Friday, February 4, 2011

The Truth about BidRack *UPDATED*

**UPDATE #3**
It has been several months since I posted about this site but I have been reading all of your comments.   I know some of you claim to have had good experiences with this site and others have just joined and are excited about getting great bargains in a penny auction.

There is no such thing as a penny auction.

Bidrack is constantly changing its policies but generally each bid (if you buy a bid package) costs you anywhere from 50 cents to $1. Every time you "bid" a penny on an item, you are spending at least 50 cents. As one astute commenter pointed out, this means that an iPad that goes for $150 is really being sold for 15,000 bids or approximately $7500.  Not a bad deal for Bidrack. Even if some of those were free bids given to bidders. To have them claim they cannot fulfill an order after making this kind of profit is ludicrous. You shouldn't believe it and you shouldn't take anything less than the item you bid on.

It has been made clear time and again that the big auctions are rigged.  I have only ever had one commenter claim to win an iPad.  Everyone other winner seems to win cheap handbags, jewelry and other items that I'm sure are knockoffs and cheaply made.  I never hear of people winning high-end items like Louis Vuitton bags and actually getting them.

Bidrack is genius in that they tend to substitute items and then offer you free bids in order to placate you. These free bids will help to drive up the selling price of an item and, therefore, Bidrack's profit.

If you are happy winning cheap items that are probably worth less than what you pay for shipping then you will probably be happy with this site.  Otherwise, I still say Buyer Beware.



**UPDATE #2**  I checked my credit card account this morning (3/21/11) and BidRack did indeed credit back all my money. I never won a single thing on BidRack and they refunded all my money for the bid package. So, I didn't end up losing anything but it was certainly a disappointing experience. Please read through all the comments to see the experience of others.


**UPDATE**  Since I first posted this, there have been many negative changes to BidRack.  They have altered their policies and many people have not received any of the the auction items they "won." Please take some time to read through the comments on this post.  Personally, I contacted BidRack to ask for a full refund and to shut down my account.  They responded within hours and refunded my money entirely.  I never won a single auction.


I have been seeing lots of buzz about the new auction site called BidRack and thought I'd check it out. First of all, I find it suspicious that they would need to falsify testimonials.  That is never a good sign. Still, I'm a woman who loves a bargain and I'm a reformed eBay addict so I thought I would look into BidRack a bit further.

First of all, you have to buy bids.  For $60, you can get 120 bids.  So each bid costs you about 50 cents. When you use your bids, you are raising the purchase price by 1 cent.  If you choose to do this, do NOT bid on any items until the last fifteen seconds. Otherwise, you are just throwing your bid away.  Most of the action is in the last fifteen seconds.  Every time someone bids in the last fifteen seconds, the timer goes back to 00:15.  So, it can be the last fifteen seconds for A LONG TIME.   The idea behind this website is that every bid increases the price by one penny.  Whoever places the last bid before the timer runs out gets to purchase the item at the final price. So, theoretically, you can get an iPad for a fraction of the price.

Theoretically.

You do not get back the bids that you throw away use on an auction.  The site claims that you can apply what you spent in bids towards the full retail price of the item if you lose.  So, here is what you have to do.  Let's say you are bidding on an iPad which retails at around $500. You spent $60 on bids and you want to aim for buying the iPad at no more than $250.  So, you should stop bidding at around $190 if you don't want to go over your limit.  You may run out of bids before it hits this price.  Or the timer could run out. I suppose if you used all your bids and lose, they would offer the iPad to you for $440.  Whoopee.

I'm not sure this whole thing is a good deal and I'm not even sure it isn't a scam. It seems like a giant time and money suck.  If I find out differently, I'll let you know. But for now I am labeling this service "buyer beware."

219 comments:

«Oldest   ‹Older   201 – 219 of 219
Puking Pixels said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Puking Pixels said...

Like several others, I was mid-way through entering my personal information (admittedly against my better judgement). When I got to the credit card info I too became suspicious, and then noticed that I was about to purchase $99 worth of bids. This prompted me to Google Bidrack, and like so many others I ended up here. I literally read every single post in this thread, and it's obviously a scam. There are groups of people here who have been ripped off by different phases of the scam as it is continually being refined and adapted to A: be more effective, and B: circumvent legal action.

I'm glad some of you got everything sorted out, and sorry for those who didn't, but mostly I'm just happy I noticed the charge I was about to incur, and subsequently this page.

Do the math : If an item sells for $100, and each 50 cent bid increases the price by 1 cent, then the combined total paid by all bidders is $5000. So that $1799 MacBook Pro you were bidding on? yeah, they made enough off that auction to buy about 2.8 of them at retail value (and they claim to get their merchandise for far less) plus the $100 you'll pay them to claim it. So you're telling me they're out of stock? Considering that they're making about 3 times the retail value on pretty much each one of their featured auctions, I think they can afford to get as much product as they want. Something tells me that they could afford it.

If it were legit they would just find one somewhere and get it to you instead of giving you all these ludicrously shady excuses which sound like total BS when you crunch the numbers.

I'm sorry to say, that if you've read all of these people's experiences and you still want to sign up you're probably stupid enough to deserve being separated from your money. Sure, you might get lucky and be one of the few who actually get what they "win", but my bet is you'll be on the "I got SCREWED!" side of the coin, and by the sounds of it, spending a considerable amount of the foreseeable future on hold...

It's like a shady casino run by some kind of rat/weasel/vulture crossbreed mafia.

Anonymous said...

If no one wants their account anymore can i use it? i know some glitches to the site could win us big time but i want a ps3 so badly

smithaa93@gmail

Anonymous said...

I decided to finally sign up the other week. My opinion is at first they had a bit of problems, but if you look at all the reviews it seems they might be getting better. So, figured it is worth a shot. I'm excited. - kathy

Anonymous said...

To anonymous who commented on anonymous...(silly) but I was completely lost with your soda analogy. And Sorry to disagree but I am sticking with it is not a scam. I continue to look at the site. It says the person entering their cc info will be charged, and their terms of service says no refunds. People aren't reading and are too eager. I am no lawyer but I believe since the person signed and agreed to the terms that their is no refund and they are the wons who (by hand) entered all their info and hit submit. I don't think bidrack has to refund anything. (I think, legally) If that is the case, and it seems to be. Bidrack is being nice by breaking their own rules to refund these few people who complain. Not to mention all the people like you also yelling "scam" who haven't even looked or tried out the site.If i go to buy a soda and the person says o.k. well it is $1 and when you buy it you can't get your money back. - then i personally hand him a dollar. Guess what? I'm not going to a blog to complain. That I didn't get my dollar back. ...one more thing...Just to save face with you a bit. I am not saying they are amazing. I agree it may not be for everyone. But be careful with the word scam. Some of us like them and like the items we get.

Amy M. said...

Amy here.
I'd like to make a point.

I never called BidRack a scam but I wanted to make a point of warning people away from it. The whole "enter your credit card and get charged when you join" thing is new. I agree that people should always read fine print and be wary of EVER giving out credit card information.

That isn't really the point.

BidRack has made it a point of changing their policies repeatedly since they first opened in March. I got my own money back because they withdrew their "win guarantee" after one month and I aruged that I joined under different terms. I personally should have been wary when they started falsifying testimonials. They were illegally taking images of people and altering them and presenting them as real testimonials. I know this because a friend was used in this way and had to send a "cease and desist."

Whether or not you believe this business to be a scam, there are definitely shady business practices going on.

-Amy

dt said...

Thanks for bringing attention to all Bidrack's problems, Amy. I got here from a quick google search and I note that after a TON of upset and furious people detailing their problems there's suddenly a series of cheerful and happy folk who all seem to want to remain "Anonymous".... Looks like your page has caught Bidrack's eye!

Thank you for stopping me from getting scammed.

Anonymous said...

First, How do I sign up for this blog if I only have a yahoo I.D. All the post I'm going around making are "anonymous"? In regards to "unavailable products still up for auction, it is because there was just a "delay" with venders. They are still going to get the product. You do realize it isn't a photo of your actual T.V. ha :) After getting my Nano i checked, seems they have a lot more available now.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a class action has now been filed: http://www.scambook.com/blog/2011/06/bidrack-class-action-lawsuit-filed/

Anonymous said...

i would have not believed the 'scam' bidrack is doing until i found out a $99 charge on my credit card. i complained & i was told it's the 175 bids i purchased. i know i didn't buy any, didn't authorize it. why would i? i just joined it, i saw 165 bids + 50 bonus bids upon signing up. so that's 215 to test the waters. i was excited at 1st so i bid on anything that went 'going twice' till i won a no-name white sunglasses for $0.04. i clicked 'pay now' then found out that i had to pay $9.99. so i asked that it be cancelled since $10 for a no-name brand sunglasses is not worth it. bidrack replied that it can't be cancelled. do they want me to receive it only to return it? ridiculous! === iloy

Peng Fang said...

Bidrack ad says free registration but Bidrack charged me $75 immediately. I filed requested cancellation and refund immediately by phone and email but being refused for the refund. I did not bid on anything as there is nothing really available to bid for. This is a total scam. So please don't try to register. or you will be a new victim like many of us. In case you fell in the trap, call your credit company and set a dispute immediately. The consummer law will be on your side.

Anonymous said...

I bought a Wii game. It took it forever to get here. It came in a box from HONG KONG. It was shown on bidrack as a picture of the Wii case, when it arrived it was nothing but a disc in a sleeve. I looked over that and put it in the Wii, and guess, yeah IT WOULDN'T WORK! SURPRISE! Looks to be nothing more than a blank DVD. I say they are nothing but a scam and they need to be shut down. Lets hope the FTC is able to do something with my complaint.

Xqqsme said...

I have had nothing but success with Bidrack - Every Bid I have won - I am receiving as shown - To date I have won 482 auctions - I am fortunate because all these wins has enabled me to buy all my christmas presents for the initial outlay of my purchase of bids to start my account - from there i did buy my daily maximum for a penny each 5 more bids. For me this was a very positive experience and the phone contact that I have had with them has been top notch. They are helpful and do answer their 800#.

Regards,
Xqqsme

Luis said...

If anyone still face problems, you may want to refer to the guide here:

http://www.wahgeek.com/bidrack-scam-how-to-get-your-money-back/

Anonymous said...

Well I must say I am still on the fence with Bidrack. I won an Ipad2 for 96.00 on June 7th but still have not received it. I received a email from Ryan stating that the supplier is backlogged and I WILL get my Ipad2 but it will take about 60 days. He offered to refund my money and replace my bids. I told him I would wait the 60 days but after that....I want my money back. I sure do hope I get the Ipad2 instead of my money. We will just have to wait and see.

orangesunshine said...

I AM VERY FRUSTRATED ABOUT BIDRACK/NOMORERACK ! I am going to my bank today to cancel my credit card - a charge showed up on my statement from NOMORERACK which i did not even recognize at first - did a search on my email - it is bidrack's customer service URL ! I will admit that i had a stupid moment and signed up for the excitement of bidding but should have done my research first - IF YOU ARE AN EASY SELL / NAIVE PERSON, like me, do not do these "pennyauction" sites! I spent about 2 hrs trying to win a Kindle or iPad, waiting until the last few seconds, even for warning signals that state "First ..." "Second ..." then i bid, my username shows up, my bid is accepted, but ALWAYS, ALWAYS replaced by some other bidder. I contacted bidrack customer service, they replied, no you can't get your $99 back. Should i pursue?

Anonymous said...

Bidrack is BAD. If you got tricked into buying a bid package like I did, know that you CAN get a refund if you press hard enough. I went through the BBB and filed complaints with Delaware for bidrack and Mainland British Columbia for NMR plus I blew up their customer service e mail for several weeks. The Delaware BBB got my money refunded. It can be done!

Anonymous said...

I regret joining Bidrack. I lost lost $120 so far and won a cheap Chinese watch. When I decide to join or pay for something, I normally do a lot of research. In this case, I did not. I got carried away by an article in Toronto Star and jumped in. Now I learned first hand how well the journalist do their job and again I learned why I do my due diligence and do a through research before even think of paying for something.
My personal advice will be: DON'T join bidrack or any such organization with this kind of a weird bidding system in place. DON'T get carried away with some news which says someone won iPhone for $2.30 or a Mustang for $5.01. UNDERSTAND, it is an ad. so that people like you and me spend our money there. The products that you could potential win are cheap Chinese crap. You can get them from your local dollar store.

Anonymous said...

I was completely scammed by BidRack. I won several auctions back on June 3-June 15, and have yet to receive any merchandise, even after receiving an email saying that my items had been shipped over 6 weeks ago. After filing a complaint with the BBB of Delaware, I was informed that they had over 300 complaints as of that time and had not responded to any of them. Everytime I try to contact Bidrack, I get a form chainletter. Have gotten the exact same reply on a couple, word for word. I requested a full refund on my account 3 weeks ago and they sent an email saying they "apologized and would refund all money back to my credit card within 7-10 business days". Guess what? Still no account credit and now they are replying with chain letters again. Time to try to file a complaint with Capital One for credit card fraud, I guess. I wish that I knew what other avenues to take on this one.

«Oldest ‹Older   201 – 219 of 219   Newer› Newest»