Complaint Review: zinga.com

zinga.com (Penny auction site)- Rip off merchants!

[IMG]http://i890.photobucket.com/albums/ac101/saturnsid/ziingasignup.jpg[/IMG]


If you sign up to this site you are automatically locked into 59.99 membership fee and an automatic cancellation fee of 28.00

When you first open the site (see link to pic above) it says in big bold writing 'REGISTER FOR FREE!' and they have that wording above the sign up button. Once you fill in the Username, Password and Email Address you cannot press the Sign Up button without agreeing to the terms and conditions by ticking the provided box.

Since you are already told it's 'REGISTER FOR FREE' your automatic reaction is to just tick the terms and conditions box and press the Sign Up button ......... which is what I stupidly did!

WARNING : DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TICK THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BOX THEN PRESS THE SIGN UP BUTTON WITHOUT READING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS ...........THAT IS A FATAL ERROR WHICH WILL COST YOU DEARLY.

THE SIGN UP BUTTON : Once you press that button you locked into a cancellation fee of 28.00.


There is no mention of how much membership costs (59.99 for platinum membership) either on the main opening page or in the terms and conditions but they tell you there is a cancellation fee of 28.00 and it's from this cancellation fee that I think they make most of their money. Once inside the site I personally was unable to find any information regarding different types of membership or the amount they charge for each. Seems to me you are automatically locked into the Platinum Membership which cost 59.99.

So, now I'm in the site and I hadn't read the terms and conditions (I just ticked the box on the opening page when registering 'FOR FREE??' ........ Silly I know but lots of us do it.

Once in there I wanted to win an auction (don't we all) so I set about looking at auctions and came upon some 'free' to bid auctions. I say I 'came upon' these free to bid auctions but in truth I cannot remember if I was automatically directed to that page by the site. The only free auction nearing completion was for 60.00 (which I thought was cash) so i began bidding and within a minute or so I had won it. Great I though, I'm sixty quid richer only to discover later that the 60 was in fact only 60 worth of credits which could only be used on the ziinga site and were worthless otherwise. Having won the auction I had to divulge my credit card details and home address to enable my prize to be delivered ......I thought I'd won a plastic card with 60 on it until I later discovered it was just ziinga credits.

So they wanted 2.34 for winning the auction plus a 'delivery' charge of 2.00 .... 4.34 in total. At this stage I thought that was a bargain and it was a case of 'WoooHooo! This is good.' Then I discovered it was only for ziinga credits and the euphoria came down to base with a bang. I still can't for the life of me understand where the 'delivery' charge comes in since they hadn't sent me anything and only changed a number on their site since my account now showed 60.00.

It was about now that I decided to look at the terms and conditions ..... the smile on my face collapsed and a morbid feeling of 'I've been had' crept over my body. Having read the terms and conditions I immediately realized that the 'free' auction I'd won for 60 was probably a sweetener they give to all new registrations (it only took a couple of minutes to win) to keep them keen and interested. I'd tried other auctions but couldn't win any of those ........so, it's very strange that 60 came so quickly.

Upon reading the terms and conditions etc. I realized I couldn't afford 59.99 membership fees (which I didn't know about until I got inside the site) and decide to cancel my errrrrr, membership. They took some persuading via email and their online chat thingy but they eventually decide to cancel my membership. I thought they had agreed to waver both membership fees and cancellation fees and although I got the impression this was the case I got an email today saying they will be charging me 28.00 for cancellation.

My membership with ziinga lasted only for a few hours but it cost me 4.34 for the 'taster' auction and 28.00 for a cancellation fee.

If that isn't RIP OFF then what is!!!!!!!!!!!