Swoggi penny auction site or scam?

A question about : Swoggi penny auction site or scam?

I feel foolish to have fallen for this but cannot un-do what I have done .
Attracted by what appeared to be a good way to get high tech goods for a bargain basement price,I became a Swoggi Member and had to buy credits in order to bid for the items I wanted .Foolishly,I bought Ј250 credit because I thought I might have to go that high to get my hands on the iPad I wanted .
I started bidding and soon grew tired of having to bid constantly ,only to be outbidded at the last second .So,I decided to call it a day and cancelled my account .
And this is when the problem started ! I asked for a refund of the money left on my now closed account and was told by their customer service ,the matter was now in the hands of their refund department and that I would get my money -minus- Ј15 for admin - within three weeks .That was on the 2nd of May and now more than three weeks later ,I still do not have the funds refunded and worse ,they do not answer my emails .
I wonder if I am ever going to have my money back ?
Is Swoggi a scam or a genuine online auction site ?

Best answers:

• Seems to be a scam I'm afraid. If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.
  https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/questio...2072007AA6Au76
• Hi I foolishly did the same thing too yesterday! I did not read the conditions or explore how to bid before I paid for Ј50 worth of credits. Since there was not a box which you had tick to say you agree with the terms and conditions, does that mean you can argue and get your credits refunded in money? It really makes me angry how websites like Swoggi are allowed to trade and is so blatantly unfair to its users. Is there anything we can do?
• These are gambling sites, not shopping sites. If you like to fritter money on horses & fruit machines then there is a place for these sites.
  Not as a shopping site though...
• I 'm having a similar bad experience with Swoggi and was wondering whether any of you know whether the transaction to buy credits on these penny action sites is covered by the general Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.
  To be more specific whether you do have by law a cooling period during which you can cancel your purchase of credits and get a full refund.
  I'm asking this because I have a dispute currently open with Swoggi.
  I registered with them after having found a voucher on the internet that- I thought-would entitle me to some free credits. the voucher appeared to be validated on their website so i continued with the Paypal checkout process without realising that i was about to be charged Ј50. ( OK, on hindsight it was foolish to proceed, but I had gone through a similar process before with another online vendor where to claim something free I still had to go checkout - without being charged though!!). Anyway, in this case at no time during the paypal checkout pages the value of the payment was specified and furthermore a message appeared that I would be able to confirm the transaction before being redirected to the vendor site. However this did not happen and 30 seconds after being returned to the swoggi site i received an email form paypal confirming I had purchased Ј50 worth of credits. I immediately email swoggi customer service, explaining that I purchased the credit by mistake and asking to cancel the transaction and refund my payment. Similar to what what happened to Extrapole I was told that they would only refund Ј35 because of their T&C n.7 which states "If a member wishes to have a certain balance, which has previously been deposited at Swoggi, repaid in the form of balance on a bidding account, the member will be charged an administrative fee of Ј15". They also said that the appreciated it was a mistake, but pointed out: "Our measure of fairness to all our players cannot allow us to make a particular case".
  ...and they kept repeating that if I wanted they could reactivate my account so that I could use the credits to win prices!!!
  What a cheeky answer!
  I found this very unfair and I'm wondering whether their foggy checkout process is deliberately misleading to trick new members into deposit money in the system.
  I know I've been stupid, but I refuse to give in and I have opened a dispute through Paypal asking for a full refund under the above regulation. I do hope I have the same consumer rights, I would have for any other purchase made online.
• The use of the term "players" in their message is very telling. They are positioning themselves as a gaming or gambling site. I wonder how many happy customers they have. I guess a fraction of one percentage point?
• I considered giving it a go a short while ago, but changed my mind when I saw how few "auctions" there actually were.
  They must be making an absolute fortune.
• Think though, it doesn't even need to be an 'honest' auction, if they have a shill-bidding bot to make sure they win every item...
• Hi everyone,
  just a quick update to let you know that I have just received a full refund from Swoggi for my unwanted credits. It took a while, but I guess it is another confirmation that if you believe you have been taken advantage of, it is worth fighting your corner and no take no for an answer!
  Having said that, I think I will be much more careful when trying to redeem a voucher online, from now on!
• Does anyone know how to get a refund??
• Beware!!! SWOGGI is big scam, please don't get carried away I lost my hard earned Ј25.00 it was a learning curve. Such companies take advantage of people acting unwittingly. I asked them for a refund and they came up with lame excuses,
  Stay away, stay away, stay away. This obviously a Scam.
• I assume these shits are a lot like MadBid. They're effectively virtual roulette to a degree. How they're not considered gambling I don't know.
  Either way, as I've said all along about MadBid, they have several automated bots which are designed to artificially inflate the price of items while also forcing you to use more credits and making the process painstakingly long (causing you to grow tired as you said). There's no such thing as a free lunch, unless you rob it out the bin at the local takeaway.
  Just learn a valuable lesson and stick to real online auctions, eBay etc.
  How you get your money back I really don't know? I just hope people start switching on to these companies. They're not your friend. They might have smiley avatars and people giving happy interviews with their new car but I can guarantee you they are actors or in an absolutely tiny minority.
• Hi, I have suffered in exactly the same way as Margheritauk. I have tried repeatedly to get them to refund my money, but as per others here, all I receive is an email quoting their T&Cs and saying all they can refund me is the original amount less Ј15. After several emails, they are now not responding. I refuse to let them get away with this. Having read that Margheritauk managed to get a full refund, I wonder how she achieved this?
  Any helpful suggestions would be gratefully received!
• Thanks, Soolin.
  I guess my main argument is that the company has to be dealing fairly for their T&C's to be legally valid? Being under the cosh of the FCA myself, this kind of unfair dealing really rankles.
  I suppose I'll just have to give in
• I came across Swoggi through another site (similarly named to this one - moneyexpert360) which sung its praises. So not only is Swoggi scamming consumers they are also in cahoots with (or own?) a site which is passing itself off as this one. Trading Standards should get this site and any associated sites shut down immediately. I was scammed for Ј50 and I don't expect to get it back. I just wished I had come on here first to check them out. They are nothing better than pickpockets they way their Paypal checkout works - you don't honestly know you have paid anything, let alone how much. Martin - please talk about these sites next time you are on the radio or TV. In the meantime I am launching a complaint with the OFT.
• Ј15 wasted. After setting up yesterday I took a quick look on Swoggi and did not see much of interest. I received a text from my credit card company this morning to question whether my purchase may be fraudulent. I confirmed it was a valid payment. So of course logging on for second time I looked closer at bidding process. It just seemed impossible to win if someone bids as it adds 15 seconds and a penny to the price. There are not many items to bid for so everyone can see all the items. I did not realise there were so few items to bid on when joining (no trial or free credits to try b4 you buy). I contacted the company for a refund having not placed any bids. No problem ... but less the Ј15 per T&C. This was all in less than 24 hours. I paid via pay pal. I cannot believe none of us have a leg to stand on. Was there not a London address on their website. Anyone live nearby :-( I'll be sticking to buy now at a fair price in future.