Help Topics
What is unique about Downbidding?
While all other online auction sites execute their bids from the bottom-up, we offer “downbidding auctions” where the starting price for our highly discounted items begin at a set low price and decreases with every bid that is made. Our unique way of conducting our auctions may even close with a final bid BELOW ZERO DOLLARS!! In these cases our winner will receive his item for $0.00 and earn free bids toward the next auction of his choice.
How it works?
Downbidding.com auctions premium products such as cameras, computers, gaming consoles, and TVs through our specially designed software solution. Our online customers buy Downbids in advance. The cost is $0.80 per each Downbid and is sold in packages of 30, 60, 100, 180, 400 or 800. Participants have a choice of placing single Downbids on the auction of their choice or using our automated assistant called “BidBot”.
At launch we will have two general types of auctions. “Single Auctions” and “MultiOption” auctions. Each auction displays our starting prices which range between 50 and 80 percent below the suggested retail price. Auctions will begin with at least 24 hours on its countdown clock. Each Downbid placed on the auction will drive the price down by a preset amount displayed on the auction. It will also add a few seconds, typically 10 to 15, to the countdown clock to allow other existing bidders to bid again. The winner is the last person to place a Downbid before the clock runs out. To help you calculate your total spending and savings, each auction page will display the amount of Downbids you have placed and how much money you have saved.
To get started:
· Register for Free
· Purchase your Downbids
· Choose your auction. Looking for a gadget for yourself or a gift for the one you love.
· Click on the “Downbid” button and play!
Bid4U
While playing all day may be more of a wish than a reality, we created a “BidBot” to keep you in the game while allowing you to be off site. Tell the BidBot your price range and maximum Downbid amount and let it do the heavy lifting for you.
Choose the auction you are interested in and set up the BidBot. If you are the only bidder using a BidBot, a Downbid will be automatically placed within the last ten seconds of the specific auction. If another user places an additional single Downbid thereafter, your BidBot will continue to Downbid on your behalf until you win or your BidBot bids run out.
If more than one BidBot is set up for the same auction, with the same price range, our system will play all the Downbids simultaneously and add to the countdown clock the respective time for the total amount of Downbids.
If you win the auction with unused Downbids in your BidBot , the Downbids will remain in your bid account.
My Downbid
You can keep track of all your auction activity in “My Downbid”. "My auctions" will update you on all auctions you are currently bidding, view and edit all active BidBot you have set up when you click on "BidBot ", view all auctions you have asked to watch by clicking on "Watched auctions", and review and confirm your winning auctions in "Won Auctions".What happens when you win
Well firstly, congrats to you!!
When the auction ends you will receive an email confirming your win. In this email there will be a link to be redirected to the "won auctions" page to confirm that you do indeed want the item. You will also have the opportunity to redeem any coupons you may have and the final amount will then be calculated for your approval. After we receive the payement, an email will be sent with shipping info.
Please note: As technology advances in the blink of an eye, and items may be discontinued, Downbidding's policy is to provide you with a new or improved model, at no additional cost.
Winning below zero
If you are the lucky winner of an auction that has closed with a negative number, you will receive your item for free, pay for the shipping fee and have your Downbid account credited back the negative amount of dollars and cents in the form of Downbids on your bid account for use at a later auction of your choice. For example, if an item closed at - $1.60, your account will be credited 2 Downbids ($0.80 x 2).
Complaints and returns
All of our auctioned items are brand new and sealed. Most will ship directly from our vendors or from our warehouse. If an item arrives damaged due to shipping, please contact customer service. If an item is defective, contact the manufacturer for warranty.
Downbidding does not accept returns.
Multioption Auctions
Our Mulitioption auction functions the same as our site’s single auction except for:
- Our winner is given the ability to choose from a number of different items which will be offered, each with its own price, at the top of the auction page.
- As you bid you may view your savings and complete details for each of these choices by simply scrolling your computer mouse over any of the options.
- All options on the Multioption Auctions are controlled by a single countdown clock. When a Downbid is placed, the clock is reset by the time specified on the auction.
- Some of these items may be displayed as inactive with a countdown showing the remaining Downbids needed until they become available.
- Place a single Downbid or set a BidBot and watch the price on all active options decrease simultaneously.
- When the clock reaches zero the auction is closed and the last person who placed a Downbid becomes the auction winner.
What to do when you win:
- The winner can go to the “Won Auctions” sections of his account and view all options that were active at the time the auction closed. He can then review the final price of each option and claim one as his winning item. This is done by selecting “accept” on the drop down menu located next to each of the options. The remaining options are marked as declined and no longer available.
- You may also choose your winning item by clicking on the link provided with the email confirmation for the option you wish to keep.
What are the recommended PC requirements to use Downbidding.com?
You can participate in downbidding.com auctions with nearly all PCs that allow you to access the internet:Supported system software:
- Windows Vista / Windows XP / Windows 2000
- Mac OS X 10.3 or higher
- Linux
- Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher
- Firefox 3.0 or higher
- Opera 8.0 or higher
- Safari 3.0 or higher
- 512k DSL connection or faster
Why didn’t my bid register on an auction?
While Downbidding makes every effort to provide a seamless experience for all our users, the nature of the internet may cause unavoidable interruptions from time to time. In addition, our users may experience minor delays in seeing their bid register on our site. This is caused by a number of reasons including the speed of your computer system and internet connection which affect the speed of data transfer from your computer to our servers. There are also delays that occur because some parts of the internet connection are overloaded. These "internet lag times" may prevent you from entering your bid before an auction closes.
There are a few ways of helping minimize this problem:
- While bidding on downbidding.com, do not download large data such as video or audio files from the internet.
- Don't send emails with large attachments while bidding on downbidding.com.
- Make sure that there are no other computers using your internet while you are bidding.
We're very sorry if your bid wasn't registered by the downbidding.com servers in time. To be absolutely certain that you avoid the problem of "Internet lag times," don't leave your bidding until the last second. You may also try using our Bid4U which ensures your bids are received on time. You can find further information in our Terms and Conditions.
I can't confirm my registration using the link in the registration confirmation email. What should I do?
It might be that your email program shows the link in your registration mail as faulty. If this happens, just copy the complete link in to the address line of your internet browser and press 'Enter'. If this doesn't work, please get in touch with our customer service team, letting us know the email address that you used to register.
How do I activate Cookies?
To enable cookies, please follow the instructions below for the internet browser version you are using.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+
- Select Tools from the pull-down menu in your browser.
- Select Internet Options. The Internet Options dialog will appear.
- Select the Privacy tab. Under Settings, click Advanced.
- Check Override automatic cookie handling under Cookies section in Advanced Privacy Settings window.
- Under First-party Cookies, select Accept. Under Third-party Cookies, select Accept. Check Always allow session cookies.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+
- Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.
- Click on the "Privacy" tab.
- Click the "Default" button (or manually slide the bar down to "Medium") under "Settings".
- Click "OK".
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x
- Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.
- Click on the "Security" tab.
- Click the "Custom Level" button.
- Scroll down to the "Cookies" section.
- Set "Allow cookies that are stored on your computer" to "Enable".
- Set "Allow per-session cookies" to "Enable".
- Click "OK".
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x
- Select "Internet Options" from the View menu.
- Click on the "Advanced" tab.
- Scroll down to find "Cookies" within the "Security" section.
- Select "Always accept cookies".
- Click "OK".
Mozilla Firefox 2.0+
- Go to the "Tools" menu.
- Select "Options".
- Select the Privacy tab.
- Make sure that the Accept cookies from sites under Cookies is ticked (the default setting).
- Click "OK" to save changes.
Mozilla Firefox (1.0 final release and earlier)
- Go to the "Tools" menu.
- Select "Options".
- Select the "Privacy" icon in the left panel.
- Check the box corresponding to "Allow sites to set cookies".
- Click "OK" to save changes.
Netscape 7.1/Mozilla 5.0
- Select "Preferences" from the Edit menu.
- Click on the arrow next to "Privacy & Security" in the scrolling window to expand.
- Under "Privacy & Security", select "Cookies."
- Select "Enable all cookies".
- Click "OK".
What happens to the auctions during system downtime?
Downtime, or outage, is an occasional and unforeseeable problem with the internet, and means that bids cannot be placed during this short period when we are offline. If we experience downtime at any point, we automatically add ten minutes on to the auction end time, so that our bidders are not left at a disadvantage. It is impossible to place any bids whilst the system is experiencing downtime, so any bids attempted during this period will not be debited from your account. If this situation does occur, we advise you to refresh your screen regularly, either by pressing F5 or the refresh button on your browse
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