Quibids is a scam
I have read with a lot of interest, the reactions to quibids. I write as one who is disgruntled, but more ashamed of my gullibility as I assumed fair game will be played. I am a business person and a teacher, so I know fairness and I can say I am slightly above avergae when it comes to being smart. I have used ebay, amazon, newegg, graigslist and others to buy and sell just about anything from cars to screws.
I went to the quibids sight to "see" how it is possible that people could win items for pennies. I must concede that the temptation to "save" money is very strong with tighter budgets and so too is the vulnerability.
It all started with $48. That was my price to pay to join and or start bidding. I found this odd, but the excitement of what I could win abated my fears and all the bells that had started rigning in my head.
I decided to follow the website's advice on bidding on high profile items like the ipads and laptops. I didn't believe it was possible to win these items as I didn't have enough money to purchase them to begin with. I was going to taste the water with safe items like a 32GB sd cards and stuff. Then my computer gave me this message about my low back up disk space and I knew exactly what I was going to get: an external hard drive that will be my back up space and something that I could carry along. Next, I did my research as always on the costs and and knew exactly how much I was willing to pay. Satisfied with all my research, my trust for the website intact (I don't know why), I choose my timing. It was going to be in the evening when I will be free of any interruption. I will answer no cell phones, check no emails, etc.
My first mistake (well, my second, the first was joining) was made on 12-21-2010 8:53 pm when instead of clicking on the item, I clicked on the green "bid" icon. I will repeat the mistake about a month later 01-20-2011 2:48. The big one will come when I finally start bidding on the item that I wanted. Here's the short history of that bidding.
| $11.15 | GeeMan10 | BidOMatic |
| $11.14 | eherrera6136 | Single |
| $11.13 | ineed123 | Single |
| $11.12 | stolidoli | Single |
| $11.11 | GeeMan10 | BidOMatic |
| $11.10 | eherrera6136 | Single |
| $11.09 | stolidoli | Single |
| $11.08 | ineed123 | Single |
| $11.07 | GeeMan10 | BidOMatic |
As you can see, I didn't win. I was really surprised because mind you, each bid costs 60 cents. If you consider that to raise the bid up by on cent costs 60 cents, then the item actually sold for $669.00 (1115 bids x $.60). Woah! Cool, if you owned the website. Genius or grand scheme theft? Make no judgments yet. I am not done.
OK, so I blame myself and try to bid again. I really need this external hard drive and armed with the foolish knowledge that I had read and learned enough, I thought I was going to do better next time. BTW, did I mention that there is a buy it now option where you can use the amount of money you spent bidding to buy the item at its full price? Yes, I passed on that option because at its full price, the item was more expensive on the quibids website than those that I usually shop from.
So back to bidding day two. Once my item is selected, my timing selected, I bid:
BIDDING HISTORY
| BID | BIDDER | TYPE |
|---|---|---|
| $2.09 | INeverstop | BidOMatic |
| $2.08 | oddsandends | BidOMatic |
| $2.07 | INeverstop | BidOMatic |
| $2.06 | oddsandends | BidOMatic |
| $2.05 | robocyb | Single |
| $2.04 | mohmandem | Single |
| $2.03 | oddsandends | BidOMatic |
| $2.02 | INeverstop | BidOMatic |
| $2.01 | oddsandends | Single |
As you can tell from my history, I almost got the item. The curious thing though is that each time I bid, the guy/girl "INeverstop" will outbid me immediately. I will let the timer go down to about five seconds and then bid again. When I knew I was going to be distracted, I used the "BidOMatic" some kind of automatic bidding option that places bets for you for a maximum of 25 bids ($15). All of a sudden, things just became kind of surreal and this bidder (see history won).
Bidding session three. Now, I am really anxious and suspicious, I feel like I have lost money and I need this Toshiba external hard drive. So here we go with the next bidding history
BIDDING HISTORY
| BID | BIDDER | TYPE |
|---|---|---|
| $7.64 | tommydebbie | BidOMatic |
| $7.63 | mohmandem | Single |
| $7.62 | tommydebbie | BidOMatic |
| $7.61 | PattyBWest | Single |
| $7.60 | tommydebbie | BidOMatic |
| $7.59 | mohmandem | Single |
| $7.58 | tommydebbie | BidOMatic |
| $7.57 | PattyBWest | Single |
| $7.56 | tommydebbie | BidOMatic |
Take a look at the time difference between the winner, "tommydebbie"'s bid and mine "mohmandem": 1 second. Something fishy happended and I would have missed it had I not been alert. When I hit the "bid" button three seconds to the end of the auction, it didn't register. I was utterly disappointed and very suspicious. I decided to do a little e-research on "tommydebbie". Nothing came up. So, I tried to see if there were any other experiences similar to mine (misery loves company) and I found out that reasonable people with a good head on their shoulders have made some of my mistakes, but the most important one they made was ever believing that they could buy anything for 90% or so less the its value. If it is too good to be true, it probably is someone said and they are right. Quibids is a scam. My advice: stay away from any penny auction, especially quibids.
P.S. I used the buy it now option and they charged me $39.49 because I had placed bids for the amount of $54 dollars+ handling of $9.99=103.48 cents. The same item would have cost me $80.00 at amazon. Altogether I have spent $152 and all I have to show for it will be a very expensive Toshiba 750 GB External HD. Did I mention that I won ten bids with that ostentatious purchase? The company, quibids, made a whopping $458.40 on that transaction.
Item Price:$39.49
Tax:$0.00
Handling:$9.99
Total Amount:$49.48
Winner Information:
- Value Price:
- $93.49
- Real Bids (112):
- -$67.20
- Voucher Bids (0):
- -$0.00
- Final Price:
- -$7.64
- Savings:
- $18.6
I am still digging the dirt behind this quibids. Avenues I intend to pursue are investigations, class action lawsuits, regulation, etc. Send me an email or a post if you found something. Some say they are part of the BBB, but that does not confer credibility as membership in the BBB can be bought.
Check out these sites.
Do your own research.
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