Bid-up.tv > Reviews (30)

Having found myself with a little too much time on my hands recently, I was drawn into the world of bid-up.tv - the tv auction channel. (SKY 647) Having watched far too much of this and won five auctions for things I didn't really need (but they were a great deal...Honest!!) I have now resolved never to watch this channel again.

BIDDING

Bidding is easy - they tell you. Either by phone - 60p per minute (NO THANKS) or on the website www.bid-up.tv. The good thing about bidding on the website is the feature which allows you to enter a maximum bid, say £20, but if the auction closes at £15 then you will get it at the lower price.

THE DANGER

You really can get sucked in. Its addictive - seeing if you can outbid someone else by a £1 to get that 'bargain'. In some respects, its entertaining as you watch others fight over something you consider to be a piece of junk -or even better - watching the presenters desperately trying to up the ante - their typical patter would go along the lines of "The minimum bid is currently £27 compared to the recommended price of £180. IF you come in at the minimum bid you are going to be outbid. If you want to be a winning bidder you really need to be making bids above £120"...yeah right!!! Egg on face as the auction closes at £60. BUT do they care...Hell No!! The same patter is repeated time and time again from 8am to 1am every day.

THE RECOMMENDED PRICE

What a joke! They claim to have taken an average of at least three high street retail prices in establishing their recommended price. Well, the best piece of advice I can offer you is DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. For example, they were recently auctioning a set of barbecue tools which they claimed had an 'average high street' price of £59. I saw the exact set in Homebase for £20 (reduced to a tenner in a recent sale). People were buying these things for £30 on bid-up.tv thinking they had a great saving. WRONG!! An ARGOS or INDEX catalogue is a great asset when comparing the recommended bid-up.tv price with the real world price. Don't get me wrong - I think there are bargains to be had here, but make sure you have done your homework because it sure as hell won't be as big a bargain as they would like you to think.

PRODUCT SUBSTITUTION

The bane of ordering by mail, web or phone - Do you actually get what you order?? Well, as I said, I have won 5 auctions. Three of them were delivered exactly as promised, one was substituted for another style which I was quite happy with as it turned out, and the final one was subbed for something of a different style with less features - this has been sent back. It seems that if they don't have what you ordered - they just send you something else.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

No complaints as yet. With one exception, my orders have been delivered promptly (within 5 working days is the commitment). The exception being the item I had to return. I called customer services expecting a real nightmare, but to my surprise it took less than 40 seconds to get through to an operator who promptly arranged to collect the item I wanted to return, and promised a refund would be made to credit card within 14 days (In actual fact it took 19 days).

FYI, the goods were collected on the day specified although they wouldn't state AM or PM which annoyed me slightly.

OVERALL

Bidding for products can be fun, but I don't need it to add complications. Product substitution is something I don't need...its just hassle having to phone up and arrange collection/refunds etc. However, if you are prepared to put up with that, and if you do your research on the recommended price of their 'auction lots' - then there are some bargains to be had here. Just remember, do not take anything they tell you at face value. In future, I think I'll stick to ebay, the bargains there are a lot better!