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Auction warning a
bid to save money
Consumer Affairs Victoria has issued a warning to online traders to beware of auctions that charge a fee to bid.
CAV said it had received a number of complaints about ‘bidding fee auctions’, also known as ‘penny auctions’, pointing out that paying to bid in an online auction for heavily discounted goods did not necessarily guarantee a bargain.
It said websites that held ‘penny auctions’ included quibids.com.au, bidking.com.au, bidrivals.com.au and pennyauctiononline.com.
CAV said in these types of auctions participants paid a non-refundable fee each time they bid, whether they were the successful bidder or not.
It said the price of the item rose with each bid and the last participant to bid when the time limit expired gets the item.
“But the final bid is not the total cost,” CAV said.
“The total cost is the final bid price plus the cost of bidding (and) with each bid costing up to 95 cents on some sites, bidding can be an expensive exercise.”
CAV warned that if an online trader planned to take part in the auctions they should carefully read all of the terms and conditions and keep the true cost in mind.
For more information about bidding fee auctions, or to lodge a complaint, go to the Consumer Affairs Victoria website at this PS News link.
Edition 248, 25 January 2012
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