Auction.comReviews 434

I won the auction, met the reserve price, paid my deposit and had a signed purchase agreement then sat waiting for the deal to close. After two weeks Auction.com sent me a email asking me to sign to agree to cancel the transaction due to it being conveyed to HUD. I refused to sign for over a week and every day I would get the same email Then all of a sudden I get an email. "Thank you for confirming an unilateral sellers cancellation will be sent to all parties." I sent and email stating that I did not sign anything and this is what I got back."In my email it states unilateral sellers cancellation. This would not require a the buyers to sign the form." As of today I do not have my deposit back and I do not know when I will get it. But from the look of this whole experience, auctions on Auction.com are not final and the seller can pull it back at any time. However the buyer is not able to inspect the inside of the property and you could loose your deposit if the buyer decides to back out. If this is not the case someone can correct me. But this is the way I feel. And yes all of this may very well be in the sellers agreement but I have never been to an auction where the property was sold then pulled back. Seems shady to me.

I've been reading some very bad reviews from people and collectively they are correct. What I have experienced with these guys is poor service. Once you win the auction you are setup with a contact person, designated go-to person. The first email I received from my agent was a demand to send EMD within 24 hours. OK, I understand that part. The next part of the demand is to sign and return a contract within 2 hours. I am an investor and I prefer to take these contracts to my attorney to review and explain to me any pitfalls.
I attempted to contact my agent and it rolled into voicemail. The voicemail says he will return my call in 24 hours. Already this will put me past my deadline. I read it as a delay tactic to force you to abide by any terms in the contract.

I communicated several times through voicemail and email. I received slow to no response. One of the emails I received urged me to contact his higher up. I did on two occasions and received no response. I guess that makes sense, the boss
Sets the tone for the employees. While I disliked the service, I now know what to expect on my next endeavor with auction.com. I think it's an easy service, definitely better than attending a live auction where properties can be cancelled and postponed.

Use the service and focus on low prices. Bid on many properties expecting to lose many. All you need is one right?

In hindsight, the service is terrible but not unbearable, as long as you keep the right perspective.

Hope this helps!

Andres Hernandez
H3 First Investments LLC
www.h3first.com

I started with a bid of $2500, the seller countered my bid to $7500. Oh, that's smart. Normally, the increments for other auctions in $1000, nope, for them it's $5000. So now they expect me to bid $*******? Really? For a house worth less?

The old owner left because of the crime in the neighborhood, so they walked away from the house. Highest crime rate out of all the neighborhoods in the city, and the city has hit #2 on a couple occasions as the worst in crime in the US. At best, it's worth $10K, if you're willing to put up with the gunfire.

Not even the seller got out of his truck to take a picture of the house, which by the way, is the wrong house. Auction.com never bothered to check! The seller rolled up, took a picture through the driver side window, stuck the camera outside to take a picture of the street in front and back. Note, they think the house is worth more. LOL!

So I tried to contact the seller who at this point is wearing rose colored glasses to call me after this thing ends and no else bids on it, and I know I'm the only one willing to work out a deal for them. No, they won't let me. Nothing they can do. Uh, auction.com left a bad taste in my mouth.

I had register for a bid and they hold $2,500 deposit for over a week after the action ended and the Seller never accept the highest bid(not mine). I had to call them many times to see my money back.
They did not let me see the property (even holding a Real Estate Broker license), so does not make any sense to me, besides that they told me we are responsible for all unpaid taxes and any lien the property has...
I stopped looking their site and I think they are not serious... so be careful, because you can loose a lot of money with this auction.com scam company.

I can not believe that such practice even survived so long in the United States. I want to warn anybody who are thinking to buy from auction.com. There are several things you need to pay attention to. First, when you bid online, the auction.com will bid against to raise the price. If your bid does not meet the reserve, they will keep up bidding against you. If nobody win the bid, they will post the property one day later. Second, the auction.com has terrible closing services. You need to be careful what you signed for. Usually, you will have to pay the closing cost for the seller. The closing agency they are using is called service link. Both auction.com and service link has terrible services. They only want money. They do not want to do the work. Most important, you need to ask them whether they have the key to the property. Our experience is that we paid everything for the closing and waiting for the key. Auction.com told us that they do not have key to the property. You have to break the door to gain access.

I posted my experience here to let other people know so that you won't get hurt by auction.com.

Recently there was a property that I was interested in bidding on. The bidding was to be from the 17th to the 19th of February. I went to place a bid and the property was not there. I contacted them and they said that it had been sold at pre auction. I did not see anything about a pre auction when I was researching.

This is not fair nor ethical. I did not get a chance to bid. When I asked who had purchased the property they would not tell me. How can they get away with such underhanded dealings? I cannot believe this is legal,

I have tried for several weeks to get someone there to answer the phone during business hours but all you get is voice mail. I also tried live chat TWICE and no one chatted.

I doubt this is a real business. The next thing I am going to do is contact the CA State Real Estate Licensing Board and investigate the person who claims to be the licensed real estate agent on the front page of auction.com Then I am going to contact my State Licensing Boards to see if he is registered to sell in my state.

I bid on a property but I wasn't aware of the fact that it was a cash only listing. I didn't have all the cash and I couldn't go through with the purchase. Since it was my first bidding on Auction.com, they returned my $2500 deposit. I should have done my homework prior bidding I think it was entirely my fault. Also the contract specialist was very helpful and nice to me and my husband, he helped a lot with our situation. Thank you!

They like to hold on to your money after they recieve it for a deposit. No customer service they take a very long time to answer the phone or answer the chat assistant and when you do get ahold of them you just wish you had not, there is no help. Properties Rarly sell they set the reseverse for the properites above market value. They say 3 days to refund money auctions go on for atleast 3 days then another three but nope a week goes bye and no one to get ahold of. I have never seen anyting actually sell, they repete the same auctions over nd over. Unless you watch the auction to the end you dont see that the reserve was. You can rarely inspect the property even when it is empty so you can not see the damages in the inside. The banks they deal with try to hide this and so does aution.com. Unless you have first hand knowledge of the property do not bid! Huge waste of time, horrible to deal with.

*Their "Previously appraised at" prices is the highest value the property has EVER been valued at, not the current value. The property I was bidding on had the previously appraised price at 145,000. I stopped bidding at 65,000. The auction went to 75,000 and closed without the reserve being met. The second auction on this property ran up to 95,000 and closed without the reserve being met. The bank finally relisted with a real realtor and sold for 65,000. A far cry from 145,000.

*You are mostly bidding against the auction site. They run the price up during the auction.

*They will wait until the last 60 seconds of the auction to outbid you and add more time to the auction to continue running the price up.

*You will have to fight to get your deposit back from them when you loose on bidding, sometimes up to 4 months.

*No one I know will used these types of servics.

*You are wasting your time with this site.

*The only reason I gave them 1 star is becasue I couldn't find the "0" star button on this site.

*THIS IS A SCAM

Listen all, I have no clue who is doing what in this forum, however I guarantee you it is not me. This has happened on facebook and here now. I gave someone my password I think when they made me re sign back in on facebook because nothing came up after that. I am deleting this account from here so pay no attention. I am a computer forensics and PI but I could care less how people make money. This could be a class mate that is pissed or I am not sure. Forensics is gret but people use it for bad also. This is not good. I will bring it to my Professor and he will be abe to get into it and see who is doing what and I will update every one here. I apologize.

I tried many times to bid homes in my area. I have never received a winning bid and they keep $2,500.00 tied up for a very long time. I even tried bidding close to what they are worth in fair condition. Many of the homes have not even gone through the full foreclosure process and are listed as bank owned. I'm so glad that I finally decided to quit trying this site. Too frustrating. I would hate to think what the closing would look like. Good idea if properly executed. I'm afraid that the foreclosure bargains are gone at this point. I had a lot of luck a few years ago. I only gave an additional star because I feel lucky to have missed on all my bids.