QuiBids
Complaint 40646 Details

Signed up on quibids.com after seeing a news report about them. They advertise being free to sign up but then have a preset first bidding package that you must purchase to begin. Began bidding on a few items using the 100 bids that I had been charged for as a start up fee (60.00). I began bidding on a laptop and during the course of the bidding there were numerous times when the timer ran out while I was the highest bidder but then suddenly the timer would reset and the list showed another user as highest bidder with a bid placed using the Bid-O-Matic. One particular user consistently bid simultaneously with whoever was outbidding the current high bidder regardless of the time left on the clock. The bids placed by the Bid-O-Matic were strangely random in the frequency and timing, and did not equally bid for all who were using the Bid-O-Matic at the time, depleting some users faster than others. It was with the laptop bidding that I started to realize something wasn't right. How was it that I would be the highest bidder when the timer ran out but suddenly a bunch of Bid-O-Matic users would appear on the list above me? Why weren't all who used the Bid-O-Matic depleted at the same rate instead of one user's bids in rapid succession when there were numerous people using the Bid-O-Matic? How do we know that the computer was using the bids equally and fairly? The fact that the 'computer' determines when to bid makes me question if in fact the others bidding against me were real people or just bots to get you all excited as the clock almost runs out in order to build you to the point of adding extra bid packs because you 'almost had it!' I don't play lotto, I don't gamble, and yet I was unable to resist the lure of this site. I feel so stupid and embarrassed to have fallen for this. Worst of all is that I lost all the money I had saved for my kids for Christmas so there won't be Christmas this year as I cannot replenish the money. Based on my experience, it became clear that the strange bidding patterns were more than just coincidental luck of seasoned bidders. Clearly the site uses a technology based cheat to make sure that members get hooked but never win.