Complaint Review: Bidz.com - Culver City California

Dear Customer, We would like to apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused. We would like to inform you that our customer service department has undergone extensive training to provide our customers with excellent customer service. Our customers are our number one priority. If you have any questions or concerns,please feel free to contact our customer service department. Thank you, Bidz.com Customer Service Team

For those of you following my sauga, you might be interested to know that the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has done nothing and intends to do nothing. Initially, BBB (1)failed to notify Bidz.com that there was more than one issue involved (see above); (2)failed to provide any details to Bidz.com, even in response to a specific request from Bidz.com. Instead, they treated the request for more information as a "response" and demanded that I immediately advise them whether it achieved a resolution. (Just how stupid are these people? Maybe a better question is how stupid do they think we are?) I provided them with a four page letter detailing all of the relevant facts, which they did nothing with. I offered to give them documents to assist with their "investigation", only to find out that they do not investigate. Instead, they closed my file. During the time that the file was open, BBB did nothing. The sole function of the BBB appears to be to provide a forum for their "member" to try to placate you (the consumer) and/or they close the case without doing anything whatsoever. Either way you cut it, it is the same result- they are an agency that is not doing its job. In the end analysis, the BBB allows businesses to use their insignia on the "member" web site as an inticement to you (the consumer), but does nothing to police its members, enforce its rules, or to assist the consumer with resolving disputes over bad business practices by its "members". The long and short of it is that they are a fraud. As for Bidz.com, the bad business practices outlined in my original report are alive and well in Culver City. With regard to the first issue (selling items at auction, which they later insist do not exist in their inventory), it recently happened to a close friend of mine. He purchased a ring at auction for $17, which the company then turned around and re-sold at auction for over $475. All the while, they were insisting that the ring did not exist. As for their failure to follow their own return policy, I have at least found someone in the company willing to assist me with the return of the two items, which formed the basis of my second complaint against them. Interestingly enough, this same individual also confirmed that my account was "deactivated" by the Customer Service manager because he was "pissed off" that I had reported their practices to the BBB! The customer service manager decided that he didn't want to deal with rectifying the problems I pointed out. It was obviously far easier to retaliate. The obvious ubsurdity of "black balling" someone rather than dealing with problems in the management of your company is inescapable. It is also significant to note that a lawsuit over the issues in question could be far more destructive to their business (short term and long term), but that obviously did not occur to this individual. I was advised that the only way to get my account reactivated would be to spend an afternoon with the owners discussing the possibility of my investing in their company. (I should note here that the minimum investment they are looking for is in excess of $30,000.) Naturally, I asked him why I should invest in a company that doesn't want my business. I also pointed out to him that it is obvious from my experiences that this company has some significant problems that they need to work out before expecting those that have been the victims of those same practices to invest in their company! Only time will tell if I actually get my money back...

Although this auction site has some beautiful jewelry, this company's fraudulent and disreputable business practices make this a site worth avoiding. This company's attitude is that it simply does not care about its customers or their satisfaction with their purchases. All of my communication with this company concerning problems on their web site or with my purchases has been summarily ignored. Consequently, I have filed two complaints (detailed below) with the Better Business Bureau over this company's improper business practices. These complaints are currently pending. In summary, my complaints involving this company are as follows: 1. Putting items up for auction that the company does not possess. On two occasions I "won" auctions for items, which I was later told did not exist within the company's inventory. From a legal stand point, if the company knew or should have known that these items did not exist in its inventory at the time it offered them for sale; its behavior here amounts to fraud. Significantly, after filing my complaint with the BBB, one of the items miraculously turned up on a subsequent invoice! 2. Bidz.com's stated "100% customer satisfaction guarantee" is worthless. One of the items of jewelry I won on their site (a sapphire and diamond ring in white gold) was sent to me with a chipped sapphire in the middle of the ring. I promptly notified both customer service and the return department of the defective nature of the item and requested a return authorization number. That correspondence, and all subsequent similar correspondence on this issue, has been ignored by the returns department. Since they have a policy that an item can only be returned within 15 days of receipt with a valid return authorization number, their apparent refusal to provide the RAN renders their stated guarantee meaningless. Secondly, because they use this guarantee as an inducement to get people to bid on their site, their behavior amounts to fraud and misrepresentation. 3. My account was deactivated in apparent retaliation for reporting the above to the Better Business Bureau. On the day that this company was notified of my complaints by the BBB, my account was deactivated without any explanation. My inquiries to Bidz.com in this regard have been summarily ignored.