. I was informed after I won they did not accept pay-pal credit.
So now Im a non-paying bidder? I tried, even offered to pay the 3 percent.
Also why cant a person re-tract a bid without a lot of trouble?
Also you have no guarantee on any item you buy, if its broke, Oh well your money is spent.
So if your eye's are bad and you don't have the fastest computer or a direct line to the seller, then your screwed!
I have always supported Goodwill BUT the online shop is a rip off. They over charge on shipping, almost doubling the cost. You can purchase from one store about the same distance away for the same item ( shipping weight) and they will charge double the price.
They also over estimate the weight and shipping size but send a smaller package so they can pocket the difference.
ALSO they charge handling...WHY...the price is higher than the physical store, they are still employing the " Handycapped" yet we have to pay an handycapped to send it to us. Shop LOCAL, do not help a wealthy organization pocket more money than they already do
Beware when shopping at www.shopgoodwill.com
Jewlery listed as 14k gold. FAKE
I recently spent close to $200.00 bidding on 14K gold jewelry. One of the pieces was a 7" 14K gold heart link bracelet (from goodwill of North Central Wisconsin). The descritpion said the jewelry was marked 14k gold (which it was) They also said the bracelet was tested for gold content and it tested positive for 14k gold. When I received the bracelet the first thing I did was run a magnet over it. It stuck to the magnet. I took it to a pawn shop who also tested it applying the solution directly to the bracelet. If the jewelry is true 14k gold there will be no reaction. When they applied the testing solution to the bracelet the solution ate the gold plating off the bracelet and turned it black.
It was fake. Obvisiouly they are just claiming to have tested it.
Another scam they will typically use to get you to bid on "14K gold" jewelry is that they will tell you it is marked 14K gold but not tested. If you ever see this on any of their listings stay away from it. Its fake and they know it so they just tell you they are listing it as it is marked.
I used to trust Goodwill to do the right thing. I have lost a lot of money buying fake 14K gold jewlery on the website. I will never shop there again.
Goodwill's auction site is doing something fraudulent in the bidding process that they refuse to explain. Goodwill's auction is done by proxy bidding, which means you enter the highest price you are willing to pay for an item, and then minimum bid increments are taken out from your maximum bid if you are outbid, until your maximum bid is reached and you are outbid. I placed a legitimate $400 bid for an item to ensure I would not be outbid. $400 was the actual resale value of the item, if it was actually of quality used condition. My bid was accepted by Goodwill and the item's price was then set at $52. I did this the day before the auction closed. The day of the auction, Goodwill banned my account from placing bids, and locked me out of the other autions I was participating in. Goodwill retracted my bid and closed my account. When I inquired as to why this happened, I was told I could only have one account. I only had one account, and I question Goodwill about the accusation, for which I received no reply. So essentially, if you place a bid for an item that has a high resale value, someone at Goodwill will report you for abuse, so that a lower bidder, possibly an employee, can come in and take the item at a lower price. Interestingly enough, I had placed a $700 bid on another item, but for some reason, that bid is stil in effect, as other bidders try to outbid my "willing to pay price", yet Goodwill has not retracted this bid, even though they closed my account, banned me for abuse and accused me of multiple auction accounts with no basis. Goodwill is happy to keep my $700 bid on the other item in order to inflate their profits. Goodwill will manipulate a bid to a low bidder or to a higher price if it is in their interest to do so. Technically, both of my bids should have been retracted, if I was truly an abuser, yet Goodwill want to ensure that the $700 bid is not canceled, so that someone will come along and outbid me and pay Goodwill a nice auction price! Goodwill's auction is shady, and so is their customer service if you have an issue. Goodwill could have said that it was s technical error that made me lose the auction and account privlages, but instead they outright accused me of fraud when I had done nothing wrong. I did not have multiple accounts. The likely truth is that someone running the Goodwill auction on the technical side is doing side deals to help themselves, friends, family or other resellers to gain high value items from the auction at the lowest prices. The items are probably then resold on Ebay, Amazon, craiglist or wherever. There is fraud, and it is a shame that this can happen in a company that has such a good mission to help others. Goodwill seriously needs to correct this issue.