STAY AWAY from this site. If you do by some rare chance win one of the auctions you will NOT actually receive the item unless it happens to be one of the cheap $5 items. They will lead you on for months by sending numerous emails saying they are behind and can't keep up with all the orders and they will be shipped out within 30 days.
Well, that was almost 2 months ago and still NO items. They also sent an email saying they were behind yet they were continuing to list auctions because they didn't want to disappoint their customers!! How about sending the auctions that had been won & paid for? Or a refund I was told would be processed. Of course this refund was never issued.
It is obvious now that this site which appears to based in the Netherlands is in fact a SCAM.
I wouldn't be surprised if any replies to complaints on any site are in fact from employees at this company or someone who is affiliated with them in some way.
Any legal or legitimate business would not practice business this way. Instead of suspending auctions in order to catch up and ship all past wins out this company chose to fall further behind and continue to list auctions and take more money from customers for their wins and bid purchases.
If you are looking for a site to waste money on or simply give it away then this is your site. If you are looking to actually win and receive those items then this is NOT the site for you. This is from my personal experience with this site and several other bidders who have confirmed the same situation happened to them.
Like I said before, I wouldn't be surprised if the replies posted say the person did receive their item(s), then my guess is the person posting it is probably an employee of bidtwister or somehow affiliated with them.
I will post below a few of the responses received from bidtwister in response to my emails asking when my items would be shipped.
As you will see below I was told a refund would be issued by - S. Comfort 5/17/2011 12:11 PM then in reply to my email inquiring where my refund was I was told it would be refunded "now" by S. Comfort 6/10/2011 1:47 PM.
Well, today is 6/21/11 and still NO items or refund!
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Hello, We are sending you this email to keep you informed concerning the product(s) that you have won on the BidTwister site.
While we have been contacting you and you may have inquired about the shipping status, we want to get you up to speed on where things are at and also give you two options.
First, we want to thank you for being a member, and we appreciate you being part of the BidTwisterfamily. Please understand that BidTwister is a site that opened on February 15th of this year and not even our analysts anticipated the explosive growth we've had. Because of this, and some programming issues on the site, this has caused a shipping gridlock for items won between the dates of April 3rd to May 1st. Orders after May 1st are currently shipping in our normal shipping timeframe as per our terms and conditions.
So, your win(s) in this timeframe are delayed and we want to give you two choices in order to help get this issue resolved and make sure you continue to be a happy bidder! Here are the two options to clear this up.
Option 1:Just be a little more patient with us (We know you have been!), and we'll get your win(s) out to you within the next 30 days or sooner. We are shipping everyday and getting this issue resolved.
Option 2: You can elect to get a full refund posted to your Credit Card for the bids you placed on this auction. This refund will be calculated at the bid price you paid.
Please understand that we are doing everything we can to get this situation resolved quickly... but with hundreds of orders to be filled daily from April 3rd - May 1st, it is taking some time to do all the fulfillment with our shipping companies.
Action:All you have to do now is simply respond to this email and just say "Option 1" or "Option 2"... That's it. We'll then notify you of a target ship date or calculate your refund and apply it to your Credit Card!
But, our main goal is to keep you as a happy bidder, and make sure you know how important you are to us. Let's get this situation cleared up, and we want you to continue to keep bidding, and winning, on BidTwister.com
-BidTwister
- L. Baileys 5/13/2011 11:00 AM
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Hello XXXXX,
Unfortunately, I don't have an specific shipping date for you but I assure you that your items will be delivered in less than 30 days.
If I had a set date for your gift cards I would definitely let you know. Thank you again for being so patient. We are working extremely hard to get everyones items out as quickly as possible.
The refund would be for all bids placed on wins that are still outstanding, not all bids ever placed or purchased on the site.
Please let me know which choice is best for you and I would be happy to note your account.
-BidTwister
- L. Baileys 5/13/2011 3:59 PM
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Hello XXXXXX,
Thank you. I will process your refund. Please note, since you have only ever spent $XXX.XX on the site that is all I am able to refund you.
Than you and have a great day!
BidTwister
- S. Comfort 5/17/2011 12:11 PM
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Hello XXXXXX,
I am trying to help you. I will refund the money now.
Thank you.
BT-
S. Comfort 6/10/2011 1:47 PM
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Hello,
As the CEO of BidTwister.com I want to clarify a few things for you about us, where we are going, and the shipping of your wins.
But, first I want to personally thank you for your membership, your active bidding, and the patience you have shown as we build BidTwister.com into the number one brand in Entertainment Shopping.
I would also like to tell you just a little bit about me, my background, our staff, and the inception of BidTwister.com. All of my life I've been involved in Direct Response TV and radio as an "on air" talent, show host, and voiceover artist.
In fact you may have seen and or heard many local and national commercials I've done over the years. Television is a great medium and it's been my joy to be a part of it since the mid 1980's. So, when the opportunity came up to be a part of a major new company in an emerging industry, that's fun and exciting, and also utilizes TV in its advertising.
Well naturally it was the perfect fit. Over the last two years over a million dollars was spent and our dedicated staff of talented fun and lively people worked very hard to create one of the best models for the business...BidTwister.com! (over 1 million $$ and this company can't keep up with shipping out items from over 2 months ago??? I know people who have done more ebay auctions in a day and had no problem keeping up without a "staff" of people to help)
We started live at noon Eastern on February 15th of this year and we got off to a great start. But we did run into some problems in the first 90 days with site glitches, malfunctions, and programming problems. (over 2 years working on this site yet they didn't test it out during that time? weird...)
But, all of these have been fixed and even as I write this we are busy on phase two of the site to premiere by the first of the year.
Now to answer some of the questions that have come up...
1. Are we a scam?
Of course not... do you think we would put this much time, resources, and effort into something to be just a quick scam. We would not. The model for BidTwister.com is to be around for years if not decades to come, and I will personally be doing our next phase of TV and radio commercials with my name on them. We are not a scam. (obviously fraudulent business practices have shown otherwise and I am pretty sure consumers are smart enough to figure out this company wasn't going to admit to being a scam in their email as they want you to throw more money away!)
However, we have been scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by very unscrupulous people who know how to beat the fair system, chase away legitimate bidders, and try to destroy an honest company founded by honest hard working people. We have been and are dealing with this though and you can rest assured that BidTwister.com will be the most member friendly and fairest site on the Internet as we proceed. We simply will not tolerate and will not be victimized by these types of bidders, and neither should you. (classic... this company takes our money for bids, then takes more money for the items won/shipping/etc, then never sends these items or refunds us but they are the ones who were scammed!)
2. Why are we still holding auctions if some shipments are delayed?
Because we owe it to our members, partners, vendors, and other relationships. In addition, we are working hard at programming our internal shipping to get and stay caught up and also ship current winners on time. BidTwister.com is not a fly by night organization and we are in this for the long haul as stated.
So, feel free to come out and bid as we are growing!
3. Why are there delays in prior months shipping?
As explained we have had some major site issues with the shipping programming. Some of you have even experienced wins not credited or wins credited to you that weren't yours, etc. We've had many issues like this and also incredible amounts of fraud perpetrated on the site. This has caused us to have to go over each and every day from April and first part of May to make sure each and every auction, bid, and win was legitimate, within our "Terms and Conditions" and won by a legitimate bidder. That is the only way to be fair to you and to us and to make sure the audit of the site clears out the deceptive bidders. This is very important. (don't open a website unless you are prepared to run it legally, efficiently, and have the proper safety tools in place & especially don't continue to run the website if aware of problems. shut it down and fix them!)
4. What is BidTwister.com doing to improve?
A lot... First we have invested heavily in new site technology to eliminate bugs and glitches on the site. Making sure timers and auctions work perfectly all the time.
We are also working on the exciting "Phase two" of the site as explained above. In addition we are also working to move (Within 60-90 days), to an "Immediate Shipping" platform to give us the fastest shipping of wins in the industry. (sounds amazing especially since they aren't even the slowest shipping in the industry as you would actually have to ship the items to begin with!)
This along with many other enhancements will make BidTwister.com the most enjoyable, and innovative of it's kind. So, I want to personally thank you once again, and also let you know that your products will be shipped as quickly as possible and each and every item that was won in a legitimate auction will be shipped. We will deal with the fraud as well, but I want you to know that BidTwister.com is a fair site and that every bid placed and item won is fair to every member.
Also, I'd like to ask you to help us... as we value your input and suggestions. So we've created a Toll-Free way for you to call us and give us your suggestions on the following... Products you'd like to see on the site.Other options you'd like to see added.Hours and days that you think we should run more auctions.
And other suggestions you have to help make BidTwister.com the rewarding, fun, and exciting Entertainment Shopping site it is meant to be.Please call Toll-Free at 877.349.1173 and let me know personally what you think we should do to improve. I value your opinions and I will make sure our team hears what you have to say. (just an idea... stop scamming customers and actually send the items they won or follow through with the refunds as promised!)
That's it for now and thank you for taking the time to read this and respond... Let's all enjoy the summer and work together to make BidTwister.com the best of its kind. I very much appreciate you giving me this chance to let you know more about us and where we are going.
Thank you!
Jim Ballas
CEO
BidTwister.com
Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 1:49 PM
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