SCAM SITE: Bid4That.net
Today I received a press release notification from prMac that was telling me about a new website that was out called Bid4That. This particular site is an online auction site however it does not work like most other auction sites. I decided to check it out. After reading the Terms and Conditions I figured I would give it a shot. The way the system works is that you have to buy your bids. They sell packages of bids for different prices. As this was a test run I opted to buy the 10 pack of bids which cost $10. I looked around the site for an auction I was interested in and found an HP Laptop that was going for $0.45 and though well this is way too good to be true. Guess what! Even though they advertise that there are no reserves they do not fulfill your order when you win an auction and then pay for that item. I won the item and promptly paid for the item. A few moments later I received an email from Paypal stating that my purchase had been refunded. I emailed them asking why just to see what they would say and have had no response from them. Below is a portion of the email that prMac sent to me.
Bid4That launches with a range of low cost Apple Products – Published on 03/26/09
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bid4That is a new online bidding website that allows it’s members to bid on products for very low costs. Bid4That have just launched and have added a wide range of Apple iPods, and desktops to the mix for extremely low costs to celebrate the launch. Every day Bid4That sells brand new, top-name products at incredibly low prices in auctions that start at just 15 cents with no reserve.
I did find that they reserve the right to issue a refund if they are unable to provide the product for the winning price but how do they seriously think this business model will work for them? Below is section 8 as listed on their Terms and Conditions at the time of writing this.
2. Eligibility to Participate / Registration with “Bid 4 That” / Disqualification
By placing a bid on Bid 4 That, the user declares that they are legally capable of entering into binding contracts and that they are at least 18 years old.
Employees of KAMCO, Inc. are not eligible to participate in Bid 4 That auctions under any circumstances. Also If an item sells for less than our purchased value we may decline the auction, and there by return your money, and bids.8. Delivery
Unless otherwise stated, delivery will be made directly from our suppliers or from our warehouse to the address provided by the user. Deliveries are made solely within the 50 states of the United States (explicitly excluding the U.S. sovereign territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
Some restrictions or higher shipping costs may apply if the delivery address is in Alaska or Hawaii, please check notifications on the detail pages of the auctions in advance. Delivery times vary and any delivery time indicated is provided only as a guide and is not guaranteed. Bid 4 That shall be entitled to involve third parties to satisfy its contractual obligations without being required to notify the buyer. Obvious damage to the item from transport or packaging damaged during transport is to be reported to Bid 4 That upon taking delivery.
Should Bid 4 That not be able to deliver the item ordered, Bid 4 That shall be entitled to substitute the item with a comparable replacement product with the same or better features, or provide a refund of the auction end price to the user based upon the user’s preference.
Now I understand that no one can sell a laptop for $1.45 ($1 for the bid and $0.45 for the winning price) but what I do not understand is why they are wasting their time with this website if they are not willing to honor customer purchases. I decided that I only spent $10 on the bid pack so I was going to use them to try to win another auction and see if they hold up their end of the deal or if they just refund the money. Last time they issued the refund they also gave me 2 extra bids. I am waiting to see if they actually ship the item or if they are just going to refund the money and bids or what. This time the auction I won was for a Canon PowerShot SX1 IS Digital Camera. The winning bid was for $9 however you have to keep in mind that there was a lot of bidding going on from the $0.15 starting bid. Each bid that is placed someone paid for so they are making money every time someone bids on an item also. While I only paid $9.00 plush shipping for the item I am sure they probably made about $40 through the bidding. I still doubt however that they will ship the product, more likely they will just issue the refund and go on with their day.
I just saw on #twitter that someone else had all their winning auctions canceled and refunded. I am guessing what is happening is this. People buy bids at a range of $0.43 – $1.00 per bid depending on which package you buy. You go and bid on items to have some fun. If you are lucky enough to win an item it will be promptly refunded and all your bids will be returned to you… But what about everyone else who bid on that item which was not sold? I doubt they are getting their bids back because when you look at the item description it looks as if you won the item. It says nothing about canceled or refunded or anything so who would know to complain? I am guessing that this is a quick scam setup to be here today and gone tomorrow netting as much as they can from people who think they are legitimate. Just go to the front page and watch how many bids go by in 5 minutes.. How much do you think they are getting away with?
I thought I would tack this on just to show you what is happening. On the site they never mention anything about not being able to ship anywhere but the west coast. It also states that the shipper is UPS so again I ask why can they not ship out here? They just do not want to honor their end of the deal and they are here just to steal money from unsuspecting people.
Hi Joseph,
The auction you won at from Bid4That titled: Canon PowerShot SX1 IS Digital Camera has been updated.
Your order has been updated to: Refunded. This auction has been refunded.
Due to our Electronics Distribution account we may only ship items to the west coast. Because you live in MA, we recommend you bid on gift cards, which are instant E-mail. We will in the future resolve our issue by using a 3rd party for our shipping. We are sorry for the inconvenience, and will issue a full refund.
Thank You
Bid4ThatIf you never registered at our website, please contact the administrator by submitting the form on our contact page.
*UPDATE – Sat. March 28th*
I also think that it is funny that thedream is the person behind the site, yet they bid on products too, guess they are just making sure they get how much they want for the products people are bidding on. To prove this please see the 2 images below. The first one is a tweet from @the_dream and the second a gift card auction listed on the site.
28 Comments
Joseph Crawford
- 03/27/09
- 11:28 AM
Yea they are defiantly scamming people. I am not sure whether it was my email to customer service or this blog post that got their attention however they refunded everything including the $10 i used to buy the bid pack.
The scamming issue remains though, if you and I were in a bidding war and I won the auction sure they refunded my money and bids but what about your bids that you paid for.
Sad that the cheapest you can get a bid for is $0.43 by buying 250 bids at once. If you buy 10, well then you are paying $1.00 for each bid.
Sit and watch how many bids go through the front page in 60 seconds. They are filling their pockets by preying on unsuspecting people.
Joshua Sargent
- 03/27/09
- 02:13 PM
I actually have been watching the names of the bidders off and on over the past 48 hours. The drastic majority of the bids always appear to be from the same group of about 20 bidders. Every once in a while, a unique name will post a bid…usually about the time you would expect a rational human being to post a bid! Interesting…don’t you think? I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that they’ve set up bots that just bid the prices up and encourage people to bid more often. It keeps getting crazier…
Joseph Crawford
- 03/27/09
- 02:28 PM
It was actually funny! Earlier they had a Nintendo Wii auction going and it was over retail.. So the Savings was $(19.46) meaning YOU ARE PAYING $20 more than retail.
What human in their right mind would pay over retail when the item is not in high demand??? None I was thinking they had to be a list of names in the database that the application pulls from and uses at random to make fake bids.
Don Pederson
- 03/28/09
- 09:00 AM
I was suspicious as well. The first auction I won was a Ipod Touch. They sent a e-mail saying the auction list was refunded. Because i had 147 bids in my account I decided even though this might be a scam I might as well keep trying to win at least something cheap, I won a Itunes $100.00 gift card, received the e-mail immediately with the details of the card, and bought some iphone apps. I just got my tracker id from UPS for a Nintendo Wii I won for 7 dollars. “Due to our Electronics Distribution account we may only ship items to the west coast” I’m from Tacoma, WA as well so this may be why there processing the order. I’ll update when I receive the item, after your post im worried it may be a brick. ;p
Joseph Crawford
- 03/28/09
- 10:21 AM
I have no doubt that you were able to win a gift card. Who knows now that they have scammed so many people out of the products they won and have accrued a bank account maybe they will start honoring peoples purchases.
Please do update me on whether or not you get the Wii. I even offered to give them a west coast address where they could ship my item and they never responded.
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 10:26 AM
Yep a scam.
I fell for this too.
I won an auction and a I got a congrats message.
A few minutes later it showed as if someone named mikeck won the auction.
Please all of you lets complain to PayPal so they will stop allowing them to collect money
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 10:29 AM
Hi J,
I see you are still bidding on a gift card.
I’ll try to so maybe I’ll be able to get some of my money back.
No sure…..
Joseph Crawford
- 03/28/09
- 10:31 AM
Yea they left my bids in place even though they refunded my money after complaints. I figured I would try and then post the results of the gift card purchase. It blows that they will not ship anything that I have won fair and square.
Figured I would try the gift card.
Joseph Crawford
- 03/28/09
- 10:32 AM
I will not however buy anymore bids because it’s pointless to spend money when they won’t ship the products you win!
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 10:36 AM
I just found out another thing…
If you look at the PayPal transaction there is always a mail to contact the seller.
The mail is:
mikekaufman11@gmail.com
Now guess what. The person who “won” the auction after I won it is by the username of:
mikeck
hmmmmmmm what a strange coincidence….
Joseph Crawford
- 03/28/09
- 10:40 AM
Itamar,
I just updated the post, look at the 2 images that were posted at the bottom of the post.
Looks like they are making sure that you can’t win anything for under what their costs are, this might help save them from having to send excuses in email on why they cannot fulfill the order.
Joseph Crawford
- 03/28/09
- 11:25 AM
So I was just bidding on a gift card, guess what happened. I was watching the bids and donpd was the high bidder, then all of the sudden they bid again. The auction went to the paused state and then yet another bid came from donpd.
Why would a person be outbidding themselves? I am guessing that donpd is a fake user that the site is using to make bids automatically.
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 11:40 AM
Yes I guess you are right.
Did you get your $10 back?
Don Pederson
- 03/28/09
- 11:42 AM
I’m donpd. The item was showing a paused state so I jumped on my mouse. Shows in my account I bid once.
Joseph Crawford
- 03/28/09
- 11:49 AM
Don,
Let me know if you get the gift card. On my end you definitely bid more than once, you were outbidding me about 5 times. So something is up with the site that’s for sure.
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 12:11 PM
This is funny.
Community bidding 
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 12:25 PM
Note – I just won:
http://bid4that.net/auctions/view/371
I’m sure this will change in a few moments to show I didn’t.
Took a screen capture just to make sure
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 12:27 PM
Hey man,
this is strange – now it shows that you won the item….
Joseph Crawford
- 03/28/09
- 12:28 PM
That page shows I won! wtf?
Joseph Crawford
- 03/28/09
- 12:30 PM
The funniest part is the fact that it does not show up under my won auctions and I have 0 unpaid auctions.
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 12:32 PM
This is the strangest scam I have ever seen
Joseph Crawford
- 03/28/09
- 12:33 PM
It’s almost too much of a joke to not laugh at the site.
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 12:41 PM
Filed a complaint at PayPal.
I hope they will stop dealing with this guy soon.
Joseph Crawford
- 03/28/09
- 12:52 PM
now the page says
Congratulations to jcra67ord
not sure who that is, it did say jcrawford before so… what happened?
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 12:56 PM
OK,
Minuets after filing a dispute with PayPal I got my money back.
So I don’t know what the heck is going on.
Itamar
- 03/28/09
- 12:59 PM
I’m guessing jcra67ord is you with a 67 just to make you more mysterious…
Erica Douglass
- 03/28/09
- 01:39 PM
Did you notice they now have in their terms of service the following sentence?
“Also If an item sells for less than our purchased value we may decline the auction, and there by return your money, and bids.”
I think they just added that…
The crazy thing is, this is where they totally fail on marketing. You want to sell items way below their list price for the first few days/weeks. That’s how word of mouth spreads… “Look, I got a plasma TV for $10!” “What, no way!” and then massive traffic to your site.
These guys are idiots.
-Erica
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Joshua Sargent
Now I know this site is DEFINITELY a scam! Same thing happened to me last night! I won an auction for a Pioneer Elite KURO plasma TV…a $4,300 unit…for $63. I knew it was too good to be true, but figured that not enough people knew about the site yet, so there would be great deals to be had for a few days. Sure enough, they refunded my $63 and sent me an e-mail similar to yours. Interestingly, they said there were only 4 states they could not ship to, and mine was one of them. Now, seeing their e-mail to you, it is obvious they’re trying to cover something up.
I sent an e-mail to the customer service department asking for a full refund for the bids I purchased, since they weren’t good for anything. No response. So I called their customer service number (805) 432-1547….of course, it was an automated response saying that they weren’t accepting calls at this time. =)
So I filed a dispute with PayPal this morning. I’ll post an update here when I hear back.
You’re absolutely right though…I didn’t think about all the other people who purchased bids, used them, and then didn’t win the auction. Of course, they knew they were losing their bids if they didn’t win the auction, but would anyone seriously have purchased any bids if they knew there was absolutely no chance of EVER completing a transaction, even IF they eventually won an auction?!
This is definitely a scam…no doubt about it. I’ll be posting a complaint with the BBB.