Gripes about Ubid

August 4, 2005. Since purchasing the item described below, I have recieved a few email messages about it. None mentioned who the actual seller was. Why the secrecy?

Despite paying $29.75 for shipping, the item was sent using "standard ground". Why the secrecy regarding the shipping company? Also, there is no tracking number and thus no way to see the package's progress or to get an estimated delivery date. I checked the auction results, which are still on-line, and it said shipping is via UPS Ground. UPS provides tracking numbers, I don't know why I didn't get one.

July 30, 2005. I bought something today at Ubid - the item was being sold for a fixed price, not at auction. I ran across security issues that bothered me.

You have to log-in before you can make a bid but the web page where you enter your userid/password is not secure. This means they travel over the Internet in clear text (not encrypted). Considering that Ubid stores your credit card information, anyone knowing only your userid/password can purchase merchandise as you. To get around this, simply enter the wrong password. The resulting error-laden web page will be secure.

UBID responded: Response: To provide fastest access to our auction page, we have made the page safe and secure without making the entire page secure http. This is a very common practice in the industry. Banking sites like Wachovia and Bank One have the same design. The moment you click "Continue" on the auction page, we encrypt your LoginId and password using 128 bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. We have taken extra efforts to highlight in the auction page right under the "continue" button to show our security means. If you're using a public computer, don't check the "Remember my ID" box. When your Login Id is "remembered" it will appear the next time you visit uBid from the same computer.

After you log-in and buy something, you can't log out. This is poor security because someone could use the computer after you walk away from it and, again, buy something as you. They would not even need your userid/password.

UBID Responded: After you log-in and buy something, you can't log out. Someone could use the computer after you walk away from it and buy something as you. They would not even need your userid/password.
We do not have a log out button on our site because our bidding process will prompt the customer to enter username and password for every bid. This is mainly to address the issue that you are talking about. Our concept of login applies only to MyPage section of the site. As long as the customer stays within MyPage they are logged in. The moment the customer leaves MyPage and clicks any other link they are logged out of MyPage. Additionally any sensitive information in MyPage like password and credit are not displayed out. Credit card in MyPage is displayed with only last 4 characters. Password is displayed with ***.

There does not seem to be an option for them not to store your credit card information.

UBID Responded: Our customers like the functionality of quick bidding by entering the credit card information once and using it over and over
again in the bidding process. We are recognized as among the largest users of credit card with Visa, MasterCard and American Express. We have been mandated by these companies to be compliant with their credit card security policies. To date we have not had any security breaches with
credit card data. All the credit card information is encrypted in our database and only a few approved customer care agents have access to the credit card data to service customer service calls. All access to the credit card data is also logged for additional monitoring. Additionally, these agents are bonded.

Updates

July 22, 2005. I had not used Ubid, or even looked at their web site, in over three years. After finding this page, someone from the company contacted me because some of the information on this page was no longer valid. Thus these updates.

In the past, one of my biggest gripes was shipping costs. They used to be both high and sneaky. By sneaky, I mean that shipping charges were stated as a flat rate plus an extra charge per pound. It was easy to miss this per pound add-on and the resulting charges often seemed excessive. This is no longer the case. There are no more per-pound add-ons. Shipping charges are now calculated for you based on your zip code (and you do not have to be a Ubid member to see the shipping charges). Some items offer choices on shipping, others do not. In short, it is now simple, clear and straightforward.

Are the shipping charges still high? I haven't looked around enough to form an opinion and there may be more than one answer because Ubid both sells merchandise itself and also through other companies that they certify. For what its worth, I looked at the cheapest shipping charges for 10 computers at random (just the computer, no monitor). They were: 27, 29, 30, 35, 35, 36, 45, 45, 50, 50.

I'm told that Ubid has changed drastically since early 2002 when I last used it. For one thing, they used to be a public company owned by CMGI and now they are private.

They used to do consumer to consumer auctions, like eBay, but no more. Apparently keeping on lid on fraud was just too much. As noted above, they either sell merchandise themselves or they "certify" other companies to sell merchandise on their web site. This is drastically different from eBay. Ubid gets in the middle, eBay does not. If Ubid is not the seller, they claim to have researched and certified the company offering the merchandise. eBay, in contrast, is hands off. The only "thing" certifying an eBay seller is feedback from prior buyers. I don't have a feel for how well eBay's system works, but it is certainly open to abuse - on both ends. Speaking of both ends, to be a bidder on Ubid, you must provide a credit card.

My one gripe with the current Ubid system (and keep in mind I have not purchased something from them in 3 years) is that when merchandise is being sold by one of their "certified" sellers, the seller is usually not identified. It is one thing to know that a product has a warranty of a certain duration, it is another thing to know who stands behind the warranty. This is sometimes not spelled out. I'm told though, that you can call Ubid, toll-free, to ask.

Finally, Ubid is based in Illinois. If you do not live in Illinois then they do not charge sales tax.

Problems Signing Up

January 12, 2002. I signed up with ubid.com so that I could bid on their auctions. The sign-up process was pretty much run-of-the-mill. After filling out the necessary information, the web site said something like "Thanks for signing up." They sent me an email message welcoming me to their web site, telling me about all the benefits and confirming my userid, name and address. Fine.

At first I thought there might be a delay while they process my new user information. Then I checked my email and found they sent a second message which said:

Please be advised that we cannot allow you to proceed at this time. This may have occurred due to inconsistent information contained within your registration record. If you believe this is an error, simply reply to this email with a brief description of the problem along with day and evening phone numbers you can be contacted at, and an email address.

To paraphrase. There is an error and they don't know what the error is. They want me to explain to them what the error is.

I emailed them to ask them what the error is (and did not provide two phone numbers). As of January 17th there was no response from Ubid, so I filled out a customer service request on their web site. . .

Like the first time, it appears to go well. This time I took a screen shot (at right) of the message on their web site after I entered all the necessary new user information.

Thinking I'm registered, I go to My Page to test out my new userid and password.

Logging on at My Page fails again.

Back to technical support. . . Shortly thereafter I received the same two email messages as before. One welcoming me to Ubid and the other, shown above, not allowing me to proceed. The problem is not with my credit card as I verified with the issuer that the account is alive and well.

January 28, 2002: A reply from Ubid:
       Both of your accounts have been disabled. You will need to contact the
    credit department to clear this up. Their phone number is 800-999-9999.

I call their credit department at about 5:30PM EST. There are two messages, the first warning of heavy call volume and potentially long waits. The second message says they are experiencing computer delays with critical systems and may not be able to help with my problem. I hung up.

January 29, 2002. I called their credit department around 4:00PM EST and heard the same two warning messages as yesterday. The second one says they are experiencing computer processing delays in critical systems and may be not be able to resolve my problem. I hung up.

February 5, 2002. I called again at 7:00PM EST and they were closed. The recording said their normal hours are 8AM to 6PM. It did not say in which time zone.

February 6, 2002. I call again at 4:00PM EST. The recording still says they are experiencing computer processing delays in critical systems and may be not be able to resolve my problem. That's 9 days with critical computer problems. I wait on hold for 10 minutes then give up.

March 12, 2002. I call again and speak to a person who re-enters my personal information and gets my first userid working. She said there were no error messages on her computer which is unusual. Normally a disabled account has a reason as to why it was disabled. Not my account. She blamed it on the computer.

Now that I can log in to the Ubid web site, I noticed that there is no option to log out. I can't recall a web site where you can log in, but not out.

Ubid Gripes

Trying Again

Updates

Problems Signing Up

FYI