BarginBids.com
Complaint 88860 Details

I signed up for barginbids.com much like the other person who has complained on here. In other words, I got tricked into spending $99.99. I decided to make the best of it, and started bidding. I realized quickly that bidding on large ticket items was a losing proposition; so I decided to bid on gift cards, which also included extra bids. I won half a dozen or so, and paid for them immediately.

Then, one night, I decided to bump it up a bit, and bid on a GPS unit. As the price was reaching the point that these units were usually selling for, a "bidder" named "wasteyourbids" showed up and immediately, every other bidder stopped bidding - except me. Everytime I bid, this "bidder" immediately bumped the bid. The auction format for barginbids works like this: everytime someone bids within the last ten seconds, the timer resets to 10 seconds. I was high bidder as the timer reached two seconds, and I thought I may actually win the auction, when this "bidder" bumped the bid again. Only one problem: the timer did not reset, and the auction ended immediately after wasteyourbids placed the final bid.

I "opened a ticket", which is how you contact the barginbids management to report problems, and told them of my experience. At that time, I also intimated that I believed that there was something dishonest going on. The disappearance of all other bidders, and the irregularity in the auction seemed to add up to a scam. They answered me that they had checked the logs, and nothing was wrong with the auction, but told me that they would refund my $99.99, plus the additional money I had spent on the auctions I won (about $30.00). I wrote them back, and said that that would be acceptable.

Shortly thereafter, they "closed my ticket", which I assumed meant that I would be receiving my refund. That was 3 1/2 months ago. Since then, I have opened numerous new tickets, but nothing. As soon as I mention the original ticket, they stop responding. The domain is anonymously registered, so I cannot get an address or phone number to contact anyone. This auction site is a scam, but if you are going to take your chances on it, use a CREDIT CARD. DO NOT USE A DEBIT CARD, because you will not be able to dispute the charges when they rip you off.