Menu
Zbiddy.com

Zbiddy.com review: Fraudulent Charges 62

P
Author of the review
7:03 pm EST
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Featured review
This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

They do not tell you upfront that they are going to charge you $159.00 for bidding. When you contact this company they tell you that the notification "pops up" before you hit "okay". This is a total LIE! I checked out the site, I looked to see if I would be charged... no mention until they have YOUR INFO to bill! I contacted their supposed "customer service dept" who said they would place a refund back to my account. They NEVER gave me the credit! Now I am disputing this charge with my credit card company. BUYER BEWARE! DO NOT USE THIS SITE. FYI, I believe that it is also rigged to never win a bid. Every time the bid drops to 10 seconds it automatically adds time so that it continues, then when you do try to place a bid, it won't place it. TOTAL SHAM!

Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

62 comments
Add a comment
R
R
Ri9
Massapequa Park, US
Nov 25, 2011 8:11 am EST

thanks for your posts i almost joined and after reading these reviews i have to be insane to deal with these scam artists!

officialzbiddy
officialzbiddy
Montvale, US
Nov 10, 2011 7:33 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

ZBiddy is proud to operate a Customer Service Desk that can be reached at [protected] Monday thru Saturday from 8am to 12am EST. One of our friendly agents is in place to assist you with any concerns that you have.

R
R
robert_john
San Jose, US
Nov 03, 2011 7:55 pm EDT

zbiddy.com is best penny auction site in it's category. i have been bidding on this site for long time. bidding is fun on this site.

F
F
fanoftimberlake
Cleveland, US
Oct 02, 2011 2:53 pm EDT

I believe zbiddy is a legit site. The reviews on there as well as PAW seem to lead me to believe this is a good site.

G
G
gorillapimping
oasdf, US
Sep 28, 2011 3:08 am EDT

This is for those contemplating joining Zbiddy. My personal review, I don't have anywhere else to post it, but I feel like it is pretty important and useful if you are thinking about joining.

I just joined the website. its really whatever and not that worth it. I just registered today and wasted a couple hours of my life, but I also read a bunch of reviews. What I can tell you is that anyone who advocates and reviews Zbiddy positively is probably working for Zbiddy. I see a lot of spam-like reviews even in comment sections like this that have to be workers for Zbiddy. As far as bots go, I am really not sure. But here are the tips and hints I can give you after some hours of figuring it out.

First of all heres whats important in the way it works; when the item is almost running out of time (below 13 seconds) the name of the bidder is shown under the time. anytime the time is below 13 seconds and someone else bids, the clock restarts to 13 seconds; so its pointless trying to bid at 1 second because all that will do is restart the clock, and get the person who almost won pissed, and he will make sure you wont win. The only way to win is for everyone to just be down for someone else to win (maybe out of pitty? or disbelief that someone can actually win?). Whenever I see a bid below 5 seconds, I dont bid over it, I would rather just have that person win, and I hope they would do the same for me (even though I doubt that will ever happen). Because the clock restarts to 13 seconds every time someone bids, an auction literally can last hours or days with less than 13 seconds left on it's clock. So here are some hints That I can give you to increase your chance of success if you are still down to join Zbiddy (after all I told you, you can see your chances are very slim in winning).

hint 1: Biddyz doesnt let you choose your own username, they just make it similar to your email address you input. Ie. my email is gorillapimpin, they made my username gorilla_435 or some random numbers. Maybe you should make a new username like plzletwin@whatever.com since others can see your username before they decide to bid and take back the clock 10 seconds. It seems like its really about others just letting you win at the end of the day, and having a friendly username could help.

hint 2: if you want to register and not buy a 60 dollar package, try and sign up but then dont put in the correct billing information, after you press go it will say that you can't continue on because ur billing is messed up, but then if you go to the home site you will see that you did in fact register successfully. You can then go and buy a cheeper package like I did. I think i got 45 bids for 18 or something.

J
J
John S. Roberts
Wokingham, GB
Sep 10, 2011 5:11 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Nelson, even many of friends have won couple of items from this site.

thestarisborn
thestarisborn
San Jose, US
Sep 08, 2011 11:34 pm EDT

Zbiddy has more than 500000 users now and why we don't want to enrol. I have checked their Alexa rankings and page rank and found everything correct and good in figures. Seems like it is not a new website but rather an old and a website with a huge traffic. You can check it yourself

N
N
nelsonS
San Jose, US
Sep 03, 2011 1:10 am EDT

John, I agree with you. I have been a member of this site and win 7 items so far including ipad. Zbiddy is a great site.

J
J
John S. Roberts
Wokingham, GB
Aug 29, 2011 10:18 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I have placed bids on Zbiddy.com and I did not see as what others have described above. I found the timer of the auction to be working fine. Even, when I was bidding on a gift card, I won it with just 6 bids. If there were shills then why did I win? I can't understand why people unethically defame other's business.

officialzbiddy
officialzbiddy
Montvale, US
Aug 24, 2011 7:07 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

To place bids and win products on Zbiddy, you must first register and purchase a bid package. This process is standard across the penny auction industry and is not exclusive to Zbiddy. If you have questions about the registration process, or if you were unaware that you were being charged at the time of your purchase, please contact our Customer Service department at [protected]. Our friendly agents are standing by to take your call and help resolve your issue. The Customer Service Desk hours are Monday through Saturday from 8am to 12am EST.

R
R
RCBoyd
Seaford, US
Jul 22, 2011 12:14 am EDT

I was charged for bids as well without my consent. I went on the LiveChat with a representitive and she was very nice. She made a credit back to my card, gave me a confirmation number, and also gave me 15 bids as customer appreciation. I'm satisfied, at least for now.

M
M
mckrakn
las vegas, US
Jun 28, 2011 8:54 pm EDT

FirstLove is obviously a zbiddy employee. you sir have no business posting here...
i was about to open an account but decided to talk to a zbiddy rep. thats when sonia came in the picture. i found her by clicking "live chat" icon asked her 1) if there are any fees to start the membership, 2)how much does a "penny bid" actually cost and 3) if they have a buyer protection, like ebay offers and 4)why they only accept credit card. dont know about the rest of the world but i dont give out my creditcard info over the phone nor internet, i much prefer paypal

F
F
Fighting Scams: Scambook.com
, US
Jun 15, 2011 8:09 pm EDT

We saw your comment, and I am sorry for your frustration with Zbiddy. I am seeing others going through the same thing you have.

They have submitted their claim on our website in hopes to get enough claims about Zbiddy to start a Class Action Lawsuit.
http://www.scambook.com/browse/index/company/274/zBiddy

If you would like to participate in trying to get your money back and warn others about this scam please submit your claim on Scambook as well.

Source(s):
http://scambook.com

S
S
sewbusy4u
Creve Coeur, US
May 31, 2011 1:45 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

my daughter signed up for zbiddy and after she signed up she saw that was charged 159.00. on the live chat they said there was no refund. After reading some of the comments on this site decided to call them back by phone. He tried to show me on the site that she agreed I told him I did not care and was calling better business and to my surprise he said no problem so her money is suppose to be back in in 7 to 10 days.
We will see if not I will call bbb so thanks the the other person that said they would call bbb.

C
C
CSIM
Baton Rouge, US
May 25, 2011 9:58 pm EDT

My experience has been very negative in dealing with ZBiddy. They have only 14 catagories for bid items, and at this time, 3 catagories have absolutely NO ITEMS to bid on. Several catagories have literally ONE or TWO items, and the rest have a dozen or so items. The auctions are set to end one-at-a-time, and is prolonged by the items being bid up a few pennies at time. Each bid you place is costing you 60 cents. This adds up FAST--and then you most likely LOSE! Only ONE sucker will come out ahead. All you other smooks get the chance to bid on one of the hand full of other items, and go through the same process all over again. If this sounds like fun to you, you have my sympathy. I thought I must have overlooked the fact that I was BUYING BIDS--although I was giving them my credit card number, but I really thought I was just 'registering', and I was just geting set up for when I find that 'hot item' I couldn't do without. Now I need to check my account to see if they debited my acount for $159.00 too!

K
K
KCMOite
Lees Summit, US
May 09, 2011 7:42 pm EDT

This company is very sketchy. I got an email about Overstock auctions. Think it was Overstock.com, a reputable company I have used in the past, I clicked on it and updated by credit card information. I started bidding and did not notice the $159 charge for 'a bid package' until later. It may well be the Terms but it is certainly not openly explained. My skepticism increased when I realized that they never give you a company address on the Contact Us page. There is a Miami address in the FAQ under Cancellation. I was able to get a refund by calling the toll-free line but the call center was manned by the all-t00-typical foreign agent speaking bad English with background noise that drowned out most conversation.
I'd avoid these guys unless you are eager for problems.

O
O
onesuperhardworkingmom
Washington, US
May 08, 2011 1:38 pm EDT

Just think of how many poor people these auctions prey upon. This is terrible and should not be allowed. Just think how many people pay the $159. If only ten people sign-up per day, that's a total of $1, 590 that they are making off people. Just image how many people do sign-up. These folks will be rich in know time from scamming individuals. This just doen't make any sense. I hope more people find out about this and boycott the site. Rest assured, I will give the site no more of my time.

O
O
onesuperhardworkingmom
Washington, US
May 08, 2011 1:33 pm EDT

Thanks for the warning. I thought the site was legit and was waiting on my tax refund so I could join and start bidding away. I was thinking, everyone would have a good Christmas this year by the time I finished bidding. I am glad I read these postings first because they will never get my money now. God saved me again. He is an AWESOME GOD! Thank you Jesus!

L
L
LaneG
, US
Apr 16, 2011 3:22 am EDT

Ahhhh...the positive aspects of internet shopping...the feedback from real people. Thanks everyone for saving me time, money, and aggravation, unfortunately at your expense.

K
K
kenneth devitt
Jonesboro, US
Feb 28, 2011 5:36 pm EST

I won a bid for a Wii it was supposed to be delivered 5 to7 business days I am now at day 20 when I try to contact them on the ( live chat line) they tell me that so one will contact me I don't even know who suppose to be delivering the game they won't even give me a tracking number

B
B
Buckbhonest
Atlanta, US
Feb 24, 2011 9:07 pm EST

Below is something someone else wrote about internet penny/auction scams. After doing some research on flippa and website script to start your own penny site, these are total scams.

This was one the Bidcactus scam complaints by ''junkyarddogg'' :

"This Penny Auction Watch site is Major scam(pennyauctionwatch.com). Also known as "PAW".

PAW is a front for these dishonest penny auction owners to make their sites look legit. Penny Auction Owners plant positive experiences on here(Complaints Board) and on the Penny Auction Watch forums(PAW) to bait people into playing and buying bid packs. Buying bid packs to bid on items? What a joke and scam!

Go to Flippa[dot]com and search "penny auctions for sale"

There you can see how these operates by the use of controlled bots on autobid to scam any real people into buying more and more bid packs until the reserve price has at least been met for that item that's bid on. They aren't in the business to LOSE money and will never ACTUALLY sell an item below value. If not enough real people are bidding on a particular item for a while, they will end the auction to a bot name. They will then list the bots name in the "Auction History" section to make it look as if REAL people actually win and auction is honest+fair.

You can buy your own Penny Auction from Flippa.com and start scamming also. So easy to do.

Also. Google, "penny auction website script" and see how these scams operate. The scripts are cheap to buy.
To build up traffic to your scam penny auction you must plant positive experiences on forums such as PAW(PAW is a front). You must also dispute ANY negativity or complaints on forums such as this.
For EX, tell the angry complainer that he must be crazy, use stupid bidding techniques and unlucky because you win all the time and just won a 52inch Plasma for 2 bucks. People WILL start believing you if you plant enough fake postitive experiences/reviews. JUST make sure to use different names each time you fake post. If you use same name over and over again telling everyone you win all the time, people will begin to catch on and realize it's just a fake post planted by the Penny Site operator/owner.

They cheat you and make a killing from people like you that bought into it. Some will even go as far as to advertise on social networking sites such as "FACEBOOK" and write stories of winning items for $4 and so on to get people to join the site.
I call it their, "Fake Social Environment" where they ask and answer their own questions attempting to be perceived as an honest and fair auction. For EX they will say, "I just won 12 Lap Tops for $40 and they all arrived today in factory sealed boxes! I love this site!"

Anyone can do this... so easy to make money. MAKE sure that the server that hosts your scam auction is located outside of the USA so you can get around federal gambling regulated laws. If heat gets to much, then shut scam auction down and create a new one. Repeat process.

Happy scammin'!

I tried to post that on PAW(pennyauctionwatch[.]com) to warn good honest people BUT they wouldn't allow it to post.. I wonder why? ;)

So i'll just post away on websites such as this.

You use to could post on PAW right away but now they have a Moderator that must approve your post first.. I wonder why that is? ;)

I think we ALL know why that is :) "

B
B
Buckbhonest
Atlanta, US
Feb 24, 2011 9:02 pm EST

The lovefist should know, since he runs the site. Beware of the scam artist. Im going to copy and paste something Ive read that I found very interesting... maybe you will too.

Learn how the rating is calculated

Write a review File a complaint

Zbiddy.com contacts

Phone number
Category