Sunday, February 7, 2010

Update: After much thought we’ve decided to discontinue the seal of approval program before even getting it off the ground. We cannot endorse any site because we cannot be fully 100% sure that they are legit.

Penny auction sites are opening and closing all the time, the dozens of daily requests for penny auction software, and the 65+ penny auction sites that went out of business in 2009 alone is testimony to this.

The dozens of unethical penny auction site owners that are employing automated-bot bidders, manually shill bidding, not fulfilling items and blackmailing users has to stop. The many software developers that are providing e-entrepreneurs with automated bot scripts have to stop.

Penny Auction Watch is Setting the Standard for the Penny Auction Industry

We’re calling for all penny auction sites to get legit and stay legit.

The PAW Seal of Approval program will identify and reward penny auction sites that provide their users with exemplary customer service, authentic items and real bidders.

Start looking for the gold and maroon PAW Seal of Approval as proof that you are participating in a Penny Auction Watch approved penny auction site; penny auctions where real users are being viewed as valued customers.

We suggest that sites start applying now to get approved. E-mail approval [at] pennyauctionwatch [dot] com if you would like to be considered.

Not all penny auction sites are good enough to earn the Seal of Approval distinction

• The PAW Seal of Approval will be administered free of charge

The Seal of Approval program was designed to help penny auction bidders make choices about the growing number of penny auction websites as they consider which site to register and purchase bids on. The program was also designed to advance PAW’s mission to honor and support legitimate penny auction sites, as well as to help minimize the dishonest ones.

Standards of Practice That Must be Adhered to in Order to Receive the PAW Seal of Approval:

1. Terms & Conditions of Service must be posted and displayed on the website.

2. All policies must be stated simply and clearly.

3. Ease of Contact: Customer service contact information must be clearly displayed. Hours of customer service should be posted.

4. Quality of Customer Service: Phone calls and e-mails should be answered in a timely manner.

5. Functional website with infrequent bugs in software.

6. Items are verifiably received.

7. There must be no hidden reserves.

• Scripts containing “autobots” is never permissible on a live penny auction site.
• Shill bidding is not allowed.

The penny auction site must attest that they do not and will not employ automated bidding bots or shill bidding under any circumstance.

8. Never attempt to mislead customers.

9. Always acts professionally, always.

Sites breaching our standards for approval will be immediately disqualified from the PAW Seal of Approval Program. The PAW Seal of Approval will be hosted on PennyAuctionWatch.com so that users can verify that the site is actually approved by us.

We hope that this contributes to the betterment of the penny auction industry.

Thank You!