deaman007:HI, I'M NEW TO FORUMS , BUT I AGREE WITH WHAT YOU ....

Hi, please don't post in ALL CAPS as it makes it difficult to read.

re: the problems you are talking about, it does often "freeze" but I think this is because everyone hammers in bids at the last moment. The test you did doesn't mean anything - even though the laptops were on the same router, the data packets all go independently. It's like saying that because three cars set off at the same time from the same place, they should all arrive at the destination simultaneously. What if they take different routes? What if the lights change between cars? What if there's an accident before car three gets there?

All of this happens with data packets. Bear in mind that swoopo's servers are probably in Germany. For one update to occur on your screen there may be several "fragmented" packets of data going to and fro. Some will even never arrive and have to be re-sent.

It is immensely frustrating, but it doesn't make it a scam.

Well, I posted near the end of November stating that I would post an update if I received my products. So here is my update.

I received the gold bar I won on about December 1 about 19 days after winning and paying for it. I had to follow up with them as I never received a "processing your order email" after paying. Once I inquired by email that email arrived the next day and the gold bar about 5 days later.

The computer is another story. I received the "processing your order - you should receive your item within 14 days at the latest email" right away after paying. Then the 14 days went by and nothing. So I followed up. They replied saying my Nintendo DS will be received in a day or two and it had been shipped that day. So I waited just to see if anything would arrive before telling them that I had not won a Nintendo DS it was a Netbook computer. Nothing arrived. Followed up again. This time I was told it was a mixup, supplier issues, found a new supplier and upgrading my item memory and HD and would have it in another 4 - 10 days. Waited - nothing arrived. Followed up again to receive a reply saying Christmas supplier and shipping delays. Well then I got upset and they offered me an alternative Netbook to the one I won. I accepted as now it was 37 days after winning and paying for the item. Two days later it arrived, so much for the 14 day deliver - try 39 days!!.

Long story short - I got my items (one an alternative to what I won) BUT it took WAY longer than stated and promised by them on several occasions and I really felt frustrated by the run around and empty promises. So if you are lucky enough to win be diligent or really patient.

Well, I've register here because it seems that I have an oppinion on that too. Mini auctions, or penny auctions website expanded vastly, swoopo as far as I know is the biggest, although I've played there several times, and without any luck was disappointed, I thought maybe there is another kind of website that works like swoopo, I found few in Sweden, Italy, Norway, I think the tactics should be to search and find a penny auction website that has less traffic, so there is a little bit easier to win because not so many people are gambling, I've got my apple ipod touch (2nd) generation via fedex, so far so good, I don't know if it's legit here to spam, but if you're interested you can PM here, I could tell you more..

Swoopo seems to have a lot of bad press the majority of which from people who don't understand the concept, and consequently "lost". You need to understand what is going on. I have recently "won" a WII at £120 and bagged an LG 37" LCD for £108 including delivery. I think I have been lucky. You need to set your limit and be prepared to walk away, it obvious that some people do not do that - look at the auctions where the Savings are 0%, unfortunately some people are just stupid, paying well over the odds against the RRP.

Unfortunately the TV I won was out of stock, I complained after delivery failed to materialise after 14 days. The initial response was some free bids (!), again I complained and Swoopo offered a choice of two TVs with better functionality. I have ended up with Sony Bravia 37", at the auction won price. I have saved massively, even if I incorporate bids "lost" on other auction items.

Swoopo is gambling, ultimately Caveat Emptor.

Hi i have used the site and if you are careful with your bids and bid well then they are bargins!

i won a green nintendo ds lite. i won the item at £30.32 and only placed 5 bids (bids are 40p each). i had a £10 welcome voucher which i redeemed on the item. so including the delivery cost (£4.90) and bids i placed (£2.00) the item cost me £25.22! you just have to be sensile and know when to stop and watch some auctions first so you can get a rough idea when its best to bid. or do what i did........ they had a red ds, blue one and the green one. i went for the green one because that colour isnt as popular as the other 2 and i ended up winning!

stacey

I was just reading through their terms and conditions and was extermely surprised to find out that their offices are in the same building as mine in Richmond-upon-Thames. When I first saw the address with street, house, town and post code I got a bit worried and wondered how they got that address of where I work!!

I have no problem with anyone making money from a good idea. I do have a problem if it picks on the vunerable or stupid people who bid and even try to outbid each other when 10 hrs or more are still on the clock. I feel advice should be given when people buy bids and make them aware.

The biggest provable scam is the countdown clock when close to the end of the auction, you can bid last couple of seconds all through the auction,as I did, (26hrs)I was after a laptop (£1300 worth)and was willing to go up to half it’s price inc bids. It got to the time when, if you watch the play, bidders dwindle or come and go(after a while they become almost old friends dropping by), then you have your die hards and bidbutlers, if you try and bid, last 3 secs in my case, the countdown will freeze and, whooops surprise surprise you lost the auction, I lost £250 on that occasion,because I was tempted with the offer of all my bids back if I won any auction that day.
It has happend to me on 6 other occasions, when I complain, I am told it is internet lag and there is nothing they can do about it, but the thing is, bidbutlers, which they like you to use because they take your money in seconds, also in my case bidbutlers won the item simply because bidbutlers can place a bid last second but if you single bid you have to bid 4th second at latest or lose it.
I like to bid last seconds because it draws out the single bidders also waiting for last second bids, then you start to learn your competition.

There are probably 100s of single bidders losing auctions in this manner and just accept it.
If you want to complain send to NIGEL WHITEOAK who is the top man for uk. If you google him you will find his profile and address.

I would just like to add that their was 7 other single bidders doing just the same as me, bidding last seconds so as not to waste bids and make the others bid first, so all seven either stopped bidding at the same time? or just like me the item was basicly stolen by the bidbutler, because he is not restricted by what they call 3second internet lag, I do'nt think so!! so if this is the case then can't all those losers who could have been possible winners sue the company because, nowhere in the terms and conditions does it say anything about internet lag. It'all bull and they are praying on fools who have absolutly no idea of what they are doing, and there is an awful lot of them.

Here is One of my mails to them and the answer I recieved.........

Hi Julie,
>
> I apologise for being a bit offish with you, I am just trying to point out
> what seems to be a possible bug,problem. I am not after recompense for my
> losses but if there is a bug or problem it is in your own interest to check
> it out. Maybe I am wrong but I would like an answer as to how 7 different
> auctions did the same thing to me. In condensed format below..............
>
> When only myself and bidbutler are left to bid and I bid last 2-3 seconds
> the bid is not accepted and the bidbutler wins.?
> My strategy for bidding last seconds is just to see if there are other
> single bidders also waiting to bid last second. So by logical conclusion
> ,there were either no other single bidders, which would have left myself
> and bidbutler to fight it out, this is when I would play my bidbutler,or we
> were all victims of a timing bug.
> I had option of all my bids credited back to me if I won, so I had no real
> reason to let this item go by doing a stupidly late bid, I only bid the same
> way I had been bidding for the previous 26 hours sat in front of the
> monitor. (it's a long time) Julie, all I ask Is for you to escalate this
> and look at it with the view I might be right!
>
> Your uk country manager Nigel Whiteoak has said in interviews that to win on
> Swoopo you need a strategy and you can bid right down to the last second,
> which was also seconded by his US counterpart, which is True until you do a
> last second bid and it just so happens its you and bid butler and no other
> bidders then the bid is not accepted, as I stated earlier. but no probs if
> you are bidding against a single bidder.
> I love playing Swoopo, but to lose so many auctions and losing such a lot of
> I money. Particularly on the last auction for the laptop.
> Regards and happy christmas Mal

The answer....

Even when a BidButler places his bid in the last two seconds, the timer will
always reset to a minimum of ten seconds, giving other bidders the chance to bid.
I have escalated your issues, but our technical team has informed me that there
were no technical issues. As I've said, it's something inherent to internet use. I
understand just how frustrating lag can be, but with the current state of
technology, it's impossible to eliminate the problem completely.

I am very sorry that your bids weren't registered in time, and hope that you
understand that we can't refund the bids, as we cannot be held responsible for the
lag you experienced.

Kind regards, and merry Christmas,

-Julie

Well that really clears it up, does'nt it? I do'nt even know if the winner really existed. At least on ebay you can see a profile which could be followed up.

As there seems to be no way of making an official grievance, I presume it must be a bit suspect!!!!!!!!!!!!!

heres my last answer from them.........

As I've previously stated, it is possible that you may experience lag when using a
real-time auction site, and, I'm afraid that yes, the lag can be around 2-3
seconds. As I've said, I've spoken with our technical team about this matter, and
the issue is to do with internet lag, and not a technical issue at our end. I
realise that this is frustrating, but it's not something that Swoopo can be held
responsible for.

Unfortunately, I am unable to pursue this matter further with you, as I've spoken
with our technical team about your issues and although we're sorry that you
experienced lag, we cannot be held responsible for this.

Regards,

Good Luck

as a regular user of swoopo.co.uki feel i need to put my point across YES it is a gamble. NO you wont win every item you bid on. but YES there is a lot of bargains to be had. to date i have won a nintendo wii sports with free remove costing me a total of £7.25 including bids. a sony vaio laptop costing £ 76.45 again including bids and a aee notebook costing £23.87 including bids. all very cheep and brand new. delivery for my first item took six week by which time i thought it was a con but my product did finally arrive so i tried again and again and never looked back.

They proberbly saw your name FRED WEST and made sure you WON!!!

Considering there are 600,000 punters somebody has to win.

The other thing is-How do I or anybody else know you are a winner, we only have your word. just like swoopo.

for all I know you work for them.

you dont know if i won or not. but then again im not trying to convince anybody to use swoopo i just wanted to let people know about my experience of the site. people can make up there own mind.as for working for swoopo. im an asbestos consultant for an environmental consultancy in wakefield. OR AM I ?

SWOOPO!!!!!

This IS a SCAM on an unbelievable scale. Avoid at ALL costs. I have just been done for £470 yes!! £470 and no I am not stupid (or so I thought, until I stumbled onto swoopo.co.uk). I stayed up for 72 hours STRAIGHT, monitored it and thought I had it sussed and bid with caution, still got feck all. SWOOPO is not fun, entertaining, enjoyable etc. but it is highly addictive and extremely dangerous. I EVENTUALLY cut my losses and walked away, I would have done much earlier but I had already purchased the 'bids'.

Anybody out there who does not believe it is a scam, put your money where your mouth is. Go to swoopo, pick one item, (I went for a £1200 laptop (actually retails @ £700) Hindsight is a great thing, anyway, start your bidding when you think it has reached the average price that it usually sells for (check this in the 'ended auctions' tab), once you have started bidding only bid in the last seconds and keep on doing this (be prepared to do a LONG shift, I did) and keep on bidding only ever in the last seconds, and you will see that there is a 'bid butler' that will follow your pattern (you will notice them), my bid butler 'buddie'(storm46) started bidding @ £30ish and stayed with me til the end, I started bidding @ £60+ (as this seemed to be approx. what they would usually sell at) and I used my bids extremely sparingly and stayed @ the PC for all that time, which I did not think was physically possible, and never, I repeat never missed one opportunity to bid @ 3 secs. anyway, the laptop eventually reached £202 or should I say £8080 (the only one I had ever seen at this money). This is when I decided I was going to accept the loss (very hard to do), and recouping any money was impossible, and I was knackered beyond belief, I even left 47 bids in the account and shut it down. I had had more than I could take.

I can hear everybody reading this saying "what a *&%£*&" idiot", moron what ever you want to call me, but this is what SWOOPO does to you. It sucks you in, bleeds you dry and spits you out and they couldn't give a feck.

I did not start on SWOOPO to be left feeling the way I was left feeling,i.e stupid, embarrassed, gullible, retarded, etc. etc.

Believe it or not I am not a gambling man, I have never gambled and I don't even like gambling (its a MUGS game). I didn't realise that this is what I had been doing until it was too late. I was 'IN'.

As I said earlier hindsight is a great thing. But now, now it is very clear exactly what SWOOPO is. I don't gamble anyway so I will never fall for this again, I have learned a very very hard lesson from this, NO! a brutal lesson.

I 100% accept responsibility for my actions and stupidity, and believe me there is no fun in getting involved with SWOOPO it will only leave you feeling pretty low and stupid Oh! and seriously out of pocket.

The people I feel so sorry for are the people who innocently get involved with SWOOPO and end up getting screwed to the wall, by this I mean the young single mum trying to purchase what she thinks is a good deal on lets say, a Wii for her kids Xmas, and ends up spending a few hundred £,$ or whatever currency before realising its a con and cuts her losses. She is left feeling like s*&%, a few hundred £ out of pocket and now has to find the money to then go and buy the Wii that exists from a retailer. She is then left feeling terribly guilty and extremely low and not to mention skint. Where is the 'fun' in her wrapping this up for her kids Xmas, then when the kid opens it and is ecstatic, the mother still feels terribly guilty and stupid. This is the dark side of SWOOPO and they couldn't give a feck.

Anyway, I will stop now as I could rant forever.

SWOOPO should be shut down and prosecuted to the fullest in every country they operate from, they are evil and operate with absolutely no principles or morals, and are most likely destroying some peoples lives, and how their staff sleep at night knowing what they are involved in.

I hope reading this can help convince at least one person not to get involved with SWOOPO.

I have learned my lesson, but I was not looking to be taught a lesson I was actually following my google search for a new hi-fi when I came across SWOOPO and the rest is history. Sorry, but I was not looking to be taught one of the biggest lessons I will probably be taught during the course of my life.

I lost 3 days of my life bidding on that laptop, I was left feeling extremely stupid, gullable etc. and was £470 out of pocket, not to mention extremely tired and angry. If you would like to feel like this please visit SWOOPO and have 'FUN' if you would like to keep your money and your dignity STAY WELL CLEAR.

Comments welcome,

Oh! I would just like to add this comment,I don't have an issue being honest about my stupidity, It would be nice to think that previous SWOOPO 'victims' on these posts were just as honest and stopped that they only lost £10 or so. You wouldn't have searched out one of these forums and compained if you had only lost £10 - £20.

So I guess (reading between the lines) that your experience with this Company was not a positive one.

sounds like a very unpleasant learning experience, thanks for the warning x

HI

with swoopo its not just a matter of waiting until you think the item as reached a usuall selling price .you also need to check how many other people you are bidding against and never start bidding if four or more other people are bidding on an item. your just throwing money away. i also never bid every time it gets down to the last three seconds i always skip a few turns. it saves a little. i admit in total ive lost about £50 up to now on items ive lost. but ive saved something like £600 in total with the three items i have won. so as far as im concerned swoopo is fantastic. but not for people who dont know how to switch there brain on first

I would trust that 'wolf' before I trusted SWOOPO. They know it isn't going to last, they are just making as much money as humanely possible before D-Day comes.

I forgot to mention that I checked later and the laptop eventually 'sold' app.30 mins after I had stopped, and guess who was the winning bidder, YES! it was 'storm46' and it was via the bid-butler that it had been using from the beginning (long before I started bidding).

Storm had bid almost 3800 times (I think I would have stopped using the bid-butler a bit earlier if I were 'him') which equated to over £1,500 + £232 + P&P = app. £1,750. I mean WTF, really WTF, nobody is that stupid (or are they?). The laptops 'value' was £1,199. Later checks revealed the laptops 'true' RRP was £700 @ PC world, finding this out made me feel beyond stupid.

I have been an e-bayer for 8 years now and never had a problem, well, one guy took the money and never delivered but I got my money back via PayPal, other than that never had a problem and I am not out of pocket by a couple of hundred £ when I don't 'win' an auction. E-Bay may have its flaws (mostly due to unscrupulous users than e-bay) but it is the closest you are going to get to being a fully legitimate auction. STICK WITH E_BAY. You won't stick with SWOOPO for 8 days never mind 8 years.

Oh! and 'FREDWEST' you are full of S*%&. Impossible, £50 worth of bids and you have won 3 times and the goods are valued @ £600 ???? You should write a book. Saying that you won't make anything off it as it will be in your 'Terms of employment' with SWOOPO that any royalties go to them. They just keep on winning.