How convenient was it that the winner of this auction was one of those repeat users that won most of the items. I am convinced that the site i used was a scam. I contacted them and threatened lawsuits, reporting to BBB etc. No use. Even if there are some out there operating under a legitimate business model with no fake bids etc, i would still avoid them all like the plague.
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Javascript is not enabled. After all, you spend money with the hope of being the winning bidder at the end of the auction.
But the websites reject the gambling label. The main reason, they argue, is that there's no element of chance, as there would be when you play a state lottery, for example. They also say that you control how often you bid and when to stop.
While the same could be said for eBay or any traditional auction, the difference is that when you bid on those other auctions you don't pay to bid so it costs you nothing but time if you lose.
Those sites give you the option of buying most items at a retail price they set, minus all or part of the amount you've bid. The site considers buy-now so integral to its business that it's trying position itself as an "entertainment retail auction" site where you can buy items at competitive prices after first taking a chance at getting an amazing deal. But it's not that simple. Beyond that, the buy-now price might not be a good deal. We found that buy-now prices on penny-auction sites are typically higher than those on Amazon and other retailers.
The site says its prices are becoming more competitive as it grows and is able to deal directly with manufacturers and distributors.
And not every site allows you to apply percent of losing bids to the cost of buying the product. ArrowOutlet lets you use only 10 cents of every losing cent bid to buy an item. Other sites, such as Beezid, don't allow you to buy the item at all, so if you lose, your bid money is gone. Whether it's technically gambling or not, Lee says, it's easy to get hooked.
She remembers spending 12 hours one Christmas Eve bidding. If you have an addictive personality, you can get carried away. And there are other reasons that people feel compelled to bid longer than they should. She was employing a common strategy on penny auction sites: Trying to establish a reputation as someone who won't quit and who is therefore not worth bidding against.
Some bidders use screen names such as "BidtilIwin. Given how ridiculously high the price went, she now suspects that she was bidding against shills or a program the site had set up to increase the number of bids. Lee is not the only one who has alleged wrongdoing. In September , the penny-auction site PennyBiddr agreed to shut down and reimburse consumers nationwide as part of a settlement with the Washington State attorney general. The state had accused the company of using phony bids to increase the number of bids and to prevent legitimate bidders from winning.
The site did not acknowledge wrongdoing. And in a preliminary injunction issued in September, the U. District Court in Seattle froze the assets of Canadian entrepreneur and self-described philanthropist Jesse Willms, owner of Selloffauctions. In issuing the injunction, the court cited a wide range of evidence, including more than complaints from Willms' penny-auction customers to the FTC and 1, complaints to the Better Business Bureau of Alberta, Canada.
The Better Business Bureau raised concerns about penny auction sites in a July post on its blog. QuiBids gets an A minus rating and the BBB's flagship accreditation despite the complaints the organization has received about the site. Most of the complaints involve advertising and sales issues, problems with products or services, and billing or collection. Web-based message boards are chockablock with complaints and negative reviews about penny auctions.
For example, ConsumerAffairs. The Better Business Bureau says it has received almost complaints about the site , many describing similar practices. In mid-September, the review site SiteJabber issued community alerts about more than negative reviews for QuiBids and 83 for Beezid. Many of the reviews we examined questioned the penny-auction concept, calling it gambling and expressing frustration over having spent money for little or no return. Another wrote: "In my humble opinion it falls under 'scam' only because the web site owners advertise so heavily that you can win items for mere pennies on the dollar.
While technically possible, in reality over the lifetime the average user will pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars over MSRP for items or not win any items at all and just sink money into the auctions with the false hope of winning them. Buyer beware! The result? It is a roulette wheel and the odds are always in favor of the house.
Also, the site stops customers from participating in an auction when the current bid price and the amount they've bid so far equals or exceeds the buy-now cost. But he also acknowledged that the penny-auction industry has seen some bad players. With the failure of so many sites, he said, it's becoming more difficult for new sites to find financing, which he predicted would reduce the number of problems.
Still, he said it's important for people to research a site before joining. To allay consumer concerns about cheating and other issues, some sites have undergone independent audits to prove that they are not engaged in shill bidding and that won or purchased merchandise is shipped. Lee of PennyAuctionWatch. That's already happened. The penny-auction industry is relatively new, so it's too early to tell how successful it will be. QuiBids, which is based in Oklahoma City, started in mid It places its daily net profit margins at 5 to 10 percent.
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