So you want to sign up for penny
auctions? That’s great! The main thing to remember here is that penny
auctions aren’t as simple as dropping a penny and winning the auctions
outright. This is very different from
eBay auctions or other forms of online shopping so it will do you a lot of good
to understand the difference. Still once
you get to know how, the game of thrones, or rather penny auctions can be
rather addictive so watch out!
Penny auctions are auctions that, like
traditional auctions also gather a lot of people interested in one item and
have them bid for it. Unlike the
traditional auction though it costs a person a penny in order to cast one
bid. This penny is then added to the
total value of the item in question. So
unlike eBay or other auctions as we have come to know them, the penny auction
does not exponentially raise the value of the item when a bidder bids on it. In
fact whenever a person bids on the item, the value pretty much stays the
same. Or rather, the overall value is
raised by a mere penny, which is marginal in terms of basic standards.
That’s why a lot of people are jumping into
the bandwagon and joining penny auctions, because it’s certainly cheap
fun. Also, penny auctions list only high
ticket items that most people want, such as iPads and smart phones and other
such things.
A lot of people think it’s easy to just
throw in a couple of pennies online to win an iPad, they ought to think
again. Before one can bid in these sites
they’ll have to sign up for membership and buy bid credits to use to bid on the
auctions. It’s not a totally cheap
transaction when one thinks about it.
And that is to READ THE FINE PRINT.
READ
THE FINE PRINT. This is a rule that people often overlook whenever they make
transactions in general, especially transactions online. As a rule of thumb, you should be wary of any
arrangement that will be taking personal information from you, especially
credit card details. This is
particularly tricky as operators of online sites have already got the tricks of
the trade pat down when it comes to making people NOT read the fine print.
One such thing that people complain about
particularly when were talking about penny auctions is that they were made to
enter into one to three months membership by the penny auctions bidding site
that they signed up with. But that’s the
sticking point, they probably ticked a checkbox that indicated their agreement
to certain terms and conditions. Let me
explain this: oftentimes programs will not let users proceed with the
transaction unless they check a tickbox and more often than not people will
tend to tick any checkbox that comes their way when prompted when asked for it,
just because they want to go on to the next stage. Patience is indeed a virtue when it comes to
these things.
Patience also comes into play when combing
the terms and conditions for any loopholes or any terms that may be
disadvantageous to the user. One thing
that makes this particularly hard to deal with is that the whole thing is more
often than not packaged in legalese, or legal jargon which may just be too much
for the typical layman to deal with.
Nonetheless: deal with it.
Most people don’t read end user license
agreements—they mostly say they don’t care.
That is until a month later when they see charges on their credit card
and bemoan the fact that they were scammed—when in truth, they were really the
ones who allowed the penny auctions site to have access to their credit cards
and the right to charge their credit cards for any service they may or may not
have used.
So read the fine print!
Too many people have succumbed to the trap
of leaping before looking, but I’ve got some good news for you… you’ll still be
able to refund your money if you were charged for any sort of membership of use
of service in the penny auction.
If you read the terms and conditions after
the fact and find out that there is a REFUND policy in the document then you
can probably win your money back. One of
the requirements here is that you mustn’t have used the service, otherwise your
claim will not be valid. You’ll also
have to accomplish the requirements for the refund process within the grace
period or you’re not going to be able to refund your money.
Remember, reading the terms and conditions
will save you a lot of heartache and wallet-ache so make sure you do so!
