Dealing with Bidz.com is Like Having a Colonoscopy. Both Are Pains in the Butt!
Bidz.com
Were you ever warned about something but went ahead and did it anyway and then wished you had listened to he warning? That is how I feel about my experience with Bidz.com. I didn't even know the site existed until I started reading complaints about their service and quality. Scattered among the complaints were glowing reviews so I was, admittedly, curious about the site. How could people have so many problems with a site and others be so satisfied?
Since I am a shopoholic, my "peek" at Bidz.com turned into me bidding on - and winning - several items over the course or two nights.
That part was fun. The rest of my experience was an absolute nightmare.
What Bidz.com is
Bidz.com is a website auctioning jewelry of all varieties from inexpensive sterling silver to very expensive 18k gold pieces. They also sell some art. The site is a "live bidding" one where you bid on items in real time. Unlike eBay where items are listed for days, many pieces are listed every five minutes. You can bid on items ending hours later and you can put in an Auto Bid amount (the highest amount you are willing to pay for an item) which will automatically update your bids at the end of the auction if someone outbids you. If anyone bids on an item during the last 15 seconds of an auction, it automatically is extended by another 15 seconds and keeps on that way until all bidding stops for 15 seconds. That kind of stinks, frankly, but obviously encourages bidders to go crazy bidding at the last second.
The site's appeal is that they supposedly have high quality jewelry that you can win for very low prices, often only 10% of what they call the "Compare To" price which even they claim is not the actual value per se but a price that you might pay at regular jewelry stores.
I have no idea where they get the figures they come up with for the "Compare To" prices but, from what I saw and what I received, those figures are extremely inflated.
Their big claim to fame is that they have auctions going constantly changing every couple of minutes. A jewelry freak like myself could (and did) get caught up in the fun of the quick fix of bidding and winning an item in just three minutes.
They offer free shipping if you win an item between the hours of 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. EST which was the cause of my initial problem with the site.
Otherwise, shipping is dependant on the cost of items and how many items are in your order.
You must open an account to bid with a user name, password, valid email address, mailing address and phone number. You will use your user name to bid and to check on your orders as well as to get your invoices to pay for your winnings.
On the surface, Bidz.com looks like a fun way to get everything from costume jewelry to very expensive fine gems and diamonds for a small percentage of their value and much less than you could find elsewhere.
I went below the surface and what I found wasn't quite so pretty and fun.
Photos and Descriptions
The photos of the jewelry are stunning. They show the items in great detail, looking incredible. The key is to take the time to carefully read the descriptions which tell you the sizes of the items. You may be interested in a ring that looks like it has a beautiful large emerald but, in reality, it is just a tiny emerald magnified many times for viewing. From Bidz.com in tiny print: "All pictures are magnified 10 to 30 times to show the smallest of details. Please, refer to item weight for evaluation."
Descriptions are ample and, if you take the time to read sizing and weight info, you will have a better idea of what you are bidding on. You only see one view of the items so you only see what they want you to see. You can't see the underside of a watch or a pendant so please, read the specs very carefully even if it is a three or five minute auction. You will save yourself a lot of disappointment if you do.
Navigation
You can search for specific things, browse the site, or click on the category links on the left side of the home page to see all items up for auction in any category. You can opt to see the auctions in real time and actually see the bids escalating as they wind down to the end or see the items in just a listing form.
Navigation isn't difficult really but it gets confusing when there are so many auctions going on at once and you have two minutes left on one and you want to look at something else. Autobid helps avoid a lot of confusion. You input your maximum bid and Bidz.com will bid for you at the end of the auction up to your maximum. These auctions move so fast, one could easily get very confused as to what they did and did not win.
Other auctions that have several hours to go are less confusing (but the immediate satisfaction isn't there).
They do have live customer service 24/7 for questions and, while there is a bit of wait to be connected, they do try to help you out. In fact, they are best part of their customer service structure. The email and phone customer service absolutely shameful.
At any rate, a newbie could get lost amid the many items and views but the premise is fairly simple. Bid the most and win the product!
My Experience
I apologize for the length of this section but I condensed it as much as possible. What happened was just an incredible myriad of misinformation, rudeness, and disappointment.
I went to Bidz and, on night one, saw a cute sterling and genuine amethyst necklace up for auction. It was looked gorgeous so I jumped in and bid. I won it after a fevered last minute bidding war for just $11.00. That was many, many times less than the "Compare To" value. Heady with my win, I went on and bid on two more necklaces, won them, and called it a night. I won all items between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. EST so I wasn't charged shipping but I was charged a "trans fee" (transaction fee I assume) for each item. Still, I got a great deal, right? I paid with Paypal and was going to wait until my order came to decide whether I wanted to continue bidding on items on the site.
However, the next night, I went back. I ended up winning a couple of the necklaces I liked and a few other items to the tune of almost $90.00. Still, I stayed far away from the stuff that was selling for thousands of dollars and didn't even look at the stuff selling for hundreds. It was amazing seeing people bidding upwards of $2000 and more on items they never saw with their own eyes.
I went to pay and saw that I was charged an $8.95 shipping fee on one of my items. I had won it between the hours of 3 a.m. and amp; 7 a.m. EST so I went to the live customer chat and asked what the deal was. I was told that it was an error and that I would get free shipping as promised and to go ahead and pay and the shipping would be removed when I did.
I went to Paypal and paid. Oops. The shipping charge was applied.
I went back to the site and talked to the live customer service people again who assured me they would forward my problem to the correct party and that I would be refunded. I was a little nervous because of all the complaints I had read about baiting and switching on the site but I agreed to wait and see.
I got an email from customer service, with the chat I had with live customer service attached, not addressing my situation but giving me a list of rules of Bidz.com. It seemed to be a form letter.
I wrote back telling them I knew the rules, could I have my shipping refund please? No answer. I wrote to fairplay@bidz.com which apparently is the place to go for billing errors and received nothing at all in response. The site claims to have customer service reps on duty 24/7 for any questions or problems yet I was ignored when I pressed for my refund.
Feeling like an idiot for trusting this place, I went to Paypal and made a complaint. I only wanted my shipping fee refunded. I did not want anything more. Usually Paypal sends the merchant a letter, the merchant refunds the shipping (if they feel it is merited which it was), and everything continues.
But noooo...instead, I got a letter saying my account was deactivated because I had an outstanding balance. I surely did not. THEY DID!
All they had to do was to refund my $8.95 and send my order and I would have been satisfied but, instead, the entire thing blew up in a war of words and insults.
I asked why I was deactivated. They admitted it was because I had a dispute going with Paypal and if I dropped it, I would be allowed back onto the site. No thanks!
I then called their customer service number and got someone who I barely understood. I explained my situation and was rudely told I was a dumb b*tch and I should read the FAQs before calling. WHAT?
When the phone was hung up on me, I called back and, when I said my name, was hung up on.
That was enough for me. I escalated my complaint to a dispute with Paypal feeling as though I would probably not even get my products at all since they were "mad at me" for going to Paypal in the first place.
What happened from there was ridiculous. Their Customer Service Supervisor and I exchanged a series of heated emails. She wrote in all caps and talked down to me like I was a little kid in need of educating. She wanted me to drop the Paypal dispute and then we could discuss the refund and situation. She said I was informed that I would be refunded the shipping by Customer Service but, of all the emails I got, I never got that one.
I told her to just refund it and I would drop the dispute with Paypal as it would be satisfied. She flat out refused. Then she said she wasn't going to send my order AT ALL. I then said I wanted a full refund. She said no, that she had told Paypal that Bidz.com had no intentions of sending my package so Paypal would refund me. Whatever!
The emails were fast and furious and, with each one, I realized just how shady this company was. This person twisted my words, was rude and insulting, and refused to simply accommodate Paypal's request to refund the shipping charge and send my items. Instead she chose to "punish me" by deactivating my account (That didn't matter to me by then) and not respond to my complaint.
But she refused to refund my first order. By then, I was so done I didn't want anything from this company.
Cutting to the chase, I eventually received the first order and I dropped the dispute because I am honest and would not want a refund for something I received. Honesty is something Bidz.com may want to try now and then.
The Jewelry Quality
The bubble envelope with my three necklaces arrived and, inside were three small manila envelopes. Inside those were the necklaces in plastic sheaths like bargain bin costume jewelry you can buy in bulk for a couple bucks on eBay. The amethyst necklace was cute but very tiny. It is hollow inside and light as a feather. It also is only worth "around $10.00 retail" according to the jewelry dealer that has an office across the hall from mine. Bummer. I paid $11.00 plus the trans fee. The other two necklaces are so tiny, they look children's jewelry. In fact, one pendant is so small, it is the size of a push pin head and worth "a couple bucks at best" according to my jewelry guy. I didn't even bother asking about the third one. It's obvious it is just costume jewelry but, aside from one big false claim, it wasn't misrepresented per se.
The photos made the items look huge and brilliant and the "Compare To" prices were outrageous, but the weights were approximately correct. My jeweler said, though, the "genuine amethyst" in the necklace I won was "purple glass, not worth a nickel on its own". Oh well, it's purple and I like purple and I am only out eleven bucks. But, had I spent a few hundred dollars on an item and got that info, you better believe I would be furious.
I am sure people have wonderful experiences on the site and I am envious. But after what I went through just to get a simple misappropriated shipping fee refunded - being deactivated because I supposedly had an outstanding balance, being insulted, hung up on, talked down to, having my whole order canceled, and receiving jewelry that, while not defective, was simply the same stuff I can buy wholesale at CZfantasy.com for less than half the price, I'll stay away for good, TYVM.
The Problem is a Lack of Respect for Consumers
If Bidz.com had a competent costumer service supervisor who knew how to deal with customers and who understood the nature of simple Paypal complaints (as opposed to escalated disputes), I would have received the $8.95 refund, gotten my second order, avoided the time wasted trying to discuss the situation and may or may not have been disappointed in my items but would have not been writing a negative review as I am right now.
I absolutely blame the Customer Service Supervisor (whose name I was asked to delete) for this mess and feel she should stop trying to dispense useless philosophical advice like "Please always familiarize yourself with the operations of a business before allowing your worries to consume you" and worry about settling consumer complaints. In one letter, after I said I felt bad for those who had more expensive troubles and had to deal with her, she remarked,"...know that we have far more satisfied customers than unsatisfied customers and you should feel absolutely no sympathy for them."
She obviously doesn't!
Shipping and Returns
Shipping is free if you win items between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. EST. However, there is a trans(action?) fee allotted to each item which came to 3% of my order. That could get pricey if you buy an expensive piece of jewelry or several pieces during the free shipping hours. Other times, shipping and handling costs are $5.95 to $9.95 shipping plus a $3.00 handling for each item per invoice paid in one payment under $100. Over $100, shipping costs are "determined by declared value" plus $3.00 handling for each item per invoice. THAT is a scary looking declaration.
Returns must be made within 15 days of receipt. They will refund your money if items are not as described. They claim that some returns are subject to a 15% restocking fee and that shipping is nonrefundable. You mist obtain a RMA from customer service before sending anything back. They will determine if the item is or is not as described and will refund you fully if they determine the item is NOT as described. If they feel it is, they will refund you minus 15% and shipping.
Conclusion
I wouldn't shop with Bidz.com again. Ever. Period.
While I feel the live chat people are quite responsive, it all falls apart when you go to email and phone calls. Customer Service could not be ruder and more off-putting. From insults, to hang ups, to sarcastic letters, to all caps emails that talk around the issue, if you need help, you may be very disappointed.
I can't adequately access the quality of items because I only got a few costume jewelry pieces. They were not defective and I suppose I could go to Bidz.com and fight them about their declaration of the amethyst necklace being "genuine" but I am done with them. It was $11.00. I didn't expect to get a $200 item even though they said I was going to. It's still wearable.
I highly suggest that you try out the website with a small purchase before sinking tons of cash into a very expensive item. I don't think every piece of jewelry they sell is junk. They would be out of business by now if that were true. I am sure many have been pleased with their items and that things have gone perfectly for them.
The question is, is it worth chancing losing a chunk of money if you find the item you bought is not what you expected? Take action immediately if you feel an item has been misrepresented or is defective and always use the back up of your credit card company or Paypal if you run into a brick wall with Bidz.com.
I rate this site 1 star. I do NOT recommend buying items from them although bidding and winning what seems to be high priced items for much less than the "Compare To" value is fun. If you DO chance it, don't pay an incorrect invoice. If you are overcharged for any reason, refuse to pay until the invoice is corrected. I should have done that and maybe I would have been able to avoid the headaches of dealing with letters in taupe, all caps that spoke down to me rather to me.
I will not go on record saying that they intentionally misrepresent sizes or trick you into thinking you're getting super expensive items for dirt cheap. But I do suggest you have your items appraised by a respectable jeweler immediately upon receipt to be sure you received what was promised.
Recommended:
No
