Print the value of index0
quibids.com Parent company: QuiBids Holdings LLC Consumer Gouging and Qbids Shops at Wallmart to Send Product to Customer! Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Purchase a Toshiba camera/video recorder from this website by outbidding others. The price of the product was described as a retail price of $300.00 dollars. On the surface it would appear that an eleven dollar bid is great, however one bid equals .60 cents. A bid can be bought in blocks. All participants loose their bids to the company if they loose, however what they loose can be deducted from the actual purchase price (300.00)if the consumer wishes to buy a full price.
After winning the bid. I paid the eleven dollars and change, plus the mailing price of about 15.00. Although the, face bid price was eleven dollars, I actually spent around 140.00 dollars, as each .1 cent bid is worth .60 cents. Now this was is proceeding into the bidding process. My complaint stems from the fact that the product sent to me, although it was manufactured by Toshiba and never opened, was purchased , through Qbids, from WALLMART! QUIBIDS PURCHASED MY RECORDER SENT TO ME, AT A PRICE OF 149.00 DOLLARS! In addition to the cost to mail of eight dollars, the price came out to 157.00. Their practice is dubious, and although the product was possibly made by Toshiba...but because it was purchased through wall mart, the possibility of the product's authenticity is questionable. Secondly, although their business scheme is not illegal, if one takes the time to analyze the complete transaction, how many bidders, and the money they reaped, my product made them twice the displayed retail price, and they kept the difference of the retail price and the wall mart purchase price of 157.00. The actual 77 bids it took for me to win this product would be enough to purchase this at wall mart myself. Now for those who like to bid legally and have the money, then yes this may be good, however, for the majority that purchase items at what they believe is a low price, really ends up costing customers much more! This seems to me to be a very sorted business that does not disclose information as to where the products actually come from, and somewhere I read that it this is similar to 'gouging a customer' This is a marketing strategy to get much more than the products' suggested retail price! Lastly, on their promotional website they list many good named companies that promoted them. These companies obviously did not take a good look at the deception, or these companies are fine with it. Now if the U.S were in a perfectly competitive business environment without laws and morals, then this would be a great business, but........................WE DO HAVE CONSUMER RIGHTS TO THIS TYPE OF GOUGING! OR, SHOULD HAVE?
I wrote the BBB and express what a, Desired Resolution I might accept:
Refund, and to have them be specific about where their products come from and how purchased. Currently in the help section they write that products come from their supplier only. Lastly word the concepts so that it is very clear to others with reading problems, to let them understand the conversion of money to bids and how it is applied such that one .60 cent bid is equal to .01 cent of the product bided upon.
This case will be reviewed by a complaint specialist at the Better Business Bureau, and then forwarded to the business for their response. It is our policy to allow the business 30 working days to respond to your complaint. You will be notified when the business has responded.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
J4me10
Oklahoma City,Oklahoma,
United States of America
We Are Not Involved with Gouging
#2UPDATE Employee
Thu, July 28, 2011
I'm sorry you feel that way. We dont gouge anyone. We pride ourselves in our ethical business practices and work hard for our value prices to be competitive with great internet prices. We partner with a large number of distributors to get products to customers, but in special cases like backorders, sometimes they may use retail vendors like Wal-Mart to supply products.
Anytime you have a question or concern, feel free to contact our support at support@quibids.com.