Goodwill NYNJ Store & Donation Center — Local services in New York

The staff in this Goodwill is so rude. The store closes at 7 pm and, because I work, I went to drop off clothes for donations at 6:45 pm (I showed up 15 minutes before closing, which is reasonable). One male employee was smoking outside and one female employee was guarding the door from the inside. As I approached to clearly drop off donations (that fit in 1 bag), the male complained that they close at 7 and that my visit was basically too close to closing time, so I said I didn’t know (meaning I didn’t know you couldn’t just drop off a bag of donations within 15 minutes of closing time, it’s not like I need to spend any time there, they can just leave it inside for the night and deal with it the next day). The male told me to leave it inside just at the entrance, and the female said in a very mean tone “everybody says they didn’t know”, so I said “excuse me for giving you free clothes” and she responded immediately “I don’t care about your clothes”. I told her to go ** herself, took my bag and left. I dropped it off at Housing Works 5 minutes away, they close at the same time and they gladly took the bag without hesitation, even offered a receipt, and were super nice, and never made me feel like this was any inconvenience. The people at this Goodwill are so condescending and clearly don’t have any sense of professionalism. I don’t see why they can’t let someone drop off their donation and leave it sit in the store overnight, I don’t see how this represents an obstacle in them going...

I had an awful experience donating through Goodwill Greater NJ & NY and Resupply. It’s disheartening to encounter such poor practices when I’m the one trying to donate. Resupply charges $49.99 for pick-up, which is already high for just a few items, but I agreed and completed the intake form weeks in advance, listing all the items, including a full-size mattress.

On the day of pick-up, during the 8 AM-12 PM window, the driver, Gustavo Salvador from G&O Expediting Crew LLC (license plate ZVS1981), called midway through to say he was on his way. However, he then demanded an additional $85 fee for the mattress pick-up—something I had already noted on the intake form. It’s apparently up to the driver to charge additional fees and accept tickets, but why would he accept my ticket knowing the item was already listed? It seems like a blatant attempt to upcharge and price gouge.

When I refused to pay the additional fee, the driver was extremely unprofessional and rude. He hung up on me and threatened to cancel the entire pick-up, despite me having other items like bags of clothing to donate. Ultimately, the entire situation was an infuriating waste of time.

I will never use Goodwill, Resupply, or G&O Expediting Crew LLC again and cannot recommend their services to anyone. Their poor business practices and lack of professionalism make it clear they do not value donors or the process of...

Reading these reviews i can see that their response to donations is erratic. I have been "trained" to only try to donate early in the day and never when i am in a hurry or have to get to my next location on a tight schedule. I respect goodwill as a charity, but there are many times when they aren't taking donations because they say they have too much, or won't take it because it's later in the afternoon. I also donate to housing works nearby at second ave and e 64 st. Some items make more sense at one or the other, for ex only hosting works takes books. However, Housing Works in general, is always much more eager for donations than is the Goodwill at First Ave and E 61 St. I am consolidating two storage units and donating quite a lot of things soon, so the repeated difficult on n donating at this Goodwill is prominent in my thinking. I would be ok with them specifying that they have too many shoes, or sweaters etc and saying what they are looking for, or if the website said no donations within two hours of closing. The frustrating thing is finding out once you get there, you have to find somewhere else to go. I have called this branch directly and still not gotten accurate info on donating. I think in the spirit of charity, when they are not accepting donations they should recommend Housing Works, three blocks away, or any other...