Yet another annoying GW policy

[Punk Glam Queen]

This past weekend we hit an out of town Goodwill. My daughter found one of those french style corded telephones. Not new, it had push buttons. When we got to the check out I inquired as to returns should it not work. Nope. Final sale. Did they have some place we could test it? Nope. This was completely unacceptable. Her reasoning is that electronics are final sale. We asked where there was a plug (there was none it was a bloody telephone!) Still not budging. So the lovely telephone my daughter wanted for her newly decorated room got left behind. Seems so idiotic to me. How about others? Has anyone else run into this?
Cheers!
Suzanne

[Jay2TheRescue]

Most likely it was a french style phone sold in the 80's.  As a collector of vintage telephones, I can say that 99% of the time they do work.  As long as they were asking under $15 - $20 it was a reasonable gamble.

[dewdrop_me_a_line]

Call me Chicken Little or Chicken Big . . . but I just don't know enough about used electronics. I won't even buy a used USB cord. It must be there for some reason . . . and I don't know enough to know why.

I think I'd have looked for a reproduction or gone to someone like Jay that knew his stuff!

dew

[SplashsMom]

This past summer I found a Tweety and Sylvester novelty phone at the Thrift. I hesitated, but carried it around the store with me for an hour, before deciding to take the chance. I do not even have a land line for phone in my house, but decided the novelty of it sitting on my desk was worth the price, about $10 I think,  probably less (I am sooo cheap.) Eventually I took it to a friend's house to test and everything works wonderfully, from Tweety swinging on his perch to the sound when someone calls.
But our thrifts generally will mark on tag if it was tested or allow you to return it within 5 days.

[Big Daddy Audio]

The Goodwills around me allow returns on anything within 14 days with the receipt and the price tag still on it.  They don't issue refunds, but a store credit card, which is good at any of the area Goodwills.  It is a pretty respectible policy, all in all.

SYNT
BFN

[Punk Glam Queen]

Most likely it was a french style phone sold in the 80's.  As a collector of vintage telephones, I can say that 99% of the time they do work.  As long as they were asking under $15 - $20 it was a reasonable gamble.

Yes it was def a repro, but we have such terrible luck with telephones (more than likely its the line that verizon refuses to fix) that I thought it silly that it couldn't be returned for credit if it didn't work. If only they'd allowed me to test it!
Cheers!
Suzanne

[daswitzer]

The only electronics that our GW sell are the occassional lamp and strings of Christmas lights.  I can drive over to Indiana and check out many electronic gizmos, but that is 25 miles away.  I wish that our GW would sell more electronics.  I love electronics.  So for now, I can only buy things like that at rummage sales.  I admire the folks who buy electronics and can identify anything and actually fix things.  I love technology!! 
Our GW will allow returns within 30 days.  BUT, if it's marked AS IS, they don't allow returns.  They do have an outlet for checking the occassional lamp or Christmas lights. 

[tsmanager]

The Goodwill's here in the Suncoast region do not allow returns.
My store does not allow returns on anyhting either BUT as the manager I have allowed someone to exchange their item for something else. I have a gnetleman now that test every thing that goes out.
Now land line phones are a tricky breed. You can't really test it unless you plug into a phone jack. I WILL NOT ALLOW anyone to unplug my phone lines simply because  - one they are not easily accessible and two I'm a little leary of messing with something that works. And since my phone lines also run my credit card lines I'm not willing to take a chance on screwing up the socket to test a line.
You did right to ask about the policy BEFORE you checked out. Most people don't read the big old signs posted everywhere that say. All sales final. After all would you take it back to a yard sale if it didn't work.

[Punk Glam Queen]

Call me Chicken Little or Chicken Big . . . but I just don't know enough about used electronics. I won't even buy a used USB cord. It must be there for some reason . . . and I don't know enough to know why.

I think I'd have looked for a reproduction or gone to someone like Jay that knew his stuff!

dew

I agree to some point, but I suppose I know enough about certain things to be able to make a more informed decision. For example, I've found great lamps, old radios, and many old percolator coffee pots that worked fine. Once I even found an old toaster from the 1940's that worked a dream! (Eventually I got too nervous to use it after hearing too many stories about fires and old electronics.) If its inexpensive enough I'll take a chance, but lately prices at the thrifts have gotten too out of hand to do that. 

Cheers!
Suzanne

[Punk Glam Queen]

This past summer I found a Tweety and Sylvester novelty phone at the Thrift. I hesitated, but carried it around the store with me for an hour, before deciding to take the chance. I do not even have a land line for ph

one in my house, but decided the novelty of it sitting on my desk was worth the price, about $10 I think,  probably less (I am sooo cheap.) Eventually I took it to a friend's house to test and everything works wonderfully, from Tweety swinging on his perch to the sound when someone calls.
But our thrifts generally will mark on tag if it was tested or allow you to return it within 5 days.

What a cool find! Great that it still works too, even if you bought it purely for the fact that it brings you joy when you sit it sitting on your desk.

The return policy varies from store to store around here. I think a 5 day return policy is reasonable. I even offered to bring it back the next day with no luck. They used to write on the tags if something was tested I wish they would again!

Cheers!
Suzanne

[Punk Glam Queen]

The Goodwills around me allow returns on anything within 14 days with the receipt and the price tag still on it.  They don't issue refunds, but a store credit card, which is good at any of the area Goodwills.  It is a pretty respectible policy, all in all.

SYNT
BFN

I'm glad I asked because most of the GW's around here allow returns of anything with receipt and tags on. It varies from store to store, but is generally 7-14 days. Same thing here, no refunds you get a store credit which can be used at any outlet. Which is fine by me as it always gets spent!

Cheers!
Suzanne

[Punk Glam Queen]

The only electronics that our GW sell are the occassional lamp and strings of Christmas lights.  I can drive over to Indiana and check out many electronic gizmos, but that is 25 miles away.  I wish that our GW would sell more electronics.  I love electronics.  So for now, I can only buy things like that at rummage sales.  I admire the folks who buy electronics and can identify anything and actually fix things.  I love technology!! 
Our GW will allow returns within 30 days.  BUT, if it's marked AS IS, they don't allow returns.  They do have an outlet for checking the occassional lamp or Christmas lights. 

Wow 30 days is very generous return policy, nice! And "as is" I wouldn't question so that's smart on their part. They do have an outlet to test things out on but I don't know that I would even consider a telephone "electronics" since it was an old one that had no electric cord at all. When I pointed this out, they just shrugged and repeated the policy. I hate when people do that -- I'm obviously not stupid as I understand enough to point out the flaw in the policy. Ugh.

Cheers!
Suzanne

[Punk Glam Queen]

The Goodwill's here in the Suncoast region do not allow returns.
My store does not allow returns on anyhting either BUT as the manager I have allowed someone to exchange their item for something else. I have a gnetleman now that test every thing that goes out.
Now land line phones are a tricky breed. You can't really test it unless you plug into a phone jack. I WILL NOT ALLOW anyone to unplug my phone lines simply because  - one they are not easily accessible and two I'm a little leary of messing with something that works. And since my phone lines also run my credit card lines I'm not willing to take a chance on screwing up the socket to test a line.
You did right to ask about the policy BEFORE you checked out. Most people don't read the big old signs posted everywhere that say. All sales final. After all would you take it back to a yard sale if it didn't work.

I agree -- and I didn't really expect them to allow me to mess with their phone lines to test it. I said it mainly to show them the flaw in their policy. A traditional landline has no electric outlet and therefore should be allowed to be returned as the only way to test it is to take it home and try it there. Having worked retail as well as owned my own retail store I *always* ask even if it is posted to make sure. I've run across thrift stores that had their policy posted, and then when I tried to return something they made up some kind of addendum so that it couldn't be returned! The truth came out -- they didn't know how to do a return and didn't want to bother calling the manager to help them. Thankfully I thought this was drivel and asked for the manager, who cheerfully accepted the return and gave me a credit.

Cheers!
Suzanne

[thriftstoreaddict]

My idea of GW totally annoying policy is that they close at 5 pm every night. (that's when i'm getting started LOL)

[Punk Glam Queen]

My idea of GW totally annoying policy is that they close at 5 pm every night. (that's when i'm getting started LOL)

So early? Ours all stay open until 8 or 9 depending on location.