Cheap jewelry and unrealistically inflated prices with very poor customer services.
Written: Feb 05 '06 (Updated Mar 04 '06)
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As an online auction site, Bidz.com functions well enough in the technical department. The site is quick to load, easy to browse and most areas are easily accessible. The 3 minute auctions are fun and compelling, and this could be the undoing of some new bidders. There is an addictive quality to them. For this reason it could be said that the site owners and builders have done a good job in business terms. For the customers, one might take a different viewpoint.
Bidding is easy. Payment is easy. Tracking your shipment is easy, and in my experience, getting the goods is efficiently organised. They come well packed, by FedEx, and in a timely manner.
The flip side of this site is that which is not often seen when you first join.
Customer services are less than mediocre. If you ask them a question their response is usually a standardized mail which often doesn't address your concern. My guess is they are restricted to 'the company line' and probably given little discretion on what they can say. But when this means you don't get an answer to your query it is highly frustrating.
Bidz.com offers mainly jewelry products. These are their own items. They import them almost exclusively from China. Many of the products have a 'China' stamp in the metal on the back of rings, bracelets, necklaces etc. There are other products on the site. Some their own and some from authorized merchants. The wholesale section seems to have been taken over by a major Beef Jerky distributor, who constantly tell you 'it's the best you've ever tasted'.
Let's be blunt. This site is set up to sell cheap jewelry. They offer 'compare' prices, which are there to increase the perceived value of each item. They are hugely inflated and bear no resemblance to the actual value of the items. I stuck to bids of no more than 10% of the 'compare' prices. This is a good benchmark if you're looking to buy for yourself. If however, as many do and as Bidz suggests, you bid to resell on auction sites like ebay, you are likely to be very disappointed with what you get. I ordered two lots from Bidz, totalling $1600. I cancelled the second order when the first order arrived and I saw the actual product. The photos on the site are cleverly taken to give the impression of substantial products. The reality is quite different. Some of the pieces I got were so small they would even look tiny on a child. I know if I'd tried to resell them on ebay my satisfaction rating would have gone through the floor. I complained to Bidz and set about returning them. They said they would TRY to cancel the second order but that it had already been packed and allocated to FedEx. The order was actually shipped. I told them if it arrived I would refuse delivery so it was in their interest to stop it before it got to me. This is ongoing so I can't let readers have the conclusion yet.
As soon as I filled out their online returns form for the first order they cancelled my account. They sent me one of their standard mails telling me my account had been closed because I hadn't paid for something I had bid on. This, of course, wasn't true. I mailed them back and asked them to specify which product I had not paid for. They came clean at that point and admitted my account had been closed because 'you are returning too many items'. This, of course, was not a problem for me since I had no intention of purchasing from them again.
Beware of the additional charges that are not immediately presented up front. Bidz.com adds $3 per item to pack them, and 3% of the total value of the order, including shipping, to cover what they describe as 'finance charges levied by online billing merchants'. To you and I, this means credit card companies, Paypal, Nochex and so forth.
I paid for both orders by Amex and I would advise any bidder to pay them by credit card. If you have a problem with them you have some recourse if it goes wrong.
So just to recap. The site is well set out and professionally presented. The products are presented in their best light and made to look both appetizing and expensive. Shipping seems efficient and the products arrive well-packaged and in a timely fashion. Their customer service is very poor. The products are cheaply made and would never sell for anywhere near the price they suggest is their 'compare' value. Beware additional costs such as packing and finance charges. With the cheaper items they can sometimes double the cost. More so if you add the cost of shipping on a small number of items.
I will try to keep this section updated on my ongoing experience with Bidz. They have yet to credit me for the items I am returning AND for the items I asked them to cancel. I have prepared my credit card company for a battle, should one ensue.
The items they sell at Bidz may or may not be as they describe. Whether or not the gold percentage is exactly as they say it is or the diamonds and other precious stones are real, is debatable. I haven't had any of the items tested so I cannot be sure. What I can say is, in my opinion, the items look cheap, are often small and lightweight and certainly don't LOOK the part.
UPDATE March 4th 2006
After much pushing and more e-mails than I care to mention, I have at last had my refunds from Bidz. They deducted all shipping charges, finance surcharges and packing fees first. Then they deducted 15% of the cost of the items, as the site stipulates. So out of the $1600 I paid, accepting that I kept 5 items (because I had bids on them on ebay), amounting to about $120, I lost approx. $560. On top of that the items that were sold on ebay only made 67% of what I paid for them. So I lost on those too. My total loss on dealing with Bidz was about $600.
When I was dealing with their customer services department the word that continually came to mind was 'ineptitude'. They constantly ignored my requests for specifics about the credits that were due to me. In the end I had to do my calculations after getting the credit amounts from my credit card company. Give or take a few dollars it looks like they've done what their website says they will do in the event of returns. But here is a point anyone dealing with them should take into consideration. As soon as they saw I was returning goods they blocked my account so I couldn't sign in. Since they will not accept returns without an automated returns number, and since the only way you can get such a number is through logging in and using the online form, they were effectively making sure I couldn't send anything else back to them. Fortunately, I had already dealt with the two orders I had placed with them. If I'd only dealt with one of them they would have effectively prevented me from arranging returns. So if you're returning anything to them, make sure you do all your returns in one go, with the idea you will never buy from them again. Or you may never have the opportunity of sending back the cheap and nasty items they market.
Part of my loss is my own fault. I should have waited for the first order to arrive before I made the second one. I would have saved myself almost $300. But retrospective wisdom is a wonderful thing that has no impact on history.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
calico984
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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