GoFundMe

GoFundMe Reviews

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Overall Rating3.1 out of 5
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About GoFundMe Reviews

GoFundMe Reviews

ConsumerAffairs has collected 396 reviews and 1,329 ratings.

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Page 1 Reviews 0 - 10

Reviewed Sept. 1, 2023

I have never had such a bad experience and the girl on the other side of the screen that you call a customer service rep found it funny when I said, "Well I will file a complaint then." The beneficiary of the GoFundMe let me know this past Tuesday that her account info via GoFundMe had been pending this entire time but had sent me a photo of her back account that there was deposits going and being refunded. I went into the gofundme and it said all the money that had been raised was gone. So I contacted GoFundMe. Got a guy and since you can't talk to a live human being on a phone I sent him the screenshots and said, "Where is the money from the fundraiser? I did everything that your website says for troubleshooting and the money is gone. And she clearly by the proof that is now in front of you has not received it."

He yelled at me for sending him the info then opened the account and gave me the entire breakdown that there was two pending payments that should be released to in 2-5 business days from the 27 and 28th and gave me the amounts. All fine and dandy I accepted that. The fundraiser is for the fact that her fiance is fighting stage 4 lung and liver cancer. The 1st is today bills are due. She just contacted me again and said there is no money and she was asked to put her bank info back in. So I went in and looked at it. All the money is sitting there supposedly.

I got this girl by the name of Katie that told me it looked I just added a beneficiary. I said, "She has been there the entire time. Why did you take the money?" She said, "Sorry for the confusion but you just added her." I said, "No I did not. I talked with a worker on Tuesday that literally gave me the breakdown of TWO deposits that were pending and now you took them. Why is gofundme stealing money from someone that already had it?" She apologized with an ! and said there was a confusion. I said no because I could see the entire breakdown on my screen and the money was gone and he was explaining why her bank screen looked the way it did so she was the beneficiary all along and was just added...

I would never do business with this company again or advice not to because not only do you see people complain about the charges they charge but they clearly take money from people and change their bank info as well when it was already verified and had pending deposits. I would definitely keep an eye on your fundraising if that is the only choice you have but there are other fundraising sites you can use that do not charge as much. I can believe this company.

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Reviewed Aug. 27, 2023

No helpful customer service. No means to contact. Cannot add bank account to withdraw. Agent stopped responding after only two attempts to assist via email. No phone number. Waste of time. Do not use this service for donations. They are a scam.

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    Reviewed Aug. 13, 2023

    GoFundMe will always side with fraudulent fundraisers over donors even if you present all the evidence. After being scammed out of over $1000, I did not wish to be lied to again. I am sorry that I reached out to them for help.

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    Reviewed Feb. 21, 2023

    So I've two separate GFM opened within 4 years, I'm opening a security company and just need money for the licence and insurance. I was homeless for 5 years of my life and struggled with my finances to be able to pay for everything from my personal checks, while also supporting myself living in my car, I feel like GFM was a distraction and is very time consuming seeing how I'm still at step one of looking for funds to get my security company. I will be deleting my fundraiser on GFM and look for other ways to come up with the funds.

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    Reviewed Feb. 6, 2023

    My sister passed away and I started a fundraiser to pay for her memorial and travel to her memorial for her children and grandchildren. Her abusive ex also started one for the same purpose although he was not paying for any memorial or travel. He reported our GoFundMe and they apparently sent an email but never flagged my account that I logged into often. I had no idea there was a problem. I responded and showed them our travel receipts and explained about the ex and they stated my title, yes just the title was misleading even though the fundraiser clearly explained in the description. They allowed the wife beater to keep on taking money despite his blatant lies...DO NOT USE GOFUNDME! There is no customer service at all. I hope all our donors get their money back and I let them all know as well to ensure they aren't cheated as we were.

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    Reviewed Aug. 17, 2022

    GoFundMe customer service is nothing more than help links or being directed to help links, no phone service, no levels of service. There is no accountability for system glitches and they can be non-transparent in doing business as a result. Once they have your donations and data they control everything without recourse. It is a bureaucratic self-serving financial system with board members who have left companies such as Amazon, GoDaddy, Facebook and AirBNB. You are forced to have a Facebook account to upload a profile photo so they can collect your Facebook data. There can be no personal computer internet privacy when connected to the site from your browser. They partnered with a new financial transfer company and the change cost me almost $300.

    They would not be upfront about why, I had to figure it out, contributions had to be returned because I gave up after 2 months of run around, closed the account. The company is now self-serving and manipulative in how they handle customers. The only offering GoFundMe gave for resolve was to remove my fundraiser's title from the site and Google search engines, obviously so people would not see a review such as this.

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    Reviewed July 18, 2022

    Organizer started the Gofundme and it’s been 8 months and we have only got a fraction of the money raised. Gofundme has no phone number and seems likely we will never get the money to help with our son's death and medical bills.

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    Reviewed July 15, 2022

    Please do not use Go Fund Me to raise funds for anyone. They do not have real people to chat with to resolve your problem. They started out good with bank transfers but now they have stopped altogether. They keep sending me an email saying it will be resolved and it has not. They do not have a phone number to call either. I think they are taking people's money and using it for themselves. So sad when you are trying to raise money for a worthy cause. RUN, RUN, RUN! Don't use them to raise money.

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    Reviewed July 3, 2022

    My son was hit by a car and a so called friend of my son's, mother, started a GoFundMe for him because he had head trauma and other issues. It raised $5917.00. When I asked her to start transferring funds she started ducking me and lying about the process. Then because he was released from the hospital early because he was doing better than expected and they wanted him to go home because we were from WV with WV Medicaid in a VA hospital so he could start his rehab they then allowed the organizer to decide and lie about me and return the funds to the doners. (We she says that's what she's king gofundme doesn't respond to my emails in regards to me filling out the beneficiary claim form.)

    She was going to keep the funds herself and even changed my son's GoFundMe making her husband the beneficiary and stating it was on his behalf! Using my son's picture! GoFundMe is a joke! They do not follow up or respond, they do not look at evidence and they should have the person that the GoFundMe me is for sign something, not just leave the organizer to decide where the funds go! I won't stop until this company is shut down or sued!

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    Reviewed June 10, 2022

    I have just managed to raise $5910.00 for a friend and coworker of mine, after her daughter unexpectedly passed away. GoFundMe is holding all of the donations hostage, as they claim that they can’t “verify my identity.” They also claim that I have not responded to their 3 emails requesting me to verify my identity, even though I have responded and re-responded multiple times, even leaving my phone number and requesting a phone call. They are now telling me “Well, since we can’t verify who you are, your beneficiary cannot recover the funds.” I have now escalated this to the Fraud Center Department of the ** website. I will never ever use this fraudulent company again. Be very careful about donating through them, and do not start a fundraiser through them. You will get nowhere, as their customer service e department is likely A.I. algorithms and not real people. Run run run.

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    GoFundMe author review by Ashley Eneriz

    GoFundMe, based in San Diego, launched in May 2010. Its users collectively raise money every day in varied categories such as education, medical care and emergency assistance. To date, it has raised in excess of $9 billion.

    • Flexible requirements: GoFundMe doesn't require projects to have deadlines or to meet monetary fundraising goals. If a project does not achieve its goal, no penalty is imposed for missing it.

    • Management tools: Users have easy access to tools such as page-view tracking and other campaign performance metrics.

    • Mobility: The GoFundMe app makes the platform mobile-friendly. It also provides easy sharing on social networks, though users must have a Facebook account in order to show up in the site’s search.

    • Five-minute support guarantee: The Customer Happiness team replies to emailed customer queries within five minutes.

    • Fees: GoFundMe allows project creators to keep all money raised. It collects a relatively low 5 percent from each donation, with a third-party processor charging nearly 3 percent per donation plus a flat rate of 30 cents.

    • Campaign types: GoFundMe has three campaign types: Personal Donation Campaigns are the most common and people can raise money for almost anything. Certified Charity Campaigns are for 501c3 nonprofits seeking this new revenue stream to further support their cause as part of their overall fundraising strategy. The third type is All or Nothing Campaigns. Supporters are only charged if campaigner reaches the funding goal.

    by Ashley Eneriz Senior Staff Writer, Personal Finance

    Ashley is an expert finance writer who worked for 12 years with top names in the industry, including Discover, The Hartford, ScotiaBank, Chime and Synchrony. She joined ConsumerAffairs in 2022, and specializes in coverage of banking, credit repair and debt management. Her writing has also been featured in Forbes, Time, Yahoo, MSN and Reader’s Digest. In her personal life, she enjoys homeschooling her three daughters and writing children's books.

    GoFundMe Company Information

    Company Name:
    GoFundMe
    Year Founded:
    2010
    Address:
    855 Jefferson Ave, PO Box 1329
    City:
    Redwood City
    State/Province:
    CA
    Postal Code:
    94063
    Country:
    United States
    Website:
    www.gofundme.com