Full FeedAuction site Swoopo turns away from dark side
You’ve seen the advertisements, “Win this iPod touch for $4.19” or “the hammer fell on this MacBook for just $15.23.” These temptingly good offers are brought to you by Swoopo, an auction site of sorts that has been shown a lot of hate by our commenters. My post back in September and subsequent interview with Swoopo cast a light into the company and how they do things. According to an investor in Swoopo, those things are changing.
Swoopo has operated under a simple premise: users buy bids for $1 each. These bids can be used to bid on items under auction at Swoopo.com. The bid moves the price of the item upward $0.15. The site promises winners walk away with huge discounts on the hottest gadgets. Critics of the site blame the lack of transparency on who you are bidding against and that the site is more gambling than auction.
According to Mark Gimein, who was contacted by investor Howard Hartenbaum after he posted about Swoopo on Slate.com, “Under Swoopo’s new rules, losing bidders have the right to buy the same item at the regular retail price-and the money they’d already spent to bid on it gets subtracted from the purchase price.” Apparently, Mr. Hartenbaum believes the site needs to change to stay alive thanks to a negative publicity problem. The new rule sounds good but in an early check (the new rule is being used on the German site as a test), things don’t appear to be more honest.
Gimein points out two different auctions for two different laptops, a MacBook and a MSI. Both auctions sold the machines for way less than retail but what looks suspicious is the list of bidders in the history: the winner was the same as were the bidders. Coincidence? Maybe.
Hartenbaum suggests that Swoopo is thinking of a name change in its change of policies. That probably isn’t a bad idea given the majority of the 120+ comments on Gadgetell’s first Swoopo post were negative. Will these changes make a big difference to users who feel cheated? Can the site pull out of the “shady” light that gets cast upon it? Gadgetell is watching closely and we’ll keep you updated.
source: [Slate]
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I’ve posted here before but I think it’s important to understand that there are many sites LIKE swoopo that haven’t had enough time to become so big it’s almost impossible to win. Look for sites like bidfire.com… Also a site like this raises the bidding by a nickle each bid instead of a penny, makes a BIG difference.
on July 29, 2009 at 03:19 AM - LINKSWOOPO IS NO DEAL!
After spending $75.00 to make bids, I realized too late that Swoopo likely should be regulated like a casino or lottery. Its not a scam, however, swoopo’s algorithem appears to continue to loop even after a reasonable person would believe the actual time counter would begin incrementing down. When one reads something like “the 10 second counter will start once $999.00 is reached” and, in fact, all that did was start a new counter with a different algorithem. - Ugh! I am sure someone eventually wins but like momma said, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Also, Swoopo is a major time and money suck.
In addition, and maybe its a coincidence, however, after registering at swoopo, I have yet to receive their invite email; however, my previously sanitary email adress/inbox has been flooded with spam.
I wish there was a way to pay them back for the fun I paid to have.
on October 31, 2009 at 01:34 PM - LINK