I recently almost fell for an Internet scam. Well, I suppose it's not so much a scam--rather a brilliant money-making idea by the creators--because some users actually do get great deals. Nevertheless, the penny auction site QuiBids.com nearly had me fooled.
This site is, at its core, another Internet auction site like eBay. The catch, however, is users pay for bids in the hope of snagging an item for a killer deal. And let me tell you, some of these deals are outrageous! 32" HDTV for $2.60. 32GB iPod Touch for $15. (The $26 Xbox/Kinect bundle got me.) These deals seem too good to be true, and that's where reading the directions is extremely important.
Each bid on QuiBids costs the user 60 cents per bid, and these must be purchased in packages of multiple bids before bidding. This means you could essentially spend $15 dollars for 25 bids before even getting started. But still, $15 for a new TV is pretty awesome right? Not so much. Every time you cast a bid, 20 seconds is added to the timer giving other bidders time to chime in. Still not so bad? Maybe not, if each bid raised the price more than the 1 or 2 cent limits. Pretty soon those 25 bids are used up and you're cashing in for 25 more on an auction that may take hours. While this process can certainly work out for the winner, the losers lose all that money--unless they "Buy Now." This feature allows losing bidders to purchase the item they were bidding on at full retail price, but they'll subtract the amount you've already spent on bids. When bidding with this site, you have to be willing to pay full price. If you lose and don't opt to "Buy Now," all that money is lost in the ether.
Long story short: read the fine print. I was this close to submitting my free registration without realizing that getting a cheap TV is about as far from cheap as humanly possible.
Always check the Better Business Bureau before buying into sites like this. You may find that a site like QuiBids has had well over 200 complaints of "dishonest sales practices" in the last year.
Know of any sites or scams we need to be aware of? Let us know in the comments section.
--Chris
Photo taken from this photostream and used with permission of a Creative Commons license.
Bidcactus.com is the same thing as quibids, but apparently the bids are cheaper I did fall for this "scam" but ended up getting almost all my money back because I stopped wasting bids. Even at 5am on the east coast these sites are buzzing so everyone please be aware of this. If you do bid take caution as it is almost like gambling your money
You're exactly right--these sites are like gambling with your money. Like my grandpa used to say, "If you can't throw the dice, don't throw your money on the table." Sites like QuiBids and Bidcactus aren't necessarily "scams," but they can sure make you lose a lot of money without the proper precautions. Better to just stay away.
A scam is a dishonest scheme or fraud. Tell me how a fraudulent, dishonest company like Quibids has an A- rating on the BBB?
Many well respected companies have hundreds, if not thousands, of complaints on the BBB. What you fail to share is the number of resolved complaints. That's what matters. This is why the BBB has a grading system to let consumers know what kind of track record a business has. According to the BBB, Quibids has a pretty good record.
I've personally won stuff on Quibids and it works. People who say Quibids is a scam are people who've never tried it or who didn't bother to understand how it works before blowing $100 on a $10 gift card. You're doing a disservice to your readers when you cry "scam" and you haven't even placed a single bid on Quibids.
Well, part of that A- rating really has nothing to do with customers' responses. According to BBB closure definitions, "complaint resolved with BBB assistance" lists complaints considered resolved by customers, as well as those resolved by the business without consent from the customer. There are 372 "complaints resolved," of which we are not made aware of how many customers actually responded to them. On top of that, 90 complaints left customers unsatisfied with BBB efforts to resolve their situations.
But I'm not here to argue semantics. The message of this blog post is to inform our readers that reading the fine print is of the utmost importance, especially when it comes to bidding money, making deals, or examining BBB ratings. The purpose of this post was neither to detract users from Quibids nor draw them to it, but rather to reaffirm the fact that advertisements can be very misleading--like this one from Quibids--and to warn them to examine a new site in its entirety before investing in it. Like was said in this CBS Quibids broadcast, "For every winner, there are a lot of suckers." We don't want our readers to venture unknowingly into the latter group. We look out for their interests, first and foremost.
I love QuiBids and I would say it's worth the $$. I got a $200 Walmart Giftcard for .33, an x-box kinnect for $20.00 and the list goes on. Additionally I won several bid packages which I paid pennys for. It's definitely not a scam.
That's wonderful that you've had some winning experiences on Quibids, but think about all the others that were a part of the auctions you won. How much did they spend for nothing? When all else is stripped away, this is a gambling site: You're purchasing pulls on a slot machine in hopes of walking away with a prize. It's very easy to spend more than was intended, since each bid costs 60 cents and every new bid restarts the auction time limit, so bidders need to be very aware of what they're getting into. Like slot machines, which can require just 1 cent per pull, chasing the big payout or prize can end up costing a lot of money--after all, it's so cheap to keep playing so why not? It's games or auctions like these that promote addictive behaviors, things our readers should be very aware of before investing in. Anyone wanting to use Quibids would be wise to check out The 3 BIggest Mistakes Beginners Make as well as the rest of the articles from their Quibids 101 section.
I agree with you 100%. Caveat Emptor. Do your homework.
"Without a warranty, the buyer takes a risk." That's precisely correct. It's not to say Quibids will always lose you money every time--there are, of course, people that win auctions. But it takes fully understanding what you're getting into prior to bidding.
Any site, that is designed to take your money, for a chance, at winning. is a LOTO.
Nowhere on this site do I see any comment regarding gambling regulations, or it being a loto system.
Any site, or person, able to bring in $6000 for a $100 item, is a genius.
it is like the lottery
you have a chance of winning 1,000,000, but buy quibids numbers, consumers are opt to spend 60,000,000 for one person to win. even if the price ends up only being 10% of cost of the item
100$ item, at 20% cost is $20 is still $1200 spent by consumers on a $100 item
this site has poorer odds, and % than eithe slot machines, OR the loto.
It's definitely risky putting money into a site like this. Just like the lottery, your chances of winning are very slim. You could be that one in a million winner, but you'll probably spend more money than you originally planned in trying to achieve it.
Quibids is a scam for people who do not know how to bid. Which, apparently, is most people.
I was at my friend's house recently who does really well with quibids. Bidding is like gambling because there is no guarantee from your investment of time and money, but if you know what you are doing and you are lucky, you will do well. It's like people are saying casinos and the lottery are a scam. They all know how to make money. Do you know how to save yours?
As with any gambling venture, all is left up to chance. Unless you have some rig to the system, there is no guarantee to win a prize. And in a way, casinos and lotteries are kind of like scams, because the odds of someone winning big are so astronomically against the player that the organization comes out on top nearly every time. That's why they operate, because the risk of a few people winning over the potential reward from all the losers puts the odds in favor of the house. On top of that, these systems operate psychologically too. They know that the pressure and incentive to keep winning nearly forces players to make one more bet, or even one more bid via Quibids. Unless you're scamming a system like this, you will eventually lose. I'd be curious to know how much your friend has lost in the process of "doing well" on Quibids.
I think it's brilliant!! The best thing to do it if you know you're already going to buy a product like a computer or a tv, it doesn't hurt to try and get a good deal on it. Yes you have to purchase the bids but in the end if you win the auction you're still getting your item for much much cheaper than getting it at a store. If you don't win the auction (like on Quibids) they give you the option to put the bids you used on that item towards purchasing that item. If you know you're going to buy it somewhere anyway then you tried to get a good deal and it just didn't work out this time.
Just my thoughts.
And that's called responsible use of Quibids. If you're going in with the mindset of paying full price, then you're off to a good start. It's automatically thinking you can buy a $1,500 Mac for 34 cents that will get you into trouble. If you're using Quibids, set a cutoff point for how much you're willing to spend on bids, how much time you're willing to commit to bidding wars, and whether or not those two components justify not buying retail outright.
I hope we've all proven the point whether quibids is scam or not.
But we like to take it one step further by monitoring the number of bids placed by each user. And now we're opening it to our fellow bidders for no charge at all.
Visit http://www.bidintel.com to get it now. Hope you all enjoy.
This is certainly an interesting idea for a free tool. Could be worth a try for any of you penny auction bidders. Just remember, it's still no guarantee.
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