uBid, Tips for winning bargains !
Written: Jan 04 '02
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I have been using this auction service for over a year with great results. I have received numerous items at “bargain” prices while encountering only one problem form all the purchases made in that time. The problem I did have was that I had won an auction on a “refurbished” radar detector that worked fine for the first couple of weeks, and then one day would just not power up. I thought this would probably turn in to a real problem, but as it turned out it was about as painless as it could be. I contacted their customer service and they sent out a replacement unit as well as an empty box with the return shipping already prepaid on it for me to send the bad unit back in. The replacement and return box arrived in just a four days after I contacted them. They honored their return merchandise policy, and handled the problem professionally in a manner that I wish all customer service departments would. I believe that this is one strong advantage that this site has over most of the other auction sites. The majority of items here are sold directly by uBid, and it’s more like you’re buying from any regular on line store than at an auction site. They handle the merchandise problems that come up with their customer service representatives just like any normal store would. I have found that on most other auction sites you are purchasing from a separate person or company that are just selling their goods through the sites auction services. Any problems that you have with an item or with the service of the seller have to worked out with the seller. That happens when and if you can locate them, and prod them into taking care of the problem. The uBid site even goes as far as to offer extended warranties that can be purchased and added on to the manufacturers warranty on many items that they sell. The descriptions of the items up for auction including pictures are very good, clear, and useful. They sell both new merchandise, and as you can see from my above experience, refurbished items as well. Some of the refurbished items that I have purchased myself include several radar detectors, an ice-cream maker, and an electric meat slicer. Almost all of these items came in their original boxes, and other than the box or item itself being clearly marked “refurbished” they look, operate, and have held up just like a brand new items would.
TIPS :
Tip #1. “Off” hours are your best bets for finding bargains. From late night to early morning the competition for bidding is not as great. I have found my best auction wins have come in the middle of the night when I got on line because I wasn’t sleepy, or have come home after a late night of consuming kool-aid or some other form of liquid refreshment (*smiles*), and hopped on line to “wind down”. On holidays when people are out and busy with other activities is another time when bidding pressure is low and bargains abound. If you find yourself at home during those times and feel like looking for some bargains, it’s a great time to find some.
Tip #2. Always check the shipping costs before bidding. Once you bid its final, and what may be a great price on an item can end up no bargain at all if the shipping costs are high. Shipping costs vary with the different auctions. Some auctions may have one set shipping price determined that you pay, it may be a “shipping included” (no-cost, free shipping to the winner of the auction), or it may have a set charge with an ADDITIONAL charge per pound. These are the ones that are MOST important to look at in determining your actual cost of the item. EXAMPLE: it may state, Standard Ground 10.99 + 0.99/lb. They always have the weight of the item clearly marked right under the “shipping costs” box on the information page. In the above example if you were to bid and win an item that is heavy, like a computer monitor, it may weigh 30 pounds. (30 pounds x $.99 per pound = $29.70). Your shipping costs would then be $10.99 + $29.70 (for the 30 pounds) that equals a total of $40.69 actual shipping costs for delivery of the monitor. Sure you may have paid $40.00 less for the monitor than you would have been able to get it at from your local electronics store, but then you paid $40.69 to have it shipped when you. That’s no bargain in my book, but with the knowledge of all costs including shipping, you can and will locate some great bargains on this site.
Tip #3. As with most auctions, do your bidding late. At the end of an auction you will know if the price is still in the range of cost that you feel comfortable bidding at. Being an early bidder usually just drives up the price of the item you are after, and you end up just wasting your time because the item goes above what you are willing to pay for it, (except in cases as in tip #4 below). If you see something you want with plenty of time left in the auction then your time is better spent waiting to bid, and doing a little research on the price comparison sites to better educate yourself on the bid price you will want to place.
Tip #4. Ignore tip #3 on the uBid auctions if there is a large quantity of an item you want to purchase up for an auction. One of the best features of this auction site is the fact that some items are sold in very large quantities. If you put in a low, early bid on an item that there are large quantities of, then it takes a lot of bids to knock you out of that auction. For example: I was in an auction for a set of bake-ware that there were 115 sets of. I bid very low and even though there were bids that were for as much as 3 times that of my bid amount, I still won a set because there were only 112 total bids placed. Another way to look at this IMPORTANT feature of their auction is thusly: There is a quantity of 75 rings to be sold in one auction. At the close of this auction there had been 50 people that had bid $30.00 for the ring. There are another 15 people that bid $25.00, and you are one of the first ten out of a total of 60 people that had placed a bid of $20.00 for the ring. You would still be a winner in this auction and receive your ring for $20.00 even though the top bid was for a higher dollar amount. This is due to the quantity of rings that were auctioned (75), because the auction ended with only 65 bids that were for a higher dollar amount than your bid, and lastly because you put your bid in early enough to be one of the first ten out of 60 people that bid the same $20.00 amount that you did. The ring would have been a good buy for $30.00, but the $20.00 that you paid for it was a real bargain!
Some uBid Auction Specifics;
Both the current time, and auction closing dates and times are on Pacific Time zones, and are posted under the “Bidding Information” section on each product information page. This way even though it may not be your specific time zone you can still see exactly how much time if left on the auction for the product your viewing.
Typically, auctions are over at their posted closing times. However, if there are any bids within 10 minutes of the close of the auction (the "Going, Going, Gone!" period), the auction will be extended until there are no bids for 10 continuous minutes.
If two or more bids are for the same price, the bid that has a higher quantity will take precedence over the lower quantity bid. If two or more bids are for the same bid price and same bid quantity, then the bidder placed their bid FIRST will win the auction.
If the auction is listed with a “Reserve Price” then the seller has set a price that is the lowest price they will sell their item for. This amount is pre-determined and is usually higher than the minimum starting bid price. The price is always kept a secret from bidders. To win a Reserve Price auction, you must place a bid that meets or exceeds the reserve price the seller has set. When you bid you will be notified if you have met the reserved price. Many times you can look at the list of current bidders on the product information page, and if someone has met the reserved price you will be able to see what it is.
If you leave the auction site while you have a bid on an item you can have them automatically send out a "You’ve Been Outbid" e-mail when you no longer have one of the highest bids. You can then click on the link (URL) provided in the e-mail they send (or copy and paste it into your browser) and it will take you to the product information page where you can see the current bids and increase your bid if you desire.
If you have one of the winning bids at the end of the auction, the product is yours and you will notified via e-mail.
All the details of your order will be sent to you via e-mail.
They have what they call “Bid Butler” that you can use to automatically raise your bid if you’re not at the auction or if you are off line. Using the Bid Butler is just like having someone watch over your auctions when you're not there to make sure you always have a winning bid. To use this service you tell your Bid Butler the maximum amount you are willing to pay and the quantity you would like at that price. Then Bid Butler ensures that you get the best deal by submitting the smallest incremental bid possible to keep you as a winner on that auction. Your Bid Butler will never bid higher than you tell him to. If the bidding in an auction goes over your maximum bid, your Bid Butler will send an e-mail to let you know. To reenter the auction, simply return to the product page and give your Bid Butler new instructions or submit a regular bid.
You will have a personal page that you can access by password that is called “My Page”. It is designed so that you can view all of your bids and orders from the past 30 days. Your bids are broken down into the following 4 categories.
1) Open Auctions Winning Bids
Open Auctions Winning Bids lists auctions you are participating in that are still open and where your bid is currently high enough to win merchandise.
2) Closed Auctions Winning Bids
Closed Auctions Winning Bids shows auctions in which you had the winning bid.
3) Open Auctions Non-Winning Bids
Open Auctions Non-Winning Bids lists auctions you are participating in that are still open and where your bid is no longer high enough to win merchandise.
4) Closed Auctions Non-Winning Bids
Closed Auctions Non-Winning Bids lists auctions which are over, and for which you were outbid.
“My Page” also gives you access to all your personal information such as shipping address’s, contact information, and billing information. Plus it gives you links to use for contacting uBid by email if you have a question or problem.
Contact Information
uBid Customer Care Center:
1 Lauhoff Center
Danville, IL 61832
For inquiries concerning purchases made at uBid, please email our Customer Care team.
Phone:
Customer Care phone representatives: 1-888-900-8243
Customer Care credit department: 1-800-317-7995
Aon Innovative Services (for extended warranty questions): 1-800-373-0893
uBid Headquarters:
8550 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, Suite 200
Chicago, IL 60631
Distribution Warehouse:
4685 E. Shelby Drive
Memphis, TN 38118
They have one site email service
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Member: Curtis
Location: Plymouth, IN
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me: Married, father of 2 boys. Favorite interests: cooking, outdoors, comedy clubs, music and sports.
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