WARNING about UBID (1 Viewer)

[Mike Kao]

I know UBID has been mentioned numerous times on this board. Take this as a warning to those of you considering purchasing from them. Also if a customer rep tries contacting you about affliate programs simply ignore them and close the chat window. Here is my story:

I honestly believe their operation is run by a bunch of conmen. I've had numerous problems with items I've purchased with them in the past and everytime I send an e-mail to customer support, I either get the runaround or NO response at all.... customer support is clearly nonexistent. Well, I brushed it off and moved on until recently.

EDITED - this is the full story:

I was perusing their site two days ago (apparently I don't learn my lesson) and was contacted by a ubid representive named Britney by way of some sort of flash pop up chat window. She was pushing an offer from an affiliate company 'Questsavers'. She was extremely persistent. I told her I was not interested and then she continued on about the many offers and bonuses. She told me there was no obligation and that she would send me info via e-mail to receive a free monthly trial of questsavers as well as send me over $600 in grocery coupons as a thank you. She kept on asking for my consent and I asked her specifically if my consent was to be sent details or to be signed up for this program. She insisted that it was only to pass along the info and send me the information to sign up via e-mail.

I repeated that I was not interested and she proceeded by asking, "can I at least provide you with more info?" I didn't even reply and then she continued on and on about the questsavers program. Then she started grilling me with questions like why won't you at least give it a try? It was at that point that I decided what the heck, at least the coupons MAY be worth it and I'd finally get her off my back.

Well I never received ANY info and she seemingly took the liberty to arbitrarily SIGN me up for a membership without my knowledge. She never sent me any info, any e-mail or ANY grocery coupons. Two days later I find a charge of $8 on my credit card for a membership I had NO knowledge of. All it says on my credit card statement is ENROLLMENT 800-000-0000 TX

I'm absolutely enfuriated by the fact that she blatantly lied and ILLEGALLY used my credit card info and account information to sign up for the program without my consent. To top it off she did not even pass on my questsavers account info (login/pass, etc).

 

[Roger Kint]

Is it 'Questsavers'? My wife got scammed on that too. Our credit card company reversed the charges after we reported it. They are supposed to send some kind of coupon book but we never ever received anything at all, not that we were expecting it since we didn't know about the charges for a few months.

 

[Mark Russ]

Dude! All you had to do was close that window and it would have been over!

 

[Mike Kao]

Yes, Questsavers... that is DEFINITELY it! I realize I didn't handle the situation as I should, but i guess there's a lesson to be learned from this. I honestly can't remember having ever dealt with a telemarketer as persistent as this girl. After the second, 'No, I'm not interested,' she replied, "well can I at least provide you with more info?" I didn't even reply and then she went on and on about the questsavers program. Then she started grilling me with questions like why won't you at least give it a try? It was at that point that I decided what the heck, at least the coupons MAY be worth it and I'd finally be shutting her up. Now I know not to ever believe a word coming out of a telemarketers mouth.

 

[Zbigniew]

Ummm..

Prey, tell us how did she got your credit card number ?

Magic ? Mind reading ? Hacking your computer ?

Or you did gave it to her ?

Next time, just say "NO", close window, close browser, go take your wife for a walk.

_zjt

 

[Mike Kao]

Prey, tell us how did she got your credit card number ?

Magic ? Mind reading ? Hacking your computer ?

Or you did gave it to her ?

She extracted it from my UBID account info... as I look back, now I realize why she kept asking for consent. Although her use of lies and deception would make it no worse if she simply took every Ubid customers credit card to sign them up for this program w/o informing anyone. I seriously think something in the realm of legal action would be warranted in this situation. Ubid really needs to rethink their business practices.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

I had about $1000 taken from a Bank of America account and I didn't know about it until a year later.

This was past the claim date and bank of america refused to give the money back. The money was charged to a webhosting service in $400 increments, one I've never even heard of before.

After complaining to the right people and being persistent B of A finally gave my money back. I received the money after a big hassle with the bank, and I ended up closing the account. (Now I'm a Washington Mutual fan)

Now I keep a close eye on my statement.

 

[James Q Jenkins]

Now I know not to ever believe a word coming out of a telemarketers mouth.

That's news?

It sounds to me like uBid is not the problem, but one of their affiliated vendors is. You should email uBid about the situation, maybe they'll cancel the vendor's access.

 

[Mike Kao]

Actually I DID e-mail them about it. I inquired about an order that has been delayed for over 3 weeks, and also informed them of the situation. Their reply? Well they told me that they canceled my order a day ago (in which I was never notified), and offered no explanation. Oh and the rep neglected to even comment on the telemarketing scam. He simply chose to ignore it!

 

[Mike Kao]

Is it even legal to cancel orders without customer consent? I mean I'm reminded of all the successful lawsuits filed against e-tailers who would not fullfill orders simply due to pricing errors, and although this is not the case here, it does follow the same precedent. Afterall I did win the items at pretty unbelievably low prices. They won't even provide a reason as to why the order was cancelled!

 

[Suibhne]

eOpinions is full of testimonials about uBid cancelling auctions won at low prices, then re-posting (what suspiciously seem like) the exact same items at a higher price. In fact, uBid has earned abysmally poor customer service marks in almost every place I looked. I still ordered from them, though. The general drift seems to be that uBid is great - as long as you're not purchasing "refurbished" stuff, and as long as nothing goes wrong.

 

[Louis C]

You can of course file a complaint with the FTC.
Just go to
rn.ftc.gov/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01
and fill in the form....

 

[Rodon]

I have had good luck with Ubid on two different ocassions. Even with high shipping and IL tax I still came out way way ahead.

I have bought a set of IL40 Infinity Interludes and an Orion DEQ-30 1/3 oct. EQ for my Jeep - both items were Brand new and sealed when delivered. They also ship very fast to me but that might be because I live in IL.

 

[Mike Kao]

I just received an e-mail from them regarding my order for 2 subwoofers being cancelled. This is what they told me:

"I regret to inform you that due to a warehouse discrepancy we do not have the original product at this time.Because we are an auction we do not have the ability to fill the original order."

What is that supposed to mean... because they are an auction that means they have no obligation to fullfill orders!? Warehouse discrepancy!? That's bs, you don't put something up for sale unless you're sure you have it! I bet they do have the subs, they just have no desire to take any loses. $100 says the same product gets put back on auction like a week later with a reserve.

Their offer for compensation was even more ridiculous. They offered a SINGLE unknown subwoofer with inflated specs that usually ends under $200 at their site to replace the 2 subwoofers I won that retail for over $500 A PIECE! They offered an alternative choice which was to accept a $20 coupon... give me a break... they'd have to pay me more than $20 to buy a single thing ever again at their site!

Now this leaves me asking, where's the option to WAIT until they CAN FULLFILL my order!?!?


Seriously, is this even legal how they are cancelling orders like that?

 

[Philip Hamm]

I will just throw in a positive comment - I've had nothing but good experiences with uBid and their affiliated companies.

 

[Matt]

Well, I have to say something positive also. I just received my Infinity IL120 Sub (wanted to get a Maple finish sub to match the rest of the system) and the transaction was very smooth. Thankfully UPS didn't kick the crap out of the sub and it arrived in very good condition. It is unfortunate that people are having bad experiences with UBid. I hope I do not run into the problems Mike has run into.

Matt

 

[DanaA]

I'm sorry about the bad experiences some of you've had with UBID. I've used them only twice, with a Parasound amp at what I consider a GREAT price, even with their exhorbitant shipping prices. So far, it has been fantastic and Parasound has a 5/10 year warranty. Today, I received a DVD player I was buying for one of my daughters. Again, a great price, $49, but this time refurbished. I sure hope it holds up. If not, I'll be very hesitent about dealing with them again. After reading this thread, I'm already more cautious, but if that certain pre/pro shows up for a steal of a price, I'll probably bid again.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I've had mostly good experience with Ubid. I've purchased some fairly big items from them over the past 4 years. I have gotten that "I regret to inform you that due to a warehouse discrepancy we do not have the original product at this time.Because we are an auction we do not have the ability to fill the original order." email before but without me even complaining I got a $50 coupon to be used on my next purchase. I ended up getting the same speakers I bid on (Klipsch RP-3's) for less than I originally won them for as well as getting another $50 off. I've only bought one refurbished item and that was a receiver from 4 years ago. It still works.

The best way to deal with Ubid is to watch the auctions for a week. You will see the same items come up time and time again. Sometimes just for a few hours in the evening. So if you see the item go over the price you want, forget and wait for it to show up again.