PublicSurplus

I have been bidding on items with some wins for over the past 5 years. The site has changed over the past few years. First the agencies sometimes are getting rid of junk. You can inspect it but they may not work. It is difficult to get any information from the agency selling the equipment. They are liquidators and have no knowledge of the history of the machines or vehicles your interested in. If you bid based on photo's you will likely get burned. Not due to dishonesty by the agency, but by omission. I got burned several times doing this not wanting to drive 100 miles unless I had a reasonable certainty that I could win.

There are fake bidders. These folks will bid an item up and then not show up. The agency can either offer it to the next bidder or perhaps relist the item. Publicsurplus.com does nothing to combat this. They do put a small symbol next to the bidder handle J******22 (o) where if you mouse over a box will pop up and tell you that this bidder has not payed for bids 3 times and has been banned by 3 agencies but he is bidding up your auction, is this a normal thing to allow? Publicsurplus.com unlike Ebay does nothing to protect bidders so bidder beware. You cannot return an item or dispute the sale. The likelihood of being burned is extremely high.

I used to check this for those "rare finds" and sometimes it would be good but like any other auction site, it's very easy to be over bid. So it's hit or miss. Now the quality of the "junk" being auctioned off isn't worth it's weight in scrap. Also, if you default on ANY auction event after providing a justified reason such as medical emergency, family death, etc, you will be banned from placing bids FOR LIFE... it is very difficult to have it removed so really it's not worth the hassle and headache for the support staff to actually think for themselves and help you. You can find better quality stuff on ebay. Even the motor pool. Don't waste your time. I find this business to be nothing but used car salesmen mentality selling outdated garbage that would cost you more to fix than buying new. It's insulting to human intelligence. And it also gives local and state governments tax breaks and more money to spend poorly. Don't fall for the scam.

Site lacks basic features that a buyer would expect from an auction site in 2010 let alone in 2022. They offer no way to create saved keyword searches that generate email notifications. The only option is to subscribe to category based email notification but inexplicably when you view a specific item they do not list what category it is in, so you are left to "best guess" if you decide you want to receive notifications for similar items. They also offer to sellers the ability to hide completed auctions so buyers cannot see them. I'm not sure how hiding this benefits the seller and it absolutely does not benefit potential buyers.

Also, for the record I have won auctions on the site. I've been happy with the purchases. I'd like to actually buy more (but per above) they don't seem to want to make it easy for buyers.

When the top bidder didn't pay, they simply made me the top bidder at my highest reserve price (Not the point where I outbid the person below me). Then I read their reviews and realized this sounds a lot more like shill bidding. It's their software, so if they want to see where top reserve bids are, it's a license to print money (simply run bids up to your max). I tried to talk with them, but they refused and said they could communicate online only and that provided no resolution.

I bid on an auction for my employer. My account listed my employer but was technically in my name, so PublicSurplus required that I use my personal credit card to pay instead of being able to use my employers business card. If they're going to require you to pay with a card in the name given, they should mention it when registering and offer an option to have a business account.

As you can see from the huge volume of 1 star reviews public surplus is really problematic! They allow small town governments and school districts to post items which are often not even remotely close to the descriptions they provide & then allow these crooked little governments to hide behind pages & pages of legalese absolving them from any responsibility for their lies. Prior to purchase, I specifically asked if certain hard to find components were present in a lot I just purchased, they promised that they were & when I went to pick up the gear those very same components were missing in half of the items! If you cannot inspect the items that you are buying absolutely, positively, do not purchase ANYTHING through public surplus! & even if you can inspect the items it's highly likely the stuff will be different when you go to pick it up then it was when you inspected it!

All the counties are switching to using public surplus to buy over the counter parcels that do not sell. This limiting the type and amount of people that can participate. I went to gila county and tried to buy a property otc and was refused because they are doing an online auction next year. The schools in our small town have less money because the county subcontracted the work to a private business. This is plain wrong. Many people of my county do not have high speed internet and to make a community have less chance to buy in their own communities. It makes no sense to put a private business in between the tax payers and the federal government. This is a loop hole for employees and auctioneers to control the price of the properties and allow more people to bid even government employees.

I recently asked PS to delete my bidding account & all personal information, when the PS database was hacked & private customer email addresses & bid information obtained by criminals attempting to defraud bidders. I received realistic fake emails from this criminal enterprise attempting to to persuade bidders to send funds. It was pretty obvious the PS firewall had been breached. I hope credit info doesn't show up on the dark web.

I bid, I won, they reset auction over, I bid I won, they reset auction over, how crooked is that, so they can increase bids, mean while holding bid deposit. I'd never use this site, then they'll say it's the sellers option to reset it over and over. Who wants bid, win, and then don't because it's reset 3 times. Alone if item is actually what you bid on, when you pick it up. Public surplus, City of Caro, very deceiving practices.

Been buying,paying,picking up items,during Covid,wife and Mr catch Covid,she dies,I sick 3 weeks. I bid on item,during this period,and couldn't pick up or pay. I explained this,they block me. Sad day,when a company can't respect a death. Caution fooling with Public surplus. Unless you can respect a crappy company,that takes no regard to a death.

They think their S__t does not stink. Don't dare question them or you will be put in cyber jail for life. You can get your account deactivated but not deleted when you offend them. That means you have no idea if they retain your credit card information. A person could cheat on a spouse, and it would be easier to repair that relationship than fixing one with surplus sales. SS thinks they have a lock on all public owned property that goes up for auction. They may be correct on that as most gov surplus sales programs have their heads up their A__.

Public surplus needs to demand the seller to post accurate pictures and descriptions of items being sold. For example I bid on and won the bid for a van that was 5 hours away from me. The description was that it was a 1995 G30 van and when I arrived to pick it up, it was a G20 van which is a huge difference. I would not have bid on a G20 model. Also when I arrived the inside floor board was completely rusted through and when I stepped inside of it, I literally fell through the floor and landed on the transmission. Pictures and a brief description of the floorboard could have been added to the auction page when the consumer can see those type of issues.

Hidden fees and your bidden against the owners / cities, or owners of the equipment, or cars etc... That is not an auction. That is a garage sale with using the word auction to lure you in. Hidden bidders or reserves in the Auction biz is
Called in the auction business world is ghost bidding. That is a extremely dangerous way to buy anything. Auctions were meant to find the true value of the market since 500 BC. Which means selling to highest live bidder online or present in front of you without hidden reserves, or ghost bidding or any other ways to set a hidden a price.
There are almost no real auctions out there at all anymore...
May be I should come out of retirement.
Col. Cole Wyatt Davis
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