Complaint Review: Dibzees - Coralville Iowa

Please understand that this customer's claims are completely unfounded for many reasons and we thank Ripoff Report for allowing us to present our side of the issue.

First, we take great offense to this customer's accusations because we have been fair, transparent, and honest from day one and will always continue to be. In fact, we refunded this customer's entire purchase of $79 (even though he did not qualify for a refund) prior to him filing this complaint. Also, please recognize that although we notify our customers, as a courtesy, that their Bid for Me (BidButler) has expired, it is the customer's responsibility to monitor their auctions and purchase more bids before the auction ends as we cannot do this for them. Finally, I understand that this customer may be disgruntled because he did not win an auction he felt entitled to winning; however, the winning bid on the iPad was for $12.27 and this customer's highest bid was for $10.76 so clearly he was not the highest bidder/winner on the iPad auction.

It may help if I explain how our site works before proceeding with our response. Registration on our site is free, but customers need to buy bids (sold in BidPacks) prior to bidding on auctions. Each bid costs 0.60, and every time a bid is placed on an auction the auction price is raised by 0.01. So, basically, every time a customer bids on an auction it costs the customer 0.60 and raises the auction price by 0.01. The highest bidder when time runs out on an auction is the winner. At the end of the auction the winner is responsible for paying the ended auction price plus shipping. We also do offer customers the option to use our "Bid for Me" (Bid Butler) which is an auto-bidding feature. Customers input the number of bids they would like the Bid for Me to use and Bid for Me will automatically place these bids, one at a time, in the last 10 seconds of an auction. Bid for Me will expire when the auction ends or when the Bid for Me runs out of bids.

As stated above, here at Dibzees we have always prided ourselves on being the most honest, transparent and fair company in the industry. Our company, started as a class project at the University of Iowa, has been committed to customer service and to ensuring that customers understand how our site works before participating in our auctions. Information on how our site works is clearly visible on our site. In addition, every receipt emailed to a customer after a BidPack purchase provides information on how our site works and lets the customer know that we will always refund any unused real bids at anytime In addition to refunding unused real bids, we have other features in place to protect our customers. For instance, we have a "Buy Now" feature where customers can purchase an item they have bid on for the retail price of the product minus the amount the customer has spent on bids for the product. For instance, if a customer spent $6.00 in bids used on a $25 auction product, he/she can purchase that auction item for $19.00.

I would like to say that we were quite surprised to receive this complaint as we processed a full refund of $79 for this customer on 9/8 and sent him an email letting him know that his refund had been processed that same day, which was prior to him filing this complaint. Please note that we refunded this customer as a show of good faith since he was not eligible for a full refund since he had used all of his real bids. It is clearly stated on all of our email receipts that we will refund any unused real bids at any time. However, even though he had used ALL of his bids, we still refunded his entire purchase amount of $79.00. Therefore, we had already fulfilled his desired resolution PRIOR to him filing this complaint. Once again I would like to reiterate that we went above and beyond and refunded his money even though he was not eligible.

In regards to the issue of being unable to purchase additional bids before the iPad auction ended, please note that this customer's Bid for Me had expired after his last bid was placed for $10.76 at 12:41 CST because he had used all of his bids. The iPad auction did not end until 12:54. This means that he had 13 minutes to purchase more bids before the auction ended. As a courtesy, we send our customers an email letting them know that their Bid for Me had expired. However, it is the customer's responsibility to monitor their auctions and to purchase more bids before the auction ends if they wish to continue bidding.

Finally, I understand that this customer may be disgruntled because he did not win an auction he felt entitled to winning. To be honest, I am unsure why he is so sure that he was going to be the winner of this auction as there were many other customers bidding on the auction at the same time. This customer is correct that the ended auction price on the iPad was $12.27. This means that last bid placed before the auction ended raised the price to $12.27. However, the last bid this customer placed raised the auction price of the iPad to $10.76. This means that 151 bids were placed between this customer's last bid and the end of the auction. Therefore, his statement, "Clearly, I outbid the highest bidder" is completely incorrect as his highest bid was $10.76 and the winner's bid was $12.27.

Thank you for taking the time to review our response and please contact us at [email protected] if you would have any questions or would like any additional information about our company.