Russ Green was intrigued by Swoopo at first.
"At the beginning it was a novelty," he said.
It was billed as an "entertainment shopping" site where you bid against other members to buy items.
"I won an auction on a laptop," Green said.
It's an auction but Swoopo is no e-Bay. On Swoopo you pay 65 cents each time you place a bid.
that means every time the screen flashes someone has paid to bid. On some products they bid hundreds of times. You don't pick your bid price, every time you bid the price goes up by a few cents. And every time there is a new bid, time is added to the auction until only one bidder is left standing.
Totaling up what he paid, and the cost of his bids, Green figures he paid $850 for a thousand dollar laptop. But the product took over a month to arrive and when it did it was a lesser machine.
"I calculated it to be a $220 difference between the one they sent me and the one I bid on."
CTV contacted Swoopo to find out what went wrong. Frank Han, Swoopo's North American General Manager- says the company wasn't prepared for all the business it got when it opened in Canada two months ago.
"I'm embarrassed by, you know, the degree to which we've been caught off guard," Han said.
Swoopo has agreed to refund Green the $220 difference. That satisfies him --but what happens when you bid on Swoopo and don't win the item?
"The first scenario is you just, you leave your bids behind. You put 10 bids into an auction you say all right, I'm out $6.50," Han said.
The other option is if you agree to buy the product at the full Swoopo price within one hour after the auction closes, they'll deduct your bids from the price of the product.
It is your choice --lose everything you bid or buy the product at full price.
The president of the Better Business Bureau of Lower Mainland BC, Lynda Pasacreta says the BBB has received 222 inquiries about Swoopo in just two months.
"Take a look into the market place. See what the value is of the products that they are selling," she said.
That's important before you start bidding because Swoopo does not have the lowest price guaranteed. For example, we found an espresso machine selling for as little as $1,849. On Swoopo it's listed at $2400. And a popular LG TV? Swoopo's price is $1799. At Best Buy it is $300 less.
So all and all is Swoopo a bit of a gamble?
"I wouldn't call it a gamble so much as I would call it a competition," Han said.
A competition where the winner gets the spoils, the losers get to buy at full price -- and the company makes money with the click of a mouse.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen.
