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Qui Bids Shill bidding on internet auctions, Internet
This company advertises fantastic prices on items you can buy on their internet auctions. The first suspicious thing is that they charge 60 cents for each bid, and when a bid is placed more time is added to the auction, so the selling price is artificially inflated. To top it off, they have shill bidders pushing the prices up. How do I know that? Because they have user names such as "Shillman1, Shillman2 and so on. This is blatant fraud, and Im glad I only wasted a small amount of money before I realized what it was. Don't anyone else fall for this.
20 Updates & Rebuttals
Mike
West Caldwell,New Jersey,
United States of America
No control
#21REBUTTAL Individual responds
Sat, November 24, 2012
Quibids controls the entire scam! They run the game & pick the winners. Major Ripoff!
dmuck
United States of AmericaThey sell bids -no shilling needed
#21General Comment
Tue, September 04, 2012
I doubt that they would shill since it's not in their interest. they are in the bid selling business, so anything that might dissuade paying bidders wouldn't be desirable for them. The just go buy the thing the winner has won and have it shipped to the winner. They don't mange an inventory of goods. The bid money they collect pays for the item many many times over. Their business is selling bids. An Ipad sells for $200? they got over ten thousand $s in bid payments on that sale, less what it costs to order the item at market price and have it delivered to the winner.
trek61
oshawa,Ontario,
Canada
Product never Received
#21Consumer Comment
Mon, September 03, 2012
I have been going back and forth with QuiBids for over a month now. I went into an auction used up all my starter bids and then paid extra 45 bucks to get my 100 dollar gift card.which to this day I have yet to receive. they keep saying they checking into it or its been mailed. I have not got it yet and its been well over a month.I have about 10 emails from them but no gift card.
Matthew McGinley
Seattle,Washington,
USA
I agree with others
#21Consumer Comment
Mon, July 16, 2012
That Qbids is a ripoff, that it is NOT the normal way to buy products, that there is some individual or individuals getting filthy rich off this evil scheme and I will make it a specific point to NOT buy/bid/whatever from this company and will WARN others to do the same, in spite of any possible defense to the contrary. This is NOT the way to do business, it is NOT normal, there is always something devious behind everything that sounds too good to be true, and in the end someone is always being taken advantage of.
mary32j
United States of AmericaQuibs Advertising Scam
#21Consumer Comment
Sat, July 14, 2012
OK, so I want to clear something on this quibids scam statements. The company itself it's not a scam but the way the company does the advertising it's not cool at all. In their TV commercials they don't point out you could lose also and with a lot of people trusting what they see on TV boom they make profit. This is not nice.
mungmanjed
United States of AmericaQuestion to Jill
#21Consumer Comment
Tue, April 03, 2012
Jill,
I only have two questions that I would like answers to not just "I can't say why this is happening".
1. I have looked through multiple complaint sites about shill bidding by Quibids and you are the only person who has responded as an employee. How come you have no proof of your comments and why should we believe your word versus what we have seen? (ok that is two questions in one)
2. I am looking at a bid right now for a pair of irons you have for auction. Over the last 12 auctions, only 1 has a higher selling price that this one leading me to believe these claims are false. Also, the bid is over $112 dollar are there are two bidders who have been consistently bidding via bidomatic since the start of the auction. I have mapped out their bids and they are averaging 1 in every 7 bids each. Stopping at $112 (it is currently at $113.04 and climbing) this would mean that each of these two bidders have bid an average 1600 times and adding to it as we speak. Now you have a maximum package of 800 bids for $480. Taking these 1600 bids into account, these two bidders have spent $960 plus on a product that retails at $700. How are we as consumers supposed to believe that these are not bots if two bidders (and almost three) have effectively spent over $200 on this product when they could have gone out and saved this money?
Thanks,
Brandon
stangcoupe58
dallas,Texas,
United States of America
Quibids Employees give it up!
#21Consumer Comment
Sun, January 15, 2012
Face it, your company is a pure scam. I caught on to that hack of mess when I went to sign up. You tell us is free to join but i be dang if you didn't hide the $60 auto deduction from your credit card scheme on the signup page. Just give it up, you will soon go down with the rest of the businesses that normally end up here. THat little scheme on the ipad total crap too. You actually end up paying a mere $1000 if not more for it after your "OUTSIDE" bidders start adding up the pennies. ALL penny auction places are a scam.
If it's FREE, then it needs TO BE FREE. Like ebay(LEGIT)... it's free to join, free to bid, free to buy, you get outbidded, you have a choice to move on or bid more.. You pay for shipping and call it a day. YOu pay out a certain percentage when selling and someone buys your product. that's it... YOu guys need to shut down and learn from the real professionals in this world.
tplato
United States of AmericaQuiBids is a gambling site - but also a rip off
#21Consumer Comment
Fri, November 11, 2011
The site is a gambling site in essence. If you get really lucky you can get some good deals. In the end you are likely to spend more money than you get back just like gambling.
The issue I have with this site is you get ripped off in other ways. There are lots of ways they get money from you beyond the bidding process. The delivery charges for gift cards and bid vouchers are outrageous (if you win a bid voucher they charge you $1.00 just to credit the bids to your account even though it is automatic). If you purchase a bid voucher (using the bu y now feature) they consider those as free bids even though you pay for every penny of them. Therefore, you dont get the advantages that come with real bids.
Not a scam but like any it seems too good to be true deal, it is.
P.S.I won a number of auctions on the site, so I am not a 'sore loser' as the site owners/employees like to claim.
DJB28
Albion,New York,
United States of America
lol
#21General Comment
Thu, September 29, 2011
Spam Much?
Kris
Birmingham,Internet,
USA
Fairly satisfied Penny Auctioner
#21Consumer Comment
Thu, September 15, 2011
I came to this site to read complaints on Bidrack, which is a huge scam. Much of what I am about to say is going to appear that I am defending the penny auction world and that I am super satisfied. That is somewhat true but also I am very upset at a couple of sites who have used and abused the trust of consumers and made our "fun" not so fun and carefree.
First of all the consumer that started this complaint about Quibids is where I have a problem and I am sorry, I hate to be critical of people but when I read what you wrote what came to mind is that you are a novice at bidding which is fine, we have all been there. It is very frustrating starting out. But, I feel like I need to set the record straight in defense of PA (penny auctions) in general because a few bad apples have made it where all PA sites are automatically on the defensive and have to argue their place until they are blue in the face. There are so many sites that are truly good people trying to be fair in a business that is of the type that attracts crooks and fraudsters.
Across the board, the average for the cost of a bid is around 60 cents, the bigger bid package you buy the cheaper the cost per bid. A lot of the sites offer tip and strategy videos or hand books and there are PA bid lounges and blogs devoted to helping people with strategy. Starting out you don't go in and try to win the iPad or Gucci handbag because every one else is going for that too and unless you are rich enough to have stockpiled a couple thousand bids you are not going to win it. Also, don't start bidding on an item until it is at a price where it usually sells or you will waste your bids. That is why all of a sudden when you start bidding on an item, everyone else starts bidding too. That is using good common sense. Also, when you got to the point where they cut you off so you didn't pay more than retail and the other guy stopped bidding too, they cut him off too. He is seeing the same thing you are seeing and bidding at the same thing you are.
Bidrack has really peeved me off. Fortunately I was not one that got stuck with the $99 sign up fee/start up bid pack. I encountered several sites that did that and when they got to the point where you couldn't go any further in the registration process unless you put in a credit card number I signed off of the page. They popped up a window and let me sign up anyway without the $99. I didn't know they were going to do that, I just knew I could not afford it and that other sites were offering 3 to 5 free bids to join and didn't ask for a CC#. So, to try it out I went to an auction that was for a pack of bids, a very small pack like on bidrack, they had them for 5 bids or 15 bids, something that was like $7 and did the buy it now option and BOOM there I was. In for cheap. This was all by luck. I didn't plan it, I just sat and thought "how can I get some bids here" and it came to me and I used it several other times when registering. And they allowed it. Bidrack also added free bids to your account every day. In the beginning it was 10 each day then dropped to 5. EVERY DAY plus a free spin on the bid wheel. If I saved up 5 days I had 50-75 bids all the time. I couldn't figure out how they could make money. But of course it is in the shipping charges. They even charged a handling fee on won bid packages anywhere from $1 to $2.99.
One thing that I would like to get across is that it takes a lot of time and observation of auctions and participating in auctions, mainly small, winnable auctions to figure out a good strategy for yourself. Your own strategy. It also matters what time of day. Play when everyone else is driving to or from work or from 1AM to 7AM if you can. Less people are participating.
You were saying how much money these sites make. When you have 5 or so people bidding on an item, and each bid costs 60 cents each and then the winner pays the winning price plus shipping and handling, that is a nice chunk for the company if they do that hundreds of times a day. But isn't that what the objective is? To make money? Now if you take just the winner (and the other individuals), and his bids, say the winner used 27 bids on an iPod Nano that sold for $1.30 and he paid $4.99 shipping, the bidder got a great deal and the company made some money. 27 x .60=$16.2 +$1.30 +$4.99= $22.49 for an iPod Nano. Or say he used 56 bids. 56 x .60=$33.60+$1.3+$4.99= $39.89 For a Nano! Not bad!
Bidrack screwed me over. I have won 180 auctions there. MANY of them were bid packages but I also won a lot of watches, Target e-giftcards and candles and a bunch of fun stuff and had a lot of fun doing it. They took forever shipping me my first items and I got worried. Then something showed up at my door but most of the a time I got a lot of excuses to a lot of emails and I also got just enough items trickling in to keep me in the game. I am now at the point where it has been 4 or 5 months and the last thing I received was an item I had won a week or two before I received it. So where is all the stuff I won 6 months ago???? Their website only has like 10 items up for auction today. To me it looks like it is shutting down and here I am with hundreds of dollars in shipping that I have paid and no items to go with. I am in a financial situation, I got sick and am waiting on disability benefits and have been planning out the things I have won to be Christmas presents. Last Christmas I was unable to buy presents for my family. They are well off, all of them but I am struggling. They don't care but I had won some nice watches for my step mom and sister kind of thing. I did recently win big on a site called Share the Spoils. I won $191.57 and could chose my "prize" so I chose and Amazon gift card and I had it by email within 3 days. Unbelievable. Christmas may be saved after all.
So, think about what you say. Make sure you really know what your talking about. The $99 charge is @#&*$#@#!!!!!!! I have no idea how I escaped that one but so glad I did. But, don't take it out on all the PAs. A lot of them are really trying to be a good fair source of entertainment and really do a fair job. And one of those is Quibids.
On bidrack, I got a lot of free and cheap bids and most of the items I won were less than 10 cents and the highest shipping I paid for anything was $9.99. For a $50 watch that isn't bad. On the Share the Spoils win, I did invest $40 on bids but it paid off in the long run. I figured it was worth the risk because the top 3 people win as opposed to just the top person. I have won many other gift cards and items on other sites and I enjoy it, but I don't spend a lot and I think about it before I decide it I fork out a chunk. I go in with eyes wide open though and read everything.
Maybe this helped somebody. I hope so. One more thing that I just have to say, BIDRACK SUCKS!!!!!!!!! DO NOT GO THERE NO MATTER WHAT ELSE YOU DO. DO NOT JOIN THAT SITE! Please. - K
monsterk
Saratoga Springs,Utah,
United States of America
Reality
#21Consumer Comment
Fri, July 29, 2011
Quibids is not a ripoff. It's not illegal and it's not a scam. I personally just bought a $400 camera for $63 and that includes the cost of bids, the auction and the shipping.
Quibids discloses everything on their website and they don't guarantee you'll win. If you lose money, it's your fault and nobody tricked you, lied to you, or mislead you.
People need to be accountable for their own actions. Stop blaming everyone else for your problems and crying 'scam' or 'ripoff' every time you do something stupid.
Yes, I've lost some money on Quibids, but I'm the one who bought the bids and took that risk. The only person I blame is myself.
This report is full of inaccuracies and can't be taken seriously.
QuibidsReport
United States of AmericaQuibids is tough but fair site
#21Consumer Comment
Thu, July 21, 2011
I was not winning like I wanted to on Quibids so I started snooping around the web to figure out a way to start winning when I stumbled upon QuibidsReport.com (QBR). This site is truely amazing and helped me when a $300 GPS unit for under $1.00!
I have used Quibids for about a year now and I must admit I was skeptical at first. I did a lot of research before I decided to plop down the $60 for the bid pack. Once I did I won my first 2 auctions, but then it got a bit tougher. So before I just started flushing good money down the drain losing auctions I decided to do some homework on how to bid smarter and master quibids. That is the point when I ran across the site www.QuibidsReport.com - This site is truly AWESOME and
helped me win a $300 GPS unit for less than $1.00 (8 bids + s&h). Once I signed up for their service at quibidsreport.com I started winning again because I knew exactly when to start bidding. This site tells you all the average prices of any item as well as the days/times of the week when competition is at its lowest. If you knew what time to bid and at what price to jump in you can increase your odds significantly.
So for Quibids.com I think it is a fair site, but it can be tough to win. Its important for you to do your homework first before bidding. If you do win you can expect your item within a week although many of my items were delivered in just a few days. If you have any problems or questions I know firsthand that customer support is very quick to respond. In fact they have a chat function on their site at allows you to ask questions in real time to the staff. They were always very helpful at solving
any issues I may of had. Overall I think this is a great site.
Frustrated
USAA bidders tale
#21Consumer Comment
Mon, July 04, 2011
I am a member of Quibids since Aug 2010. I tried it a few times in the beginning and didn't quite "grasp" what it was all about. I then took a break for a while (few months) and came back to try it again after reading up on everything I could in their help sections and such.
I finally learned how to bid and win. Sometimes I had to "buy it now" when I did not win. All in all, if a person gets crazy and thinks they will win right off..well , they might ..but in the long run, they will just spend thier bids and lose. I sit and watch the bidding on one item I want, for hours before I join in. Why? Because I watch what kind of bidders are in the game. If I see many that have "never won" trying to win a big ticket item, I avoid those items because these bidders are just tossing thier monies away in my opinion.
When I see a product creeping up over $10 I avoid that too because then many start bidding on the product and boost it to ridiculous heights in costs. Why in the world would anyone keep bidding after they see a $50 item hit $5? Remember, that is 500 bids x 60 cents..you might as well "buy it now".
So, become savvy in the game and use sense and pick ONE thing you want and go for it..I have had a great time winning many things. I would rather put my money here than go out to dinner and have nothing to show for it..and I do it for FUN!
I am now going back to bid..and remember..if you feel you were ripped off..it is because you did not have control over yourself because none has held a gun to your head to bid. Do it for fun...enjoy it..and you might just start winning..if you do not go crazy and dump all your bids at once and then complain you have nothing to show for your money!.
Alr
Phoenix,Arizona,
U.S.A.
qui bids
#21REBUTTAL Owner of company
Thu, January 27, 2011
Companies that have a fraud based business plan can be really at making something bad look /sound really good.Why? Because you have no soul and are willing to do anything as long as you can make money. Remember the saying "There is a sucker born every minute" And your company knows that.That doesn't say much for the people/owners of the company that run quibids.
docpeter1953
farmers branch,Texas,
United States of America
Over priced product(s)
#21General Comment
Thu, January 06, 2011
This previous arthor is partially, mostly, correct. The facts he left out of his post are
1. If you so choose to buy theior item, you can get one exactly like it cheaper at most Big Box stores. Fopr example, Quibids if offering a 16 Gb WiFi iPad for a mere $585.00. Consider this for a moment. You can get a new one, in a box at the local Big Boxes for $499.99. All day long Best Buy, Walmart, etc. sell these for this price.
2. If you ran through you you bid vouchers, say $60.00 worth (100 vouchers)and had to stop and then decided to pay their $585.00 then your Ipad will actually cost you $645.00. For that price you could have bought the iPad 32 Gb WiFi and had some change left over.
3 As noted quibids make a whole lot of $$ on their sales. Say a $200.00 sell is out there. They make their $200.00 final bid price, plus an extra 60 cents for each of the 20,000 bids (there are 20,000 pennies in $200.00). So they gross $12,000 for their vouchers and another $200.00 for their sale.
SC1956
Lexington,Kentucky,
U.S.A.
I agree! It's a SCAM!
#21Consumer Comment
Wed, December 15, 2010
I agree with this writer. This company is in the business of selling bids at 60 cents a pop and encouraging all it's registered members to place as many bids as possible to win an auction. The price paid by the consumer per bid is 60 cents, but the value placed for each bid at auction is only 1 or 2 cents per bid.
The 20 second timer is designed to encourage bidding wars between its members and bump up the number of bids placed on each item. Additionally, I'm not sure how anyone can keep track of the number of bids they have individually placed at their out-of-pocket value of 60 cents per bid: add the bid cost to the auction price and compare that to the retail value of the item to ensure they don't spend more than the item is worth at 20 second intervals that could last for several hours! There's no telling how many people who win an auction have actually paid double the retail value of the item when accounting for cost of their bids and their winning auction price.
The savings they reflect for items purchased and/or won in an auction should be punishible by law. The savings totally neglect to calculate the number of bids the winning bidder placed to win the item or the price the bidder paid for each bid he/she placed, which is 30 times more than the 2 cent value it is given at auction. Today, I am actuall down $6.40 out-of-pocket as compared to the overstated savings they valued at over $40!
My advice is not to do this, and if you do, please be very careful to ensure you don't pay more than the retail value for items you either choose to purchase or win at auction by not adding the cost of all the bids you placed at 60 cents a pop!!!
webserf
United States of AmericaRIpOFF? Here's my experience and .02 about QuiBids.
#21Consumer Comment
Mon, November 15, 2010
There is really no reason for Quibids to shill their own auctions considering a $1,800 MacBook Pro (costing them about $1,400 wholesale), will fetch as many as or more than 30,000 bids at a penny each.
Understand that every bid costs the bidder 60 cents, and only raises the purchase price by a PENNY.
Recently, a MacBook Pro sold for over $300.00. This is a "great" deal for the lucky winner. I say Winner because what people are really doing is buying RAFFLE "tickets", or as Quibids calls them, "Bid Vouchers".
Do the math on this auction, where the lucky winner won the right to buy the MacBook..
300 dollars equals 30,000 bids at 60 cents each (remember there may be several bidders trying for the same item, and over a period of 5, 7, 10, 15, hours, this is a FACT.
Most new users buy a bid package that costs $60.00. This 60 bucks gets the new user 100 bid tokens (vouchers). What does that represent in the aforementioned auction?
ONE-DOLLAR in bids at a penny increment each, BUT, at a cost of $60.00 going in.
So, it is easy to see how this bidder can bid him/herself right out of $60 and have nothing to show for, except for an option to pay FULL retail for the item minus the bid costs.
NOW, I am not saying this is a RipOff, but, people NEED to understand what is happening, and remember that they essentially, ARE gambling to win an item of value. The ONLY redeeming factor is that you can buy the item as stated above, if you don't win, therefore, if you are/were planning to make a MacBook purchase anyways, you may consider taking the gamble, and if you lose, make the Full-Retail purchase.
There are lots of items in Quibids. I "won" a Kaloric Water Kettle for 4 cents and about 6 dollars in shipping. I "won" a knife sharpener for 2 cents and about 6 bucks shipping. The "retail" value of those 2 items was about $60.00. I "spent" my other bids trying to win a MacBook, so in the end, I PAID for my items in full. Of course, I didn't win the big item (MacBook), AND therein lies the question..
..Does Quibids let users win the cheap stuff and then shill out the expensive stuff?
The answer is: how would we ever know? We can't know, They really don't need to have shills, because; using the MacBook Pro example above, let's look at the AMAZING math in favor of Quibids:
Quibids Wholesale cost of the Laptop?: About $1,400.00 (retail $1,800.00)
Sold for: $300.00 (equal to 30,000 bids, at 60 cents each, giving Quibids $18,000.00 in bid revenue). Remember the bids Cost the user 60 cents each and the bid goes up only a penny each time you bid. There are several people bidding a penny at a time costing them 60 cents for EVERY bid.
Here is the final math: (note, this is an rounded-off estimate of an actual auction that closed recently)
30,000 bids cost the aggregate bidders a total of $18,000.00! EIGHTEEN-THOUSAND Dollars!, for ONE laptop.
One lucky person wins the item for $300.00, PLUS the number of his/her own bids. This is variable. I seen what appear to be people who've walked away with a win after only bidding a few times, and others (the stubborn ones) bidding hundreds of times.
IN the end, there is NO reason for Quibids to cheat. They are Raking in over $18,000.00 on this one auction alone! One lucky winner and a BUNCH of losers.
FINAL NOTE:
To come away a winner at/on this site, ONLY attempt to purchase items you are in the market for, and at the very worst, you will pay FULL Retail plus shipping costs. Quibids seems to price/value their items at the Highest of Retail Value.. especially on the junky stuff.
caine
United States of AmericaValue Price
#21Consumer Comment
Mon, November 01, 2010
Qui does offer the opportunity to buy any item via the "buy it now" option. This allows the user to purchase the same item that is up for bid even after the bidding has closed. The value of the users bids will be deducted from the purchase price. So, you could bid for a while and if you lost the bid, still buy the item at list minus the 60 cent per bid cost.
The "rip-off" however; is that the "value price" is the manufacturers list price. It would be rare to pay the manufactureres list at a local discount store. In addition, you will find many of the items with a "value price" that is higher than the manufacturers list price. In addition, the "value price" does not include shipping cost.
So, if you lose the bid and purchase the item thru the "buy it now" option, expect to pay "list plus" not a "value price".
Ken Manfredi
Houston,Texas,
United States of America
Quibids *REALITY CHECK*
#21General Comment
Fri, June 04, 2010
The fact is that this site preys upon our inner want to save as much money as possible and get the best deal.
J4me
Oklahoma City,Oklahoma,
United States of America
False Claim
#21UPDATE Employee
Wed, December 30, 2009
I was sent this report today and wanted to clarify that here at QuiBids, we do not have any shill bidders. We do not allow our employees or employees' family members to have accounts with us as this is against our company policy. We pride ourselves in being the beacon of moral and ethical business practices in our industry.
Being an employee of the company, I know we do not have any user with the account names mentioned in the initial report. This is false. I'm assuming this was a customer who did not win an auction and for that, I apologize.
Since our launch in October of 2009, we are holding many more auctions a day leading to higher percentages of wins for our customers. In addition to this, we recently launched the QuiBids101 section of our site which gives our customers tips & suggestions on how to participate at QuiBids. Thank you for your time.
Jill