Goodwill Computer Store — Attraction in Tallahassee

Something has to give... I'm a tech professional in town and I donate a lot of time and money to low income and needy people for the last 15 years in Tallahassee. Goodwill computer store has been a mostly one stop shop for inexpensive used computers for up cycling and the quantity and quality has need reasonable for the community. Now, the prices have been becoming outrageous for what is normally donated items from the community business equipment, the diy computer bench and self serve area is gone, "Tested" systems aren't thoroughly tested enough for consumers... I got burned twice now in three weeks, I bought a $160 tested and ready desktop for a family in need 3 hours out of town. Got to the family's home and 3 hours into the help call, the computer froze and I got Dell Diag lights amber 2,1... Failed motherboard. A waste of time and money for me. I was donating it out of my pocket and helping a family in need and the system should have worked... Failed in less than two hours... Did anyone run the Dell Diag? Sold as ready to go, with OS, storage, RAM, keyboard, power cord. It wasn't hooked up to a display and I didn't think to check it out, I normally buy the diy stuff. However, I was in a rush that day and need to grab something and run, so I paid full price for what should have been a ready to go setup. Less time for me to deal with it on site or had to build something out at my place. I ended up on craiglist in the area and found a used system, gutted the over priced failed Dell from Goodwill and ate about an additional $100 just to make sure a family in need of a computer for their two kids school needs happened that day. Just today, I picked up another system, I would have tested it at Goodwill, but the self-service bench is gone because for whatever reason people can't check out any of the diy or prebuilts without asking for help... I'm a 25 year professional and didn't imagine I'd get burnt twice. Whelp, not even a post, Dell Diag lights amber 2,1... This shouldn't have been on the shelf!! Absolutely pissed. Another waste of time and money. A simple plug-in and Dell onboard Diag isn't hard! Not to mention, all of the controllers I buy for the school events. 90% of them need serious service, nobody is testing them fully and at $30 for a stick drift controllers is a shame. That's a disservice, dishonest and ruthless for the community of unaware buyers. I have to show staff all the time how much drift or non-working buttons to make a deal and then drop about 2 hours and $15 in parts to repair them on my workbench. I don't care that I could get a replacement, it shouldn't happen in the first place. I waste time trying to help people just to turn around and not be able to assist people if Goodwill doesn't help harbor its community. I spend twice as much time and money today getting items from GWC than I did 10 years ago. When the store used to be over on Tennessee West, you could build entire computers in the store and have fun with the staff and Patrons. The hobbits are not welcomed any more. The value is gone. The friendly and knowledgeable staff aren't what they used to be. I'm having better luck on eBay, craigslist and business acquaintances than GWC today. I trusted and helped Goodwill, but you guys gotta make some serious changes for me to come back... I've had it... Your selling donations, stop buying cheap Chinese junk gimmicks and work harder at providing service to the community. I'm more afraid for people without my experience buying from the store today... They're more likely to be disappointed and unable to understand why. I can in my heart recommend your location anymore... And I have had word of mouth'd the store for over a decade... GWC, you're off my recommendations for now. Maybe if you can make those changes and be community connected again, I might make a return and update my review. Someone with skills needs to be auditing the equipment, someone needs to stop out pricing equipment, stop trying to ordering and peddling chinese junk. You're a retro, used computer, electronics and...

Do not listen to these people who claim they've gotten "good deals" on their products here, simply because most are from employees and mindless boomers who know nothing of electronics. Please take your business elsewhere, because this is NOT a business. Even your average run-of-the-mill mom and pop stores are better than this. If you're looking for retro video games, I suggest checking out a local game store or ordering online. If you're looking for electronics/tvs/etc., there's tons of options that are better than this place. Anyways, back to the subject at hand. Goodwill claims to be "non-profit" but the prices here, aren't even reasonable. They claim to "Look at the lowest price on eBay" which is a blatant lie, because I've done that before, and the prices here are higher than the average buy on eBay, but I'm not done.They have no idea what they're doing at all, and they think that it's some kind of special limited-edition item they're selling and that it's a piece of gold. They claim to "fix" and "refurbish" items, but I've seen the most dirty items there, like they just came from a garbage bin. They simply get an item FOR FREE, and charge the highest price for it. This is not a lie, and I urge you to leave a bad review because they need to learn what they're doing. Another reason, is that it's GOODWILL. They get electronics for free, but want to charge above-average price for it, and do not think of disregarding this review, unless you like people stealing your money from you. Another reason why you should not shop here is because the employees are rude. They are never nice, and don't even have manners when someone buys something. I've seen people try to negotiate with their extremely-high prices, but the employees end up lashing out at the customers and being rude. I could go on and on, but let me sum this up. If they received a plastic bag, they would charge 100 dollars for it. Do not...

When we came in we saw stickers on the speakers saying if you mess with this you will be kicked out. So we got someone. After the dude figures out how to work it he turns the DJ speaker up 1/4 the volume and said he wouldnt go louder and that we would have to imagine how loud it would go. Later the manager came over and said the sticker was from the old manager and to not pay any attention to the sticker. So after we decided where the speaker, table and computer chair was going i decided to walk over to the speaker that was still playing and turned it up half way to listen for muddiness and distortion. The first emplyee walks over, turns the speaker down and tells us "you have to get out." So i told him that the manager said it was ok to check it out. He said, "Oh..." but once ive been made to feel unwelcome somewhere thats it. 200 dollars for the speaker, 79 for the table and 70 for the chair could have been yours and all of that loaded in my truck but you decided to treat us like trash. It was the kid with the mustash that threw us out. P. S. Nobody wants to "imagine" how loud a speaker is or how it sounds, they want to hear it and make sure it sounds good. This store needs an audio guy. Also, no, i wasnt tire kicking, we really did have it all figured out where it was going to go and plenty cash...