It's only fun until somebody gets hurt
Written: Sep 02 '01
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The Bottom Line
Ubid = Uninformed Buyers Inevitably Defeated
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Why, why, why is it that the more we hear that you don't get something for nothing, do we still continue to plunk down our hard earned money to get a too-good-to-be-true bargain on the web?
Ubid is a scam. And my only joy in writing about them is in predicting their imminent demise, for all of the reasons listed below. But first, my tale of doom and horror:
Once upon a time ...
It was a sultry August night and in a fit of immediate gratification and rampant consumerism, I decided I needed a telephone. But not just any telephone, I needed a cordless phone with a hold button, base station speakerphone and an extra battery in case the one in the handset went dead.
Remembering that I bought my last phone online, I went to onsale.com (now Egghead.com, soon to be Frys.com, otherwise known as the site of the living dead), and decided I should take my business elsewhere (I think I wrote a review of onsale.com long ago).
I landed at Ubid, which I've since realized stands for Uninformed Buyers Inevitably Defeated. But, I found the phone I wanted, and greed monster that I am, bid on it, expecting to make out on the cheap.
I "won" the auction of course. As you look at the small lots they offer on the site, you realize that their scheme is to offer just enough to get the price up to where the site owners want it, then release the product on the unexpecting public.
My woes began the moment my credit card was charged. First of all, they didn't ship the product the way I wanted. Then they didn't respond when I wrote inquiring why their automated system screwed up.
Finally, I got the phone. Glory! It was even more beautiful than I had expected. They said it was "refurbished," which to me means that a 4-year-old dropped it from an 8-story window onto a pile of granite which was dumped into the East River. Then they cleaned it up and sent it out to another poor schlub.
That would be me.
My shock came when I looked in the package and found NO BATTERIES! This is kind of an important feature one needs when using a cordless phone, as without a cord, and barring some kind of nuclear powered telephone, there is no other energy source for the telephone than a battery.
I wrote to Ubid, and here is what they said, in part:
I have reviewed your order, and I have found that the batteries weren't
listed as coming, in your package. Your package was listed as
refurbished therefore, you may not receive all of the pieces with the
package. If your package was listed as being new, you would have
received the batteries also.
Oh. I can imagine this type of philosphy to extend to other professions as well:
Thank you for buying a used car with us. We advertised the car as "used" which is why we do not guarantee it comes with an actual engine. If you had bought a new car, we would have given you the engine as well.
or
Thank you for accepting a heart from our hospital. As we advertised, this is a heart transplant, not a new heart. Had you purchased a new heart, we would guarantee the heart would beat. We did not specifically advertise the heart would be beating, and since this transplant was from a Ubid customer service representative, we cannot guarantee that the heart would still function.
So here I am. A phone. No cord. No battery. Big hassle.
Why Ubid is doomed to fail
1. Untrustworthy all the way through
2. Poor user interface on the site
3. Bad product searching
4. Insufficient product information
5. Abominable customer service
That last one will nail their coffin faster than you can say "Boo.com".
I, for one, will not miss them.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
sgersh
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Location: Bay Area, California
Reviews written: 120
Trusted by: 66 members
About Me:
Up until now, I did stuff, some of which I talk about on here.
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