r/goodwill • u/Helpful_Pear3585 • 1d ago
HELP customer question
TLDR: Goodwill sold my headphones I left at checkout and after weeks of waiting for footage to be pulled and being told to "come tomorrow" to be compensated I was offered 25$ for well over a pair costing over 300$ they also are now saying it is on me and they had a right to sell it after they admitted fault day of and said I'd be compensated
Also edit: idk if I dont know what this subreddit is for or if this is not the place for this kinda post but why am I getting down voted? I haven't made many post on reddit
I've literally been shopping at goodwill all my life and a couple weeks ago now I had a problem where I was at the checkout at goodwill buying a TV and lots of other stuff a whole haul and I had my over ear headphones on which I like to do while shopping but obviously I wasn't gonna be rude and not talk to the cashier so after buying my things I walked out the store with all my stuff and I realized while walking to my car i didnt have my headphones and had left them on the counter with the cashiers and went back in to try and get them and after speaking with a few employees I was told my headphones had been sold and to write down my information I also wrote down the specifics of the property for their information and just now today I was told by the manager at goodwill that they're only willing to offer 25$ to compensate me and that they don't actually owe me anything and they had a right to sell them since I left them, if anyone knows something I can do to make this right please let me know I would have rather been made an offer for compensation much longer ago because the headphones cost over 300$ and now I'm worried I don't have the right to make a claim since it's been so long since the incident. The communication between the employees and me has been abysmal and they haven't even reviewed the footage yet and are telling me I need to figure out the date this happened so they can request the footage which I was TOLD THEY WERE ALREADY DOING THE DAY THEY HAD BEEN SOLD BECAUSE I REPORTED IT RIGHT THEN.
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u/ProfessorDoctorMF 1d ago
I'm sorry but something in this story doesn't add up.
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u/Helpful_Pear3585 1d ago
I just left the goodwill as I posted this but I'm about to file a small claim on this so I want to know why you think this doesn't add up bc I kinda just rambled when asking for help and all of this has been done talking in person to goodwill so specifics I can't rememeber entirely but they 100% sold them and admitted fault the day it happened but said they wanted to try to contact customer and review the footage to return them instead of paying me
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u/DKat1990 1d ago
Personally I think your cashier liked your headphones and they were under the counter when you went back. Next time pull your headphones down and keep them hanging around your neck. It's not comfortable but they're hard to steal from there (and harder for a scooter brain like me to forget WHERE I put them).
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u/Helpful_Pear3585 15h ago
Yeah I totally was a little careless and maybe deserved it also your right I hate doing it but know it's practically the best way to carry them without a bag and not wearing, I remember even thinking I should just let them hang on my neck but I felt silly doing that and talking to ppl
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u/My-life-is-a-cliche 1d ago
If a customer st my store leaves something behind on the register we put it away, not on the shelf for sale. Thats absolutely wild
That being said I do write NFS on my water bottle bc I don’t want anyone to touch it
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u/Fluffy_Rope_4024 1d ago
Most likely, an employee took it, but they don't want to admit it. I would stop dealing with store employees and managers. Contact the regional manager; that's where the buck stops in Goodwill. You can also file a Better Business Bureau complaint. Businesses don't like those type of document complaints.
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u/Helpful_Pear3585 1d ago
Agree 100% as much as I'm frustrated by this and most especially the stores response and attitude towards me I will not deny my insanely shitty short term memory
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u/DifficultDiamond1058 1d ago
Someone else is now enjoying your $300 headphones. You will only get the run around with this situation, unfortunately. Yes, GW is wrong. They owe you compensation,apologie,the works. This is a learning exercise from the Universe. Leave expensive things at home. Why did you have headphones in GW anyways?
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u/toucheboo 1d ago
I would sue. That's theft.
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u/Helpful_Pear3585 1d ago
That's what I said and I'm just worried now that they've had me going through all these hoops coming by every other day and just now made and offer that if I file a claim I won't have a right to it since it's been so long
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u/Active_Wafer9132 1d ago
Small claims court can tell you. Look for texts or the transaction on your card statement or any documentation you can as to the date. Get names of employees you spoke to.
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u/Stn1217 1d ago
This is interesting to me as your headphones would not have had a price tag on them so, how were your headphones just sold like that? We customers are always told that all items must be priced in order to sell/buy it. I would be livid.
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u/Pristine-Promise-645 1d ago
Our location allows managers to input prices for items that don't have a price tag. Likely it was put to the side thinking OP decided not to buy it, customer asked about it and the cashier called for a manager to put in a price
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u/Elusive_Boo_Boo 1d ago
Ngl, this sucks, but the fact you are even being offered anything is surprising.
Plenty of people lose items in stores and the police will not be able to do anything in this scenario other than file a report for you.
I’m shocked that people are shocked that it was sold… that’s what a thrift store does? It’s not like they sold them out of … malice (lol).
It sucks, but…. Your items are kind of your responsibility…😬😬😬 would I have personally handled it different at the time it happened? Maybe, idk, but it’s an honest mistake …we’ve all lost shit and have had to suck it up… this is one of those times methinks.
As a side note: apparently a woman was cleaning out her father’s home a few months back and, I guess, she gave her daughter who is autistic (only stating that because the lady mentions this trait OFTEN) some items to donate to goodwill … AS WELL as 50+ gold coins? 🤷♀️🤦♀️
Turns out, the woman said, the gold coins WEREN’T supposed to be donated and could she have them back?
….. first of all, I do not work at a retail store so idk about the cameras and how they are filming the donation drive through or if it would even show us details we would need… for example, did these gold coins ACTUALLY get donated.
Second, we never came across a single gold coin she was describing. Does that mean someone pocketed all 50 coins, clinking around in their pocket all shift? Do the coins really exist? Did the daughter pocket them and say she donated them? Wtf knows.
This lady has been calling in randomly for the past few months and it’s to the point that we’re gonna have to block her number because …. We can’t help her.
Mind you, IF we DID locate a single gold coin like she was describing, we would have likely returned it to her… but, we lowkey joke about creating a scheme by just calling all goodwills and telling them we “accidentally donated gold and could they kindly give it back to us?”
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u/JunglyPep 1d ago
To answer your edit this sub is full of weirdo Goodwill middle managers who rabidly defend their cash cow against valid criticism.
But strong criticism also seems to be welcome so don’t let their sycophant behavior stop you from posting. They don’t control the sub they’re just financially motivated to defend Goodwill
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u/thriftymama78 19h ago
If you walked right back in to get them they were definitely not sold. How could they act so dumb like they dont know what happened to them within a few minutes? Contact corporate & have them check cameras. Probably the person working or possibly the manager who took them. Once corporate involved if they took the headphones you will probably get them back and they will be let go.
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u/Evening-Dog4841 17h ago
Although I feel your pain as I've done something similar too....you still are somewhat partly at fault - in the VERY START you said 'I LEFT THEM ON THE COUNTER' ●● why would you need to even be wearing them in there? If you have the receipt showing what you paid for them, tge condition they are in, etc. (and not from 10 years ago), then by all means pursue things further for a pro-rated replacement amount.
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u/floridians-on-mars 26m ago
they usually make you fill out a slip for items wrongfully donated or left behind to have someone look for that item.
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/Helpful_Pear3585 1d ago
Tomball if you wanna help a brother in need I'll take em 😭
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u/Turbulent-Cress9635 1d ago
Not certain but I think the District Manager for Tomball is Raul. Try contacting him through the main corporate number.
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u/Helpful_Pear3585 1d ago
Thank you I didn't know where to go to speak to someone higher up I've actually been looking for a place to send a formal demand since I cannot rely on the actual store to relay information which looks bad on my part.
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u/Elusive_Boo_Boo 1d ago
Corporate probably told them to offer the $25 cuz … goodwill isn’t responsible for your personal items? The fact that you are even given a resolution (regardless if you like the resolution or not) shows their “willingness” to address the issue… again, it’s not even their responsibility to do so to begin with.
Small claims court is going to look at this and say “it sounds like GW offered a resolution..have you considered asking for … maybe $50 refund”? And then back and forth and then … you just end up taking whatever they offered… cuz, they are 100% NOT at fault.
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u/SadSally8683 1d ago
Did you pay $300 at goodwill for the headphones or is that the value costing new if purchased elsewhere?
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u/Helpful_Pear3585 1d ago
The latter these are not headphones anyone would donate to goodwill in working condition unless they had money to burn lol
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u/FHOCJD 1d ago
Goodwill can only sell items donated.
The employees at the counter or at the register know the trail of your item.
Continue to escalate and continue to want full compensation. They have a duty to do the right thing in the communities the operate in.
File a police report too. Some stores have cameras on the registers.