QuiBids (quibids.com) is an online penny auction website that was started on July 1st, 2009 by the QuiBids Holdings LLC.
What is QuiBids?
QuiBids is an example of a traditional online penny auction site that boomed in popularity through the span of a couple of years then slowly receded in regards to reputability due to their employed business model.
Being presented as a penny auction site, bids costs $0.50 while each bid increases the value of the consumer product by a penny. Bid packages are offered to consumers along with a variety of bidding features such as Buy Now, which we will further discuss below.
QuiBids.com auctions a considerable number of consumer goods such as gift cards, consumer electronics, jewelry, kitchen goods, and much more. The most common goods featured on their platform would headphones, gift cards, computers along with additional voucher bids.
From a marketing standpoint, QuiBids is designed to target the demographic of consumers who are searching for what could be considered as good deals. Attracting consumers to their penny auction site, QuiBids delivers an enticing platform amongst a competitive niche.
In order to get started with QuiBids, prospective bidders must deposit a minimum of $50 with a credit or debit card in order to participate with their online auctions.
How does QuiBids Work?
As with most penny auction sites, first-time consumers tend to receive their first auctioned product at a relatively low price with limited consumer competition. Oftentimes these first-time auctions include products such as gift cards to certain retailers or relatively low-priced consumer goods.
After the consumer has successfully completed their first auction, consumers will then face more stiff competition when bidding through QuiBids.
As previously mentioned, each bid through QuiBids costs $0.50 while each bid increases the value the good by 1 penny for each bid placed.
Each bid placed is accompanied with a 10 to 20 second auction time increase, which according to QuiBids is to allow sufficient time for other consumers to bid.
Consumers who win an auction will be prompted to purchase the consumer good for the final auction price along with included shipping costs. Typically, it ranges between a period of 3 to 10 business days for consumers to receive their won auction.
Previous bids for a won auction are not deducted from the final auction price of a consumer good unless the bidder employed the Buy Now feature.
The Buy Now feature enables consumers to have their previous bids for a particular good deducted from what QuiBids considers to be that products retail price.
Consumers are then able to purchase that good for the difference between submitted bids from the retail price and shipping costs.
While QuiBids definition of retail prices fluctuate between their goods, consumers are more likely to find the same product at a better price point through other outlets, such as Amazon.
Bidding Statistics
- Retail Cost ($0 – $100) equates to an average of 5.9 bidders
- Retail Cost ($101 – $500) equates to about 25.8 bidders
- Retail Cost ($501 – $1,000) equates to an average of 88.8 bidders
- Retail Cost ($1,000+) equates to an average of 186.3 bidders
Who is Behind QuiBids?
At stated in QuiBids Terms and Conditions, QuiBids.com is overseen by QuiBids Holdings LLC.
According to the Better Business Bureau, QuiBids has been in business for 8 years and was incorporated on July 1st, 2009. Reflecting an F ranking at the BBB, QuiBids has amassed a 92% negative customer review rating and is not BBB accredited.
According to their BBB profile, QuiBids active CEO is Matt Beckham while their Compliance Director is Landon Martin.
While we could not find any reference to the founders behind QuiBids, other active operators would be Shaun Tilford, Jeff Geurts, Mike Beckham and Josh Duty.
How to Contact QuiBids
QuiBids can be reached through a number of different channels such as their Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Google+ channels.
Other ways of establishing contact would be through partners@quibids.com, support@quibids.com or by calling (405) 253-2038.
QuiBids is allegedly headquartered from 1601 NW Expressway, Suite 1500, Oklahoma City, OK 73118.
A secondary address of 4 NE 10th St., Suite 242, Oklahoma City, OK 73104 has been found in regards to QuiBids.com.
Popularity
QuiBids has endured drastic regression in regards to their popularity over the past few months.
Experiencing a near 50% decrease in visitor traffic since January 2018, QuiBids now reflects a global rank of 95,087 with a US rank of 19,432 as of May 2nd, 2018.
According to SimilarWeb, QuiBids receives 87.68% of their traffic from US based users while over 45% of incoming traffic originates from referral, display ads and e-mail sources.
Weighing Community Feedback
The community consensus regarding QuiBids ranges from one end of the spectrum to the other.
Some consumers happily endorse this online penny auction site while other reviewers paint a more unethical and troubling experience.
Among the most often complimented experiences shared with QuiBids would be how consumers were able to pay much less than retail value for particular goods, how many consumer products the site has along with quick shipping.
This leaves us with the negative experiences, which as of lately, has been the most common type of reviews posted amongst consumers. Many consumers are reporting theft of funds, incorrect shipping items with no refunds along with bad customer support.
Review sites such as SiteJabber and ConsumerAffairs illustrate the majority of both the good and the bad community consensus regarding QuiBids while the Better Business Bureau ties all the loose ends together.
Having compiled over 180 customer complaints throughout the past 3 years, reflecting a 92% negative customer review rating while receiving multiple warnings and alerts from the BBB for questionable conduct is not necessarily the gold standard we approve of.
Is QuiBids Safe to Use?
Over the past few months QuiBids has been a victim of operational decay that be validated through a simple market intelligence report.
Having endured dramatic decreases in visitor traffic while reflecting a mostly negative community consensus over the past half year, we do not consider QuiBids a safe platform for our subscribers to utilize.
QuiBids Review Conclusion
QuiBids was once a prominent and competitive online penny auction site that has slipped back into regression while being under the public spotlight.
While it appears that QuiBids is unwilling to combat negative reported customer experiences or justly rectify their mistakes, the future regarding QuiBids appears uncertain to many consumers.
Given the information disclosed in the review above along with relevant community feedback regarding QuiBids, we do not believe their site to be one that has your best interests at heart.