Comments on: Stay far, far, far away from Swoopo

By: anym

anym — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:10:43 +0000

Why would one spend time, money, and effort to give us good deals? Can Swoopo tell me why?

By: formely stephenm7

formely stephenm7 — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 03:21:24 +0000

Swoopo caught my eye and after a little reading I thought what a great idea I’ll give it a go. After watching numerous auctions I realise that after the item has reached a certain value that for example £34.20 (in a penny auction) a 10 or 15 second final countdown begins, to which the counter will never exceed this count no matter the bids taking place. I decide to wait for an auction to reach this crucial countdown point so I can maxmise the use of my bids without wasting them per se.

I set a bet butler to use several bids and I expected it will use these quickly, but after my first bid went through (I’m winning at this point) the counter reached 1 second (and just as I thought I had won) in an instant my several bids fought against someone elses bid butler. After wasting loads of bids already I go to place another bid use my last, wait….hang on, where has the extra 2 minutes come from?

I thought the idea of this countdown was that no matter what bids take place at this point it does not exceed this count (10 seconds in this case). I accept I lost and it is a gamble, but come on lets be realistic it should not be allowed to make up it’s rules as it goes along should it?

Anyway Im a bit disappointed but after wasting £10 on this piece of crap I have decided it really is a mugs game… and I guess I’m a mug for being taken into it. I only wish I read some reviews of the website first before I bought those bids. I closed my account in disgust and jealously of the site owner.

The rate users lose their bids is unbelievable and I’m amazed that there are no real gambling awareness or controls for this website. Even in the face of losing all bids, a user gambles them anyway through addiction and the desire to win.

I see this “auction” website no different to playing a game of roulette. I ask you one question; would you bet on a game of roulette if your odds of winning were worse than that of the lottery? Probably not, in fact you are more likely to just throw your money at the house for free.

So why waste your time gambling on SWOOPO? I have no idea. Out of the return swoopo get for these items, I’m amazed no portion of these goes to charity. I would have felt at least comforted that a minute portion of my money wasted has maybe gone to help something other to line pockets with money. Not everyone was born with a conscience I guess.

By: Webby

Webby — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:57:41 +0000

I found Swoopo today and looking into it, yes there is the possibility of people losing out, but only if they get carried away with their bidding.

Besides, how can anyone say this is evil. No-one is being forced to take part in this. It is not a scam – it seems very clear to me what the site is about.

Having read a few reviews on Swoopo across the net I bet all those people who are claiming this site is a scam go blindly throughout their daily lives paying their taxes to government, which is in itself a true scam backed by force.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:54:24 +0000

As with all new services, educating consumers and arming them with appropriate expectations is key. Much of the criticism penny auctions receive stems from the fact that few people win and everyone expects to get a great deal without much effort. Noone can fault the auction sites for channeling these human needs. It’s called business. It is up to consumers to educate themselves by doing their homework, such as checking out review sites like http://www.pennyauctionguide.com. It’s just like everything in life: luck favors the prepared.

By: swooper

swooper — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:15:06 +0000

its kinda cool how it works but its seriously only “safe” if you dont go trigger happy and keep bidding and bidding and bidding on an item. you can even bid vouchers which if done right, you end up getting free bids anyways. The absolute most important thing to realize is you are not throwing away your money because you can purchase the item even if you dont win the auction, and theyll even put your bids toward the purchase. So in general, if you are planning on buying something, you can try it and see if you get a good deal and if you dont win, you can still purchase what you wanted and have your bids applied to the purchase price… This easily translates into ~ you’re not throwing away your money if done appropriately
I was lucky enough to pick up a canon t1i for around 60 bux plus only 23 bids. so guess what, I DIDNT GET BURNED!

By: AJ @ acoustic guitars

AJ @ acoustic guitars — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:28:16 +0000

The thing I really hate about Swoopoo is that it makes people think they are getting a good deal because people are so bad at math. It’s like in politics when they start talking about saving millions and increasing spending by billions. They sound the same, but they are really making things worse. Swoopoo sounds cheaper until you realize it’s more expensive. It’s such a ripoff.

By: LessThanJake

LessThanJake — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:25:16 +0000

You guys should really look around a bit before you get completely turned off by the concept. Check out some other sites that aren’t so busy as swoopo. A site I’ve come across (and actually won on) is bidfire.com I wanted a nintendo wii and I saw they were selling. I got into it with this one other bidder so I thought I would be there all night.. Just when I was ready to say forget it, (I had put $20 of bids into the game) The auction ended and I won the wii for less than $5. So, there ARE ways to get great deals, maybe just not on swoopo anymore.

By: Regret

Regret — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:04:38 +0000

I got the turning back the clock concept after a couple of bids, but note that with my auction the clock was turned back 13 seconds, not 20. My friend was also monitoring another auction and I bleieve it was 10 on their clock. The problem with the website’s info is that it is not consistent with what is occurring in the various auctions. Example: they post info about penny auctions, but then they also have 2 penny auctions. At any rate, my time as a member is over. I don’t have the time or the money to play the swoopo game. On the auction that I was bidding for, the clock was backed up about 2 hours at one point, so I had to sit there another 2 hours to see what would happen. Of course I had already learned by that time not to bid and to try and let the time run down until no one else would bid against me. The kicker is there was a little note with next to the clock icon that said the 10 second countdown would begin when the price for the item reach 144.00. I assumed by this that there was a minimum price they had set up, which is why the auction clock had not run down even though people had stopped bidding, but low and behold it sold for 141.00. I don’t care what anyone says there are better ways to set this up, so that everyone is happy, the players and swoopo. The way it stands now, it’s obvious there are a lot of unhappy or disillusioned players/buyers. I consider my self to be internet savvy and have been shopping online since before it was common practice (when people ridiculed me for taking the risk). I’ll give anything a chance, but if it doesn’t benefit me, i.e. spending money and getting nothing, I will stay clear. People have to understand the extreme risk they are taking with swoopo and they do not, and I repeat do not make all of it clear on their website, so those that say otherwise, either work for swoopo, or have time and money to sit on a 24hr vigil and play their auction game. This far exceeds what an average person could do that’s just trying to get a good deal. I don’t begrudge swoopo for wanting to make money, but I feel like I have a right and responsibility to let people know about my experience, so that they don’t make the same mistakes I did and can make an informed choice before spending their money.

By: JimmyDaGeek

JimmyDaGeek — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:57:00 +0000

In case anyone misses the green button on the front page marked: HOW IT WORKS, here’s the link: http://www.swoopo.com/new.html

Because Swoopo resets the auction expiration clock to 20 seconds after each “final” bid, you can’t snipe. You have to hope that either no one is looking or that everyone who is interested is tapped out.

By: Regret

Regret — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:17:49 +0000

Unfortunately I read your article too late, after I had already signed up and bid 12 times at .60 cents each. I feel foolish, simply because I usually research everything before spending money, but in this instance I was sucked in by the low prices and the promise of a new ipod touch for little of nothing as long as I got in on the bidding w/i the last 5 minutes, because the clock was ticking. Little did I know the clock would not actually be ticking to a conclusion for quite sometime. I searched their website for more info, before buying and bidding, but the information is fague to non-existant. You find better info googling, but my auction, so I thought was ending so I made a move w/o any research. Right now I can’t even get the site to cancel my membership, so I can try and salvage this really, really bad decision. I’m only out 7.20 at this point and expect a refund for my unused bids. I should have known. I’m not a gambler. Once I figure out that I’m losing I walk away from the game. I’d advise anyone, unless they have the time and money to sit at the PC 24/7 to do the same.

Koodos to anyone who is winning on this website and especially those that are winning w/o spending much money.