"Ordered a Magnavox combined DVD/VCR on the 4th of February. After a lot of problems, it finally arrived- on March 13!!! I was happy to see it, though, as I have been burning a lot of movies to disk and wanted to watch them on my new TV. I opened the box and this piece of equipment that took so long to arrive, well, I don't know how they managed to do it, but it arrived broken to bits! The case is hard plastic (who uses plastic on a DVD/VCR?) and all the panels had been stressed so badly in transit that that they simply cracked through at the screw heads and the top and sides completely separated from the body. I would not have even thought such a thing possible, so it clearly had to have gone through some very major abuse. When the Fedex driver brought it to my door, he practically threw it at me, which likely explains a good part of the problem- but certainly not all.

It was at this point that I realized I wouldn't have been able to use anyway, even if it had arrived perfectly intact, as the remote control, all the cords, paperwork, and instructions had been lost out of the box somewhere along the way, and at this point, heaven only knows where.

The only good thing I can say about the experience so far is that as the shipping problems came up, the company did go to great lengths to resolve them, and the employee who contacted me (it was the same fellow each time, which I appreciated very much) was not only vigilant, but very kind, as well. I only wish the shipping department of the vendor had taken as good of care to make sure the equipment actually arrived safely, as it kind of seems as if the exact opposite may have been true. Since it is refurbished, the DVD/VCR had been reboxed in the expected Magnavox-printed cardboard, but it was wrapped in nothing more than a single loop of bubble wrap that was left completely open on both ends. This was clearly and sorely inadequate to anyone who ships any kind of merchandise, but especially those who send out electronics. I mean, what's the big problem with using a few small sheets of foam? I guess, in the end, it is cheaper to just hope things get there and what doesn't, to just go ahead and refund the monies spent. And, oh heck, but that is not a happy thought. I do not even want to imagine now how long that that is going to take. After reading of the headaches others have gone through to get a refund, I am not holding out for my money or a replacement.

I bought at Ubid/Redtag because it is cheap and supposedly fast, yet, in the end, it has proven to be neither those things, and neither of those things in a very big way. Will I buy from them again? I almost bought a TV recently, but with the ongoing shipping problems with the DVD/VCR still unresolved, I decided to spend my money elsewhere- and am I ever glad I did. Just the thought now that a 37" LCD/HDTV might have gotten this same kind of abusive treatment makes me feel more than just a little bit sick to my stomach. In fact, this is proving to be, thus far, the very worst buying experience I've ever had, bar none.

I'll write an update and let you know how the refund goes..."

"I was also ripped off by UIBID.com. Won bid on 11/07/2009 for a beautiful womans watch. I could not wait to receive the watch to give to my wife.

The order status said “Shipped” a few days later. It stayed there until around 11/17/2009. Finally I received the watch on 11/21/2009. The watch I received was a mans watch, one which I do not like. It seems to me someone in the warehouse, liked the womans watch and swapped with the mans when it was convient to do so. If this actually happened it would be easy to catch somebody doing this.
"

"I was concerned about purchasing from this company after seeing the rating here. But the lack of recent entries was odd, so I checked the onlineBBB, where they have an A+!!

http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-reviews/auctioneers/ubidcom-in-tilton-il-9002499

What's going on reseller ratings?"

"I am so glad that I read all your reviews. Thank you so much, they are waiting for my payment for a nice looking complete PC package deal was 221.00, $51.00 to ship it 3.99, service tax and $93.00 for 2 years of protection. Now that I have read all your reviews they can just go to hell!! I'm so glad you all wrote to tell me what to exspect from them. Thank you.The last thing I need right now is to be ripped off."

"Won an HP laptop late on a Thursday night. Was pleasantly surprised to receive it from Fed Ex on Saturday morning (regular shipping). Having purchased items from them previously, I didn't expect it to be shipped for a few days (as stated on their website).

My only complaint is that the laptop shipped with 64 bit Windows Vista, rather than the 32 bit version. I pretty much expected this, as I've not seen a laptop with 4GB of RAM come with 32 bit Vista. Nearly all of the laptops up for auction also indicated they came with the 32 bit Vista, but I'm pretty sure they don't. My concern was that some of my software/hardware wouldn't run on 64 bit Vista, but this has not been the case.

Overall, I would say I'm very satisfied (again) in dealing with UBID. While I don't doubt that they may have issues, many of the complaints lodged against them are due to the customer's ignorance or their unrealistic expectations. I have to laugh at people that complain about shipping charges, shipping times, etc. from ANY vendor when they are clearly stated. People need to open their eyes sometimes and then make their purchasing decisions. If you don't like the terms associated with an item, then DON'T buy it.

Also, I don't expect the same level of customer service when dealing with an internet seller that sells things cheaper than retail. They deal with lower profit margins and must make it up through volume. If you want top notch service and live sales help, then go to a local store."

"I beleive this company is a big scam .I purchased a wrist watch for about $50.00. Wrist watch arrived and was defective. Ubid said I would have to work it out with seller but seller would not answer emails or respond to me.Ubid.com sold it to me but will not make good on the purchase."

"I bid on an HP laptop. When the auction closed, uBid.com web site showed me as the winner. One plus hour later I received an outbid notice. I went back to uBid.com & it showed a new winner with a bid of $200+ higher. I complained to uBid.com. They said that their system had a glitch and they are not responsible for that. I complained to BBB. uBid.com gave same answer and did not respond to my rebuttal. BBB closed my case with this conclusion: “BBB determined the company addressed all the complaint issues and made a good faith and reasonable effort to resolve them, although it appears you were not satisfied with the outcome. Therefore, your complaint is being closed at our Bureau as administratively resolved, and will be reflected as such in the company's reliability report …”, which is funny for me (in particular, “administratively resolved”). BTW, I learned one more thing - now I know who BBB is protecting: their company members that pay the bureau or consumers. Make your conclusion …

Consumer's Original Complaint :
I was bidding an HP Pavilion dv5t laptop on UBid.com. The auction closed at 2:00pm PST on 11/30. About 15 minutes after the auction closed, I logged into UBid.com web site and saw that I won the bid (print-out in PDF format can be provided if requested). However, at night when I checked my email, I saw an email sent by UBid.com at 3:05pm PST which says that I was outbid (email can be provided if requested). I felt very strange and logged back into UBid.com. Indeed the web site showed a new winner (print-out in PDF format can be provided if requested). I called UBid.com on 12/1. Jessica T. told me that their system had a problem and the bid went into overtime (so I lose the bid). I questioned her that if their system failed to update the web site, why it showed me as the winner about 15 minutes after the auction was closed and showed another winner a few hours later when I saw the outbid email from Ubid.com? Also I questioned her that if the auction went into overtime, the number of extra bids in overtime did not match the time frame according to UBid.com's bidding rule (auction continues if some one makes a new bid within 3 minutes). Jessica could not answer my questions and transferred my call to her supervisor Brianna N. Brianna then changed the explanation that the auction did not go into overtime. I did not win within the regular auction close time. Then I asked her why UBid.com web site showed that the auction is close and I am the winner. The answer is their system had a problem. This is an unacceptable explanation and treatment to me who followed UBid.com rules to do business with UBid.com. I asked Brianna that if I won a bid, then I would not be able to cancel my winning bid and I would be asked to carry out the contract to pay for the auction I won. I would not be able to break the contract. Why can UBid.com walk away from a contract easily by just saying "Sorry, our system had a problem" when their explanation does not make any sense??!! In addition, a vendor should be responsible for the mistake they made. But, the answer I got from Brianna is that "No, we are not responsible for any mistakes we made". I said I will complain in other places in order to get a reasonable response or treatment. She replied "Go ahead. All complaints come to me anyway." When a company is doing business in such an arrogant, dishonest, and irresponsible way, they should be banned from doing any business before they improve their behavior.

Receive Business Response :
We apologize for the experience that Mr. Ku has had. The system did have a glitch where the auction page was not updating properly but his My Page was showing the correct and current information. The customer put in a bid on 11/29/2008 at 4:16:45 PM in the amount of $513.00. There were 28 bids after Mr. Ku had put his bid in and the auction ended on 11/30/2008 at 1:58:42 PM in the amount of $712.00. The auction format goes by price then quantity and then original bid time. We have apologized to Mr. Ku and even offered a coupon due to the problems he was having. However, he has declined. Since we are a liqidator and quantity is limited we are unable to give the item to Mr. Ku as the item simply is not there. Mr. Ku was not supposed to win the auction and did not according to his My Page. Thanks Brianna

Received Consumer Rebuttal :
The explanation does not make sense and is not acceptable.
1) Attachment #1 is the print-out from uBid.com web site about 15 minutes after the auction closed. If their system was not updating properly, why did it show that the auction is closed and I am the winner?!
2) Attachment #2 is the email sent by uBid.com that notified me I am outbid. The email was sent out at 3:05:17 PM PST by uBid.com (in the body of the email and Gmail shows that it received the email at 6:05 EST), one hour and 5 minutes after the auction was closed (at 2:00PM PST). This is not right at all and does not match the explanation!!
3) After I saw the outbid email, I logged into uBid.com again. It then showed another winner!! Attachment #3 is the print-out that I saw from uBid.com web site at that time. Note that the page shows that the total number of bid is 22 ("22 Total Bids Starting Bid: $1").
With my experience and what I saw (evidenced by the attached print-outs), it is not hard to understand that the explanation does not make sense at all. A system glitch that caused "the auction page was not updating properly" does not explain any of the items (1) ~ (3) above. Therefore, it is easy to reach a conclusion that uBid.com was not following the rules they set up for the auction and was playing tricks to grab additional $200+ profit in their pocket.
As for the coupon, a $5 coupon from a company that does not do business honestly and responsibly is of no use for me.
Note that the 3 attachments #1, #2, and #3 are included in the WinZip file attachment."

"They shipped my laptop very quickly. Everything was in order and I got A GREAT DEAL. I am using my laptop to write this review!"

"The shipping and order pricessing system is not proper. Shiping status has not been changed for so many days. I wanted the product for a function but that has already gone."

"I bought a desktop computer from Ubid.com a few mounts ago. They shipped it in a reasonable amount of time, but it had been delivered by FedEx to a wrong address (they had the right one on the box) and I never received it. After several phone calls and e-mails their “Customer service” sent me a e-mail stating that because the “FedEx” driver said that the package been delivered to my address they can't help me, and this was the last response to my e-mails.It is really interesting to me what they expect the driver to say when he know he messes up the package – even after he put the wrong address on the delivery slip ???
I had to put the charge on dispute with my credit card company, file a police report, spend hours on the phone and finally after filling with BBB I got my money back from “ubid.com” – took me more than 2 months!
So be aware of their “Customer service” - if something goes wrong, you'll be more likely to be by your self. Also avoid FedEx specially around the Holidays – they hire unexperienced temporary drivers (a year ago they left a 700$ LCD TV sitting at my front door all day long, because nobody was home), UPS are far more reliable. "

"I have bought tons of computers/laptops at Ubid. I used to get great deals but recently noticed the bidding & winning is getting ridiculous.There is a name for it regarding bidding..use your imagination.
WATCH out as they post 90 day manufacturer's warranty. This is listed on 99% of their auctions. Odd..but recently I received 4 computers from them, HP to be exact and 2 out of the 4 came with dead keyboards. Called HP and they said the computers are "OUT OF WARRANTY". I explained I purchased from UBID and received these just 2 days ago..Sorry out of warranty. So in that, I decided to check a few of the laptop serial numbers..called HP..NO 90 DAY WARRANTY.
Ubid as of late seems to falled to the wayside and the same bidders each and every day outbide me ALWAYS..ODD..Stay away from the game.."

"This was an order for 2 refurbished ipods for my kids for Christmas. The shipping made the very reasonable price less reasonable but i made the bid so i'll take the blame for that. anyway, the ipods came, i checked them to make sure they worked and i left them in their packaging 'til Christmas. Fast forward to Christmas Day, my daughters works fine, but my son's doesn't. Because it's been outside the 15 day return window and 30 day warranty period, i'm told that i have no recourse but to eat the $262 i spent. that's right, $262 for 1 of last years model ipod and 1 piece of junk. oh, and my son is sol, too. Also, the customer support personnel were very interested in keeping me as a customer, insisting it was my fault for not reading the warranty policy. i guess they're right about that: it was my fault for ordering thru them. never again. next time, i'll stick to ebay or amazon."

"Don't be an idiot like me! Avoid Ubid! I have purchased many items, mostly computers and electronics from Ubid over the past few years. A couple of times I got a good product at a great price but too often the item is damaged or incorrectly described. I mean out of 20 purchases, approximately 6-7 had problems! Customer Service has made it so difficult to get problems corrected in the past that I literally decided it wasn't worth my time and aggravation to complain about a computer I just bought that, judging from the writing on the box, was returned by another customer because it was broken and then they sold it to me! Aside from selling me a broken returned item, they have sold me other broken and damaged items, and several items that were advertised as having features that they do not. I have learned to check the specifications on the manufacturer'
s website. Funny, when I point out that Ubid is advertising falsely, they don't make any corrections. Obviously they don't care! What a bunch of idiots! No, I take that back, I am the idiot for buying from Ubid again after having so many problems in the past. The lure of "getting a deal" was very strong and got me to Ubid many times but overall I would have done better to pay full price from a reputable seller. Whereas you could sometimes get a bargain at Ubic, they now have an automated feature on their auctions where if the ending price is low they extend the auction past the end time and continue to do so until the price is high enough for them to make a good profit.Of course they won't admit to this practice but you can watch it for yourself and be the judge. I have watched this "overtime" feature carefully and it only kicks in when someone is about to get a bargain on an auction. So now there is really no reason to go to Ubid. Prices are better elsewhere. Service is better everywhere. Shipping is less elsewhere. Ubid is just shady."

"I ordered a computer, and on a separate order, a monitor, from UBID. Both items came with only a 30-day warranty, but on the product information page, under Extended Protection Plan, it said Available. Not wanting to buy items that come only with 30-day warranties, I ordered a two-year warranty on the computer and a one-year warranty on the monitor.

I received the computer and the monitor fairly quickly, and both seem to work fine. I didn’t receive any paperwork on the extended warranties (or any paperwork on the items at all, for that matter), and waited for information to come in the mail. After about two weeks, I contacted UBID, and received the following response:

"We have received your request for assistance with order _________ for
Computer __________ Duo Core 2.8ghz 1G 200G DVDRW. Unfortunately the
warranty purchased with this product is not valid since the original
warranty with it is only 30 days from the vendor. It has to have at
least a 90 day manufacturer's warranty. We can either credit you back
for the warranty or you can return the unit. Please let us know how you
would like to proceed."

I received a similar response for the monitor.

Not only had the availability of an extended warranty been clearly marked when I ordered these, but I had been billed for the extended warranties when I ordered the items! If I hadn’t contacted them, I would have had no idea that they considered the warranties that I ordered to be invalid. Think how many people are out there right now with warranties that they have paid for that will be invalid if they try to use them.

I called their customer service, and they said I had no alternatives – they would not honor the extended warranties. This was due to a glitch in their system, and they are sorry to cause me so much trouble.


So now I have to repack the computer and monitor and return them – not an easy task. That in itself is annoying and time-consuming.

Almost a month later, this glitch hasn’t been corrected. I checked their web site, and within 5 minutes found two items that have come with no warranty (remember, they need at least a 90-day warranty or they don’t qualify for an extended warranty purchase) that list an extended warranty as available. They are still selling warranties that they will not honor, and you won’t find out unless you contact them.
"

"Ordered what i thought was an iPod shuffle for $24. not too bad. add in the $35+ shipping. as
much as a store bought shuffle.
lesson learned.
received item in a semi-timely manner(althought for $35 they shoulda hand delivered it). opened it up and its an MP3 Shuffle.

look at the auction again and in small print at the bottom it says (not an iPod shuffle).

they even went so far as to use pictures of an ipod from apples website. it looks KINDA like a shuffle, but more resembles something made in a garage.
lesson learned...

if you insist on using them, read everything, pay attention to what you are buying, read everything, and doublecheck the shipping costs.

(read everything)"