I rolled over an ad on the Internet a few days ago and saw what I thought was a pretty good deal. It was called "SPEEDYBUYS" where items like 42" LCD TVs were going for nothing. So I signed up giving them my "Credit Card" Info thinking that info would be used for auctions that I won. Well I went in and started bidding and was surprised that every time the auction came down to a few seconds it would add another minute or so to the time.
It was so ridiculous I left the web page not thinking anything about it. After two days I was looking at my bank account and saw a charge to my credit card for $149.00 from SPEEDYBUYS and was thinking I won an Auction or something. Come to find out I did not win anything and started researching what was going on. I found out that they were charging me a fee for the initial 300 bids that I knew nothing about since they were hidden in there "terms and conditions" which is a clickable at the bottom of the sign up page that they know no-one will click on.
So I sent an email with my info requesting my money back. I got a reply stating that once bids are purchased they cannot be refunded....and so on la de da de.
I will get my money back since I will be disputing the charge on my card but this is a bit ridiculous since they say there product is so good they should be able to refund me the money asap. But I have a feeling that they are not really doing any real business except for ripping consumers off.
So lets put these CON Artist out of Business. Everyone needs to dispute the charges on their cards, and post this info all over the net so it comes up first on a Google Search.
John
Memphis,#2Consumer Suggestion
Tue, August 31, 2010
If you do a reverse lookup on the street address it points to a mail drop. Nothing says 'legitimate company' like a good old-fashioned mail drop.
Steve
North Port,#3Consumer Comment
Mon, August 30, 2010
Everyone who has been taken by this company Speedybuys.com . Please file a complaint with the california Attorney Generals office at this address:
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
The information about Speedybuys.com is below:
Refund person information- Jeffery Beltran
Lead support Manager
888-830-5822
Company address: Speedybuys
1507 7th street Suite 346
Santa Monica Cal. 90401
Also you can file with the Better Business Bureau of California
I hope that everyone does this so that the Attorney General will get a good idea what is going on.
John
Memphis,#4Consumer Suggestion
Tue, August 24, 2010
Almost forgot. Always check if the website has a 'private' domain registration. This is used to cloak the identity of the domain owner. Legitimate businesses don't resort to this.
Just go to the (((Redacted))) site and use the whois utility to check domain ownership.
CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.
John
Memphis,#5Consumer Suggestion
Mon, August 23, 2010
Personally, I always verify if the website lists a real physical address for the company. Always be wary when a real address is not provided. Legitimate businesses don't hide where they're located.
Secondly, in the case of auction sites, you need to see if the items being offered are real brand-name products which you can verify the value of. Some auction sites just unload pallets of low cost Chinese bric-brac. Jewelry is always a favorite since you can't tell what the size/quality of an item is.
The 'bidbuy' type of sites are always a concern. They make their profit by generating the maximum number of bids on each item rather than the sale of each item. What happens if an insider places a winning bid? Who would really know? The profit has already been collected (remember, you paid a big lump for your bids in advance). They could theoretically recycle the same prize many times. Who would know????
The 'guaranteed winner' policy is interesting. Unfortunately, they won't guarantee the value of the prize you can win. I'm sure you can win a very-low-value item with minimal effort. You just spent $149 for it.
Keep in mind that for every $1 of bid value the company gets $50 in bid profits from bidders. A $20 bid on a iPad means that the company has already collected $1000 in bids. That's why these sites are so attractive to the owners.
You should have no trouble getting the charge reversed. If you look at the signup page the phrase 'By signing up for the site' is shown at the bottom. This is a rather nebulous legal term that will be unenforcable in court. How do you sign up for a 'site' ??? You can't !!!!
Tim
Forest Park,#6Author of original report
Sun, August 22, 2010
Here is an update on my dealings with SPEEDYBUYS. I sent the original e-mail on 8/20/10 requesting my money back. After that I went to several sites and made complaints about SPEEDYBUYS. Received 2 emails since then, one stating they have no refund policy, and the second one offering me money back along with the threat that they win almost 100% of the disputes. I replied back asking why they have so many disputes if everything is all out in the open.
Here is the email response copy and pasted directly from my email:
"Dear Tim,