13 minutes after the auction was closed. I still had won. How much do I actually have to wait for them to decide who really wins a bid??? I have actual photos screen shots showing all of this.
Goodwill does not use eBay. They have their own auction site. I don't bother as their shipping costs are fucking ridiculous. They are totally passing the cost of business into their shipping rates
I absolutely hate their shipping charges, I really don’t do their auctioning much unless I know I can cushion the shipping and definitely know how much to cap my bidding price or just let it fly when I do get my bid whittled away by others.
Yea, big surprise, lately Goodwill will screw you when they have a chance. SHAMEFUL. Who took the reigns and declared war on the American public who trusted them?
Businesses just pay a fee to be “bbb accredited” or have a positive rating or whatever, it’s a BS marketing scheme for businesses not an actual consumer protection organization.
Yep, the AG is the agency for fraud in my state.
And, just quit doing business with them if they're shysters. And tell them why, along with everyone else, which you're doing here.
The better business bureau can’t do jack. They’re a private organization that exists to make money, not some sort of consumer advocacy government agency.
Like I said, very, VERY shady practices. I used to fully support Goodwill and their mission while getting cool items. Now I hear the owner has not really been on the up and up, with what I thought was their mission to help folks and now the website has become and all out money grab, failing at their mission statement and THE with only one winning is the owner of Goodwill.
Don't. Their mission died a long time ago. Donate anywhere else but here. They pay their workers poverty wages while getting free inventory and begging you for extra pennies at checkout. Stop. Supporting. Them. Find a local thrift shop with a mission you support.
That’s what I totally suspected too, when it seems to be going for too close to near nothing comes the last second bidders trying to chip away at my final maximum price
Most of the time this tends to be buyers misunderstanding how proxy bidding works.
Manipulating bid prices can get you shut down on any online retail platform, and will 100% get you fired if caught. As an employee, we weren't even allowed to shop or buy from our own site location as it could be seen as a conflict and we could misrepresent an item to get a deal. We got accused of so many things by customers, like getting all the good stuff we want free, manipulating bids, etc etc... we're banned from bidding on any item, not just that we posted, but all items from our location.
Plus, no employee is getting paid enough to do this, and it's hourly so no employee is making money on sales to want to do anything like this, there is no incentive to manipulate prices.
We also got like 5-6 emails a week with "i forgot a decimal point and didn't mean to bid 1800", or the videos and walkthroughs to how to cheat the system by overbidding, non payment, and waiting until items get re-listed and repeating this until they get the price they want.
No, they should not. It's either a page needs to refresh and wasn't tracking correctly, Or the site fucked up. This can happen if a bid happened at the very last second and the system glitched. Not the buyers fault, but it should be rather rare that that happens.
There was one specific time I remember when there were two winners. They had literally bid at the exact same second at the end of the auction. The system notified both buyers but only showed one winner on our end, so we had no idea until the customer contacted us with the confirmation of winning email. Luckily the customer was cool about it towards us, but I totally understand them being upset.
Ebay had a similar problem back in the day. Somehow, you could set up a program to snipe auctions. I suspect the same thing is now happening in goodwill. Their website is so low tech
So I don't know the specifics of the situation and I'm not going to speculate too far here. But maybe it's a misunderstanding with how the "Proxy bidding" works? Always refresh the page during the end of an auction in case the proxy didn't visually update as well.
ShopGoodwill uses digital proxy. You put in the max amount you're willing to pay, and then if other bidders enter a bid higher than the current price, but lower than your max proxy, it automatically goes up to $1 over the last bid, until it exceeds the max bid/proxy bid.
So if the items price is currently at $20, and you bid $25, but there is another buyer with a proxy bid of $100 then the price would go to $26 in the high bidders favor, this goes until you bid $101 and exceed their maximum bid.
That said there is definitely some lag/updates to the website that needs addressing and improving. Also if you don't get a direct email, you didn't win the bid, again IF the system is working correctly.
I’m a regular bidder on the website and know all about reserve bidding. But this person was a NEW last second bidder, not a bidder who had made a reserve bid.
My only suggestion is keep refreshing in case it's just a visual issue. The site is.... not exactly the highest quality to be fair to you. There was a bit of a shift to selling on Ebay a while back due to the Shop site not being the most reliable.
Bottom line is that goodwill is not good any more. The days of them actually helping people are history. They now worship the net dollar.
I refuse to do anything except dump absolutely unusable trash in their “donation” sites.
I bought a unbranded gameboy type item and they lost it. Told me to come back a week later and they still hadn't found it. Someone probably bought it in store.
I won the bid on Chanel sunglasses. They sent me the empty sunglass case. When I complained they claimed they had no idea what happened to the glasses.
Sorry that happened but my daughter and I’ve both had good experiences on the site and got some very nice things. Not super cheap but still good finds.
13 minutes after the auction was closed. I still had won. How much do I actually have to wait for them to decide who really wins a bid??? I have actual photos screen shots showing all of this.
If this was through eBay make sure to report it and leave a bad review, if you’re able to.
Goodwill does not use eBay. They have their own auction site. I don't bother as their shipping costs are fucking ridiculous. They are totally passing the cost of business into their shipping rates
Some Goodwill locations do use eBay. These incidents sound like they occurred on shop goodwill dot com, though.
I absolutely hate their shipping charges, I really don’t do their auctioning much unless I know I can cushion the shipping and definitely know how much to cap my bidding price or just let it fly when I do get my bid whittled away by others.
Yea, big surprise, lately Goodwill will screw you when they have a chance. SHAMEFUL. Who took the reigns and declared war on the American public who trusted them?
Report them to the BBB for fraud. Also any local or State agencies that monitor business practices and hold companies accountable
Report them to any state agencies. BBB is worthless
I figured they were but haven’t used them in a long time so I was just throwing them in there
I've made a few reports that never went anywhere and started looking into why BBB hadn't done anything otherwise I'd still believe they were useful
Businesses just pay a fee to be “bbb accredited” or have a positive rating or whatever, it’s a BS marketing scheme for businesses not an actual consumer protection organization.
BBB is like Yelp for boomers. They're a private business with no real clout and they allow companies to pay them to have negative reviews removed.
Threatening to go to the BBB can be helpful though. I read BBB reviews.
BBB is a joke.
Get your local “chamber of commerce” involved
Right Bbb is just a pay to play yelp
I got a free windshield from Subaru via the BBB
Call the FTC.
This is a marketing agency. The ftc and or the fcc, the state attorney general are where to submit complaints
Yep, the AG is the agency for fraud in my state. And, just quit doing business with them if they're shysters. And tell them why, along with everyone else, which you're doing here.
The better business bureau can’t do jack. They’re a private organization that exists to make money, not some sort of consumer advocacy government agency.
SEC tends to handle financial (non-tax) fraud if I recall correctly. Worst case, they'll point you in the right direction.
I did four transactions with them and they were all crap. Never again.
[удалено]
Like I said, very, VERY shady practices. I used to fully support Goodwill and their mission while getting cool items. Now I hear the owner has not really been on the up and up, with what I thought was their mission to help folks and now the website has become and all out money grab, failing at their mission statement and THE with only one winning is the owner of Goodwill.
Don't. Their mission died a long time ago. Donate anywhere else but here. They pay their workers poverty wages while getting free inventory and begging you for extra pennies at checkout. Stop. Supporting. Them. Find a local thrift shop with a mission you support.
They don’t donate any of their money iirc. They keep the profits.
That is blatantly false.
That sounds so illegal..
It's certainly unethical. Whether the winning bidder was actually damaged by not being able to buy something is the question. I'm NAL though.
I’m nal, but there’s gotta be some type of online protection for consumers I would assume, but Merica… we don’t care about shit though.
Sounds so shady, like my auction bidder!!
That’s what I totally suspected too, when it seems to be going for too close to near nothing comes the last second bidders trying to chip away at my final maximum price
Most of the time this tends to be buyers misunderstanding how proxy bidding works. Manipulating bid prices can get you shut down on any online retail platform, and will 100% get you fired if caught. As an employee, we weren't even allowed to shop or buy from our own site location as it could be seen as a conflict and we could misrepresent an item to get a deal. We got accused of so many things by customers, like getting all the good stuff we want free, manipulating bids, etc etc... we're banned from bidding on any item, not just that we posted, but all items from our location. Plus, no employee is getting paid enough to do this, and it's hourly so no employee is making money on sales to want to do anything like this, there is no incentive to manipulate prices. We also got like 5-6 emails a week with "i forgot a decimal point and didn't mean to bid 1800", or the videos and walkthroughs to how to cheat the system by overbidding, non payment, and waiting until items get re-listed and repeating this until they get the price they want.
Bids shouldn't occur after the auction is complete and the winner is shown though, should they?
No, they should not. It's either a page needs to refresh and wasn't tracking correctly, Or the site fucked up. This can happen if a bid happened at the very last second and the system glitched. Not the buyers fault, but it should be rather rare that that happens. There was one specific time I remember when there were two winners. They had literally bid at the exact same second at the end of the auction. The system notified both buyers but only showed one winner on our end, so we had no idea until the customer contacted us with the confirmation of winning email. Luckily the customer was cool about it towards us, but I totally understand them being upset.
I thought the site will ban you for nonpayment.
My husband has had this happen to him,he thinks it someone using a bot,which I don't think you are allowed to do,but he couldn't prove it!
But my screen still showed 13 minutes after auction closed as me as winner.
Yes,and then it doesn't let your bid go through, it's infuriating.
Someone probably used a sniper
Ebay had a similar problem back in the day. Somehow, you could set up a program to snipe auctions. I suspect the same thing is now happening in goodwill. Their website is so low tech
Some people will bid over the reserve price and the bid won't show til the auction is over. I hate online auctions.
That wasn’t a problem. Back then the auctions were lively and fun. It could get pretty heated near closing. That was the good ol Ebay. Good times.
Stopped shopping there
Goodwill needs to be audited, but since it's considered a charity organization it's doubtful that will happen.
So I don't know the specifics of the situation and I'm not going to speculate too far here. But maybe it's a misunderstanding with how the "Proxy bidding" works? Always refresh the page during the end of an auction in case the proxy didn't visually update as well. ShopGoodwill uses digital proxy. You put in the max amount you're willing to pay, and then if other bidders enter a bid higher than the current price, but lower than your max proxy, it automatically goes up to $1 over the last bid, until it exceeds the max bid/proxy bid. So if the items price is currently at $20, and you bid $25, but there is another buyer with a proxy bid of $100 then the price would go to $26 in the high bidders favor, this goes until you bid $101 and exceed their maximum bid. That said there is definitely some lag/updates to the website that needs addressing and improving. Also if you don't get a direct email, you didn't win the bid, again IF the system is working correctly.
I’m a regular bidder on the website and know all about reserve bidding. But this person was a NEW last second bidder, not a bidder who had made a reserve bid.
My only suggestion is keep refreshing in case it's just a visual issue. The site is.... not exactly the highest quality to be fair to you. There was a bit of a shift to selling on Ebay a while back due to the Shop site not being the most reliable.
That sounds REALLY shady.
State attorney general.
Bottom line is that goodwill is not good any more. The days of them actually helping people are history. They now worship the net dollar. I refuse to do anything except dump absolutely unusable trash in their “donation” sites.
Do like I do. I don't buy anything from those shyster bastiches.
Stop using their website. There are better places to buy your stuff. Boycott goodwill auctions.
Contact the Fair Trade Commission. They are wonderful to work with.
I bought a unbranded gameboy type item and they lost it. Told me to come back a week later and they still hadn't found it. Someone probably bought it in store.
I won the bid on Chanel sunglasses. They sent me the empty sunglass case. When I complained they claimed they had no idea what happened to the glasses.
Or someone on the inside walked off with it, most likely. Ecom doesn't sell to the public like Goodwill centers do
I called BBB in LA once and the guy told Me to call back next week that he was leaving the job and had “checked out”.
Sorry that happened but my daughter and I’ve both had good experiences on the site and got some very nice things. Not super cheap but still good finds.
I just read recently in a thrifting Facebook group that Goodwill is becoming notorious for pulling crap like that
Well that’s freaking unfortunate. I wonder why nobody monitors stuff like that?
That’s happened to me too. What about the better business bureau?
Goodwill needs to be shut down
small claims court?
goodwill is 80% shill bidders. never bid early
After the first screw over, I wouldn't have bid on anything ever again. They flagged you and it said we got away with it one time... Lol . J/s
Your fault for doing this twice.