So I am starting to see more and more commercials on TV for these penny auction sites. I honestly thought to myself that it looked like fun and a good way to get some stuff for cheap, so I began to look into it a little more. Things are not as good as they seem.
The real problem is that there is no way to tell when the auction actually ends. Every time there is a bid, the auction timer resets, but the actual auction ends whenever QuiBids feels like ending it. The time on the bid timer goes down from 20 seconds to 10 seconds, which denotes that the auction is going to come to an end soon. But soon can mean anything. This action starts to generate more bidding from people that may have been waiting it out. The bids (which you have to pay for) are allowed until someone over there decides to end the auction. This could be anywhere from hlaf an hour to 6 hours or more.
Next, if you did not win the auction, any bids that you used are wasted money. You do have the option of buying the product at full retail and applying any money that you used via bids to it, but you can buy the item for full retail anywhere anyway.
If you did win the auction, you have now spent money on any bids you used PLUS the money that you have to pay for your “win”. It looks like most of the time your actual savings are not that much, if anything when you factor the price of the bids in.
The vast majority of the people that I have seen that have tried this say that it is a waste of money and a scam. It looks like a little bit of research proves this to be true.
Submitted by: cookiemunster
So, your job is supposed to be to research and determine if certain companies, products, businesses, etc… are scams… right? Well, from the looks of your article, you’ve done a disservice to your readers.
Quibids is not a scam. They don’t mislead or participate in fraudulent activities which is what a scam is. I’ve personally used Quibids and won some great stuff. I’ve also lost some money on there, but It was my decision and I was in no way mislead or “scammed.” Quibids has an A- rating on the BBB and is the leading penny auction on the internet. The BBB doesn’t give A- ratings to companies that scam their customers.
It is not a scam in the true sense of the word. It basically preys on the weak minded people who consist of the majority of people who inhabit this Earth. These people are easily persuaded into believing they can get a great deal on some really nice stuff. The reality is, they can’t. The number of people bidding + .60 a bid + no set ending time = rip off. With that being said, the sight does not lie or have any misleading information. It does not need it to persuade the ignorant masses to throw their money away.
Yeah it is not a scam in the true sense of the word. It does not tell you that it is really hard to get a good deal though. I think of it as more of a gambling site than anything.
Whatever. I still think this is kind of a rip off. Like the original post said, they are the seller and the auctioneer. There is just too much they could do that no body would ever know about.
Impossible to win the big stuff at the great deals you are expecting. You end up paying way too much to bid and every time you do, you are getting a worse deal.