Swipebids has a rating of 1.1 stars from 135 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Swipebids most frequently mention credit card, customer service, and email address problems. Swipebids ranks 196th among Auction sites.
I've had nothing but good experiences with SwipeBids. I'd tried BidCactus before but it was getting to be too complicated. SwipeBids is much easier to use. It's true you have to pay $150 up front which seems like a lot, but for the experience it was worth it for me. Once I had won a bunch of bid packs I was able to deal with the bigger auctions fairly well. Obviously you have to pay attention to the bidding process but once you get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun. I know I've saved more money overall then I've paid for my bids, so I'm happy.
I lost my money also went on the site. Did not know that I would get swindled out of $150 back on 8/01/2010. I did not win no bids and of course they would not refund my money, because according to them I did not qualify for it. I would give them no stars but it would not let me.
I bought the bait. How slammed I felt after entering my credit card information for what I thought was if I purchased my $30 laptop, or for shipping costs. Then to see an e-mail "Receipt" for $150. This $150 is for my "free" bids = 300 bids for 50 cents each. A refund after a 90 day review. They sure take your money quickly! I saw a decent review by a TV news program. What a scam. Oh yeah, if you bid just as the time runs out, more time is added on! So no one really wins. Would someone put them behind bars?
I also was tricked into paying $195 and they refused to refund my money without my using the bids I had already purchased.
Avoid them like black death and do so before you click (though if you are reading this it is already probably too late sadly)
This is an absolute scam. When yo register there i no information that you credit card will be charged $139.00. Try to cancel and you must send it in on their form. Suggest that you challenge the credit card and file a formal complaint with both the FTC and your state consumer division.
They are purportedly a British based company. I tried asking them for their corporate name and they refused to give it to me or even what state they were registered in.
William R. Martin
Venice, FL *******
These guys are criminals. Do not give them any of your data. Do not explore the site as they will steal information from you. I have experienced unauthorized charges and these have continued despite hours with their so-called "support" staff. AVOID!
My husband put his 2 month old Blackberry Curve in the washing machine by accident. Was looking for a new one (less than $250) if possible and thought swipebids.com might be the answer. Man, I am glad I read your reviews and that you make it possible for me to read up on them before they take MY money too. Thanks for the help and best of luck to you guys who need to get your money back.
I was genuinely interested in this site and was OK with giving it my personal information. After letting my guard down for a minute to "sign up", suddenly I got an email about a new $150 charge for a "one year membership"! I was furious! The online support was no help and only after much searching I found a phone number *******870. After an hour of arguing I was told that my "refund" would be sent in 5-10 days! Even if it is a legit auction site, no company should ever start off a relationship like this. STAY AWAY!
Swipebids.com! It's real scam, like a Monster. Easily you can spend 1000 bucks easily without merchandise.
Ex. When you participate this auction, they took out member fee $159 from your VISA automatically. And If they $ 1000 LCD TV put on auction, they robbed maybe $ 500 easy until auction finished from you and other customers individually, win or not. Because you should buy bid money minimum $150.00.
Never start this dangerous game, it's really crook. Never! Never!
If there were a lower rating, I'd give it. You can't win. If you do supposedly 'win', they charge so much shipping you wind up losing. They charge $150 up front, then sometimes trick people into making monthly payments on top of that. If you like these auctions sites, try Quibids--at least they're upfront and fair, with no hidden charges, and you have a decent chance of winning.
Swipe is accurate of what they do they say it cost 1 cent then rip you off for $150.00. I think a class action Lawsuit should be done anyone interested in starting one let me know. Any Lawyers willing to help with this?. Never did I read I would be charged $150.00 just like everyone else. I will never be done this way again... **Please do not let them rip anyone else off**
Really sad, I almost fell for it. I clicked through to swipebids.com from a banner ad in Alexa and came to the home page. I watched a video on the home page and proceeded to register. Registration seemed fishy, too much information sought. I went deeper into the site and found some terms. Automatic $150 charged as soon as I complete registration? Not in the site terms. They are not supposed to charge in advance for bids I might place later according to their terms but it's all stuff that doesn't really seem real. I joined because I wanted to SELL stuff. Now I'm at OA Marketplace & eBay and it's all legit. Sad that FTC hasn't stepped in yet with so many complaints.
Today is the first day I discovered swipebids and I almost signed up but i thought i better do some checking first. I am so glad i found this site! First of all how... in the heck could anyone sell a $1000 item for $20! No one is that generous! I wish someone would give that site a great big virus!
Thank you all very much for saving me dollars and aggrevation. These comments are very helpful. I was about to give out my credit card information; then thought of doing a search for reviews on swipebids.
This site looks like most of the other so called penny auction sites. They promise cheap prices on huge ticket items, however if you even watch the ongoing auctions, you can see that items about to end continuously get rebid on by supposed buyers. Generally speaking these will just be bots the website uses to make sure you don't win any of the auctions for less than what they are worth :p.
I too was scammed by swipebids.com yesterday 9/1/2010. They ask for your credit card to begin bidding. Instead it is undisclosed that they charge you $159 to become a member? I then contacted the online live chat. What aj joke! He wanted me to download this paper form to fill out and then sign with my signature to have the charge removed. I stopped at that point... they will have your credit card and signature so they can forge future charges. They would not refund my money less than 5 mins after being billed for this scam.
I have filled out a complaint to the Colorado Better Business Bureau.(Colorado is supposedly where they are located). I am also disputing this charge with my credit card company as well. I will also contact the Attorney General today to further get this scam exposed.
Wish I had gone to this website much sooner to have avoided these headaches and hassles..
This is an auction type scam that can't be legal for long if it is. Bidding on more bids? What's even worse is that the one hundred and fifty dollar sign-up fee is not all. They conveniently don't tell you that you have subscribed to an 11.95 a month fee unless pressured quite a while. It's the biggest nothing I've ever purchased and I didn't even get that tattoo of Stupido on my forehead.
DO NOT do business with this company. A quick search on google will tell you everythig you need to know. Also go to www.swipebids-warning.info for a condensed report. The Better Business Bureau gives them an F rating and "Strongly recommends" contacting the FBI Internet Crimes Division, the FTC and Two Canadian Government Agencies (This is a Canadian company).
Do not expect to get your money back from them after they trick you ito spending $150. See some actually "customer service" chats to get a peak at what to expect - or not - in customer service. www.swipebids-warning.info
A MAJOR rip off! They took my $159.00 from my account and when i discovered that i contacted the company for my $159.00. Swipebids had me download the proper paperwork for the refund, i filled it out and sent it in! It stated that i wait 2 weeks before contacting them! I did and the customer service person said they are shutting down and can't pay me my $159.00! Don't walk run from any of these online auction sites! RJ
This site disguises the fact that they will charge your credit card without your knowing. They charged me 1,150. I canceled my card before the charge went through, but what a hassle! Luckily, I read the many scathing & angry reviews right after I had stupidly signed up to participate in auctions--which, by the way, you can't win.
Thank you all for the reviews. I was just about ready to sign up with swipebids.com but when right up front they asked me for my credit card number and got a little suspicious and decided to google "swipebids reviews". Ended up on this site and found that all the comments are very consistent and very "$#@!" so you guys saved me a lot of headaches and muchos pesos. Thanks again.
Swipe seems an accurate description. The fraudsters behind this website swipe advertising space everywhere on the web, and swipe money from subscribers in return for nothing through a clever variation on the bid site that incorporates an element of gambling. Their click-me ads are often disguised with large print such as "CRAZY PRICES", "LAPTOP FOR $14.35!", and fake surveys that entice you to casually click for "My favorite laptop". The avalanche of spy-bots that follows is something to wonder at. I was curious enough (as a student of criminal psychology) to put a question on their impressively customer-friendly "talk to a customer service person" messaging service, and was informed that the postage cost on any item to anywhere in the world was $9.50. A Sony Vaio for $14.35 and postage from USA to Australia $9.30? Seems too good to be true. It is. I didn't believe it.
I never even got to actual bidding scam and they ripped me off! I was stupidly signing up for this before reading up, and when it came to the credit card info part it kept telling me that it was not accepting my card, to re enter my information or try a different card. I tried a few times to still have it not work next thing you know i check my debit account and i have 5 $150 charges on one account and 1 $150 charge on another! These ripoff artists have nabbed $900 USD. I contacted their "on line support" which only feeds back to you programmed answers, however they did give me a contact number and tell me that the money would be refunded in 5-10 days. I froze my accounts and contacted the phone number only for them to say that the charges had not gone through, they gave me an email to send my dispute to and proof of my account postings. Guess we will see how much I've lost in the next 10 days.
-- Pissed Off Marine
Check out http://whois.domaintools.com/swipebids.com to see who is behind the scam. Maybe these details are incorrect, but it certainly is NOT a legitimate company, more like an individual who is probably a millionaire by now. A very clever, and a very real scam. Avoid at all costs. Any positive review of this site leads you straight back to the site, meaning all the reviews are FAKES. I repeat this is a very clever scam.
Well I started filling out the form till I got to the credit card part. Then I google'd it and got tho this site. I just wanna say I took five seconds to see the ten places where it states that the membership is $150. I didn't fall for it and neither should any other intelligent person.
Thank you to sitejabber. I was about to go and sign up for swipebids as it seemed like a good idea to try as it was not supposed to cost much to bid even if you lost a few bids.
Keep up the good work at warning other folks about this scam artist who runs the site.
The website "swipe bids" is a scam. If they nail you for $150.00 - try to stop the payment. Help us all by reporting them to the FTC and 7 on your side. If you want a real bidding/shopping website. Try Ebay or Amazon. Com.
http://t.co/hQw17phjRB is a highly reputed, fast paced auction website.
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