Telebid script feature "Never make a loss"

Some penny auction scripts provide among features so-called 'riskless' functionality. The logic is easy: if auction has not collected enough bids, it cannot finish. Usually this means that it is extended by adding 'fake' bid. So, timer is reset and real clients must bid once more.

Though this functionality might seem to be very attractive for auction owners, we strongly not advise to use it.

First of all, this is outright deception of clients. According to the rules, if time is run out, client should become a winner. But in case of 'riskless' auction client does not. So, the rules are violated. The solution would be to rewrite rules so that clients would know that they cannot win until the auction receives a minimal amount of bids. But it is easy to predict that nobody would bid at auction knowing about such 'warm-up constraint'.

Secondly, our experience is that it is easy to discover if auction is 'riskless'. If you see that some client (or even several clients) is constantly bidding at last second on many different items then you should suspect dishonest game. Real clients usually do not bid on all the items at the very last second.

To sum up, 'riskless' functionality is both unfair and noticeable. It may discredit the auction and cause complaints to consumer protection bureau.


Advice to penny auction clients.
If you find a new penny auction and want to start bidding, it is good to find out who is the author of the software at first. When you know the software manufacturer, check that they do not offer cheating software features to their customers.

If you see that the auction may cheat you or you cannot find the software author, we advise you not to bid at this auction.