SHOPGOODWILL.COM SHIPPING AND HANDLING COSTS ARE FRAUDULANT & SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE! Internet
First off please let me be clear that I love that Goodwill has an auction website and I think it's a great tool for both consumer and Goodwill. I am in no way trying to disparage them as an entire company and think that if they really cared about keeping customers happy they will do something to fix this mess for everyone once and for all.
Ok here it goes.. I have been purchasing from shopgoodwill off and on for about a year now. I was at first excited to see the items and how cheap you can purchase them for. Until I got the bill for shipping that is! I also want to warn other consumers who might get excited and overbid.. be VERY CAREFUL.. the items are not always what you expect them to be. The quality is sometimes over stated by the lister. Now they give pretty decent pictures so it's really up to the bidder and I over time am finding less and less items worthy of bidding on. I have learned from severaly things I have won and received which I had a severe case of buyers remorse for. Don't get caught up in the bidding wars. ALWAYS ALWAYS double check the same item against ebay or other internet sites to make sure you are actually getting a good deal. Often times I found that shopgoodwill end price actually ends up higher then anywhere else online. Now since this is voluntary bidding I do not fault shopgoodwill for this one bit. This is just irresponsible bidders going crazy over one specific item not bothering to check if they are over paying or not. However, I would like to just flag this as a warning for new and unsuspecting bidders on shopgoodwill as I wish I learned this lesson sooner then later.
Now I want to give a real life example of how there shipping policies are out right fraudulant. It does state on the listing what their shipping is so be careful when you bid. However, just because they put an inflated shipping cost on the listing why does it make it okay for them to say shipping costs so much when that's not what they actually pay for. Also does it not make good business sense to just be honest about the shipping costs up front? Why is everything weighed at a minimum of 1lb when the actual weight might be in ounces? It's like the management there came up with some silly standard for shipping without actually caring about the impact to consumers. I think most internet auction sites are careful about misleading consumers, why is shopgoodill excluded? Also why do they as a company not come up with some sort of shipping and handling policies that have to be adheared to across the bored. My complaint is this...your shipping prices are exhaggerated and it's obviously an issue with many consumers. You can see by all of the other complaints on this website. Why as a non-profit organization have you not made any attempts to make this process better. Are you ignorning the complaints because frankly you get enough customers you don't care about the few naysayers?? I just don't think this makes long term business sense and I do believe you are leaving yourself open for litigation in the future. Is it you don't have the technology to support shipping options? Is your staff so under-educated you cannot expect them to actually weigh an item while taking a picture of it to get actual weights including shipping material? Are you hedged in with a bad deal using only UPS as a shipping vendor? USPS is the most commonly used shipping method of any seller online. I do not understand why you would not want to make your items more cost effective for the consumer. I don't even care about he over priced beginning prices.. I think consumers are picking up on those as well and finally stopped placing bids. I am happy to see these items go with ZERO BIDS over and over. I am hoping your listers are getting the message and also I hope bidders are finally wising up to your downfalls.
Here specifically is an example.... I purchase a ring, ONE RING, from your site.
Winning Bid was $12.00 - great deal it's real silver and has a natural stone as well!! very excited..
Now here is where it gets dissapointing..
Handling fee is $3.00.. okay this is a bit high but if we are talking about shipping material time to package etc.. fine. Total so far is only $15.00.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
tayloraz
gilbert,Arizona,
USA
ripoff, absolutely
#5Consumer Comment
Sat, March 18, 2017
sure, the ACTUAL shipping charges are paid to the shipper but how about when they charge you for an over estimated shipping weight? I have personally caught them over estimating shipping weight. My most recent case was on 3 t-shirts they stated weighed 5 lbs when in fact it was just over 3 lbs. I contacted the store and their response was that they round the weight up to cover shipping supplies. In addition to the shipping weight being over estimated they were charging an additional $3.99 for handling. So are you going to tell me that if they charge you shipping based on a weight greater than the actual weight they are not keeping the extra money when they complete the shipping and its determined they over estimated the weight and now their cost for shipping was less than what you the consumre paid? Of course they are keeping it.
SGW handling fees are all over the place. Ive seen from $2.00 to $4.00 without explination. I emailed shopgoodwill and asked how the handling is determined. Their response was that its used for shipping supplies and transportation cost. What shipping fees are needed for shipping t-shirts? A shipping bag. And if they are using the handling for shipping supplies why round up the weight of the item? Also, why does my t-shirts have the same handling fees as a sewing machine that is a store pickup only item?
To conclude. I like the SGW concept and enjoy shopping on their site. I hope SGW will realize their egregious shipping and handling charges are unethical and are casuing them to lose customers.
sweetsarahbelle
Cleveland,Tennessee,
I Actually Work for SGW and You Are Mistaken
#5UPDATE Employee ..inside information
Tue, December 31, 2013
I have addressed your issues with the SGW website at length in two other rebuttals... You can find them here ripoffreport.com/r/Shopgoodwillcom/Internet/Shopgoodwillcom-Shopgoodwillcom-cant-take-it-They-pulled-the-plug-on-criticism-Inter-670915
and here ripoffreport.com/r/Shopgoodwillcom/Internet/Shopgoodwillcom-Various-Shipping-weights-Internet-752108
I am not trying to say that you and other customers haven't been charged an amount they found unreasonable on their purchases from shopgoodwill.com. I HATED when we used UPS as a shipping carrier because they charged an unbelievable amount to ship tiny items like jewelry and were not careful with our large and fragile packages. We can not control what the vendor charges us. Please read the rebuttals above and consider the points made therein. Ultimately, we canceled our relationship with UPS in order to offer lower cost shipping items. Not all locations have made this transition. Individual locations have their own policies and it is totally unfair to judge all the locations based on the bad policies of one. I am very proud of the way my department conducts business and the ethical way we handle customer relations. There may be sellers at other locations who are not as proud about the way they treat customers. I feel that your statements about the website are overgeneralizing and therefore unfounded. It would be like saying that eBay is a fraudulent website if you had a bad buying experience on eBay. There are sellers around the world selling on eBay, some ethically and some not. In the same way, different Goodwill locations use the SGW website to sell items and each operates independently from the others. Does that make sense?
Thanks for reading!
rippedandmad
Peoria,Arizona,
United States of America
STILL A RIPOFF
#5Author of original report
Sun, January 13, 2013
I appreciate your reply, but sorry I am unconvinced this is not something willing being purpotrated by the shopgoodwill.com website. The shipping price issue has been long discussed yet they do nothing to change their practices or policies. It is fraudulant if they are inflating the shipping costs by inflatting the weight of the item. There are many many more issues with their whole business. I have also seen weird things as far as bidding goes on my own account, but I won't go into much detail as I honestly didn't realize there was something with the bidding UNTIL I came to this website. Once it happens again I will be writing an new rip off report with screen shots to prove what's going on. I am monitoring all of my bids now with screen shots etc so I can get some proof to show people before I go off on a tangent about fraudulant bidding practices, but I definetely have seen weird things going on there.
Secondly, I think my major issue (and underlying point) is that they KNOW people are upset about this and no they don't HAVE to listen or change anything. However the fact that they act as if they don't care and refuse to offer shipping options on their listings proves they have something to gain on their end and most likely it's EXTRA INCOME THAT THEY ARE NOT REPORTING TO THE IRS... SO YES THAT'S AN ISSUE. BECAUSE I KNOW THEY ARE NOT PURCHASING THE EXACT SHIPPING WE PAY FOR. THEY GO IN AND PURCHASE THE CHEAPEST OPTION BUT CHARGE US FOR THE HIGHTEST. As you say technically it's NOT INCOME, but IT'S STILL WRONG AND UNETHICAL. Of course they don't report the extran $$ as INCOME as they would have to PAY MORE TAXES ON IT.
It is wrong and if they cared about making their consumers happy and being an ETHICAL online business they would care about these faulty shipping practices and our complaints and do something to make it better, easier, and more easy for people to understand. It's been 3 years now, where's their accountability as a company. They don't have to have it NO, but that doesnt make it RIGHT. And I choose to put their company on notice so other consumers who check here first can think twice about using this companies services. Because although it's SHOPGOODWILLS right to screw everyone out of a few extra dollars it's also MY RIGHT TO TELL EVERYONE ABOUT IT THAT WILL LISTEN.
thanks!
Dave
United States of Americashipping Rates
#5Consumer Comment
Sun, January 13, 2013
There's no ripoof here.
Many companies use carriers such as UPS or FedEx to ship packages. The handling fee is something Goodwill could control but the shipping charges are set by the carrier. If you check the UPS web site and put in a 1 lbs package (minimum weight) from Phoenix to Portland by ground the shipping charge is $13.19. If Goodwill was to do anything maybe they could look ito using a less expensive carrier or provide some additional shipping options.
To address your statement:
Just because they post an over inflatted shipping and handling charge...how does that make it ETHICAL when on the back end they are recouping extra profits from the sales of these items. How is this even reported properly to the IRS? Are the shipping costs to run your business also inflated on your Federal filings?
This statement is wrong in a few ways. First other than some profit made on the sale of the item Goodwill would make the 3.00 handling fee. The shipping charges are paid to the shipper NOT to Goodwill accusing Goodwill of recouping extra profits is incorrect. Goodwill does not need to report any of the shipping charges to the IRS as it is not income to them but a charge paid to the shipper by you.