I was surfering the web one night and I do not know how I came across it, but I came to a Fox News Affiliate site. The site and an article and a video report about a penny auction site. They said both in the article and in the video report that the site gives you 300 bids to try it out and then there is a $. 50 charge for each bid placed after that. They went on to say how the signed up and tried the site, using their free try out 300 bids.

Since there was such a good report about the site, I clicked on the link. I was directed to a site, that I do not remember the name of it, and it clearly stated in a very big box that you get 300 bids for free to try out the site. I went ahead and registered and understood that my credit card was requested for the cost of the bids I made after my initial 300 free bids.

I read the terms and conditions and the page and they went along with what had been promised on the site. As soon as I hit submit, I was directed away from that site and to JumboCloseouts.com. I tried to go back and see the name of the site that I originally registered with, but I was unable to go back.

I tried some of the bidding, but found the site to have a very small selection and the bidding felt rigged. Since I had not used up my 300 initial free bids, I did not think anything about it and left the site. I kept watching my email for some type of confirmation email from the site I registered through, but never received any emails concerning the transaction.

When I received my bank statement a couple of days later, I noticed a charge for $150.00 by jumbocloseouts.com. I called them to let them know there was a mistake, since I did not sign up under their site and the site I did sign up under stated that you were given your first 300 bids for free to try out the site. I was told that never happened and I knowingly signed up for a 300 bid pack for $150.00 as it is clearly stated on their site and in their terms and conditions.

I explained to the guy that I understand that is what is said on their site and under the terms and conditions that have to be agreed to when you sign up on their site, but I did not sign up on their site and the site I did sign up for gave 300 free bids and had completely different terms and conditons that I agreed to.

I kept being told that it is clearly stated on their site and they did not seem to understand the bait and switch that happened. Since I never received an email confirmation of my signing up for their site or a receipt showing that I agreed to purchase a 300 bid package for $150.00, I asked for those to be sent to me. I was told that they were unable to do that, but I could sign in and look under my account to see the transaction of my purchase. All it showed was a 300 bid package being purchased for $150.00. It did not show any type of receipt of me actually agreeing to and making that purchase.

I continued to fight with them for days and the best offer that they would give me was $75.00 back and I could stay in good standings with their company and continue to use their site. I told them since this transaction was fraudulent by their company that I wanted all of my money back and to never have anything to do with them or their site again.

I turned around and filed a chargeback with my bank for the charge explaining everything about the news story, the site I signed up under stating that your first 300 bids were free, and that this was a fraudulent bait and switch and they could not even send me a confirmation of signing up for their site or a receipt of me making the transaction to purchase a 300 bid package from them for $150.00.

Months later, I received an email from my bank that I lost the dispute and my account was being charged back the $150.00 to go to jumbocloseouts.com. I called the bank and told them that I wanted to appeal that determination and was told that I am unable to do so and all that I could do is file for arbitration. The only thing was that I only had three days left to file for such. I told her that there was no way that I could file for arbitration in three days, especially when I have not even received a copy of their determination. I was put on hold and my bank called their credit card merchant Fiserve. When the person at the bank came back on the line, she told me that I could file for the arbitration, but that would cost me a lot of money. I asked for a phone number to talk with someone at Fiserve about this and I was told that she could not give me their number. I told her that I knew that she had a phone number for them, since she just called them and I was told that they do not actually talk to the customers and will only talk with their clients. So, I was not given any phone number for them or have a received a copy of Fiserve's determination. She would just tell me that they sent in a copy of their terms and condtions that are on their site, even though I clearly stated that I did not signup through their site, and that is why they ruled in their favor.

I looked up Fiserve on the internet and gave them a call, but know one at the company knew who I would need to speak with and I kept getting transferred around. I was finally told who I would need to speak with and I of course got his voicemail and since last Thursday, I still have not received a return call from him.

Now that I have found all of these other complaints against the company as being a fraudulent company, I am going to print them out and take them to the bank and through them down on the bank president's desk.

As far as I am concerned, jumbocloseouts.com needs to be shut down, forced to pay everyone back, and actions should be taken against Fiserve for assisting in a fraudulent transaction and covering for them.

ABSOLUTE RIP OFF. SAVE YOUR MONEY

Total freaking scam

Absoulte ripoff don't go there

DO NOT JOIN THIS SITE! I was sucked in by the review I saw from the media folks. The site appeared to be legit at first look and I should have looked past the laptops and ipads that were being auctioned off and been more careful about reading the fine print. After joining, I even took the "advice" of a previous "winner" whos method was to get a lot of bidding packages, or bidpacks (only saw 50 and 100 bid sizes) so that he had a lot of bids to use on something he wanted. I managed to win several of the 100 bidpacks before I realized that the cost of each was within $24 + or - $2 each and decided to stop. In fact, each new bidpack auctioned off started at $23 or better before the first bid was made. Not quite the $0.05 for the 300 bidpack that they show for a past winner. I also saw that I wasn't getting any credit for the bidpacks. What raised the red flags was when I tried to contact their 'live person' via ichat to ask a question and did not get any response. I decided to wait until today to check the site again, and what I saw made me realize that this site had to be bogus.
As Ed A. Noted, a MrHurrel was the big autobidder on a macBook laptop. I first saw this auction around 3 PM on August 2nd when he was bidding and the price was less than $100 for the item. Today, at 9AM he was still bidding against another autobidder and the price was $350 and rising. As of 1140AM, it is over $411 and the primary bidder is 'jbaston' who is bidding against 'Amit Schater 101'. Apparently, MrHurrel quit, ran out of bids, or someone told the people running the site about this Ed's review and they changed bidders.
Doing the math and being very conservative, and assuming MrHurrel only made 10% of the bids (unlikely since he was in 'autobid' mode since 3PM the day before), at a bid of $350, that is ******* bids, at $0.50 a bid, resulting in $17,500 being spent bidding on a MacBook laptop you can buy anywhere for $999. MrHurrel's 10% would come to $1,750 and he has quit the bidding, which means he gets NOTHING for the money he spent. Who would even consider going that in an auction unless MrHurrel is fictional, as is jbaston who was bidding against him since yesterday as well.
What to do about this (if you took the hook as I did) is to call and cancel the card used on this site and report it as fraud. Since no merchandise was delivered (I never got credit for the nebulous bidpacks I won, even though they charged my card), so I simply stopped the charges. That is the beauty of using a credit card. You will have to fill out some paperwork for the card company but chances are you will not have to pay the charges since they were pending anyway (especially if you act quickly to call the card company). If you are a good customer and had never done anything like this, the card company will most likely be on your side. Also, they expect to see fraudulent transactions in their business, and even if the money had been transferred to the other party, they may just write the expense off as the cost of doing business.