At first glance, DealDash appears to be a well structured, easy to understand and well thought out gambling site, disguised as a "shopping site." Once you get beyond the admiration of such a brilliant way to bypass gambling restrictions, problems inherent with penny auction sites become obvious. DeallDash has those, but that is just the very bottom of a mountain of questionable practices.
It is impossible to control collusion.in other words, if you are bidding on an Apple computer and you notice that there are 4 other bidders, you are more likely to back away and let them battle it out while you save your bids until there are less bidders. The moment you stop bidding, 3of the 4 bidders drop out at the same instance. Leaving their buddy, bidder #4, as the winner.
Even if it is not DealDash's fault that collusion is rampant, here is what is so unscrupulous about Deal Dash and their "policies." To keep it "fair", you are limited to 3 items above $200 per week and 6 items below $200 per week. The program is set up in such a way that once you reach your winning limit, the program blocks you from further play. Keep in mind that "winning" is almost always losing. You may, on rare occasions win the maximum allowed for that week, but what DealDash does not limit, is your number of losses.
I subscribed to a service (dealdashelite.com) that tracks dealdash bidders, their bids and their bidding history. I suspect this tracking program, which is fairly expensive, is owned by DealDash. There is a definite pattern where bidders who have a higher than average number of wins, "win" in a 48 hour period, 13 auctions. If their program blocks me from going past their 6 items below $200 and $3 items above $200, it is hard to explain how these winners slide by a software program. Bids and I suspect, but can't prove, that they are owned by DealDash.
At first, (September/October) DealDash's CEO sent an apology letter for all the crashes bidders experienced on DealDash. He also blamed rapid expansion for their failure to respond quickly to questions or concerns from bidders.
DealDash customer service will respond in an appropriate period if your question is not about missing items, suspected fraud, etc. Even when presented with data from their own site, proving that it makes no sense that a "real"l bidder would never spend $500 hoping to win a $300 item, DealDash offers no response or explanation..
Here is the most dishonest and brazen thievery practiced by DealDash. They give you the option of getting your bids back if you purchase the item for their posted retail value. The assumption is that you can't go wrong. However, it can and it does.
Here is a typical example: You notice that a laptop has a retail value of $1,100. If you bother to search the internet, you will see that this product, along with every other product on their site, show an over inflate retail price. That $1,100 computer is found on several other sites for 25%- to 40% less. Where it gets most dishonest and deceptive, is that if you happen to "win" it, you never get the product I have been told that several items are no longer available. I am offered a choice of bids or an Amazon gift card for a value that is much, much, less than what they alleged the item is worth. If an item is, posted with a value of $1,100, than the gift card should be $1,100 and not $500.
I think a pretty good clue that DealDash is no Deal and you should Dash to another place is the date the bidder joined the site. As each bid is placed, you can see the bidders avatar, name, and date they joined the auctions. I can safely say that more than 99% of bidders joined in the past 3 months. People would not leave if they were happy.
The founders and principals of DealDash are in Europe and most of the items posted on the site are not stocked by DealDash (a brilliant marketing strategy). They basically have an agreement with other reseller to ship on their behalf.
It is hard enough to beat the house sometimes, but when the house fails to play with a full deck you should stay as far away as possible. DealDash is too greedy and that will eventually be their downfal._
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