xBids.com Scam
XBids.com is one of many Penny Auction websites online. This things are popping up all over the place. One thing i recommend doing before handing over credit card information to anyone is make sure you read the terms and conditions. This is also know as the fine print. I know its time consuming but it educates you in what you are getting yourself into. with xbids this information can be found by going to http://www.xbids.com/support/terms-of-service.html
XBids.com Non Refundable Credits
There is one area i want to focus on in this post and that is non refundable credits please read the section below at the time i am writing this is October 13 2010 it may have changed depending on when you read this post
=======
BIDS
Bidding rights or bids (“Bids”) must be purchased before you engage in online bidding. Prices for Bids may change at xBids’s discretion at any time. Bids are non-transferable and valid for 6 months after they have been credited to your account, unless stated to be valid for less than that period of time. Upon expiration, Bids become void and can no longer be used. Once a Bid is placed in an auction, it is deducted from your Bid account and cannot be refunded.
================================================
Non refundable credits. I’ve written about this before. Penny auction websites in the eyes of many is considered to be borderline gambling. Using a penny auction website is like shopping at a non refundable store. The difference however is that you have a chance to win your desired item at rock bottom prices.
Penny Auctions are very Time Consuming
There’s also another catch Penny Auctions are very time consuming. There are people that literally spend hours and even days on these websites. Most of the ties these people spend way more money on the price of their desired item.
Of course most people won’t admit this, another common trait is people will start purchasing things they didn’t initially want like more credits to so they can aggressively go after the product they did want. this goes into the time consuming aspect of things and even then they still might not win remember in any auction there can only be one winner.
Auction websites appear to be here to stay I just wonder how long it will take for people to truly understand how these things work. All i will say is the bigger the Penny Auction site gets the harder it is for people to win. Also the bigger the penny auction site gets the richer the penny auction website owners get. the consumer gets screwed on so many levels.
Wait Wait there’s some Good News…
But hey here’s the good news because you may have wasted hours on our Penny Auction website we will allow you to use your NON Refundable credits to purchase the item you wanted at the retail price set by us. If you want to sign up for XBids don’t let e stop you just don’t say I didn’t warn you
this is a good article, I was just reading about xbids and other penny auctions and how they work.
best part of this article was the fine print on Bids. I was reading another article about xbids, in support of it actually, then went to the site and made an account. I did not like how right as you sign up for an account, they ask you for your credit card info. You bring up a good point, to read the fine print before you use your credit card, and I’m glad i read this before actually buying any bids on that site. Doesn’t seem worth it at this point.
seems to me that being able to get HDTVs, ipods, and whatever else at 95% percent discount at times is possible, and people actually get those products at deep discounts. However, the more popular the item, or the website, the harder it will be to win the auction.
Hi,
I think this is a fair analysis on whether penny auctions are a scam. The blog owner also includes some legal views that penny auctions are not a Scam and absolutely not a Bargain
These Auctions make lots of money applying gambling psychology and marketing.
This is absolutely a scam in my opinion. I was one of the suckers that bought in to it before researching it. I purchased 120 bids for $75 and got 25 bids free.I was bidding on a Ipad that started out around 3 bucks with 48 minutes to go. I watched the item til it got down to around 2 minutes and figured i would start bidding aggresively after only a few bids earlier. The only problem is when it got down to 15 seconds the timer would not go lower when someone clicked bid. The only time the timer would continur counting down is when peple stopped bidding but as soon as someone hit the bid button it would go back up to 15 seconds. This went on for 30 mins before I gave up and thought, Ok, So this is how they make so much money. Some of the people bidding went through 100+ bids. Scam scam scam
I wonder how long this crap will be legal. The ipad I saw sold for $109, so that means that xbids made $.60 x 100 X 109 = $6360 !!!! They say they get items from “clearance” going out of business auctions and so on. This does not seem to be so as they could easily just buy ipads at the retail price. $6360 -$700 (ipad) = $5630 profit.
All the auction comes down to is who is willing to stay at their computer the longest. 15 seconds can easily extend 9 hours so have fun.
superparty check your calculations.
It should be $.60 X 100(I assume this is the total number of bids) PLUS $109= $169.
Get your math straight before ranting next time.
The math works out like this. .60cents per bid, each bid increments in .01 so that equates out to 60.00 per every dollar for the auction price the site makes, so if the sell price was 109.00 then the site made 6540.00 plus the 109.00, please take it from someone who spent several hundred dollars bidding and walked away with nothing. After bidding I decided to watch the individual I was bidding against and noticed they were bidding on all the live auctions, and actually saw them spend over 50 bids on a 15 bid voucher, this is when I decided I would never participate in these auctions again. I don’t want to accuse anyone of running up prices but this looks very suspicious to me. If you want to try them then I wish you all the luck in the world and hope you don’t spend as much as I did to learn a lesson.
BEWARE OF X-BIDS, DONT DO IT!!!! and what they ALSO dont tell u is the clock goes up after someone bids, so that means when 1 person clicks another clicks and the time goes up and up again… i got scammed on this site im filing a claim with my bank to get this takin off…yea i should have read the sites fine print but they were really deceptive by advertizing on a fake channel 9 web site.
I made the mistake of registering on xbids a few days ago. I didn’t realize, until it was too late, that I was paying $75 just to register with them. I was a little hesitant to enter my credit card as part of the registration and now realized I should have followed my instincts. And…I should have googled xbids before I registered. Anyway, as soon as my xbid acct was created and I realized, I regretted it and decided to cancel my account – and get my $75 back. I didn’t bid on anything, literally all I did was register then try to “unregister”. I couldn’t find a phone number to contact them on the website – another red flag. The only option is to email them, which is what I did. I figureed out how to cancel my xbid account, told them in the email that I had just registered, immediately canceled my acct but I wanted to know how the refund of my $75 would be handled. That was 5 days and 3 emails ago – no refund received….I just called my credit card company and disputed the charge.
They responded to my emails, but their responses are form-like and don’t make sense. Each email starts out with ” Your request… has been deemed solved. If you feel your request has not been solved, simply respond to this email.” Since I didn’t get my refund yet and the 1st response didn’t say they were going to refund my $75, I of course responded to that email. I just responded to the 3rd “run-around” email i got form them. The last email I got from them states “According to the information we have on file, you’ve already canceled your account. We apologize for the inconvenience but at this time we are not able to process your refund. Thanks for trying xBids.com!” I immediately called my credit card company to dispute the charge, the girl I spoke too gave me the phone # they have for xbids as 1-888-649-2437 and she put me on hold while she attempted to call xbids. After a few minutes she came back on and said that phone number states they aren’t takingn calls & all questions are handled via email which can be found on their website. My credit card company removed the charge but xbids has 45 days to dispute it.
I then called the xbids phone number she had given me and sure enough, its only a recording that says “thank you for calling xbids customer support, currently all support is being handled thru our website…please visit our website and check out the help section. Thank you and have a great day”. So you can’t talk to anyone via phone, only way to contact them is via email, and they sent rediculous responses to your emails. At this point, i’m just hoping xbids doesn’t dispute the refund with my credit card company. I’m not sure what’s all involved if that happens as I’ve never experienced anything like this. I’m considering reporting them to the Better Business Bureau and possibly my state’s attorney general’s office consumer protection department. I never got to the point of actually using their bidding system so I can’t speak to any of that. But based on what I’ve experienced, they are a rip-off.
The issue is not the value that things are sold for. It’s the money they making off of unsuspecting people. I too signed up for an account, and actually used the process to win a few items. But, the price I ended up paying also had to be inflated by the cost of the bids themselves, at $.518 each from my sign up (your $75 gets you 125 bids, plus a bonus 20). I was interested in an IPad, so bid a couple of times. These things were ratching up a penny at a time, and went for $170. That’s 17000 bids! At the $.518 price, that would amount to $8,806 in revenue for xbids on a $900 item!!!! Now, admittedly I’m sure some of the people bought bids at a lower price, but, even at half price, it would still amount to $4400 in revenue for a $900 item, or a profit of $3500. Not a bad business model, but, the people paying the price are the bidders! At some point, someone is going to pass a law on this–count on it!
Feeling Pretty Foolish #1: I too am exactly like you. I did not know that I was being charged after I registered. I should have known it was a scam when they asked for my credit card. When I saw 20 free bids plus my 120 bids, I thought OK I will give this a trial with tghe free bids. I clicked on the first bid and went for 3 bids, they deducted the bids from the 120 bid pocket instead of the free bid pocket. I too will call my credit card and report this as a scam – I was never informed that I was about to purchase an item and how much it was for? Thanks.
I am surprised there is not MORE reporting on this. Consumer Reports had nothing on it. None of the big “consumer protection” organizations are talking about this. The consumer is getting ripped off. I can’t call it a scam because the fine print does make it very clear that you are buying the right to bid. But they do not show you in detail how much money you are actually wasting. eBay is awesome compared to this xbids trash. I do hope they do more reporting on this to save the consumer.
I wonder if you can submit a claim via your bank to get your money back…
As many have already indicated, the xbids site makes it money off of the bids. What I didn’t understand right away, but became apparent after using the site for 5 minutes, is that people are paying $.60 or more for bids but they are only worth $.01 when you are bidding for products. So, the company is reaping in at least $.59 per bid, per bidder, per product.
What I am interested to know is whether the products that are “won” are actually in good condition. I researched some of the products I was interested in bidding on and found out that most of the products are older models (1-3 years old). For instance, there were several Samsung and Sony hdtvs but it turned out that they were models from 2 years ago. Which is fine, but unless you actually seek out specific information on the product, you would never be told that from xbids.
Thanks to all the posts! Was going to sign up tonight after reading a report about xbids, but after reading these post I think I’m going to keep my pennies in my pocketbook! Guess I need to go back to the old saying..”If it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is.”
If you read ”feeling pretty foolish” post, This is the same thing I have just done.Everything to a T!!! I have already contacted my credit card company and filed a disputa also.
This company has to be stopped! Anyone know how to report them further to the BBB or attorney general please post on how to go about this.. I too have NEVER been in this situation before..
These people know how hard times are for everyone out there and they are taking advantage of it..
One word of advise.. If this comany does respond back to you with their generated email responses, since I am on my 4th and all 4 have been pretty much the same word for word…KEEP THE EMAILS!!! My credit card company told me to keep trying to contact them and every response back wether email or by some other means …KEEP THEM!! If they dispute, the Credit Card company will use these email responses to go after them further….STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!!!! 100% SCAM!!!
Alright, there is alot of bashing and assumptions of corruptions. I did sign up for Xbids, but did not buy bids, I was merely looking into it. I came across this blog and read it and every comment. What you guys are missing here, is that they do not force you to bid. They do not force you to bid 100 times on an item, nor do they force you to bid on it every 1 second to ensure you are the winner. I will break this down for you.
Ok, so the Ipad, for 170$ and the company made 6000$+. Let us assume that 150 people were bidding on this, including you. You won the item, but spent 400 bids (and several hours) on it. In total yes, there was an immense amount of bids, but to YOU it was only 400 bids at .6 each, which means you spent 170$ + .6(bids) or in this case 170$ + 240$ or 410$ for a product worth 600$. Theoretically, the winner made out with this deal, even taking into account the cost of the bids. Everyone else, yes they lost, potentially more than 240$ out of bids, but thats the game. This company is preying off of people’s desire to win, and to the winner it really is a deal. To the losers, well that sucks. The business though, is doing nothing more than providing a legitamate cheaper product as they state. This is not illegal, nor should you be able to overturn this.
On the otherside, not advertising when you are being billed nor having ample support for the website is something you can persue. A company, must provide support as well as clear definitions of when you are being charged, why you are, and what you are being charged for.
To sum it up, if you read the actual “How to” mixing it with a little bit of logic, you can see that what they came up with is a remarkable way to make money while rewarding the winner with a genuine discount. This is all clearly defined and if you do not like it, don’t do it.
By the way, I will not be using this website, because I do not have the time nor the patience to potentially throw away 240$ so that another person can save 300$.
I registered yesterday, I bided on Ipad for 40 times no luck and 37 times on Samsung 46” TV and won for $3.96. I received notified email ‘You won Samsung 46” 1080p 3D HDTV’ from them as well. I went to website to make a credit card payment for ‘handling & shipping cost for the bid I won and submitted it then go checked on ‘Won Auction Bid’ link for status is said ‘canceled’ before was ‘payment’. I posted email in ‘Contact Support’ twice and no response at all. WHAT SHOULD I DO? Any advise much appreciated. Thanks..
I got replied from them “Michael T., Nov 10 12:33 (PST):
Once again, due to the power outage, people who were bidding and the system froze, got an email saying that they won the item. If you win anything, it should be in your account and in the won auction tab. 10 minutes added to the auction after the outage, which was the policy since all website has to have a fail-switch function. You have at least 10 minutes after the outage to continue your bidding. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, at this moment, we can’t credit back those bids since they are actual bids that were committed to real auctions and all auctions resumed. Bids and highest bidder kept the same after the outage resumed.
Thanks for trying xBids.com!
Michael T.
xBids.com Customer Support”
Great site and thanks for the posts. almost went for it, but decided against after reading all of the posts,
It’s time we beat them at there own game, put an (AB) in your handle and when you see that person bid let them win! Soon everyone will be getting what they want for a penny!
This is a big scam. They do not make clear $75 will not be applied to the merchandise you are bidding for. Also the time for bidding does not expire. During the last 15 seconds if any body bids they go back to 15 seconds again. This alone should be counted as illegal advertisement. I have also reported to my credit card company and disputed my charges of $ 75 .
I am going to send copies of all these emails to the credit card company if I do not get my refund.
I think during the last 15 seconds their own people keep on bidding one cent higher to suck you in
Folks this is a big scam.You can not communicate with them because their 800 number is only a computer generated answer which tells you that you can only communicate with this company by email. Their is no physical address of this company. Their email reply is always the same ” your problem has been resolved” The bidding time keeps on extending by extra 15 seconds so it sucks in numerous bidders who keep on bidding thinking it is only one cent extra not realising that every time you bid one cent extra they are actually taking 61 cents out of your credit card and soon you lose $ 75 without winning any bid because their own people keep on bidding numerous time when you are bidding in the last 15 seconds and those 15 seconds never seem to expire.
Please keep on demanding from your credit card company to get your money refunded. I hope there is an attorney who can take on this fraudulent web site without legitimate telephone number and which frdulently keep on extending the last 15 seconds of the bidding time till every body runs out of their $ 75 and no win. This is worse than Nigerian scam artists because this is happening in USA where some attorney should go after them and shut down this company and put them in jail.
I have reported this scam web site with the above information to FTC and also district attorney in San Francisco.
Please every body who has been scammed should do it.
I was about to join xbids, and notice they do not accept paypal. I only do business over the internet with paypal, because paypal insures up to 1 million (usd). So I don’t trust any website that doesn’t accept paypal.
I too was ripped off by xbids.com
The 800 number is only a computer generated answer which tells you that you can only communicate with this company by email. Their is no physical address of this company. Their email reply is always the same ” your problem has been resolved”
I am disputing the charge with my credit card company. I have several emails that indicate my issue was resolved and that someone would call me. Neither happened.
I will be reporting them to various agencies.
BUYERS BEWARE – do not give them your credit card information. They are truely a RIP OFF and SCAM!
Well in My opinion Penny auctions are not scam. I got lots of items from penny auction you just have to be smart to bid on these items. I got iPad, Nikon 5000, etc.. I must have spend probably $1000 but got more than $3,000 worths of products. What you need is to study the auction first for some times. lets says like 2 months. basically you are studying the bidders not auction. Then go bid. you know some ppl are very aggressive means they don’t care if they lose money they will bid till they win. Example one item cost $100 but this guy bid and won the auction for $2,400. If you bid against him you will lose your money bc he is not going to give up on winning. STAY AWAY from auction which has too many users and too many traffic. Check this site for 100s of penny auctions. penny auction traffic dot com
Basically penny auctions are GAMBLING sites. You can easily lose your money and get addicted to it. I think government should BAN Penny auctions like they did for on-line POKER gambling.
penny auctions make lots of money. Here is one example: Quibids.com put a car out for auction and they sold it for I think more than $2000. Lets say $2000.. Cost of the car is about $17,000 guess how much Quibids made. each bid cost $0.60, Since it is sold for $2000 that means there are 200,000 bids were placed on that auction. Each dollar contains 100 pennies, this is for people who don’t know math like previous post. So 2000 x 100 = 200,000 x $0.60 = $120,000 + $2000 (final bid value) = $122,000 – $17,000 (car value) = $$105,000. They made $105,000 profit from 1 auction. WOW guess how many people lost their 100’s and 1000’s of money. a lot. Commercials are like ($2,000/$17,000) * 100 only 11.76%. people are like wow they spend only 11.76% for a car? that’s how they fool people to spend money. So these sites should be BANNED.
I found this site on a chanel news 9 julia ayers bragging how great it is what a lie they must be paying them well to tell lies to rip people off how sad A real auction does not charge you to bid only purchase Beware sounds to good to be true it is..
I also had the power outage drops after being close to winning It is a scam didnt win anything I will have to see if i can drop a complaint to the FTC like it will do any good
I have done the exact same thing and continue to hassle with them for my money. Discover will not assist with getting your money back. The 75.00 is an outright moneygrab and at least it feels better to know others were also sucked in. Julie Ayers should be fired.
my credit card company CAPITAL ONE was very helpful. After verifying that the xbids toll free number is only a computer generated answer. This company has no physical address and they will not give you the name of their CEO to take them to court. My credit card company credited my account for $75. And even if this scam web site tries to try again within 45 days to charge my credit account they will not succeed if I keep all my unseccessful telephone calls and other information and copies of all these consumer complaints to fight them back. My credit card company already knows this is a scam. The credit card holder has 90 days to dispute these charges. If Discover card does not help you in this fraudulent charges then change to another credit card company. By law they are supposed to help you if you have been scammed.
I wrote many times to this auction web site to give me their business address and the name of their CEO but never got any answer. It is a scam run by some crooks from their garage and they are making millions of dollars from gullable peoples.
Add me to the list of suckers…
I got a link from a friend to a “news” story about Penny Auctions (I think someone else has referenced it). A reporter joined and got an iMac and a big screen TV, etc. I was hooked, clicked and joined. And paid the $75. Because really there was no good way to look around without joining. The home page was like a revolving door that just kept coming back to the register page.
OK, my bad.
Started bidding and within about 20 bids, I “got” it and saw how it worked and how they were making all that money. But decided to try what the reporter mentioned in her article and bid late at night. Well, guess what…there were verrrry few items ending at 2am. Nothing in the high-end category.
So I went back to that original “news” story. Its a total FAKE. None of the links went anywhere except right back to that story. WHOIS look-up lists the owner of that domain as a private name IN THE GRAND CAYMAN ISLANDS! I guess they wanted to be there so they could just put our money directly in their offshore bank. There is a phone number with it so I guess we could try calling it, but I have no great hope there. Here’s the WHOIS link: http://domains.whois.com/domain.php?action=whois
I’m pretty sure that $75 (minus $20 in bids) is long-gone but I would LOVE to find a way to officially report them to a consumer agency. Anyone have any ideas?
I recently tested out xBids to see how much luck would go and i actually won a new ipod touch 8gb and received it in the mail in brand new condition. I can understand where some of you think the site is a scam, from my experience its not its just more of a gamble. I can say it was hard getting a hold of customer support by email but they finally responded i’m pretty sure they are getting loaded with emails. i patiently waited and finally got a response with my tracking number and sure enough i got the package.
I am watching the bids on the xbids.com. The time on these bids seems to never expire. Every time during the last 10 seconds some body clicks thinking it is one cent extra only and time resets back to 15 seconds again. Right now there is an IPOD being bid for $ 83 means it has been bid 8300 times but each bid is costing you 61 cents. So the company is already making 8300 x 61cents= $ 5063. But they are still not letting the bid time expire and no body is winning because the time keeps on reverting back to 15 seconds again and again. Sometimes even when one second is left to expire it revert back to 15 seconds again.
Should it not be against the law for some one to state that the bidding time will say expire in 15 seconds but that never happens.
This site is a pure illegal scam site. And I do not think any body has actually won any thing. Their own people keep on clicking during the last 10 seconds and the clock resets to 15 seconds left again and again.
I contested my charges with my credit card company with the above information and they have reversed my charges and told me to keep all the above information in case this company wants to charge my credit card again. Even the lady from fraud unit of my credit card company could not get any one on their 800 number. She told me that they also know this is a scam. And they will not let this scam auction site rebill my credit card. Every body who has been ripped off by BIDS.COM should contest these charges.I hope some attorney will take them on as a class action law suit.
@Gmalik I won something from this site so its not a scam, after losing bids on one auction i did contact support via email and they responded saying that the clock is reset to 15 seconds to give everyone a fair chance at winning an item. Which to me sounds fair because if i spend 100 bids on an item and someone comes in at the last second and click bids and wins only with 1 bid, I would be pissed. After reading through the site it does state this so sounds you need to do a little more research before participating on these types of sites. I did alot of research before i actually gave it a try. try contacting [email protected] thats who responded to me
Won a Sony 32inch TV for $42.91. Went to pay and the Won auction page said cancelled. Two hours later I received a confirmation email saying I did win. Sent emails to xbids demanding I get my produnt. Spent98 bids x .60c each to win it. Co email also said no refund. Anyone with problems need to contact the Federal Trade Commision in their area immediately as well as BBB in your area and in San Francisco where xbids operate. Do it now. The numbers of complaints will make a difference
I went to register and my card was charged the $75 which i did not realize would happen. I immediately called my credit card company and they canceled the card and reissued a new one to me. Lucky for me, the charge had not shown up on my account yet. I wish I would have been SMART and googled them first.
chris smith. Please read the message just below your email. If you publish a time limit for the bids to expire then honor it. Extending it by 15 seconds again and again does not give any bidder more chance to win. The last person to bid before the time expires is the person who wins.Even at the last one second this site keeps on extending back to 15 seconds. I am sure one of their own person is doing it. I am sure you work for them. Why don’t you read all the messages about this scam and decide for your self.
I have snd this information to the law firm of LIEF CABRARER,HEIMANN & BERNSTEIN,LLP to initiate a class action law suit against this scam. I hope other bidders who have been scammed also get in touch with them to initiate a class action law suit. I can assure you after reading about this scam site on google and other sites there will be hundreds if not thousands who will join in this law suit. Even though I can not find the name of the CEO of this company or any telephone number to talk to them. The toll free number is again a computer generated fraudulant number.
My credit card company also told me that they will recredit my $ 75 and after calling this toll free number without success the lady at the fraud unit of my credit card company said that she also believes this is a scam.
chris. After reading your email I am even more sure you work for them.
You are saying that if some one comes in at the last second and wins you will be pissed. Why? He is the one who bid higher than you at the last second before the published time for bid expired. Why they publish time left to expire if it does not mean any thing.
Why not show no time limit for bid and let people bid till the web site decides who the winner is.Any one with a slight common sense can tell that this site is a pure scam. Worse than the Nigerian scams because xbids seems to be run by smarter crooks than Nigerian scam artists.
Lol I don’t work for them just letting you know my experience with the site that is all. Well i don’t think you understood where i was coming from technically but that’s fine I’m not here to argue for the company just let people know what my experience was.
I read an article about how you can save 90% on stuff and realized after spending $100 that these sites are designed to sell very little and just rake in money from people will to pay to bid…and they tell you you can apply the ‘money spent on an unsuccessful bid’ to buying the product…they do not tell you that that is true on only SOME of the products–you do not get this feature on “voucher” bids… These sits are illegal and misleading..they say/print that a product was sold at huge discounts and that is jut not true..they say a product worth $500 was sold for $55.00 for example but each $1 is actually fake because $1 represents 100 bids @ .60 cents per bid that is actually $60. $10 is 1000 bids @ .60 cents per bid is actually $6000…this does not represent ANY Discount let alone a 90% discount…this will all be part of a class action lawsuit and I will get some of my money back and hopefully these folks will go to jail.
Silas,
I agree with you 100%. You need to dispute these charges with your credit card company with the above information. I did and they credited my account for $ 75. You have 90 days to dispute these charges. Also write to Law firm of LIEF, Cabarer, Heimann and Bernstein LLP to initiate a class action law suit. Or if you know any other Law firm which can take these crooks on.
I hope you also complain to FTC and Attorney General of San Francisco.
Complain to the FTC since they have jurisdiction nationwide. Complain to Consumer Protection agencies in your state and in the San Fran, Calif area where xbids operate. This is not a frivolous matter and I have the docs to show I won and yet they refuse to complete the transaction.
I have asked them several times to give me the name of the CEO of this auction site and a telephone number where I can talk to one of their live person without success.
Unless every body who has been mislead by Xbids.com disputes their charges with their credit card company these scams will never stop. I want to take this case to small claims court but I was told I need to send the subpoena to the CEO or the owner of the company by name.
My credit card company has agreed to recredit my $ 75. But I think the credit card companies need to cancel their arrangement with these shaddy scam sites
To all posters here, please keep your credit card in your pocket and just watch the bid clock and look at the “over abundance” of bonus bids that can be bidded on!!- they out number the cameras, flat screens, and ipads- if the objective of the site was to sell discounted merchandise at rock bottom prices, i.e flat screen tvs etc, there would be “MORE” available in the various auctions. I figured out the “slight of hand/smoke and mirrors” tactic. No math required, no debate needed. It is a scam!, it is a site for eager unsuspecting consumers that do what we all do out of pure haste and excitement:), “FAIL TO READ THE INSTRUCTION BOOK OR CHECK IF ALL THE PARTS ARE IN THE BOX, THEN PUT THE TABLE TOGETHER AND REALIZE THAT SCREWS ARE MISSING OUT OF THE BOX, NOW YOU GOT A TABLE WITH THREE LEGS SCREWED ON INSTEAD OF FOUR, AND WANT YOUR MONEY BACK. DO YOUR RESEARCH FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m sorry so many people have been “taken” by this so called company, but I can’t help but shake my head in amazement. Listen people, IF IT SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE….IT IS! What ever happened to common sense? When I was a child growing up in the 70’s and early 80’s, we had the same type’s of scams. The only difference was the people perpatrating the scam did it over the phone, and sometimes they would go door to door. My dear ol dad would tell me “son, anything in life worth having is worth working for”,and” nothing in this life is free”. Yes I know some will say” but I won a so-n-so on a penny auction” Great! People win the lottery as well, but how much did the average person spend to get that $100, $500 or even $1000 pize? My hope is that we as human beings will just use a little common sence.
Thanks guys. Just saved me 75 bucks.
If you place 100 bids (easy to do) on an item and you lose the bid, you just paid $60.00 for the honor of bidding for the item. How can this not be a scam in anyones eyes? Wake up lawman and bring the handcuffs!!!
i don’t think penny auctions can be outlawed as a whole. they’ll have to be shut down one by one. what they are doing is obviously a scam, but i’ve seen auctions sites that claim to be accredited by the BBB. Wow. I’m glad i found this site,(i don’t buy things online through any auction site, including ebay, but my mother is an online shopping fanatic. now i can warn her!). everyone who was screwed out of 75 bucks with the sites misleading “registration” process, or won an auction and didn’t get their product needs to report it to as many consumer protection agencies as they can get in contact with. it be long before the San Fran attorney general and the FTC do something about these sites. best of luck to all who got the shaft!
This is not a scam. They are not being deceitful; everything is in fine print. Please note I am not supporting these types of websites; they are designed to get money from people who don’t understand how they work. It is actually quite genius as it earns a lot of money from people bullying others out of auctions they spend hours bidding on. These websites will pop up everywhere and will continue to do so until everyone boycotts them. Those of you who claim scam or request that some law should be passed against these sites are ignorant and are against capitalism and the free market. Simple supply and demand people.
The concept of penny auctions is certainly up for debate, but theoretically it works. That is unelss the ocmpany you are dealing with is dishonest. That was my experience with XBids.com. After purchasing “bids” for $75, my wife spent hours bidding on an Apple iPad. After multiple hours, she finally was declared the winner of the item. For a week, when clicking on any page referencing that particular item auction, it listed her as the winner. However there was a problem. For some reason, even though she received confirmation she had won the auction (for $88.99), it would not let her pay for the item, meaning she couldn’t buy it. We sent e-mails (the ONLY way to contact that company) every day asking for help. We simply received replies stating the issue was deemed closed. On the 8th day of no help (they give you 7 days to pay for the item) we now see that someone else is listed as the winner of that auction. We were swindled by xBids and I strongly recommend people DO NOT cater this site. SOme people have a good experience, but I was ripped off and can’t even get my $75 back for the bids we purchased.
Maybe this will help .. from the BBB site in SF I got an email address .. from that I found that address used at another site … at a phone number .. and some names … [email protected] 209-623-5743 Almedin Skender and Azem Skender. These people are behind this xBids.com site somehow. People who are better researchers than me can find them .. and when you do, please post the information here so we can sue them and stop them. Thanks and happier Thanksgiving. Here are other names somehow related to these crooks .. » Zekira Skender » Elvis Skender » Elvedina Skender » Bahrudin Skender » There’s some connection to Kansas City and Vermont, too. Grifters and crooks. Please please nail them somehow.
WELCOME
Thanks for choosing our website. We hope you have great success in your job search. Please Note: Nannies, tutors and babysitting positions will not be posted on our webpage, however they will be posted on our college job board, and forwarded to instructors in our
Early Childhood Development Dept.
Part Time Jobs
October 21, 2010
Job Title: Online Customer Service Rep
Company Name: xBids, LLC
Location: San Ramon, CA
Days/Hours: 9AM – 5PM – Mon-Fri
Duties/Skills: Answer customer questions/concerns through email and
occasionally contact customers by phone.
Pay: $11-12
Contact Info: Al [email protected]-209-623-5743
This site is a total scam in my opinion. I was lured in with 20 free bids to try it out, and without my knowledge or authorization, they charged me $75 for 120 bids. They make it seem like you are just setting up an account and your credit card is on file for when you purchase something. Not so. I never pressed any buttons to buy bids. The customer service number is just a recording telling you all customer service issues are handled on line. When you send them an email, you get no response. TOTAL SCAM. DON’T USE THIS SITE. That is my advice.
I wish I had read hear before buying into this BS. Read an article on Fox News. Something told me it looked like advertising, but I couldn’t find anything that spelled it out. I should have trusted my instict. I just blew $75. GREAT!!!!!
I also signed up and didn’t see any post saying they were charging my card; it was as if I was merely setting up an account–of course I only skimmed the fine print. The next page they showed that I just payed $75 for 120 bids. So far I haven’t won any bids and its a waste of time any money for the average shopper and person with good hard earned money.
I do not understand it. If every body who is complaing about this site as a scam and has paid with their credit card they should dispute these charges with their credit card company. Send the copies of all these complaints to prove to the fraud unit of your credit card company and I believe the charges will be reversed and even though Xbids has 45 days to dispute as well I do not see how they will be able to convince the credit card company that they are not running a scam. Problem is most of us just get angery for a while and then just forget about it thinking it was just $75.
I have disputed these charges with my credit card company and have sent them copies of all these complaints. I do not think this scam site will be able to prove that they are a legitimate business. So please every body dispute these charges with your credit card company
Thanks for this blog/site.. I almost got sucked into this nonsense, but decided to “google” xbids… glad I did….. I heard someone once say “There’s ALWAYS free cheeze in a mousetrap” …. I hope everyone who’s been scammed gets their money back…. shut these miscreants DOWN….
i wish i had looked ahead
I found xbids by following a link from THE VIEW website after their show last week on Free Stuff. It appeared they got the free 20 bids extended so if we all signed up based on their recommendation, we could win these great products. Someone had won a TV which is what I wanted and am disabled so can’t afford one. Thought it was my chance so let them charge my Debit Card for the $75.
I can’t believe what xbids is doing & getting away with. This is called stealing for what i understand.To think that every one’s registration is being charged $75.00!!! on there credit card with out any knowledge of it is one of the most corrupt thing i’ve witness online. I’m going to do all I can to stop these crooks!!!!!!!
I have went to my bank and have been talking with them on the phone. It WILL BE investigated! Wooohoo!!!!
Before when i searched on Bing.com it came up first thing. Not any more. But it will eventually find it. The number above has been disabled! Whats that tell ya’? Uh huh!!!! I hope they get busted! Taking from people as hard as times are, and no one can afford that!
MOUSETRAP MOUSETRAP, Hurry up and get your FREE CHEESE!!!
My wife just fell for this SCAM. She was lead to believe she was simply setting un an acoount and ‘presto’ $75 was charged to our credit card. They do not tell you they are going to charge you. They just do it!
Thunder I’m sorry to say 100 Penny’s x 2,000 = 2,000 or 1.00 x 2,000=2,000
I checked out this site and decided not to put in my credit card info because right at the top of the box it says “premium package $75.00” – FYI- Always read the entire page, and anytime you have to put in your credit card info chances are they are going to charge you something.
This is not a scam. Just because you lack the know-how to work these doesn’t mean it’s a scam. I have won multiple items off of xbids, macbids, etc. for around $2000 in total. Well guess what, I have turned around & resold the items & have profitted $1700 since I started. Here is how you do it. Commit to solely buying bids for cheap the first month. Then after investing around $200 in bids turn around & unload them on products later in the day once the amount of people bidding decreases. I studied these websites for months before ever committing the first cent to them & now have made a huge profit off them. I do not work for these websites I work them for a profit. I have helped people buy being able to buy & sell items for less than face value & have actually made money. Learn the system & anyone & I mean anyone can profit off of these websites. Sorry some of you can’t work the system well enough to profit.
However I will say if you don’t understand the system don’t invest your money because you are the suckers they make big $$$ off of. It is not easy to understand bidding patterns & takes a lot of time & effort but it does pay off in the end if you do it right. I will also say for those who are accusing it of being corrupt, what is the difference between this & Walmart putting out 3 Ipads on Black Friday & charging you after being on sale more than true retail value for the Ipad? There is none but in today’s America it is ok for big business to screw our eyes out because we don’t stand up against what they do but when the little guy tries to make a quick buck on something we are outraged. If you want to boycott this fine but don’t buy Walmart, McDonalds, or Aeropostale because they’re screwing you too while making a huge profit. over 80% of Walmart items are made shotty & in China where they barely pay anything & that is much worse than someone who sells stuff below face value.
I almost got suckered, Thank God I looked it up 1st. Thank you everyone for sharing your experience…now I can call my husband and tell him all about it!
if it sounds toooo good to be true……
I made a terrible mistake by not reading your web site before going into xbids. I was ripped off. They took $75.00 off my credit card and refused to call me or give me some sort of support. People like this should be in jail. Unfortunately, at this time of the year the money means a lot to me.
I could just kick myself for getting involved
Absolute Scam. Like everyone else, thought I was just setting up an account and was charged $75 without any agreement. Site says you can get a refund, but there is no one to contact. I will dispute the charge and will prevail but it is much too much effort. Very foolish.
$75 Fee = NO scam.
It is obvious, right at the top of the sign-up page. They say they are charging you $75 right NOW for 120 bids.
Many complain it is only in the “fine print”. NOT true. It is bold, at the top, and obvious. Why in the world are you giving ANYONE your credit card without at the LEAST looking at the HUGE notice saying $75?????
Okay -that was harsh – but needs to be said. I repeat…NEVER give your card number without at least glancing at the big, bold, FEE right above your cursor.
That said, I am NOT saying xbids is a good company or a good idea or a good investment of $75. I have no idea. Maybe their “idea” is a scam. I decided NOT to sign up, based on my own conclusion that I might blow my whole $75 worth of bids on only a few bidding items, and even then not even win it. In fact, it seems UNlikely I would win, or if so, not at the type of discounts advertised. If you paid the $75 and have never bid, just call your bank and charge it back. Case closed.
Just my opinion. Good luck to all.
Xbids is a scam. Don’t sign up for their service. they charge your credit card without warning or authorization when you “sign up” for their service.
If you get charged, complain to your credit card company. if enough people complain, perhaps the cc-companies will stop allowing their services for the scammer.
ok, I came across xbids through this link when I was on abc.com it took me to breakingnews5.com where it looks like a newsreport on xbids…well come to find this website is fabricated by xbids, I tried clicking on links, like SPORTS, POLITICS, BUISNESS and it took me to an xbids advertisement…I was so stupid too, to believe it was real. I actually bought bids
(before doing research) & won a couple of items and I still havent recevied my shipment. I have emailed them & they haven’t email me back. I am reporting this company to the BBB.
SLB
Xbids has no telephone number to get in touch with a live person. Their toll free telephone number 1 888 649 2437 is only a cmputer generated answer.” At present we are not taking any telephone calls and you can only get in touch with them by email” Is that what Walmart does?
Do you know any legitimate business where they advertise the bidding time will end or the business will close at certain time but the last 15 seconds never end and keep on extending back to 15 seconds again and again.
There is no way to find out who is the owner of this company or the name of the CEO. Is that what happens with Wal mart or McDonalds ?
Do you know any auction site where even if the item is worth thousand dollars the bidding always starts at one cent. When the bidder thinks he has only spent $ 1.25 at one cent increments actaully all his $ 75 has gone.
See hundreds of complaints about this company on goole and other sites how people who were told they have won never got their item because it got cancelled for some reason or another. I do not think they actually have any goods to deliver.
Even if the item was actually sold for say $ 89.90 the owner of this site made 8990 x 61 cetns = $5483.90 and winner still did not get the item and is still waiting for any answer.
Can any body tell us who the owner of this site is or the name of the CEO?
This is a pure internet scam without any goods and no body knows who is running it and they will disappear after making millions of dollars. Evey body must dispute these charges to their credit card company. I did and got my $75 credited back to me. Even the customer represetative of my credit card company could not get any reply from this toll free number or who the owner of this company is and told me it is a scam site.
Amen Gmalik,
I got my $75 back too. I am going to email all the local news stations in my area, & get these people to be investicated. TAKE EM DOWN!!!
oh yeah also came across channel4newstoday.com, also a fabricated new report by xbids.
Well, live and learn the hard way. I should have checked out this site before signing up, and because I didn’t I have learned that there are still cons being run on the web. For the other uninformed people out there who think that penny auctions are a good deal…think again. You have to pay for so many bids to get onto the site, and they give you so many, but the catch is that even though you get so many bids you still pay on average between .50 cent and a $1 to just bid on the item, and then even though you think there is only 15 seconds left on the auction, it renews everytime a new person bids…so that auction can go on for hours or until people finally get tired and give up or run out of bids. In the end if you keep track of how many times you bid and then how much you end up paying (if you win the item) you realize that you have paid retail or more for the so called “good deal”. Then if you figure out how many times you’ve bid then calculate how many other people have bid on the same item you also realize that the company who has sponsored the auction has made 10 times if not more what the item is worth. My advice….BEWARE!
Just to be clear…penny auction does not mean that you bid a penny, and it cost you a penny, it just means that the bid went up a penny, but cost you between .50 cents and a $1. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you are getting a good deal.
As for the cost of buying the bids…no where on the site does it say that when you click buy bids that it is automatically going to charge you card $75, and give you no way to cancel the transaction.
This company is dangerous to the uninformed, and especially now in this economy where people are trying to find ways to cut corners and save money, I consider them criminal in their actions. They need to be shutdown, and brought up on charges of fraud, and running an iternet scam.
Hey there,
I have been checking out Xbids today.
I came up with this.
Two friends are talking,one say’s
I just got an Ipad on Xbids for $150.00.
The friend say’s, That’s great.
I just sold one on Xbids for $9000.00.
P.S. When will the suckers get it?
xbids is a rip off buyers beware they dont inform u they are billing u 75 bucks they just take it once u register scam for sure and no numbers work for them at all
u guys are not reading the registration page it saids it will give u free 20 bid points along with Premium Bid Pack u are buying thats 75 dollars. u should always read whats on the site if its asking u for your credit card.
What a scam!!!!!!!!!They took 75.00 and I cannot get in touch with them at all to refund my money. Yes it will let email them but you never get a reply. It is almost impossible to win anything.
This is outright scam. I for one am reporting them to the better business in my area and I hope all of you will too. They should not get away with this
Scam! Jesse Willms is behind it. A Canadian scumbag. Check Swipebids scam, SwipeAuction scam, … These webisites look almost identical. Jesse Willms is a high school dropout by the way.
Tell your Credit Card company:
(1) It’s a scam
(2) You never authorize them to charge you
(3) You never agreed upon the transaction
(4) You never purchased anything from them
(5) You tried emailing and calling them. No use.
(6) You ask your credit card company to do an internet search (Jesse Willms, Swipe.com scam, xBids scam, …)
I did the above and got my money back.
Xbids.com site is a total scam in my opinion. I was lured in with 20 free bids to try it out, and without my knowledge or authorization, they charged me $75 for 120 bids. They make it seem like you are just setting up an account and your credit card is on file for when you purchase something. Not so. I never pressed any buttons to buy bids. The customer service number is just a recording telling you all customer service issues are handled on line. When you send them an email, you get no response. TOTAL SCAM. DON’T USE THIS SITE. That is my advice.
For More information, google it and get educated about these type of sites!.
You are Prompted to a Free gift ( 20) bids
Then they ask you for your Credit Card.
I assumed it was for when I Bid on a Product.
Then you are Prompted by a ” Continue” Icon…… Not Purchase Icon.
You click Continue and you have just Purchased $75.00 worth of Bid Rights along with your Free (20) Bids.
I have never in my life Conned into Buying something with a ” Continue” Icon
It is intentionally very Misleading.
I have Called my Bank to dispute but may not get results for 60 Days ( CitiBank”
Yet another penny auction scam. How does Fox News cover these scam sites as legit businesses?
Please read the BBB report about xbids. ” The address xbids provides is of a virtual office which means that they rent space and facilities with other companies and their are no employees at this location”
BBB also determined that xbids telephone number 1 888 649 2437 is a fake number.
Any body who has paid by credit card should dispute these fraudulent charges by xbids and give the above investigation report
by BBB to their bank and credit card company.
OK — Add me to the XBIDS suckers list! Ebay looks like the safest place to go for legit auctions. I like who knows how many other people got sucked into this vacum cleaner of BS! Hope the Feds get wind of these crooks!
OK SO I BUY BIDS I STAY WITH THE AUCTION FOR HOURS. AS STATED IN THE LAST 15 MIN IT KEEPS RESETING TO15 MIN AFTER EVERY BID. NOW HERE IS WHERE I GOT SCAMMED, IKEPT WAITING UNTIL THE TIME WENT DOWN TO 2-3 SECONDS. SORRY ABOVE I SAID MIN. IN THE END WHEN TIME RAN OUT I KNOW I WAS THE LAST BIDDER. ANOTHER NAME SHOWS UP & THEY WERE NOT ONE OF THE BIDDERS. I GOT SUCKERD. OH WELL A LEAST CREDIT CARD COMPANY SAID THIS IS NOT THE 1ST COMPLAINT & I SHOULD EVENUALLY GET CREDIT’ WHAT A WASTE OF TIME.ECT8
SCAM.. SCAM.. SCAM
Where are the Internet Police?
Actually won an item on XBids, was notified by email I won. Then filled our shipping info; only to be told later that the system had a power failure and I really didn’t win. Argued by email about the issue to no avail. They were not going to send me that 42″ LED TV I supposedly won for $78. I’m notifying the Attorney General’s office in Calif. I believe thats where the company is.
Mecklo;how did you get your money back?
okay i too saw this “breaking news” deal and clicked it led me to xbids i used the promo code and scrolled down and when it asked for a card i said hell no. i was debating whether or not i would like to take my 75 and chance winning/losing/not getting my stuff if i do win…then a little screen popped up like an instant message and said u are already signed up. lies, i didnt put any of my credit info on there…lol. i agree wit the person above who has made money off of them. u cant miss the thing that says u are paying 75 dollars, its VERY obvious. its your fault for pressing okay and giving ur card info. i think if u know how to work the site u will make a profit, but, if u dont know then chances are u shudnt click okay and give ur card info. Plus, all those people who are skeptical but still sign up, AND u just skimmed the sign up page, i mean come on. u cant blame xbids for ur dumb mistakes. and i really dont think u can do anything against these people, but i wish u all the best of luck, and hope u learned ur lessons.
Dave;
Read the report on XBIDS from BBB.The address XBIDS advertizes is a virtual office in San Francisco which means it is a phanthom place without any employees.
The telephone number is a fake computer generated answering service.
The auction site is run by some crook or crooks and has no business office or goods to deliver.
Your only recourse is to dispute any charges by XBIDS with your credit card company with the above information and they will reverse the charges.
But do complain to the attorney general and hopefully these scam sites will be shut down.
THX GUYS. JUST SAVED $75. MERRY XMAS.
ok.everybody says they made disputes with the credit card was paid.what if I paid by debit card,can I dispute easy as with credit card?
I just got the stolen charge of $75.00 refunded on my VISA. I too was misled that I was signing up to bid and as soon as I finished the sign up process I was charged $75.00. I have tried unsuccessfully all week to contact the company for a refund. The phone number is useless and all I keep getting in reply to my e-mails is the same form letter over and over only with a different signature. Finally today, a week to the day later I contacted my bank who canceled the credit card that I gave these thieves and is issuing a new one that these crooks don’t have the number. They are also refunding the $75.00 that these scammers stole. I recommend that every one of you who was swindled by these crooks do the same thing.
I cannot believe that this p.o.s company can even still be around with all the
modern internet cops there are out there, where are they on this scam company.
this should of been shut down after the first ten complaints. well anyways good
for exbides that they can stay under the radar and not get caught. I suggest that
you should never give out ur card info period. but if u must get a prepaid card
so then ur only out $75.00 insted of hundreds with ur bank card. good luck to all
of you that were taken buy these p.o.s