We just received the following comment from a user who registered on the penny auction site SwipeBids.com. 
Here’s the comment from our reader:
“I was scammed by the site called www.swipebids.com for $150 and $24 two days ago when I did a live chat on that site. I checked online credit card for my account and saw new activity to realized I was charged. Two nights ago, when I did a live chat with the site, Chat person said, that you can click on purchase bids in order to get your free 500 bids coupon code to come out. After I did with her instruction there was no coupon code input. The live chat person said go ahead and close your account and open a new account with new user name then you will see a 500 free bids code for input. I chat with her are you sure your not going to charge? She replied yes. When I contacted the live chat tonight chat person said no refund and didn’t want to listen. I called my credit card company and they said that we will send you a dispute form and will investigate. I just want you people to beware of the scam site called Swipebids.com and check your credit card as well to make sure your ok.”
Please let us know what your experiences have been with SwipeBids.com
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I read all the post of them saying they would refund your money. But I haven't find anyone who actually got their money refunded. So I still don't believe them would refund our money. It may just be another trick they play. They could simply change their name again, then all the promised refund would disappear.
I filed a dispute with my credit card company. Its takes 30 days from the purchase date to take into effect so you would have to call them back. I also filed a complaint with the better business bureau. I thought i would never see the money they scammed from me. However I received a check in the mail with the amount i was charged.
We need to report these people to the attorney generals office for fraudulent business practices. Yesterday they did the same told me to “click here for refund” when it did it said “thankyou for confirming your registration”. I immediately got my partner to call VISA while i kept the chat personrobot in line. They told me the purchase was made 3 minutes earlier I told them to cancel immediately which they did. I then told the chat person I have contacted visa she said “no need we will not charge your account until you are satisfied” I told her the account was charged and VISA has removed the charges. she said “Bye”
I feared I was the victim of swipebids.com (swipeauctions.com) also as my son signed up with my card and without my permission. Through Googling, I found the following email address – Jennifer@swipeauctions.com – she's the Customer Service Manager.
I emailed her the refund form and a description of what happened and not only did she promptly process the refund, it never hit my debit card (it all happened on a Friday and I emailed her the same day – she processed the refund on Monday).
I had my doubts, but if you are a victim, contact Jennifer@swipeauctions.com and she'll make it right for you if she can.
Are you people really that stupid as to think you can get an iPad for $30 and that there is actually a surplus of inventory? You deserve to get ripped off as a small fine for ignorance. Man, Im in the wrong business. No rest for the stupid.
fuck off you moron, you are probably the person who has something to do with this swipebid
so fuck off
Swipebid is a scam. I was charged $150 on my credit card. The process is so complicate and require you to go on line for hours to even get a bid in. I wanted to cancel my account but was told via the chat line that I had to keep buying bidding credits and keep bidding for 30 days and fill out this huge refund form to get a refund. No real person to talk to, now that I read other comments I probably was talking to a computer I just got canned responses. They say you cannot even have your credit card company refund the charge because their process has been checked out by lawyers. Visa put a hold on the charge and 30 days later they reversed the charges on my account. I am told that swipebid can still respond an I could still have to pay. Hope not. No where did I see anything about being charged $150 to just bid. This is a scam.
Sad there are people out there that do this for a living.
I was curious to be honest with you guys.
Even after reading all that was on this VERY helpful website, I still decided to purchase a membership.
I only did so after talking with a live agent lady about using all my bids and not”winning” anything that she would guarantee that I could get my money back. which of course she did. But when it was time to get my money back… a bit harder here is how I got my money back.
Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with ‘Amy’
Amy: Thank you for visiting SwipeAuctions.com Livechat Line. Our goal is to provide you with excellent customer service while assisting you with any questions or concerns you may have. We are here to help you win auctions, save money and have a great time. May we start with your name please?
you: hi there names bambi
Amy: Hi, I would be happy to assist you with your concern, so in order to pull up the details of your account, can you please provide me with your e-mail address and zip code?
you: bambi****@msn.com
you: postal code is t4r***
Amy: Please wait while I check your order details in our system.
Amy: Ok, How may I assist you?
you: Okay. so I tried this thing out, and the lady that I was talking to earlier said that if I did not win a single bid I could get my money back.
you: I would like a refund now please.
Amy: In order to further assist you, could I please have you CLICK HERE, to confirm that this is the checkout page you completed your registration from. This link will take you to the Original SignUp Page where you will see that the price of the membership is mentioned in several locations. Upon reviewing, are you able to locate where the $159.00 price is disclosed above the shipping form?
you: I would rather not click here to go to that page. What if it charges me again.
you: ?
Amy: You will not e charged until you purchase something.
you: as I have checked my visa statement they have told me that there is indeed a charge on my account.
you: for 159 dollars.
Amy: Certainly, I can help you with that. Typically we do not allow for refunds under these circumstances, as the price is very clearly disclosed. It is the consumer’s responsibility to read the page carefully before entering credit card information. Regardless, I will gladly provide you with this simple refund form for you to complete as it is required by our bank in order for us to issue your refund. Please CLICK HERE to get a refund.
Is there anything further I can assist you with today?
you: I understand that, but I also talked to an agent before i signed up for this page, and she said that if i was not completely satisfied with my purchace then I could get a full refund.
you: “purchase”
you: I believe that you said yourself that “Our goal is to provide you with excellent customer service while assisting you with any questions or concerns you may have. We are here to help you win auctions, save money and have a great time. ”
you: excellent customer service to me would be honoring your commitment to happy customers, wouldn’t you say?
Amy: Please click on above link and follow money back guarantee in order to get refunded.
you: Your refund form is not simple and you know that. If you didn’t ask me to sign a paper form to charge me money, why would you require a paper form for refund?
Amy: Like most Retail Stores, we too require your original signature in order to process any refund through our Bank. As I have previously stated, the price is very clearly disclosed and we typically do not allow for refunds under these circumstances. Once again, please CLICK HERE to follow the easy steps necessary to ensure you receive your refund.
Is there anything further I may assist you with today?
you: yes.
you: Amy..I already have the refund form. It is not what I want. The money was taken out INSTANTLY and certainly could be returned to my card INSTANTLY!
Amy: Sorry but please mail the refund form in order to get refunded.
you: I realize you are only doing what you have been trained to say, but this is silly, It was taken out of my account hours ago, you should be able to return it to my account in a matter of hours without me having to fill out forms. Am I able to fill these forms out over the internet?
Amy: Sorry but you have to mail the refund form.
you: no I don’t think so.
you: this is BS
you: I am going to be contacting my credit card to report fraudulent charges.
Amy: Please refrain from using abusing language. If you continue to do so, this chat session will be discontinued.
you: I have purchased many things using my card and if I wasn’t happy with the item, a credit was done in a day or so back to my card, without signatures
Amy: One moment please.
you: have purchased many things using my card and if I wasn’t happy with the item, a credit was done in a day or so back to my card, without signatures
Amy: We apologize for the inconvenience. There was clearly some confusion with this purchase. We do not want to see our customers unhappy. We will issue a refund to the credit card it was purchased from. The refund for the original Membership Bid Pack will be processed and you can expect to see your credit within 5-10 business days.
you: And there is not going to be monthly charges to this card?
Amy: Yes, You will not be charged.
you: good i will keep a record of this conversation for confirmation.
you: Have a nice day Amy.
you: goodbye
Amy: Is there anything further I can assist you with today?
you: so long as there is a refund going to be showing up on my account within 5-10 business days, no there is nothing else you can help me with.
i was scamed, filled out the refund paper no money back in my account im on a fixed income and did not need this mess looks like i’m not alone here please send my money back……..
scamed, can’t log in to find out where my money is please send my refund !! takes 2 min. to take our money and ?????? to get it back
Hurray, received my refund today. It will be curious to see if this sites stays up!
I like to bid on swipeauction but i dont have my coupon code optional to apply what is the coupon code optional
Why would a great charity like World Vision, Feed the Children allow themselves to be linked to in such a commercial way as this penny auction at SwipeAuctions? Want to read more?
http://www.ministrywatch.com/
Donor Alert!
Feed the Children Fires Accountants
Ministry Fires Two of its Own Accountants After They Report Potential Fraud or Illegalities to the Ministry’s Board.
http://www.ministrywatch.com/pdf/MWDA-Feed-the-Ch…
It might just be a natural teaming up for PR purposes.
Justin
Hey,
Since most people already realized that Swipebids or SwipeAuctions is likely to be a scam, I have a question: What if you decide to try and bid on some goods that they provide just for the sake of it, and lets say you win a new MacBook at rediculously low price, will they still ship you the item, or will they find another way to rip you off? Anyone had any experience with that particular issue?
Thank you
I was thinking all was good, then it was like someone flipped a switch and I can no longer see the timers on the auction site/ nor can I bid, there is no bid button visible either. Is anyone else having this problem?
I have contacted them via/ found a glitch to talking to live rep…who said their timers are working fine, to sending them an email. No response and auction site still doesn't work. Yes, I have checked everything at my end…all the way to trace route from my router/ problem has to be at their site. I started having problems when they switched over to swipe auctions from swipe bids.
Would really like to hear from anyone having similar problems. I managed to win quite a few bid packs/hoping to actually win something. what a waste of money and time. can't even use up my bids and bail cause don't have a bid button to push. Just save your money and don't buy the guy on the yacht another drink w/ an umbrella!
TOTAL CRIMINALS! Luckily I copied and pasted the chat log once I got them to yield and agree to void the charge to my card that was initiated when I enrolled without any agreement to purchase. They paste deals all over their website and then point to one line where it said 300 bids for $159 on the form they use to enroll you so you can look around. Then when I say 300 bids show up and 300 bids "won" on my account I contacted the immediately. They hadn't batched so I made them agree to void… which took some doing. Now at least I have the transcript of the chat to give to the credit card company.
HERE IS MY ADVICE: Do not waste your time on getting these guys to do right by you. GFo through your credit card company and file a chargeback. The money will be put right back onto your account and they will swipe will need to prove it's a legitimate charge and that there was value delivered. Good luck!
I too got scammed for $150. Realizing immediately after registering that I had been charged, I called my mastercard and filed fraud alert.
3 mnths later after filling out the fraud claim, along with providing chat window copies similar to above saying was impossible to refund my money, my cc company has said the charge is valid and reinstated the charge
I would be curious to know if anyone has gotten a disputed charge credit upheld by their CC company, as it appears swipebid has figured all the cc rules to keep their charges valid (at least on Mastercard ).
This site is a total scam but there legal disclaimers although very deceptivly hidden by making you scroll pages are air tight dont put any CC info on their site.
In the UK Swipe Auctions scam are now advertising heavily on Facebook – they have stolen a picture of a well known celebrity (Stephen Fry) and are using it in their ads – see screenshots here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.ph…
Not only that but their ads are also using photoshopped (faked/doctored) photos, you can see screenshots here:
http://strangelyperfect.tv/7955/facebook-msnbc-je…
and more deceptive ads here:
http://www.resourcesforlife.com/docs/item3561 http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/…
Watchout people. it is a Scam. But I was lucky that my bank refund my money back not them after I filed up a dispute form against them. I did everything I was told by Swipebids to get my refund bank and kept every single copy of the paperwork I have send them and also kept the copy of the conversation I had with this so called live persons and forwarded it to the bank as a proof.
They are really smart they find there way to get out of it. First I was told that they didn't receive my refund form. Then I sent it via registered post and then they couldn't lie to me any more. I was able to convince the live person after 30 days on chat window saying that I Will receive my money back so that I could send this to my bank .
This is how I got my money back to my credit card. Because I had every paperwork to prove that they guaranteed me to refund my money after 30 days.
Hello Sharmila,
Where did you obtain the refund form on the swipebid website. My login does not work anymore and the Live Chat operator continue to give me the run-a-round. Do you have a copy of the refund form that you can send to me?
Thank you in advance,
Wayne
W fry: On what information do you base this comment on that the legal disclaimers "air tight"? In my opinion their so called legal documents are not only decpetively hidden, but are full of fraudulent statements as to this websites place of business, thus invalidating them. At the present time, SwipeAuctions state that their primary place of business is in the UK while the owner of the website, Jesse Willms of Terra Marketing, proudly proclaims this online penny auction as his own creation and ownership on his personal blog found at JesseWillms.com. Its seems to me, that the "air tight" disclaimers are as as much so as my screen door.
Justin
I didn't mean to say that I felt they were air tight but my credit card company Wells Fargo told me they had multiple cases and in their words Visa would not allow a dispute as the disclaimers were posted on the website and they were "airtight"
That being said I went on the site and talked with Peter who assured me he was a real person and not a Bot but they did have to read off of a pre prepared script. After sticking to my guns and telling him the only way i would be satisfied was a refund of my money he relented after me standing my ground and refusing to go through their process. I also followed the advice of another poster Ann and contacted Jennifer@swipeauctions.com
Jennifer replied to me and apologized i was not happy and assured me my refund would be processed. I checked today and it was credited back to my card and showed the 10/1/2010 date she said they had posted it.
Although it was a bit of a process to get this done they did do as they promised and returned all of my money. Some posters here said they had seen the comments but no one had posted they actually received the money back. Well I can to tell you that I did receive the money back. I would suggest using the e mail to Jennifer I mentioned above as this is the easiest way to get action without having to go through the online chat process. I also gave a call to my Credit card company {Wells Fargo} in the fraud dept and gave them the documentation so the customers they claimed they could not help could get a refund. if you have any questions please feel free to post and I will try to help.
They are a scam!!!! They said it's free to join, but I was surprised to see charge of $173+ on my credit card. I did a live chat and asked for refund I was instructed to fill it up & mail it in but it's been more than a month now (Aug 29) since the transaction & there's no reply nor action to my refund. Please help if there's any way I can get back my hard- earned money.
Scams like this one rely on peoples natural greed to do much of their work for them. New, in-the-box DSLR's for under $100? New 2010 cars for less than $2,000? I-Mac's for $300? C'mon! When will people ever learn… If it sounds too good to be true, it probably IS too good to be true.
I've studied con-men and all the experts agree that without the 'suckers' desire to get a 'special deal' the con won't work. Remember what W.C. Fields character, Snively Whipsnade, says in the movie "Poppy"; "You can't cheat an honest man… Never give a sucker an even break, nor smarten-up a chump".
As for the BBB… What a joke! They're a CLUB! They can tell you if they have a lot of complaints about a business, and that's just about all… People running these scams could care LESS about what the Better Business Bureau has to say about them.
Stop your whining… You got taken… Learn from it and don't get taken again. That way it won't be a total loss.
They took $159 from my account without warning just for checking out the site. I downloaded, printed and sent a refund form as requested and never received any refund or reply by writing or email. Definately a scam
Just checked my bank account and they haven't repaid any money into my account since they took it on 28th Sept.
Threaten to sue them and they'll change their tune. They WILL refund you every dime that they've taken from you if you threaten to:
1. Turn them into the BBB
2. Turn them into the FTC for fraudulent business practices. (They do not make you read the Terms and Conditions, the mention of $150 charge is too far away from the "register" button, and there are tons of flashy pictures and videos that distract the viewer from even noticing the mention of a charge simply by registering.)
3. Sue them for taking your money through the aforementioned fraudulent business practices.
What action sites can be trusted
ebay
It happend to me too. Late one night, saw a cheesy ad about an incredible deal on a laptop, clicked on it…long story short, they got me for $150.00 plus $4.99 (out of the country bank charge??) on my credit card. So—I filled out their ridiculous refund form, copied my driver's licence and mailed it off to the Colorado address–with delivery confirmation–an extra $5.00. That was 2 weeks ago. I just now noticed in the new fine print they state you have to contact them AGAIN after 28 days from mailing your refund request, so they can 'confirm' the information….and that they 'can't' issue a refund unless you contact them back to confirm. I CAN NOT BELIEVE THESE PEOPLE! I plan on calling my credit card company tomorrow to see what they can do.
They are waiting for the Statute of Limitations to expire. Just call your CC company NOW! you have 90 days from purchase and then you are screwed.
I won a very nice laptop, which I'm using right now. Actually I was mad and thought I'd at least go ahead & get rid of my bids. Since then I won a $100 Walmart gift card. I no longer purchase bids, I just claim my 60 free ones each day for signing in. I've learned not to bid against some people, who sometimes buy $1000 + bids in a day. Though by pure luck the site worked out fine for me, I would not recommend it to a friend. The $150 fee is certainly a hidden fee.
I see reports of SwipeBids / SwipeAuctions closing their online penny auction by way of a notification given by the Live Chat service of “winding down” operations. They also stated that they will not continue with their refunds process and have removed all links to download the mail in form. I ask you, PAW administrator, where do people go to now to get their money back?
I was just informed via their chat that they are no longer accepting new customers, at least according to the bot on the live chat.
Nick#SA5086: Swipeauctions is winding down operations due to merchant shutting down our processing and is no longer accepting new customers. During Swipeauctions’ wind down period, all products corresponding to already paid winning auctions will be shipped in accordance with the Terms & Conditions.
This was from three different bots. But yet i was able to create a new account! didnt get as far as entering my credit card info, as they already fraudulently stole 167 bucks for registering, even though when i signed up, the registration fee was not disclosed, ANYWHERE, even in their terms of service. I have a case pending with Visa as we speak!
Also, according to the bot, you can bid all ya like, pay all ya like, but never receive anything…as it is only items that have already been paid for that will be shipped. Visa contacted them by phone and were told that swipeauctions is “winding down, and their bank had been closed, therefore no one is getting a refund”
Just call your CC company and they will issue refund. I just did….as long as it’s within the Statute of Limitations (90 days) they will credit your account immediatley…DO NOT WAIT FOR SWIPESCAMS! All CC Companies know of this scam.
THey just went out of business by the way.
BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE!!
Swipeauctions.com aka Swipebids.com is now operating under new website.
Kindly pass this message around as it will save tons of people from getting scammed again by Jesse Willms.
Here’s the new site – http://www.selloffauctions.com
Look at all the similarities and you will know.
Try their online chat and you will know.
Above all, I am more than 100% sure that it is new venture of swipebids.com / swipeauctions.com
My information comes from trusted source, someone very close to those guys.
Save yourself from another scam guys.
swipeauctions.com is now http://www.selloffauctions.com and they are BOTH scam as we know.
Regards,
Anonymous
I have been bidding on this site and never won an auction and i spent hundreds of dollars with bids, someone do needs to address the Attorney General about this rip off scam..,,
I read the fine print before I joined the site and I don’t see how people think they’re a scam. I paid the membership fee and won bid packs. All together I won $1200.00 in Walmart gift cards and only spent $300.00 membership included. Of course you can lose money. Why would anyone start a site like that if they can’t make there money too. You just have to be smart about it. I’m just tired of people calling things a scam when they truly don’t understand something.
Cool, I’d love to meet with you for an interview. Would you be willing to meet and show me your credit card statements with this info, blocking out personal sensitive info and show me your items?
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