"Swipebids" and "QuiBids" Are the Same Penny Auction Ripoff

It isn't often when a consumer ripoff easily identifies itself like Swipebids does, advertising at a link at an ESPN website that "you can get an incredible 85% off," then state in the headline of their fake news report at Consumer News 28, that consumers "save up to 95% off retail," and then go on to state that "because of the way the bidding is set up, people can save up to 90% of the regular retail price of popular items." There are three different claims of "savings" being made here: "an incredible 85% off (doesn't state whether that's off of retail price)," that "consumers can save up to 95%," and that "people can save up to 90%!" Which percentage of "savings" are you, as the consumer, supposed to "save?"

The come-on for Swipebids repeatedly claims you can pick up "an iPad for $23.48," although one link claimed you could get "an iPad for just $17.00!" An iPad is a $499 item retail, but in scouring the Swipebids auction site, all I could find were WalMart gift cards, an occasional HDTV, and some DVD's with some unfamiliar titles. I could not find an iPad being auctioned anywhere. Apparently, this ripoff auction website likes to parse words by saying "you can get an incredible 85% off," but that doesn't necessarily mean "you will get 85% off." You could get a Mercedes Benz for an incredilble 85% off, too, depending on where you bought it, but that doesn't mean that you will, either.

Since I had perused both the Swipebids and the QuiBids auction sites and was struck by the exact similarily in the layout of the web sites, I wondered if they were one and the same. Well, the offer for Swipebids at http://www.consumernews28.com/pennyauctions/index2.html?t202id=54649&t202kw=&topicName=ESPN.com+College+Section shows a testimonial from a "Cyril B., from Arizona," who "just won a 32" Vizio HDTV for $2.60," and Cyril B. states, "I've really enjoyed using QuiBids (not Swipebids!) , it's kind of awesome!" There can be no doubt that the same people promoting QuiBids are the same people promoting Swipebids. Interesting that they would use a testimonial promoting QuiBids at a Swipebids web site. Since you're asked to bid anywhere from $.37/bid up to $.60/bid and the cost of a 32" Vizio HDTV runs about $399.99 retail, according to a NexTag web site, you have to ask yourself, "Who is really paying for the cost of a TV that someone claims they won at a penny auction for just $2.60?"

The part of the story that is left out, assuming the testimonial from "Cyril B." is even true, is how many times Cyril had to bid on that Vizio HDTV. If he had to bid 100 times and paid $.60/bid, and then got his TV for $2.60, he STILL had to pay $60 in bidding costs to get the TV in addition to the $2.60 claimed, making the total Cyril paid, $62.60, which would still be a good deal. But what about the others who also bid $60? They lose their money, unless they want to pay the difference between the $60 they've bid and the full retail price. Usually, NexTag will get a pretty good deal on a HDTV, so chances are you'll pay more than $399.99 for your TV since a losing bidder would have to pay full retail price, but unless Swipebids is matching NexTag's price, you're not getting your "85% off (of whatever price Swipebids is selling that item for)."

Stated in the advertisement explaining "how to use Swipebids," you're told that "bids raise the price and adds time to the clock." And while the Swipebids promoters go to a lot of trouble to claim they don't allow shills or otherwise allow manipulation of the auctions, it's hard to believe this is true when only one person wins and the rest lose their money on bidding. It seems like the bidding would only have to "stop," once the penny auction receives enough bids to cover the cost of the item being auctioned as well as cover the costs of promotion. So, if an item being auctioned is $500, and 100 people each bid 50 times at $.60/bid, Swipebids takes in $3,000. The item probably cost much less than the $500 retail price, IF the Swipebids promoters got their merchandise from "government auctions" and "surplus stock auctions" as they claim.

What should concern anyone considering trying these penny auctions is that the promoters try to impress you with a bunch of media video clips that don't mention Swipebids or QuiBids by name, as well as make a lot of promises of "savings" with three different percentages of "savings" to choose from. The claim that they have iPads for auction has yet to be verified. You can find MacBooks and iPods, but no "iPads." These penny auctioneers just make too many claims that can't be verified to be trustworthy. And if you have any legal claims against them, it's buried in the fine print in the Terms and Conditions section that most people probably don't read, that you must commence a legal action against them in "Alberta, Canada." If these penny auctions were legitimate, why do they pretend to have the blessing of the media when they don't? Maybe there are some legitimate penny auctions out there, but Swipebids and QuiBids do NOT have the endorsement of CBS, NBC, and ABC. It is fraudulent to say that they are "a penny auction as seen on CBS, NBC and ABC," as is stated near the guarantee at the bottom of one of their web pages (http://www.swipebids.com/landing.php?catid=11), when Swipebids is not mentioned by name on any of these media outlets. This is classic word parsing and doesn't inspire confidence that what Swipebids says about its auctions is true. Even the TV clip that the Swipebids promoters use, warns at the end that "penny auctions could cause a gambling addiction," since only one person wins at one of these penny auctions and every one else loses.