ShopGoodWillReviews 652

I've bought six items over the last year and have been happy with all of them. I agree that the shipping costs are high, but you're able to easily calculate them before bidding, so it's not as thought it's a surprise. There are also all kinds of disclaimers so I know I'm taking a chance and if the price is too high for me to think is worth the risk, I don't bid.

I have been shopping on this auction site for over 3 years but more during the pandemic since I'd rather not frequent my local thrift and consignment spots since thrift shopping requires being indoors with strangers for hours.

I've had mostly great experiences (95% of the time) on the goodwill auctions. On one occasion, a glass item broke during shipping, and another (a Gucci bag) had undisclosed damage. I was provided a refund on both occasions.

I've won bids for many beautiful designer purses and sunglasses (Chanel, Gucci, Fendi), a couple of NWT designer clothing items, shoes and boots, Yurman bracelets, Tiffany & Co. Necklaces and bracelets, etc. Yes, you need to be cautious. Most designer items come with a certificate of authenticity. Don't overbid, ask questions via the app prior to the auction. When you receive your items, please wash/sanitize as you do with any thrift store purchase.

Always looking for something special, and this puts me on Goodwill's auction site. Lots of cool, unusual things I just can not find living in rural Virginia. BUT - BEFORE YOU BID ON GOODWILL"S AUCTION site be warned!
You can not trust Goodwill's staff to photograph even the most obvious, and clearly visible areas of damage to an item they list. I feel they simply do not care, nor do I beleive they train their staff as to what to look for when they handle and photograph an item. Goodwill will tell you they are not experts! But then - who needs to be an expert when damage is so easily visible by the poor winning bidder that merely holds the item in hand and can see what Goodwill's untrained staff decided not to photograph or disclose. Then, there is the mishandling of your precious item after you won the auction, simply to receive your purchase with damage caused by their staff carelessly handling your purchase.

Case in point. I bid on a painting and frame for our dining room. It arrived safe and was well packaged. However, there were several areas of the frame that had plaster chips that I easily saw once the frame was unwrapped. One of these plaster chips to the frame was not there when the painting was posted for auction, meaning that after the photos were taken, the frame was mishandled to cause a rather obvious front plaster chip to the frame. I also found 4 price stickers on the back of the frame. The stickers read $4.99. So, I paid big bucks for a mishandled damaged frame that Goodwill initially placed in one of their stores to sell for $4.99. This is a true and documented incident.

GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF NORTHEAST IOWA INC REPRESENTED Product ID: *******, Set Of 3 VTG Germany Boy/Girl Figurines INCORRECTLY, HIDING THE REPAIRING OF THE ARM OF ONE OF THE FIGURINES. I ASKED IF THERE WAS A CRACK ON THE ARM OF THE FIGURINE. THEIR ANSWER WAS: Yes It is crack, it looks like it was glued back together. Sorry I did not notice this. WHAT?

I bought a tie for $11. Never checked the shipping price thinking... how expensive can shipping for a tie be?
$15.07 for shipping/handling on a tie later, I was totally screwed.
Thanks Goodwill. You're welcome for the donations. Thanks for the highway robbery on shipping.

I have ordered several vintage audio receivers in the past three months, only one out of six packages were packaged well. The other five received damaged in shipping and were even coming unboxed by the time they arrived.

I really love the idea behind it, but I've run into way more issues than it's worth. Ive made many purchases through it, a few successful, but mostly seriously flawed. I've received fully broken items (no returns allowed), I've noticed there are bots that will bid on items sometimes, and I've been randomly locked out of my account for days. When I finally reached out through email asking for help because the site was glitching when I attempted to pay for some items I had one recently, the customer service representative sent back a snarky message stating she would not entertain my request for assistance and would be deactivating my account (with open orders!) due to failure to pay for items. And that was the issue I was trying to get help on in the first place! I am really disappointed and I won't be using shopgoodwill again, because it's clear they don't value their patrons at all.

I called the nearest Goodwill near me, which is in Apple Valley, MN asking if they pick up furniture. The lady on the other end firmly stated they do not pick up. I then mentioned hearing that some Goodwill's will pick up and inquired if she knew of any in the area. She rudely stated not knowing any Goodwill in the area that picks up furniture and abruptly cut the call off.
While looking on line regarding services that do pick up I came across the following:
Goodwill
"Goodwill uses the proceeds from the sales of donated items to help people with job training and placement. You'll find thousands of Goodwill thrift stores throughout the country. Generally, Goodwill prefers you to bring your items to a donation center, but depending on the chapter and location, they may come to your home to collect large furniture items. Contact your local Goodwill chapter to see if they offer free furniture pick up."
Soooo, Goodwill does pick up; however, do NOT call Apple Valley, MN Goodwill and ask... the manager or person answering the phone apparently does not know this information.
Have a great day!

I won the bid on a Pressure Washer several years ago at ShopGoodwill. The pressure washer powered on but that was all that the Pressure Washer did - power on. I took it to a repair shop and was told that it would cost more to fix than to buy a smaller new one. I was upset so I had not shopped at ShopGoodwill for sometime. I decided to give ShopGoodwill another chance a little over a week ago and won a bid on a Portable DVD player for my grandchild. I received it today. It powered on, but when I inserted the disc and hit play, the screen showed "NO Disc." I paid over $20 with shipping & handling. I would suggest that you either buy from your local goodwill where you can return or shop on Amazon as I will do from this day forward. I decided to write this review after reading the statement by Mr. Giffin (one of the CEOs of Goodwill Industries) "What we put on shopgoodwill sells and usually sells at a higher value than if we put it in the store." SO TRUE...

By far the best shopping sight. I'm glad the rating are low, more treasure for me. Yes, shipping has gone way up and I don't like it, but you can estimate the cost of shipping in second. If shipping is to much for an item I will move on. Once you learn to shop goodwill, you will start to recognize the stores that charge to much for shipping. You can buy anything that you can think of on goodwill. So, keep it a secret, I love goodwill.

Ususally Goodwill is just a few days behind on shipping. It's understandable due to employees battling covid throughout the pandemic and such. But The Redwood Empire Goodwill specifically told me that my order would be shipped last Friday - eight days after purchase - (This is Tuesday) and was not. When I inquired the 2nd time I was advised that their store was waiting on shipping/packing supplies. REALLY? You guys can't maintain a level of supplies to fulfill your customer's shipping needs? You guys couldn't have gone to a Wal-Mart or Dollar General and picked up some supplies to hold you over til the actual shipment arrived? Way to go in putting your customers FIRST! You have exhibited very poor management skills and inventory awareness making for a poorly run business. People should NOT have to wait 11 days to get tracking because you can't pay enough attention to detail to order shipping supplies to stay fully timely and functional in your operation. SHAME ON YOU GOODWILL OF REDWOOD EMPIRE! I can not recommend purchasing from this particular store if you want your goods in a timely manner.

shopgoodwill.com sent me a non-working/damaged item. When contacted, they agreed to refund the purchase price of the item, but not the shipping costs. Since additional damage occurred during shipping (proven by photos) Fed Ex agreed to refund the shipping but only if goodwill submitted a shipping waiver. Fed Ex assured me that shopgoodwill was well acquainted with filing shipping waivers. Shopgoodwill claims they are not authorized to do that. Don't waste your time and money on shopgoodwill.com

High risk auction! Mostly too expensive and broken. Bought a few things that were obviously broken upon arrival. I'm pretty sure the sellers don't care. I think their motto is "As long as it looks like it's not broken then sell it". Only bid on things that have no mechanical aspect to it - by mechanical I mean anything that has a moving part - lamp, microphone stand, tripod etc.

It appears to be rigged to ensure that no matter what you buy, you won't get out without spending at least $20. Goodwill has increased its prices so much, a lot of things are cheaper new if you know where to look, then you add the exorbitant shipping and the so-twenty-years-ago "handling fee" and it rarely seems worth the work or the wait. Takes them 2-3 weeks, longer sometimes to send the item. NOT A HUGE FAN

You can find interesting stuff that otherwise you wouldn't be able to find, it's not a good or pleasant experience though. The total lack of accountability individual stores and employees means that a crappy shipper who damages the item by handling it badly or charging way too much for shipping has no incentive to do better. Dated site, bad search engine, leaves the whole experience like a worse type of eBay, which you can often find better deals on for similar items. I am stuck in a love hate relationship with this crappy company.

They are straight up thieves and overcharge for shipping. They are trying to say 3 bracelets weigh over 20lbs and can't be shipped together. Then charged twice what was won at auction. Straight up thieves