"I have been buying from auctions for several years now as part of my small business. With a few exceptions, I have found that most auctions are extremely seller-friendly and very unhelpful to buyers if a problem ever arises. The employees are generally very rude, the rules and fees for buyers are ridiculous, and you will get the raw end of the deal no matter how much money you spend with them.
Unfortunately, GovDeals has turned out to be one of, if not THE worst auctions I have dealt with to date. Long story short, I had purchased and picked up several items without incident when an issue arose with an item I won from a seller who advertised shipping on the item listing. After I had paid for the item and for their ‘handling fee,’ the seller was unwilling to ship the item appropriately and would not respond to multiple emails I sent trying to find a solution.
The seller actually then lied to GovDeals and said I would not respond to THEIR emails, despite the records I had showing the many unanswered messages I had sent. I was then locked out of my account and charged a penalty of 40% of the winning bid for the item.
I contacted customer service multiple times by email and phone, and was simply told to “work it out with the seller.“ Most of the time I was flat out ignored, and they were beyond rude when they did reply. Ultimately no one really even listened to/read what I had to say and nothing was done.
I refuse to be extorted by anybody, so I suppose my account will remain locked forever. This is just fine with me because I never intend to do business with them again.
Yes, there is the potential to find really good deals at an auction, and if you are just looking to buy one item and never purchase anything again, then it might be worth taking a chance. My best advice would be to make sure you always pay with a credit card (so that you have the ability to dispute any theft that may occur by the auction) and that you understand/follow all of the rules and restrictions for that particular item (yes, these change per item/seller).
(Oh and NEVER buy anything that must be paid with a wire transfer! Even if it is something you think you have to have, just move on and find something else. These people will have your money instantly and if there are any problems, no matter whose fault, they will hold onto your money as long as they want and there’s nothing you can do about it.)
I do not recommend however, seeking to go into any long-term relationship with these companies, because eventually, a problem will arise, and when it does, you will be screwed. You might get lucky and it happens on a small-ticket item that doesn’t end up costing you very much. But it could also end up being something you are paying thousands for, and then you will get nothing but a run around, lies told against you, and absolutely no help from the people who have your money.
In the end, it’s just not worth taking the chance, and it’s definitely not worth your time and frustration. "
"I have recently moved and went on to the GovDeals site to submit a change of address. There was a brief glitch but when I checked my acct, it had been updated. So I proceeded to bid on an auction I was interested in when I got the notice that my account had been locked. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AUCTION! I called and asked why, given we have been customers for over a decade and have always paid. I was told that my account was locked because I had submitted change of address information! So I asked why they had not advised me that they needed more info by email instead of locking the account and my finding out about it in the mid sale? There was no rationale given. They want to see an updated driver's license which I don't yet have, or utility bills which I had to scramble to locate. In the meantime, the sale I was interested in, ended. The customer service provided by these people is ABYSMAL. Must be great running a business where you only provide minimal if any customer service."
"Majority of vehicles sold on govdeals.com are not road worthy. Employees of govdeals create fake accounts to bid on cars so that vehicles prices' go through the roof! If one of the fake accounts won an auction they simply re-post the vehicle indicating buyer didn't show up to pick up the vehicle. Dirty business at its best!"
"Ms. Karen Stagg-Hourigan; Deputy Public Administrator II sold me used Microsoft Keyboard as "New" thru GovDeals.com, On March 21, 2019 she wrote "Thank you for the pictures, it is clear that it was not a new key board. This is our mistake for not verifying that the key board was not a new one. We do not want the key board returned. However, what type of compensation are you requesting for this error." In response to that I wrote her "I just want the item cost ($7.70) plus the mailing cost ($79.81) to be refunded. Thanks." She responded me back on the same date (March 21, 2019) "There is still intrinsic value to the key board, therefore we can give you $40.00." I responded her on March 30, 2019 "I will accept $40.00 plus the auction bidding price I paid ($7.70). Hopefully, that will work with you. Thanks." She hasn’t refund me the money yet. I just want the public to be aware of people who steal other money one way or other, do fraud and on top they may be government employee/s serving us (or working with them). Thanks."
"I was bidding on a truck, I got into a fictitious bidding war then when I bailed out I was told by email the next day that my last bid would be accepted after all....WOW? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! This is one of the oldest and auction bidding scams. I think they should honestly read the auction laws!!! I stated my complaint to them and the municipality only to have govdeals.com come back and threaten me not to do that again. Please DO NOT get in a bidding war. They are falsely inflating the bid price! This is such a scam! and ITS A SHAME....THE MUNICIPALITIES INVOLVED ARE CARRYING A HUGE LIABILITY OF LITIGATION."
"I've done about a half dozen transactions on GovDeals. Primarily for data processing printers. They've all gone quite smoothly until today. I purchased a set of nine large wooden bookshelves from a school system in Latham NY. A great price, $25.00 plus fees. This was the first time a Wire Transfer was the ONLY option to pay. So I had to run to the back and pay a $20 transfer fee. Payment was accepted, deal done. Just have to pick them up. I couldn't get there right away so made arrangements to pick them up on the last day available. (it's 2 hours away) Two days prior to pickup I get an email that they have "become unavailable". Their maintenance department removed them and took them to install in another school. MY shelves that I had already paid for. You can jump up and down all you want. The seller gets to change their mind after the deal is done with no penalties. (If I had decided not to pay I would be blocked from the site.) So they are happy to reimburse me, for which I have to fill out forms etc, but no one is going to pay me back for the wire transfer fee. So I'm out $20 for doing everything right. Glad it wasn't a car like a lit of folks on here. I would never buy a vehicle sight unseen. (although I have been tempted) WAY too risky."
"worst customer service, an outdated website with tons of limitation managing account, changing name, email or user ID. Customer service rep declined to take my message/suggestion to management."
"I purchased a 2013 dodge charger from St. CLAIR County and Greg Walker and his partner were in charge of the sale. Well I paid in full the thousands of hard earned dollars for my bid on govdeals. We went to the car which was located about 3 miles from where I paid, up on arrival I noticed that the car was not as described, being it was missing parts that were not stated to be missing. Then it would not start, even though it was said to start and is drivable. If I were not mechanically inclined this car would've never started, but I was willing to accept the parts missing and move on with the purchase. Well when I got it started the engine was tapping and the car would not accelerate by pushing the gas pedal. So I told the police officer that I could not take the car in this condition and showed him the disclaimer warranty. He got furious saying the at least the car runs. Then stated I will be in default and blocked from bidding. My work truck also died from being hooked up to the car with his jump box as well as my own. He simply pulled off and left us I had already called govdeals to shed some light on this situation and all they could say is he's right, but you can dispute this and not have to pay 40%. I thought I was doing business with people sworn in to obay the law and protect the citizens. I'm a small business owner and I pay taxes that help pay there Bill's and this is the thanks my wife, 3 month old , and 23 month old get days before Christmas. "
"they let me bid on a van from cookville tenn. when i went to bid AGAIN they locked me out i called them they told me they check out about 40% of the people and request a copy of my drivers license & a utility bill sent to them i called again talked to Luke told me go some other web site said could be could not find me in the white pages that is b/s been at my location sense 1975 with same phone# i personally think because i am from NY. this is why they are doing this TODAY YOU CAN'T JUST EMAIL YOUR INFO. LIKE THAT [ DISCRIMINATION] "
"This is THE WORST AUCTION COMPANY. BUYER BE AWARE ! THIS PEOPLE WILL TRY TO SCAM YOU WITHOUT EVEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE !"
"There was an auction in Florida regarding food service equipment and two of the Lots were mixed up with pictures and descriptions I called GovDeals 5 *they insisted the selling agency was to provide the answers I called the selling agency they explained they had nothing to do with the listings are descriptions all they did was upload the information and GovDeals people listed it
So I bid accordingly on the item that I wanted to purchase for picture and being a thousand miles away and several thousand dollars after the auction I could not get GovDeals or the agency to verify what was what so therefore I did not pay and of course I was band I spent days of my time trying to resolve the situation and as simple as it would have been there was no one willing to put forth the effort
It is very frustrating that there are people literally getting rich while taking advantage of the American people I refer to it as legalized fraud and at some point there has to be laws put in place to govern these things
By then the people operating sites like this because there are numerous sites will be filthy rich if not already and they will care less and do care less"
"In January 2018, I purchased two vehicles belonging to a Florida county through Gov Deals. Because one of them was not in the advertised condition, in fact was not drivable, the county agreed to accept its return. That's where the problems began.
Gov Deals receives and disburses all payments to sellers. All purchases over $5000 require a wire transfer so my money was in Gov Deals bank account within minutes of being transferred and within their allotted window of time.
Gov Deals takes your money but if a situation such as mine arises they make sure to DELAY an already authorized refund as much as possible. First, days go by before it is acknowledged that a refund will be issued, in this case that took two weeks.
Next, you are given a choice for reimbursement of either a wire refund or a mailed check. I chose wire and had to provide a voided check as well as instructions. Great, then you are not informed at the time that they request wires from corporate on Wednesdays ONLY.
Then, you are told they mail requests to corporate on Wednesdays and you should have your money by Friday or Monday of the following week.
This is cash flow manipulation, plain and simple!
I was authorized for a refund the 12th of January and will not see my refund until February 2nd or 4th.
Keep in mind that this only went forward because of my due diligence and constant requests or who knows how long this might have gone on.
My refund is still pending as of this date and we'll see what surprise is sprung on me next.
"
"Found a copier posted on Govdeals website described as in fair condition, bought it, arranged a trailer rental, and traveled to pick it up at the seller location in (Westland School District, MI) met a person at their storage facility that said they had used it for years always worked well but didn't have a receptacle available to test. Load it on the trailer and drove back to the office where it was discovered broken flashing a error code. Lesson, never trust anyone!"
"Get this folks!
During the first 30 days, you will be limited to bidding/paying/picking up only three auctions. Once you do all of those, you can do more, but only up to three in the first 30 days.
In the next 30 days, you do six. I guess if you don't do six, your still stuck at three.
In the next 30 days after the six, you can do nine. To get out of this level, you MUST do nine. Forces you to buy at least nine auctions to get out of level 3.
In 30 days increments. Its a 30 day HELL!
OR you can fund them $1000 in money order or cashiers check for some time at no interest earned and if you do well, you get it back at some point.
Oh, and did I mention even though you pay for your winnings with a credit card, they hold your payment for review and that makes for enhanced frustration with working with the seller to pick up your bid.
Oh, and if you email or even call customer service, you get the condescending treatment. Like you are stupid. (well no, I just want to spend my companies money ... duh)
What type of place is this that so many fine sellers use? ! "
"There seems to be a very few amount of people working at GovDeals. They are Terry, Luke, Megan, and Carrie (Manager). According to Terry, I had spoken to everyone in the office. Megan flat out lied about Carrie being out of the office for the day. She was caught in the lie when Terry said that Carrie had stepped out for lunch. Megan hung the phone up on me. Luke seems like he must have a relationship with Megan and hung the phone up on me. Carrie never came to the phone. After serious questioning and reminding them that the owner's name/President and Vice-President's name are considered to be public information, and I can ask for them, they finally gave me the name of Roger Krazunch. They would not give any phone number, work ID, or e-mail addresses for anyone. GovDeals has employees that seem to lack integrity, honesty, business etiquette, and has some serious intellectual problems. I agree that most of what is going on at GovDeals is highly fishy/questionable. Their services nor items will be utilized. If they want to treat people rudely and dishonestly, then they are not a good fit for me. So, I have decided to BAN THEM! "