UBID.Com - This may be OT - but please read and comment - No flames - OK?

Mac

Senior member
Oct 31, 1999
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After reading through a post yesterday on a hot CPU deal, I decided to take a link over to UBID. A strange but nauseating sense of deja vu came over me as I punched through the different auctions. Could this be "Son of Egghead"?

I purchased a few things from Egghead last summer prior to infamous fiasco when hackers got into their database and Egghead had to warn people to begin checking their credit card statements. Even before that, I was pretty fed up with Egghead auctions. Setting aside the fact that they botched orders so badly (sent wrong stuff, missing items, didn't match specs, etc.), what really turned me off was what appeared to be obvious shill bidding. If you are not familiar with the practice, shill bids are fake bids placed either by or in behalf of the seller to artificially inflate the selling price or to prevent sale at a price lower than the seller wants to accept.

I saw it happen repeatedly when large quantities of an item went up for sale, bids would be made for the entire lot at very marginal prices. Although I have no proof, it had to be a shill bid because a volume deal at the bid price no longer made economic sense. When you added the bid price with the S&H, which almost always was charged per item bid, the product could have been purchased cheaper from other sources. Furthermore, given the volitility of pc component prices, the usual delays which were common in Egghead auctions would have been unacceptable. In other words, the price was too high for the level of risk involved. I cannot imagine a reseller entering into that type of transaction.

Well, since yesterday I have been monitoring several UBID auctions and it appears to me that there is shill bidding on UBID, too. The obvious one is where someone has placed a bid for an entire lot of 111 AMD T-Birds 1.2/200MHz at $85 each with an estimated shipping charge of $9. Yeah, that would be an OK price for a one-off but not if you are in the business. Consider that this is technology being phased out for the 266 FSB, the price of Tbirds continue to fall, factor in the amount of time it will take to receive and then turn around for resale...and then someone is placing a quantity bid which is only 4 or 5 dollars less than they can purchase off the web??? This smells like &%$)*&@#$.

Forgive me for the rant...but am I just being paranoid or do others see the same pattern? Is there anything that can be done about this? I'm normally skeptical about regulations but this really appears to be simply another form of consumer fraud.

Again, I have no proof and this may be a perfectly legitmate web-site...but it sure makes you wonder?
 

emonkey

Golden Member
Dec 2, 1999
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<< No flames - OK? >>



Good luck...

Im right in the middle of a fight with ubid. I bid on a camera and i got the &quot;youve been outbid&quot; email so i gave up. I then saw the same camera at night and bid and went to bed. This morning i wake up with 2 &quot;congratulation&quot; emails. One for the item i was outbid on, and one for the night auction. What the hell? So now i gotta deal with their CS. i hope they arent pricks. ubid is suck. im just doing it for the $20...
 

odz

Senior member
Jan 10, 2001
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I agree, I think they do set the prices.
Everything about Ubid seems cheap and dirty.
And I might as well say that this is not a hot deal.
 

RSVandy

Member
Jun 21, 2001
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uBid.com is evil. Enough said...but I'll elaborate :)

1. They sold me a computer and lied about what software it had on it. The computer was missing several titles.

2. They sold me a Palm GPS unit, but instead sent me a CRAIG CD Player. I complained and they send they would send me a new Palm GPS unit. Well, it came in...but it looked like the people who packed it SMASHED the box up so that it could fit in a smaller box. The entire unit is messed up.

3. I bought a CDRW from them that was supposed to be brand new. Instead they sent me a used one.

Oh well, but they do have decent prices on some stuff.
 

Yo2

Golden Member
Jun 12, 2001
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I ordered from them only once, and only because the item came out at a still reasonable price and I got $20 back (coupon). The auction was for a TiVo and it went similar as the one that you are describing, in that someone picked up 50 or so refurbished TiVos (who would resell those???) and inflated the price from $119 to $149.

Their bidding seems dubious at least
Their shipping rates are outrageous
Theird customer service is no-existent

Beware - UBID at your own risk :)

Yo

 

subpar

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
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Shill bids or stooge bids appear to be commonplace on Ubid. I've seen them numerous times. It is extremely difficult to prove, but certainly a matter for the FTC to investigate.
 

Emo

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
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Ubid isn't what it used to be. 2-3 years ago I was able to find great deals on computers and electronics, now even the starting prices are not as low as on pricewatch.
 

ChopOMatic

Member
Jun 24, 2001
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I've gotten a few good deals from uBid and haven't had a problem yet, but I usually don't buy from them because of their profit-laden shipping charges.