For10Cents Update: Interview and BBB Accreditation

UPDATE 10/1: User to have 11k in won items cancelled because she discussed For10Cents on our forum.

UPDATE 9/29/10: Users are reporting slow ship times & lack of response from For10Cents when asked about their items, see discussion in the forum for more information.

Back in November of last year we posted about how we found that For10Cents had posted a shilled review to our forum, we’ve since spoken with For10Cents‘ co-founder Thomas Zambrzycki and he told us that the marketing person responsible for the fake review, which caused us to remove their advertising last year, was fired shortly afterwards.

For10Cents has just recently received accreditation from the Better Business Bureau and holds an A- rating. We’ve extended the invite for an interview with For10Cent’s management to learn more about this penny auction site.

Penny Auction Watch: What got you interested in the entertainment shopping industry?
Entertainment Shopping originated in Germany in 2005 [Swoopo]. We came across this concept in 2006 while on a trip to Europe. After learning more about it, we became thrilled by with its potential and together with our business partners decided to start our own company. Since we already co-owned a company that developed software for the banking industry, it was almost a natural expansion for us to start this new endeavor. In 2008, our first entertainment shopping company opened its “Internet” doors for business for business in one of the European countries and quickly achieved a leadership position. At the beginning of 2010 the company received substantial venture capital funding that allowed for further growth. Subsequently, We decided to open a sister second company in the US. We felt that this type of shopping experience would bring a new level of excitement to the US e-commerce market in the U.S.
In July of 2009, For10cents.com began operating and quickly gained a prominent market position, regularly placing (we usually place between the 6th and 10th on pennyauctiontraffic.com).
Penny Auction Watch: How long has For10Cents been open?
We’ve been open for a year in the United States and have the advantage of running a successful Entertainment Shopping site in Europe for 2 1/2 years. This experience gave us insights into what bidders value most, getting great deals on great products while having fun.
Penny Auction Watch: What kind of items do you offer/have lined up? Do your auctions run on a schedule?
We concentrate on auctioning highly desirable products – mostly electronics. For10cent.com’s slogan is “Play Before You Buy.” Simply put, if you plan to buy a good top quality laptop, camera, TV, etc. Recently, we are also introducing very super attractive vacation packages (e.g. Caribbean cruises, Las Vegas vacations) which are becoming very popular gaining in
popularity with our Bidders.
Penny Auction Watch: What are the timer increments between bids/does this vary by auction?
We offer 4 increments – 30, 15, 10 and 6 seconds. Depending on the price of the product we start with longer increments and as the auction progresses we make them shorter which adds to the auction’s thrill and excitement.
Penny Auction Watch: How much are your bids?
Unlike a vast majority of penny auction sites, we offer the lowest priced bids in the industry.
Depending on the volume purchased, Bidders can buy bids for 10 to 15 cents each. Average bid prices on most penny auction sites are s is between 60 to 75 cents. This inexpensive bids are great but have pricing has one downside – sometimes auctions take more time than some bidders are used to. To address this we introduced Fast Auctions with a very successful feature – bid multiplication. Auction buttons marked with 3x, 6x etc., are allowing bidders to expedite bid placement, shorten the auction and race to the finish according to the number on bid button and consequently shorten auction time.
Penny Auction Watch: What states/countries are you open to and where are you located?
We are open to the entire US market at this point. We are located in Park Ridge, IL.
Penny Auction Watch: What is your policy for bid refunds?
As you know throughout the industry generally bids are non refundable, but we always try to be as fair as possible to all of our bidders. If the situation warrants a bid refund, we will issue it. Nine times out of ten when a situation arises we side with the bidder. In some cases, we’ve thrown in free Bid Packs! We know that the best way to be successful in business is to take a good care of your customers.
For10cents strives hard to make our customers happy and we are very proud of our accreditation with Better Business Bureau and A- rating.
Penny Auction Watch: Are there any win limits, limits/household?
Yes, we allow 4 Auction and 4 Bid Packs wins in 10 days. This policy allows more people to win and we’re constantly analyzing our policy to accommodate our growing numbers of users. Our goal is to have more and more unique winners on our site and consequently wider appeal.
Penny Auction Watch: Is there a story behind the For10Cents name/theme?
There are two key aspects that differentiate For10cents from other auction sites. First, we are known for auctioning mostly high quality, expensive and, often novelty products. But our second advantage is having the lowest priced bids in the industry – as low as 10 cents per bid. Therefore, it seemed so natural to have the name For10cents. So we continuously strive to definitely bring the most affordable, highest value Entertainment Shopping experience to our bidders.
Penny Auction Watch: Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers?
For10cents has evolved in so many ways since last year and so has the American public. It’s been especially interesting to see this shift first hand and often reminds us of our early days in Europe. It’s the cycle everyone goes through when something new becomes familiar.
We want to thank PAW for granting us this interview and we look forward to helping lead the development of Entertainment Shopping.

Discuss & review For10Cents and learn about other penny auction sites in our forum!

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4 comments… add one
  • Rebecca September 28, 2010, 5:42 pm

    A very important issue that this interview does not address, is the shipping time of products won on this site. I was an avid user until I began experiencing extremely long wait times for the items I won. Many of the items are well over 100 days old since I won them, and there is still no indication as to when they will be shipped. If you ask the people in charge when your items will be shipped, or even if they have a set policy in regards to that issue, you will receive no answer. I am even aware of threats made by their representatives to place accounts "under review", just because someone dared to ask for your items to be shipped. I know many people that bid on this site and all are experiencing the same problems. This s a serious issue and one that needs to be addressed. Waiting for well over 100 days to receive your items is completely unacceptable, and possibly even amounts to a possible Ponzi scheme being committed.

    Reply
    • Amanda September 29, 2010, 3:44 am

      @Rebecca, that is not good at all, thanks for posting this Rebecca!

      Reply
  • Claudia September 30, 2010, 12:55 pm

    My account was placed under review less then 1 week after I inquired about the status of over $11,000 worth of items I won, dating as far back as 118 days as of today.

    When I inquired why my account was placed under review, I was sent this message by the CEO:

    Hello Claudia,

    Thank you for your your email. We do appreciate you as our customer however we are obligated to do our best to keep For10cents.com as equal as possible and fair to all bidders. That requires constant review of activities on our portal as well as "outside" of it, including but not limited to Facebook, Penny Auction Watch etc. Your account came up under review due to certain information we collected. Be assured that we do appreciate you as an active customer and work hard to reasonably evaluate information to assure that our policies are respected by all bidders. As stated previously we will complete review within 7 to 10 business days and will contact you immediately.

    Maciej Wilhelm

    Chief Executive Officer

    For10cents.com, Inc.

    145 S. Northwest Hwy.

    Park Ridge, IL 60068

    Ph: (1773) 818-4645
    http://www.for10cents.com

    I finally received a call today from the CEO. They accused me of collusion because of posts I made on the 4.10 thread here on PAW and on a Penny Auction Facebook page. He said that he "doesn't authorize it's users to post about 4.10". Can you believe that? What right does he have to accuse me of collusion when I was just using my right to free speech. I have never posted a claim to a single item and have take care to avoid bidding on auctions my friends bidded on so I wouldn't be accused of collusion. Nor does it state in their TOS that you are prohibited from discussing 4.10 on Facebook or PAW. That argument really goes out the window when 4.10 actually did an interview with PAW!!!

    When I asked for proof , he said "he didn't have to furnish it". He then offered me a "deal". They would void all my open, unshipped wins and refund me my bids. I have won $11,429.82 retail value. I have paid $5,309.41. Quite a deal for them I'd say. He then said, "If I wanted to, I could continue the site after I signed a paper stating that I accepted this deal". By no means will I sign any such thing!!! It is really funny though how they shipped out the $200 gift cards and other smaller value items while holding back the laptops and cameras I have won. What a joke!!!

    Come to talking with other "power" bidders, they are doing the same exact thing to them. 4.10 is looking for excuses not to pay what they owe people. They are committing fraud and I will do whatever means necessary to recover what has been stolen from me and 4.10 prosecuted to the full extent of the law!!!

    Reply
    • Amanda October 1, 2010, 1:23 am

      Wow, not cool.

      Reply

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