I bought a microwave oven from Goodwill for $20.00 I plugged it in at the store with the help of one of the clerks. The light came on and it made the typical microwave oven sound (that's just a fan, folks, in case you are as uninformed as I was.) The clerk evinced excitment. I paid for it. I am 70, semi disabled, don't drive and my existing microwave oven is failing... Taking longer and longer to cook anything. My income is VERY small... 20 dollars is a lot to me. I asked my hard working busy adult daughter to pick me up and take me and the microwave home.
When I got it home, I found that it did not heat anythng. I immediately called the store and asked for a refund. Of course there is a "corporate " policy of not refunds or exchanges. The store employees and managers are told by "corporate" not to test any of the electronics. The manager I spoke to on the phone said that I could have tested it with a cup of water. "We have cups and we have water, " she said. But no one suggested that to me at the store. Finally she did give me the "corporate" phone number in the neighboring city. I called but no answer, no answering machine at 4:30.
Called the next day and spoke with a very heavily accented woman. I told her that I could not understand her and asked to speak to someone else. Her accent immediately cleared up. She said the person I wanted to speak to was in a meeting. I asked when that person would be available..."later"..."when?" and so on. Very evasive. Finally she said that she would give my name and number to him later in the day.
He did call me. Said that he would have to get clearance for a refund. Called me the next day and said that I could get the value in goods, but not cash and that I had to deal with a specific store manager only... Let's call me ling.
Okay then I called the store and tried to find out when me ling would be there and or when I could speak to her...
This miserable story just goes on and on...
Suffice to say that I was told that I was very fortunate to even get an exchange... I had to do the exchange in the last hour before closing. All I could find was a $10 dollar item. They would not give me a store credit.
I will NEVER shop at Good will again for anything.
But please be aware that they are selling electronic waste. You could do the microwave test, but how would one test a television set, now that there is no broadcast tv?
I recalled too late the story of a friend of mine who bought a turntable, non working and just couldn't get money back. How do you test a turntable, a dvd player, a vcr, a computer, etc?
I didn't want an exchange. I wanted my money back. I would not have spent cash at that time except for a microwave.
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