Complaint Review: Bidz.com - Culver City California

I had been a bidz.com customer since the beginning of 2009 after being bombarded by banner ads on almost every website on the internet. I bought the bidz.com items to resell in my internet store. Recently, my account was deactivated by bidz.com due to the several claims filed for missing items from damaged packages.

Out of the over 50+ shipments I received from bidz.com during the course of the last 6 months, all but 3 arrived in good condition. Unfortunately, in June 2009, 3 of these packages arrived with rips/holes in the package and as a result, many or all of the items from these packages were lost. The U.S.P.S. letter carrier told me of the damage to these packages as they were delivered to me.

I took pictures of these packages and went to the delivery manager of the local post office to find out what happened. I was told that these packages were probably damaged at the processing plant and he was sure that the letter carrier had nothing to do with the damage/missing items.

Subsequently, I followed the claims process of bidz.com to obtain a refund of payment for the missing items from these packages. Because bidz.com doesn't use the insurance offered by the U.S.P.S. and insures with a third-party, the claims process is complicated by the requirement to obtain a notarized letter stating what has happened to cause the damage/loss. I had to incur the additional expense of notary fees.

My issue with bidz.com is that they never improved their method of shipment. They pack 30 boxes (no matter how large or small) in a large white plastic bubble envelope and that's how they ship all these items to you. All 3 packages with the missing items had a 10 to 12 inch rip along the side of these bubble mailers. After completing the administrative process and waiting roughly 3 to 4 weeks, I received refunds for the missing items.

Thereafter, I received an email from their claims dept that shipments to my address must be upgraded to next-day UPS deivery due to the problems with the U.S.P.S. I would have to incur higher shipping fees if I wished to continue to shop with bidz.com.

Since I didn't want to pay for the higher shipping fees for expedited shipping and the fact that their regular shipping fees are already exorbitant ($99.95 for the shipping & handling of 30 small items shipped together), I decided to use my alternative bidz.com account to buy items. I had a few bidz.com accounts and I mentioned this to online help reps before and was never told that this was a problem.

In mid-June, using my alternative bidz.com account, I placed an order with bidz.com which still has not been received as of today's date (7/14/09). I contacted their online help and was told to file a claim after 7/1/09. I followed the process and filed a claim for this missing package on 7/2/09. Again, I had to prepare notarized letters explained what happened-- all of this information could be verified through the U.S.P.S. tracking number. Immediately, after the claims dept received this claim, my account was deactivated. I was told that my account was deactivated because I had multiple accounts and filed multiple claims. I was locked out of all my accounts.

I was also told that the last claim for the missing package will be denied due to multiple claims filed previously. The payout for the previous claims had nothing to do with this missing package. Also, if bidz.com insured the packages against loss/damage/theft, then the previously filed claims should have no bearing on this claim. So far, I have not received any response from bidz.com re this claim. Since my account has been deactivated, I cannot view my account information, refund status, or contact them through online help. I called and left a message for the claims representative and nobody returned my messages.

Other serious problems with this company are as follows:

1. No pre-shipment inspection of merchandise. This resulted in the receipt of obvious damaged jewelry items with missing gemstones and also other items that are tarnished/rusty or appearing pre-owned/used.

2. The Returns Dept doesn't reimburse for return postage despite being in agreement that the returned merchandise is defective or not as described. This has happened on at least 5 occasions even though I included the receipts for the return postage. Each time, I had to follow up with the returns dept either online or by phone to obtain a refund of my return postage cost. It's very time-consuming & half of the time, nothing is done.

These are just a few of the major issues with this company.

I'm filing this report to alert customers or potential customers of bidz.com to this situation. If you don't mind having your paid items be lost/missing due to poor packaging, then buy at your own risk because bidz.com won't cover legitimate claims (supported by the delivery manager's verification of damage to packages) beyond maybe 1 or 2. If you're as unlucky as me and this happened more than a couple of times, then you won't be insurable, and your account will be deactivated. Additionally, your email address & physical address will be blocked from their system.

In hindsight, I should not have fallen for the temptation of bidz.com's flashy internet banner ads. Buyers beware!!!

Donotusebidz.com

Sacramento, California

U.S.A.

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