Govdeals Reviews 71

I was interested in bidding on 2 sales on Gov Deals but I asked too many questions so was locked out of bidding by the vendor. Actually the same question a number of times because no answer was provided. Given this is an online sale, people need to know what they are buying because they have to PAY for it, PAY to have it picked up, packed and shipped and PAY whatever Customs, Duty and Tariffs are being applied. Therefore they would like to know if what they are buying will be marketable once they get it. But NO, you're not entitled to that information and will be blocked from bidding if you insist on ASKING. The most disrespectful site to buyers. I complained to Customer Service but do not expect a response. And as an update, I never received a response from Gov Deal's Customer "Service" because it's not there for the buyer.

Fraud and deceptive business practices. The auction is supposed to end at a fixed time. They extended the end 10 times (3 min at a time).

I had the winning bid and they manipulated the time for their preferred buyer.

Finally they knocked me off the system so their preferred buyer could have the truck. The truck was from Patrick Space Force base. I’m guessing the base commander would not like the fact that their auction house is dishonest.

You’d be better off sending your money to a Nigerian Prince. First of all the sellers are private businesses and corporations along with a few government agencies. The items sold are misrepresented and defective. Read the other reviews, all bad, except for the several good ones, all posted within a few days of one another thus making them highly suspicious. Stay away, the site is a total scam but legal because of the multitude of disclaimers their lawyers advised them to include.

Great site. Many bargains available here.

Called customer service line and had issues with website, and back and forth regarding once AGAIN I found something on the particular category and wanted to go back to catagory there was no way to go back until I closed the search and then went back to same site again without having to reopen the catagory for the listings again! Very cumbersome and unnecessary and time consuming! They told me to click onto something that didn't show up on the page I was looking at!

Complete sham.I won an auction with no reserve. My winning bid was $4k. After waiting 2 days with a note on the auction of waiting approval. My offer was declined and the item relisted. After I spent hours trying to get a reason the seller said he wanted $7K. Complete slimy used car sales mentality. I accepted all the risk but the seller who is unwilling to set a reserve will continue to relist and waste buyers time.

A refund is due and every kind of lies, deceit and confusion that ever has said and done by Govdeals and as of this moment i have not gotten my refund. Every time you submit the request info with confirmation, days later they claim it was not received. They are horrible

This company gets over on fees paid to them and does not have any concern for their customers.
The sellers on their website misrepresent their cars by withholding information that is important for buyers to know and as a result, buyers are fooled. GovDeals does not discipline their sellers because they (GovDeals) gets paid anyway. Their name is misleading because I thought they were a trustworthy company but they are not because they allow sellers to sell cars and break the law at the same time. Do your research on them before you sign up with them.

I bid on a small lot on govdeals.com from a seller named Sumit Garg from a very shady La-porte financial II company. I asked the seller a question if the lot has clean tittle and what rights are included in title. The shady seller pulled my winning bid off for asking this basic question. Nothing says shady like being offended by the question of clean title. What a scumbag seller.

City of Colorado failed to disclose $1872.97 worth of suspension damage on a 2016 Ford Explorer and they knew it and I could prove it, Hempstead Police Department in Texas failed to disclose a check engine light on in a 2020 Dodge Charger which resulted in the cam was flattened which means motor is shot needs replacement, failed to even take a photo of the odo like most sellers do that shows a check engine light on, they also put a paper floor mat over a basketball size hole in the driver's side carpet which tells me they were trying to hide defects in the car, also this Police department should know better selling an unsafe vehicle to the public as when I was taking it to the repair shop went to turn headlights on and of course they did not work also and were drilled out and have to be replaced, this Chargers estimated repairs are $6,000.00 to $6,500.00 so let me tell you BUYER BEWARE when it comes to these 2 departments, and by the way GOV Deals will do nothing about it,

Have been a Govdeals buyer since 2010, when it was just government surplus it was a great site (aside from the random issue here and there setting pickup appointments with completely useless government employees).

However in the past year or so the site has turned to a nightmare. first of all website is now so slow and laggy as to be practically unuseable some days.

Last couple auctions I have bid on in three different states, all got miraculously outbid by the same hyphen-ated user name in the bid history, which may be a coincidence but seems very unlikely.

Customer support has gone to AI chat bots and is totally useless.

Used to check site every Monday and Friday to see what was on bid, but now I only check once a month or so when all the other auctions are slow or have no lots I'm interested in, since I can't stand to deal with govdeals regularly anymore. Used to be a great marketplace now just a last resort to deal with.

I bought Nissan 17 from gov deal seller was exotic cars in Virginia. Website said runs n drive no issue but when I got the cars battery dead n put new battery and when start driving had issue took it to mechanic and was surprised that transmission is bad n intake manifold is bad costing me car over9k its only worth 5k. So do ur home work before u buy. I’m done with this govdeal bc it’s 2nd time they burnt me

I won a generator on Govdeals.com (auction ended monday) but for some reason the email advising me that i won got sent to my junk box and i did not see it until Friday- 4 days later. Upon finding the email i went on to Govdeals, signed in and tried to pay for the item. It would not let me pay. The only option to pay was wire transfer. I live remote in Alaska so doing wire transfer is not an easy task. I went in to town the following Monday during business hours and attempted to send the wire. I went on to Govdeals website to confirm the wire instructions and i was locked out of my account. I called customer service and the representative was not helpful and rude.
I asked if this was normal protocol to require someone to set up and process a wire transfer in 4 business days? I asked how I can avoid these types of auctions in the future. I was told that it says under the payment section of the listing. I went back and looked and i do not see anywhere on the listing that it requires wire transfer. I explained to customer service that it did not have anything in the payment section stating it would require a wire transfer, it actually said “Payment must be made online”. She told me i was wrong and basically hung up on me. Not really sure why you would want to mislead your customers, I assume this was an accident and customer service was trying to avoid it coming to light? I wish this would have had a different outcome. It makes sense that you want your customers on both the buying and selling side happy. It does not make sense to mislead your buyers, causing them to default on an item, resulting in a non sale. The whole point of the website is to sell items.

No one has been able to tell me how to identify a listing that will require wire transfer?
I have purchased many items and never had this issue. I understand large purchases over certain dollar amount may require wire transfer but that was not the case.

Dear Customer Support,

It is frustrating that the buyer is penalized for the seller’s mistakes. Your refusal to offer any meaningful solutions and the reliance on policies to justify this lack of assistance is disappointing. This approach is unhelpful and reflects poorly on your service.

I wish I could give ZERO stars. Maybe my misfortune can help someone else avoid the same problem. I bid on a car that I really wanted. I had been obsessively watching my bid (high bidder for almost 3 days). While surfing the site, I bid on 3 cheap, fun items. It accepted the 3 new bids then said i was on "probation" and could not make any new bids. It would let me increase my bid on the 3 cheap things that I just tried for fun, but it would not let me increase my bid on the car-- even though it was the first thing I bid on. So 2 items closed and I "won" (yay, me), and I immediately paid for them so I could return to bidding on the car. Relent, the car was the first bid I made. We'll, paying for the items is not enough-- you have to pick up the items. It would be tight bc the car closes in 17 hours, but it is possible. But wait... we had a major snow storm and my car is plowed in so I can't pick the 2 crap items up. The ones I already paid for. So I call to ask why I can increase my bid on items 2, 3, and 4, but not the first item. The rep said, "I don't see that you bid on the car yet." Yes, I did. I bid a very specific, odd number, and it clearly shows on the website that I was an early bidder. She said if I had bid on the car, I would not have been allowed to make the other bids (which makes sense-- except I DID bid on the car already... my first bid was on the car). So #1) be aware of the "probation" issue. 2) Know that winning and paying for the items does not count (which makes no sense, bc they HAVE my $$, you would think paying for the items would count for something). 3) Don't bid during a national snow emergency bc you will probably get screwed. IF the probation thing had been clearly indicated before they "probate" your account (it is not "locked"; it's just that you can't increase an existing bid or start a new bid while it is probated-- which is clearly very different from being locked) I would have never put my first bid, the thing I really wanted, in jeopardy. So in summation: 1) If you bid on 3 items at once, you are on probation. 2) Paying for 2 items that closed does not count as completing the transaction. 3)Don't bid during a snow emergency. 4) Just same yourself the trouble and frustration and don't bother visiting the site unless you are a full-fledged "buy stuff to resell for profit" kind of person, because there are so many rules, there is no way a casual buyer who wants something for actual ownership can keep up with all the rules. On the other hand, if you are someone who buys stuff you don't want or need but you want to resell it for a profit, this is the size for you. Be a professional buyer to make sure an average person can't get an occasional deal on their own. Puts them in the same category as ticket scalpers (legal, but keeps real fans from being able to go to concerts). Have fun. Happy bidding. Read all 30 screens of rules before thinking you can actually bid on anything worthwhile as a private citizen. I was, however, able to pick up cheap highlighters for my students, but those cost me the opportunity to keep bidding on the car that I really wanted. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES. Yes, this is TMI, but I'm frustrated and disappointed; at least let me vent and warn others.

I have two huge issues with govdeals.com -
1. They charged me sales taxes on internet purchases that were shipped to my home in a non-sales tax state, and they failed to respond to my requests for refunds on two purchases in which I was illegally charged a sales tax
2. I discovered that in some cases, municipalities have a govdeals.com employee take the photos of the vehicles being sold by a municipality. I was advises this by the contact person on a vehicle I bid on. Why is this a problem? It is NOT in they buyers' interest for the auction site to be taking and uploading the photos for any item for sale, where the photographer can take more favorable views of an item, potentially hiding issues that may otherwise result in items either not being bid on, or having lower bids. In my case, I won a bid on a car which looked pristine - upon arrival to pick the car up, the car was so far from how it appeared on the ad, I thought they brought out the wrong car. I suggest that NO ONE bid on any car with govdeals.com that can't be seen in advance.

Will NEVER do business with govdeals.com again.

I’m writing this review because I genuinely believed this was a legitimate government surplus auction platform. While some listings may come from government entities, many vehicles are posted by private sellers, and that is not made clear upfront. Sellers use official-sounding names like “government surplus,” list public-looking addresses, and only after payment do you find out you’re dealing with a private individual who asks you to meet at a house, parking lot, or random location.

There is little to no transparency, no seller ratings or reviews, and no meaningful checks and balances. Vehicles are often misrepresented in the listing (for example: claiming no warning lights or mechanical issues), and once payment is made, buyers are told the sale is “as-is” and are left without support, even in cases of clear misrepresentation.

This platform protects sellers, not buyers. If you are considering purchasing a high-ticket item like a vehicle, please do extreme due diligence and understand that private sellers can list here with minimal oversight. Buyer beware — what looks like a reputable government site can turn into a very costly mistake.

A friend of mine told me about this site he has been purchasing vehicles here for years so I looked it up and found some interesting deals ended up buying a beautiful ford explorer thousands less then what I saw when I was shopping around in my area. I just received my car and it was just as described I would definitely shop here again. Thank you gov deals

My brother got a great deal on a used car and recommended I check it out. I also found the car i wanted

Picked up a jeep wrangler recently. Saved thousands from what it would have cost me. I would use govdeals again