Is The Salvation Army STILL a Scam?

The video revisits Salvation Army purchases after a previous negative experience with Apple products linked to old owners. Following the initial video, Salvation Army issued a statement acknowledging their standards were not met and invited a new purchase after 30 days, assuring improvements like factory resets, hard drive removal, and SIM card removal. The host, using a new alias "Ray Tracy" after his previous account was compromised, acquired a new lot of Apple products from shopthesalvationarmy.com. The new Apple lot was described as a bulk lot of six items, "tested, but for parts or repair." The items included an iPhone 7 (cracked screen protector, good shape), an iPod Touch 2nd gen 8 gig (patinaed), an iPhone 5S, an iPad 2 (64 gig, engraved "Happy birthday Jeff, love Theresa xoxo"), an iPod Touch 7th gen, and an iPod Nano. Upon testing, some issues were immediately apparent. The iPod Touch (2nd gen) was stuck in a boot loop. The iPhone 7 was slow to charge. The iPhone 5S worked well but had a SIM card inside, which should have been removed according to Salvation Army's policy. The iPod Touch (7th gen) was locked to an Outlook account and broadcasting its location, making it less useful beyond parts. However, the iPod Nano was fully functional with 700 songs, and the iPad 2 (64 gig, iOS 9) was also fully functional. The iPhone 7, after removing a SIM card, booted up and appeared factory reset, though its battery health was a low 56%. The total cost for this Apple lot was $71, including shipping. While there were some issues like unremoved SIM cards and locked devices, the host considered it a dramatic improvement over the previous purchase, with two functional iPhones, a working iPod Nano (needing a battery), and a functional iPad. Next, the host purchased an Xbox 360, described as "complete in box." This was a 20-gigabyte refurbished console, which the host was excited about due to its pristine condition, still in plastic wrap, and included games: "Hitman: Blood Money" and "Halo 3." The controller had crusty batteries that expired in 2016 but worked after cleaning. The console itself powered on and displayed the NXE interface, which the host preferred. The disc tray opened smoothly, and the games worked. This Xbox 360 cost $83 with shipping, which the host considered a good deal given its condition and included games. This purchase held personal significance for the host, replacing items lost in a house fire years ago. The third item was a copy of "Pokemon Pearl" version, which the host intended to be a complete-in-box item to replace a lost possession. However, the listing was for a "Pokemon Pearl" case and manual, with a "Diamond" game cartridge only. The host had misread the listing. Despite this, "Pokemon Diamond" was still considered a good version, and the game cartridge itself worked, showing a save file with a Pichu at level 29. This item cost $89 including shipping, which was considered expensive for just the cartridge and an empty box. Finally, a lot of PC gaming gear was purchased. The host noted a significant issue: the graphics card in the lot still had an Amazon shipping label with a previous owner's name and address visible on the Salvation Army website. The lot included an MSI gaming headset, an Alienware laptop sleeve, a router, an MSI B450 motherboard (dusty but appeared functional), an EVGA power supply (which turned out to be a Seasonic with EVGA cables, a fire hazard), a Razer Leviathan subwoofer (useless on its own), and an RX 6600 graphics card (which was actually an XFX RX 580). This lot cost $234, including shipping. The host concluded that many items were "e-waste," and the mislabeling and incorrect parts were significant issues. In summary, the host acknowledged a dramatic improvement over the last Salvation Army experience, primarily because no items needed to be taken to the police. However, major issues persisted, including personal information still being visible on items, unremoved SIM cards, locked devices, and numerous mislabeled or incorrect items in the PC gaming lot. While some purchases like the Xbox 360 provided good value, the overall experience suggested that "better isn't good enough" for the Salvation Army's quality control.