Ziinga Reviews – Legit or Scam?
Ziinga.com is a penny auction website that is available to users in over 16 different countries, including Britain, Canada, and the US, and claims to give people the ability to purchase expensive items at serious discounts.
Like most penny auctions, each bid on Ziinga US raises the price of the auction by one penny and each bid resets the auction clock to a longer period of time. The auction clock will reset with shorter times as the auction lasts longer.
All Ziinga auctions start at $0.00 and have no reserve price bidders must meet. The last bidder left wins the right to purchase the item at the final auction price, plus costs of delivery.
Ziinga does have auctions set with “maximum” prices, which means that once the bidding has hit the maximum price, members continue to bid in order to be the last bidder, but these bids will not increase the final item price.
You can only win two auctions at Ziinga within a 14 day rolling period, in order to allow more members to win auctions. To start bidding at Ziinga, you must purchase bids which range from 69 cents to $1.19 depending on the size of the bid package you choose.
Do you have experience with Ziinga.com? If so, please leave a review below.
Would you like to add your review for
May 16th, 2012 at 3:33 pm
They say hindsight is a wonderful thing and in this case it’s certainly true. Oh how I wished my gadget loving husband had read these reviews.We are now nearly £200 down in our bank account because of his love of anything electrical and falling for this scam,but we live and learn.So if you are reading this BEFORE you have signed up DO NOT DO IT.For those like my husband who already have ,good luck in getting your money back.It goes without saying he’s banned to the spare room which ironically doesn’t have any T.V.OR gadgets in it.
May 16th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
DO NOT SIGN UP to this site. They now state as soon as you sign up, you are billed for 3 consecutive months – whether you use the service or not !
One of the many scams – followed by ‘threat’s’ to take you to court!!!
May 15th, 2012 at 11:16 pm
do not give these scammers your money !!!!!!
May 15th, 2012 at 4:31 pm
I wish that i had read this site before I signed up. Just cost me the best part of 90 pound to firstly pay for the first months ‘membership’ and then the 28 pound cancellation fee.
My advise is that you do not become a member of the site, as i cannot see any real benefits to the site at all. I’ve only been a member for a little over 7 days, and 90 pound down the pan.
May 15th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
I won a camera on the 15/April/2012. paid £13.00 still to date not received the camera. today 15 May they have sent me a creditor letter said they have been authorized by ZIINGA to collect £179.99. for what I don’t know. I will be calling them in the morning to check this out. i am assuming they must have gone to my account to take out more money. thank God I lost my card and had to cancelled it
Charlotte says:
May 16th, 2012 at 8:54 am
Its a scam, you sign up make a bid…win and they charge you £59.99 for your membership, they sell a few of the same things over and over, make it look like you can get bargain but in reality you are paying for the item in the membership also you pay to bid and then they charge you for the item. They will say it is sent, but it hasn’t been then they say they can only refund the money if you send the item back – which off course you can’t because you haven’t received it. In the meantime you have given them your card details, passport so you start to get really worried and pay up for the peace of mind.
Fortunately i realized most of this the second i pressed the button on a the card transaction, found this site then called them and cancelled my membership, if you do it in time you only pay the £28, if they take any more money after cancellation you can get it refunded by your bank, i called the fraud line. The woman i spoke to was foreign and she loved the discomfort i was in, and spoke to me in a wa that said ‘you’ve been had ha ha’ i was hopping mad. The ziinga its is listed on a website for companies that commit fraud but operate outside of UK. I wish there was something i could do more to shut this lot down. They must be making millions exhorting money through fraud omission. Perhaps watchdog would take a look!!
May 15th, 2012 at 10:16 am
Do not bid sign up or accept the free gift
May 15th, 2012 at 7:46 am
Please stay clear of this site! Its a con the first time u go on this site when u bid u will win! Cus they want u to win,you pay for ur item and you think thats it, wrong! They ask you to scan ur bank details (please do not do this)because they will take a further £59.99 i email mail them to say i want to cancel this cus its a con site!!
They replied back saying there is a £28 cancel free?? So they part refund all my moneys. I have now had a letter from intrum justitia saying i owe £119.98??? So i have told them i will go to court over this. Best thing about all off this is i won a £7.99 mp3 player plus £3.99 postage, joke!!!!! Please stay clear off this site. Thanks.
Claire says:
May 16th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Same thing happened to me. I’ve just received a letter from intrum justicia asking me to pay £179.99 in behalf of Ziinga. Does anyone knows where we can complain about this? What shall i do with this letter? Thanks.
May 15th, 2012 at 4:59 am
Domain: ziinga.com
Registrar: Eurodns S.A.
Administrative Contact:
Company: Flamingo Intervest Ltd.
Name: Nikdar Masih
Address: OMC Chambers, Road Town
City: Tortola
Country: VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH
Postal Code: P.O. Box 3152
Phone: +35625572557
May 15th, 2012 at 4:21 am
Your not alone I have too been scammed contact your banks fraud department
May 14th, 2012 at 11:39 pm
This a BS web site. It’s like a casino, you will lose!
May 14th, 2012 at 6:10 pm
i gave my personal details on the site then i saw all these comments before i gave them my bank details. will i be ok ???
good job i came across all theses comments. big help thank u !!!
May 13th, 2012 at 10:08 pm
my wife bought a phone from them and it never arrived, to me that’s robbery, it messed up that they can get away with it
May 12th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
looks like a good website
May 12th, 2012 at 2:04 am
I just joined to see what it would be like and I really am not satisfied.
I thought it would be like other bidding sites where you clicked to see the offer but no.
I am now stuck on the same page and i cant even cancel my membership
Really be careful on this site.
Charlotte says:
May 15th, 2012 at 9:50 am
You need to phone them up, the call center is foreign. I have to say i lost my rag with a lady i spoke to, thesis just a big scam and they are operating illegally under trading standards. To cancel my membership it cost me £28 and that was to ensure they didn’t take the membership £59.99 fee (which i didn’t sign up for) out of my account. I refused the gift and also asked for a refund on that. I suspect that once they send the gift and you realize how much they take off your card and you try to cancel they then ask for the gift back and you then get subjected to astronomical postal charges.
May 11th, 2012 at 7:18 am
These people are committing fraud by omission, intentionally deceiving customers by not clearly advertising any form of paid membership.
They do not operate legitimately as they do not follow the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) regulations 2000, furthermore they do not conduct credit checks before signing customers to a 3 month contract.
When questioned, a source stated that the law “does not apply to Ziinga”, so you get the idea of who you are dealing with here.
Quick piece of advice if you’ve been scammed…keep on at them! Eventually they will back down!
I know this because I received an email from them yesterday stating “Please be advised that per Terms and Conditions that you have already agreed on, once membership benefits are used (in your case 12 bids and 3 bid-for-free auction used), the member is no longer eligible for a refund. However, as part of delivering our best to serve all our customers, we have made an exception for you. Including with this special service, we have also closed your account so you will not be charged further.”
No matter what…don’t stop until you’ve got everything back.
Charlotte says:
May 15th, 2012 at 10:02 am
i feel sick, i went to the free gift thing and bid and out my card in, then realized as soon as i had done it that there was something wrong as it asked for passport and card detail on a jpeg…then i found the review site and phoned them up. what a saga..and a big con. I had to pay £28 to cancel the £59.99. If i cancel my card today, made the transaction today will any of it come out of my account?
May 10th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
It’s a scam, keep away, they let you win something NOT valuable in first bidding and after NON at all.
Than they put charges on you C without your authorization, start with small amount and the figure grow, you must check your C account other vice you MUST pay the C charges.
It’s a scam, scam, scam, scam, scam!!
May 10th, 2012 at 3:27 am
its a scam, keep away, just paid £70 odd pounds to become a member and tried to cancel the same day they charged me a further £28, i hope they get closed down.
RP
May 9th, 2012 at 5:28 am
My fault was i din’t read the small print below the winning auction, but it wasn’t made clear as well. who would read all the terms and condition of just winning 250 Bids package costing £2.50 ! and I just paid the amount of £2 for it!
But after 7 days the transaction came to be £59.99 in my bank accn. and then when i ask them for refund then they said, it can’t be done coz i have used some of the bids !
and finally i ask them for cancellation they charged me £28 pounds!
that cost me in total 59.99+28+2= £90 just a 250 bids package!
Matt says:
May 11th, 2012 at 7:01 am
keep at them…also contact Nio security inc. board of directors, they will eventually back down.
This article explains a little about how they operate in the hope that it will stop people falling for it!
A source at Ziinga actually told me the law “does not apply to Ziinga”…bloody arrogance!
May 8th, 2012 at 3:20 pm
ziinga address, people do something about them
Marcus: Ziinga.com is a trade name of Flamingo Intervest Ltd., OMC Chambers, P.O. Box 3152, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands.
Matt says:
May 11th, 2012 at 7:03 am
additionally to this, Flamingo Intervest were recently purchased by Nio Security inc. (now Nio Inc.)
Nio Inc.
Fridtjof Nansens plass 7
0160 Oslo, Norway
support.europe@niosec.com
May 6th, 2012 at 3:40 am
Thank god I checked on here before I paid. I checked the small print on the payment page and noticed the monthly membership fee of £59.95. Though I would read the reviews and my instinct was right.
Whilst in the page I have tried to unsubscribe, read terms and conditions etc but it seems that until you pay for the item it will not move off the payment screen.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS
May 5th, 2012 at 1:17 pm
This place is a scam…KEEP AWAY!!!! If you charge on your creditcard you get NO REFUND. If you don’t give them your banking details, they won’t send you the stuff so you get the membership fee AND no stuff…have to cancel your card. Please report this place to proper authorities!!!
May 5th, 2012 at 5:39 am
Ziinga is a definite scam. I bought an item and they wouldn’t send it to me unless I send you a scan of my passport. AND THIS IS AFTER HAVING CHARGED MY CREDIT CARD!!!!! WHEN I QUESTIONED THEM THEY DID NOT CARE. DO NOT BUY FORM THEM, I WASTED MY MONEY THERE. THEIR SERVICE IS TERRIBLE
nic says:
May 14th, 2012 at 7:01 pm
the exact same thing has literally just happened to me, i stupidly didnt read all the small print and when i questioned why they needed my passport/drivers license/credit card to be scanned as proof of who i am they said its because they cant send my order until i have, i said i wasn’t comfortable in supplying such information and surely they had proof of who i was as my bank had verified the payment to them and the “live chat” person stopped talking to me, i done the free auction thing and got a camera for £1.74 and then was charged 9.80 for postage, i didnt mind that so much but when i saw that im now signed up to HAVE to pay them 59.99 for a minimum of 3 months im raging! im going to cancel my bank card tomorrow and would advise anyone else not to go anywhere near them unless you have money to throw away
May 4th, 2012 at 9:55 pm
luckily enough i checked this review site first but can someone tell me how to get rid of the annoying pop up that “pops up” every time you move your mouse over certain words.
i have unsubscribed but to no avail.
if i want something il look for it, i dont appreciate having advertising shoved down my throat on EVERY page and site i visit!!!!
stupot
May 2nd, 2012 at 4:20 am
is there any penny aution that are ok?
May 1st, 2012 at 5:56 pm
can some one answer me on this pls….
would ziinga notify u first through email b4 taking that stupid £59.00 membership thing in ur account or they just do what ever they like with out ur knowledge?..
Matt says:
May 11th, 2012 at 7:07 am
It will be included in your initial email receipt from them, from your “promotional auction gift”.
It won’t tell you the exact date, but the first payment would come out 7 days after the date of the receipt, and subsequent payments would be monthly. They probably wont tell you when they take it though, their tactic is “fraud by omission”.
lucylou says:
May 2nd, 2012 at 2:43 am
If you have given them your bank details they have already taken it out you need to cancel your card and account if possible and tell the bank it is fraud and get your m,oney back.
April 30th, 2012 at 9:40 pm
i am trying to find a way to scam them i live in the uk as you know i am able to cancel anything on my card and if they take any money i will be refunded. they say they will give me 7 days free trail after that they start to take money for there membership fee. i have won 100 GBP’s on free bid and it will only cost me 3 pounds should just do it get 100 pounds then just cancel PROFIT?
Matt says:
May 11th, 2012 at 7:08 am
more to this…they wont send you the £100! Also…you won’t be able to win any of their other auctions as they do not end unless one of their puffers is bidding.
sl says:
May 4th, 2012 at 5:11 am
No, if you read the terms and conditions, you will see that if you cancel within their free trial period you must send any free winnings back.
April 30th, 2012 at 11:07 am
and if you live in england ring up your bank and ask to dispute it and tell you bank they have no record of taken money from your bank and the bank should refund your money the same day
marie says:
May 1st, 2012 at 5:49 pm
thats what lloyds tsb bank said to me … what a pain…
ukmartian says:
May 1st, 2012 at 2:02 pm
I am not involved with ZIINGA but i am reading this as i saw a advert about them and thought i would “check it out” …I have noticed that people think that cancelling their card will halt the payments ..My advice is to check with your bank because in some instances the old number is still connected to your accounts …i had a instance off this earlier this year and my bank (Lloyds tsb) told me that changing my card would not work …so if not sure CHANGE YOU BANK ACCOUNT ..ITS A PAIN BUT THE ONLY WAY……..hope this helps
April 30th, 2012 at 11:05 am
has any one received their goods from them?
April 27th, 2012 at 7:39 am
thanks for your reviews….i was about to join up….thank god i didn’t
lucylou says:
April 27th, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Thank god you did not give any bank details.
April 26th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Absolutely fraudulent and thieving company. Have nothing to do with them.
They continued taking money from my card after I used the site once and won $90. Gave them my details just in case I used more than my winnings. Never did, but they continued to debit my card on a monthly basis. They refuse to acknowledge that they are at fault.
April 24th, 2012 at 1:52 pm
On the 15th April, this year, I stupidly bid for a mobile phone and was astonished when I got it for only £2.80 and only then did I Google them, what a complete idiot am I. They took the £2.80 immediately from my bank account, I sent them an email when they asked for a photo copy of my Credit Card and Driver’s License telling them no-one will ever get those from me and told them to cancel everything and refund my money. I contacted my Bank and requested a new card BUT today I find that they have taken a further £2.80 from my account.
I have just contacted my bank asking why they could access my account with the old card and they said that I had entered into a contract with them and should have read their Terms and Conditions more carefully, but also said that Ziinga would be requesting a £59 membership fee shortly, so on his advice I have issued a refusal to pay and when I see it in my account to phone that Bank who will cancel the payment. I would say that Ziinga are committing a form of fraud and can’t see how they are getting away with it, so BEWARE don’t have anything to do with them IMO.
Maree says:
May 7th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Jasmaz, yes, the same has happened to me, Great I thought, 250 FREE bids, better than Quibids where I was paying 60c a bid. Then I saw the $89.99 a month they started ripping from my credit card. On querying this, I was told that I had signed up for a Platinum Membership when I paid the handling fee for the 250 ‘Free” bids. I KNOW that I would never sign up to pay that amount of money for pure entertainment purposes – and gambling at that, but I could not get to the sign up page to see what exactly it said. A couple of months later, I won 100 “Free” bids, and on the payment page, which, I obviously carefully scanned, on the far left, when the payment info was on the far right was a small paragraph that told me that I was agreeing to the Platinum Membership by continuing with the payment process. I could not get out of that payment page without clicking on Continue, thereby agreeing to the membership. Yes, i could have crashed my computer and left my credit card details floating in the ethernet for someone to find, but I was not prepared to do that, and, after all, I had won those 100 bids, I wanted them. I guess, in reality, I am going to have to pay $42 to cancel the three month “contract”, because that will be cheaper than paying $270 over 3 months. My only revenge is to bad mouth them to everyone I can. I have never won anything on the site except for the free bids that got me into trouble, and a couple of 50 Free bid packs, which the site obviously thought it could afford to give away to encourage stupid people like myself to continue bidding, and thereby sign up, inadvertently, for fee paying memberships
jasmaz says:
April 24th, 2012 at 6:55 pm
I didnt even sign up for this ziinga thing, I was just browsing and then did some free bidding and I had won 250 bids and it cost like $2 so I thought cool as, so I paid for it and then BAM he bastards had taken a whole $90 out of my bank account as soon as I put my card details in. so I had a talk to one of the people there and then they were saying some rubbish that I had gotten a ‘member fee’ I DID NOT WANT TO BE A GOLD CLASS MEMBER….and then they said its a $50 cancellation fee i am so pissed everyone should stay away from this sight
April 24th, 2012 at 11:25 am
I just signed up on ziinga by writing my user name password email
and bid on an iPhone for 2.30! so I won but it felt strange so I decided not to go through with it and googled the reviews which lead me to this page! cant believe what I’m readying thank god I was smart enough to ready about it first
ONE QUESTION!!!!!!!!
can they charge me for anything with just the info I provided which is my email and username? I hate these kind of websites can believe I was about to pay for it!
katherine says:
May 7th, 2012 at 9:35 am
i did exactly the same it felt really odd paying £2.12 for a Samsung c3300 so i Googeled it and every signal revue said scam or don’t get drawn in so im so glad i checked hear first
DON’T GET DRAWN IN BY THESE DEALS GO ON EBAY THERE YOU CAN TRUST PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jasmaz says:
April 24th, 2012 at 6:56 pm
no they cant charge you, whatever you do, do not put your card number there
April 24th, 2012 at 3:05 am
are you kidding me, these guys had Taken $100 off of me and then they are saying that I have to pay $90 a month for membership I DID NOT agree to any of this and that was my pay for the fortnight, and then I had asked for a cancellation and then they were saying $50 to get it cancelled and then i was thinking stuff that so I used it won some stuff and then they were asking for all this information that was irrelevant…I am beyond angry stay away from this site
April 24th, 2012 at 1:42 am
A fool and his money….
If it looks to food to be true….
No such thing as a free lunch…
Come on people, think!
April 23rd, 2012 at 3:24 am
thank God i did some research before i gave them my numbers…thanks for the advice guys
April 23rd, 2012 at 12:21 am
Has anything come after people have cancelled their cards? I cancelled my card today and sent them an email to cancel the account with Ziinga and they said that I need to pay the cancellation fee and sent me a link to pay it. It said if I don’t pay the cancellation fee they will keep debiting my account – which obviously they can’t do because I cancelled my card. Now I’m worried if I don’t pay the fee they will come after me at a later date for a bigger amount of money for “membership fees” which I didnt agree to.
tes says:
May 10th, 2012 at 12:20 am
Ah! I had the same issue, i cancelled my card then tried to cancel the membership but needed to enter another credit card number so i left it… then i received an email which said my membership had been cancelled but i need to continue paying for the next three months so i just didnt respond. have now received an email from them saying ‘We have been recently informed that a transaction was reversed from your bank/credit card company. It was noted as a fraud transaction, which means that someone has potentially abused your credit card information.
To amend this, please refer to the attached documents and follow the instructions within. We will make a follow up if we do not hear back from you within 5 business days.
Thank you’
Now what do i do!
marie says:
April 26th, 2012 at 7:32 am
hi we are just in the same boat.. after learning about the platinum membership and the fee i ask them to cancel my account but said had to pay and that they will just deduct the payment that i paid for the camera which is £5.50 including the shipment fee.i did not pay the cancellation fee though.. day after i went straight to my bank early in the morning to withdraw all my money and call my bank to cancel my debit card.after 10day i check my account coz i leave £9.00 and learned that they took £5.50 which is i already expect it, at least thats all they can get…now ive got a new debit card and dont leave big amount of money but still keep eying on my account though..also i change my password on my email,so far i dont hear anything from them…fingers cross they dont longer bother me…
April 22nd, 2012 at 9:30 pm
I wish I had read this before they scammed me $200+! Just cancelled my credit card. Good luck getting more of my money Ziinga you dodgy b***ards.
April 22nd, 2012 at 7:09 pm
Hi,
I won a bid on a coffee maker. Of course no way am I paying for it. A 12 bid looks like it would cost close to a 200.00 bill including a poor membership. At least Costco has a clear membership cost for the year.
Sounded like a good deal. Not!
April 21st, 2012 at 10:58 am
I agree with the comments about this being a scam – I placed a free bid and then discovered I had somehow signed up for membership – I immediately emailed them to cancel and to date they have charged me £59.99 twice and have now had the check to ask for a £28 cancellation fee – the latest email tells me they are going to charge another £59.99 next month. I am now going to report them to trading standards as their website is misleading – there is no mention of membership on the website and even when you know there are fees you cant find any details on the site
STAY AWAY FROM THIS SITE AS THERE DOESN’T SEEM TO BE ANY WINNERS OTHER THAN THE PEOPLE WHO RUN IT
oliveoil says:
April 25th, 2012 at 10:12 am
I went on to their web site and signed up to what I thought was a free registration that it states it is. then as I was going through the process it asked me what payment I wanted to make i.e 3 differnet amounts which I thought was going into my acc to bid with. ok I thought that was easy then went to bid and was charged more money which I again thought was strange. Once I finaly got on the site to bid thought hang on here your charged money to bid on something you more than likely will not get and paying for the privalage then when I emailed them to cancel my account and quiery what was what they told me I had become a memmber and that I had to pay £28 cancellation fee as well as still be a member for 3 mths and pay £59.99 per mth I wish I had seen this site first. Any ideas what to do next ?
April 20th, 2012 at 9:27 am
Got completely screwed by them. i only earn about 70 pounds a week whilst studying and checked my balance this morning and they had taken my whole pay check and wont give it back. im so angry
tes says:
May 10th, 2012 at 12:22 am
Go to your bank! They took my rent money, i was not happy needless to say. But within a couple of weeks the bank gave me back the money i had been charged :)
April 20th, 2012 at 8:45 am
thank you so much for this, i was about to by a macbook pro, on this huge scam.
April 20th, 2012 at 4:51 am
STAY AWAY!!!! These people are total scammers. I stupidly browsed this site and bided on a camera AND won! They emailed me asking for photo copies of my bank card ‘including other forms of identification i.e passport’…Which I refused to send. I haven’t received the item but have been charged for it along with other additional charges. Apparently I also signed up to the ‘Premium’ account which is £58.00, along with a cancellation fee of £28.00. So far I have charges exceeding £100 and feel very stupid and angry. I am trying to resolve this with my bank as this has got to be fraud. I can’t believe people can get away with this, they are criminals and need stopping!!
April 20th, 2012 at 12:39 am
Avoid at all costs. DO NOT BID ON ZIINGA.COM AUCTIONS. Avoid at all costs.
Ziinga is deceptively attractive to the uninformed… like me before I read these reviews. Thanks of much to everyone who has shared their experience and advice.
I’ve had the exact same experience as other reviewers and have just had to cancel my credit card. My bank was very helpful and sorted me out. Don’t let it get that far for anyone else.
April 19th, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Just got my money back from the bank – thank goodness! They were very helpful and cancelled my card straight away, I havent cancelled my ‘membership’ with Ziinga because they want more money!! So am hoping they will enjoy getting bounced transactions every time they try charge me for the membership. Bank called the fraud agency in nz and lodged a complaint which will hopefully result in some sort of investigation. If this has happened to you i suggest immediately going into your bank and requesting money back and cancellation of the credit card – id assume most banks would be helpful with this.
tes says:
May 10th, 2012 at 12:25 am
oh dear, alison I have just received the same email!! but no photo of my house thank goodness
Gaz says:
April 20th, 2012 at 12:48 pm
Glad I google whacked this before committing…. and I have now just closed down the session.
Typical “YOU WON THE BID (Samsung camera)” for, you guessed it, £3…
I think any site that claims to do what they do is a SCAM.
“Remember, if its sounding too good to be true, thats because it IS” (Hustle, BBC TV)
Alison says:
April 20th, 2012 at 3:33 am
I too was scammed but my bank (in the UK) returned all the money and the bank have reported them to the banking ombudsman for fraud, when Ziinga found out about the fraud investigation they sent me an email (see below) with a Google earth photo of our street attached like that’s some kind of threat!! They refer to attached documents which is just the Google earth picture of our street! They are sad loosers! The address in malta is false they are based in eastern Europe
From Ziigna ‘We have been recently informed that a transaction was reversed from your bank/credit card company. It was noted as a cancelled recurring transaction, which means that the issuer receives a complaint from the cardholder that payment of a recurring transaction was cancelled prior to or on the transaction date.
To amend this, please refer to the attached documents and follow the instructions within. We will make a follow up if we do not hear back from you within 5 business days.’
tes says:
April 19th, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Also- have emailed facebook telling them that they’re advertising a complete scam and that they should remove it so no one else falls into their trap :(
April 19th, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Oh my gosh!! I signed up for a website, Jobinaclick, and for signing up, I got an ipod shuffle, all I had to do was pay p&H of £2. Not bad, I thought – so, I unfortunately put in my card details for the Ipod, and then was sent an e-mail invoice; in the invoice is where I discovered in fine print that they wanted signed photocopies of my bank card, DL and passport (I thought – no way)…upon reading further, again in very fine print, I discovered that I joined ZIINGA for £59.99 per month! WHAT!??!! Of course I e-mailed them to cancel, I don’t want the stupid ipod, and they can return my £2! NO THEY WON’T, and after charging me for the £59.99, they then want to charge me £28.99 cancellation fee…so they won’t charge me another £59.99. Are you kidding me!! I immediately contacted my bank; BUT since I gave my card details, the bank can’t do anything to stop them from taking out a payment. What if I closed my account immediately? What a pain that will be…but then, oh…magically…it seems I lost my bank card and the bank will have to issue me a new one: with new numbers. I was told by the bank that ZIINGA can’t take any money out because they will have the old numbers. I am hoping the problem is solved. I have reported them, my bank assures me they are going to look into it. In the meantime, I am going to the bank tomorrow to open a different account just in case. Sheesh!!! Avoid these people. They are on the fringe and they are stealing honest hard earned money from us. Shame on them!!!
marie says:
April 27th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
my bank said differently.. they said they cant stop them even if i cancel the debit card i used to pay these scammers coz its the same account.i also ask them to close down my account but they suggest not ,just keep on eye on the account and said that if ziinga tried to get some money into the account i have to tell them and from there they will sort it out by calling the fraud department.. but still im worried though so i transfer all my money into my savings account to be sure…
April 19th, 2012 at 9:09 am
I bought a Canon camera from them and was billed £11.I thought that this was a bargain.The camera was delivered this morning from Amazon.On looking at the receipt I noticed it had cost£61.64.On checking my bank account on line I noticed that they had taken £59.99 from my account without permission.I straight away reported this as fraud to my bank…Barclays.They refunded the money,but I have had to cancel my card.I would advise anyone not to have any dealings with Ziinga as they are nothing but crooks and fraudsters.The British police will I hope look into this.
STAY AWAY FROM ZIINGA !!!
April 18th, 2012 at 12:05 pm
I am glad I stumbled into these reviews and comments before I claimed my price and put in all my payment information. Thanks guys.
April 17th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
I would avoid them at all costs. I have also just been scammed by them. I went on to the site after seeing it advertised on TV. One an auction for bids so i used my card to pay the £3.36 got the bid package and used it and realised the site was a pure scam you were never going to win the auctions as the timer is rigged. I was in my on-line banking today to check bills had been paid only to discover Ziinga had taken £60 from my account. I too phoned the company and with no joy of receiving my money back will have to go to the bank and get the fraud team to deal with the situation. I am looking into this situation and trying to gather as much information as possible to have this company named and shamed so others are aware of the situation and are not fooled into it.
Just as we speak after a heated phone call and me informing them i will take this to the police papers and anyone else who will listen and help me with this fight against them, i have received an email offering a refund but they will take £28 cancellation fee to close my membership down and to cover the cancellation of the so called contract i made with them. That i will not be agreeing to and will have every penny back to me and this matter highlighted for all to be made aware and not walk into the same trap
April 17th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
I signed up with these people as i was want to have a go at the bidding i was not informed that there were any other fee,s other than paying for bid packaging or was i informed of any further membership fees or cancellation fees ,after trying it for a day mainly because i,d won a package of bids for a sum of £3.71 ,i gave them credit card details to pay for it,i quickly realized that win something from this site could be very costly indeed and the auctions seem to run forever.
I also became a bit fed up with it so i decided to close the account and emailed them as my intention to do so ,i quickly got a reply informing me of breaking a contract i knew nothing about ,and told there would be a charge of £28.00 for cancellation of my membership of a binding 3 month contract again i knew nothing of it ,they also informed me there was a charge of £56 a month that they,d waiver on cancellation ,on contacting the bank i was informed they had taken the monies £28.00 from my credit card .
I told the bank i regarded this transaction as fraud as i gave no permission for them to take it .
I would advise anyone going onto this to be extremely cautious as they seem to very borderline almost fraudulent in there transactions and any company that intends to take money from your account without your permission as to be an absolute no.
April 16th, 2012 at 4:10 am
wow lucky i asked about this ziinga.com.thanks for the heads up. beautiful people.
April 14th, 2012 at 11:21 pm
i am writing this review for my grandpa. (amanda)
this company is SUCH a scam! i(grandpa) won a camera in january for $3 and shipping and the whole total came up to $17. i was promised by email that it would shipped within 2-3 weeks.
today, my granddaughter phoned on behalf of me to find out where my camera was…AND low and be hold we find out they have been charging my card a “platnum membership fee” on feb 7/12 for $89.99, mar 7/12 and apr 7/12.
i oringially gave my credit card # thinking it was for the shipping charges..but i see i was wrong. my granddaugher spoke with some idiot named “Mark Anthony” (ya right) who seemed like such a tool. he was unable to give me a manager/supervisors name or number and told me they were unable to make out going calls. Amanda(grand daughter) demanded to have a call back, Mark said they werent able to do that.
anyways! this whole thing is total BS! i am so pissed and will be going to my bank tomorrow and telling them this was fraudulent charges!!!
April 14th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
thank you very much guys
April 14th, 2012 at 3:27 am
Ziinga is a scam. Dont be caught. They are fraudsters. When you register,they get you to choose one of their options in order for you to bid. Once you choose your choose your option, in my case i chose the R600.00. They dont mention anything about you having to pay a further R659.99 per month for the next 3 months until you forward your bank details and pay the original amount of R600.00. This is how they trap the public into a contract.I will report them to the consumer protection dept. Ziinga will be caught one day by the authorities. BE CAREFUL!!!!
April 13th, 2012 at 2:08 am
Thanks Guys,
I also just won a camera for £3 (you would think they would mix it up a bit) Thought I’d better do a quick search on Ziinga before signing away my life, thanks in part to my anti-virus software threatening to smack me round the back of the head if I put in any details in to the less than reputable site.
Am glad I did, I could be phoning my bank right now trying to get my self out of a hole.
All the best
April 12th, 2012 at 6:46 am
Hi, have just been scammed $200 by them!!! They have taken my rent money without me knowing and I am now in a very sticky situation, what do i say to my bank about trying to get the money back?
April 12th, 2012 at 12:49 am
pure and simple rip-off…………..do not be lured in
April 11th, 2012 at 10:10 pm
ZIINGA…I’ll never forget this. I, to, was charged $93.63 in January and $92.31 in February…had to cancel my Visa card to stop further charges. Their “Terms and Conditions” are nothing but words as they charge what ever they please. Nowhere on the t & C
does it say it is $88 + PER MEMBERSHIP. CRAZY!!! but I got caught.
Never did I get the item I bid on. Because I would not send them a photo copy of my personal papers. (passport, cards, etc.)
Dear people do read this. Have NOTHING to do with ZIINGA.
I cannot believe this is allowed in Canada…don’t care how
legitamate this company is.
Lillian says:
April 23rd, 2012 at 8:36 am
I wrote to my bank couple of days ago, and they called me today and was very helpful. I had to cancel my card so that sucks. I have to wait one week for a new one and it cost money too. I really hate this ziinga and feel stupid not knowing about the so-called premium. Im not even English, and on the no-page they have, the rules are in English and everything else in Norwegian…this cant be legal!!
April 11th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
I just wish that I had stumbled upon this before I decided to go onto their site. I have played on Madbid before without issue, but like many others on here, I registered and opted for the free trial bid and won 100 free credits that cost me approx 3 GBP. I then get an email which at the bottom states that I have agreed to their premier membership for 3 months at a monthly cost of 59.99 GBP. Within an hour of registering and paying for my credits I cancelled my card with the bank and I am going to follow this with another call to my bank to inform them tat no monies be taken from my account, if they will not help I will move the 5 accounts that I have with them somewhere else and take 25 years of business somewhere else….all for a bunch of scamming parasites!!!
Do not Ziinga!!!
April 11th, 2012 at 11:04 am
I went onto this site 14th March and bid for a phone used my debit card to pay for it, too good to be true. After reading the terms and conditions and online reviews I sent an email to infor@ziinga.com to cancel this account.Thought no more about it until checking my bank account to realize they had taken 58.99 and 1.00 pounds from my account. Contacted them and they could not give me a refund as their daily bid agents were bidding for me another thing I did not want. I have now discovered they had taken 58.99 & 1.00 from my account in February they can’t answer me query about this I have no recollection of setting up this account. So by me bidding for the phone and winning it ( I have not received any phone) a platinum account was automatically set up with bidding agents using the credits so denying me a refund. 28.00 is required for cancellation fee my only hope of recouping my money is to send them my documents and wait for the phone I won. MY bank was unhelpful so will be changing to a different one. buyer beware you don’t get anything in life for free. They do advice you read the terms and conditions prior to bidding but this advice is hidden behind too goo to be true offers.
April 10th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
i made the mistake of getting a membership and this is a complete scam!!! They’ve been taking 100 dollars from my account every month and also some other charges of 2 to 5 dollars. this has been going on for 4 months and i should of checked my statement. now i am stuck with the inconvenience of canceling my credit card…
April 10th, 2012 at 10:32 am
My husband also unfortunately stepped into the same hole as many other people!
He saw their ad on Facebook and bought 100 bids for R50.00. Yesterday when he checked his bank statement, he saw that R659 was deducted from his credit card and he thought that I have joined some online thing.
When he went back to his emails,the “congrats” email, he saw that at the bottom (where no-one reads, like everybody else says)it states that an amount of R695 will be deducted for at least 3 months.Obviously in the “T’s &C’s” it is stated in very fine print and who actually has time to read through a lot of information like that?
We are very unhappy about this and he will contact Standard Bank to report this unauthorized transaction and see if we can get the money back, if this fails, then he will change his card details, but they are not getting another cent out of us!
We will also send a letter to our local Carteblanche to look into this and I believe so many other people have as well.
DO NOT VISIT THEIR SITE, DO NOT BID OR BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM, AS THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY!
SPREAD THE WORD, THEY NEED TO GET CAUGHT OUT!!!!
April 9th, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Haven’t bought anything yet but i noticed someone said about the t&cs button being checked but mine hasn’t and i have won £100 on here before on the free and they haven’t taken any money since, so im not sure what to think yet, i dont seem to be able to navigate away from the payment page to view the faqs or t&cs so ive emailed to ask to see them before i make any payment, will let you know how it all goes.
Hanan says:
May 6th, 2012 at 6:22 am
That is exactly what happened to me. I won on the free bid but it won’t let me get past the payment page (where you put in your card details) I thought it looked a bit suspicious so I opened up another internet page and googled ziinga reviews and came across this site. Thank god I never put in my card details
April 9th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
KEEP AWAY FROM IT – SCAM.
You will win a camera for 3£… and if you put your credit card details, you just made a subscription for 60£/month…
Big SCAM.
April 9th, 2012 at 10:19 am
This is an absolute scam from a company that operates out of MALTA. They make their money through i) the bids that people have to buy in order take part (you could end up spending a fortune on bids alone before you win an auction – no doubt a very small % may strike it lucky) and ii) through the 3 months binding contract at £59.99 per month. The latter is buried in the small print and comes to light when you try and cancel. My husband spotted the scam after having forked out a deposit of £35.00 to prime the account. When he cancelled (within 2 hours) he was charged £28.00 for cancellation of the 3 months contract – having won nothing on the auction after a number of attempts. One for WATCHDOG to follow up on – wonder how people have fallen for this SCAM. DO NOT TOUCH ZIINGA WITH A BARGE POLE!!!
April 9th, 2012 at 8:19 am
They are charlatans, just spent £53 on getting in and getting out, disgusting. Be sure to stay well away!
April 9th, 2012 at 5:43 am
I have been scammed by them too, they advertised on Facebook, and automatically put me into the 3 month contract without my knowledge. I have finally got my credit card company to give me the ‘scammed’ money back and now Ziinga are sending me threatening emails with a photo of my house on it! I consider this a threat to my life. I haven’t clicked into the email for fear of it activating something. Has anyone else had a ‘threatening’ email like this?
GC says:
April 12th, 2012 at 11:16 pm
They probably got that photo from Google.
tes says:
April 12th, 2012 at 6:54 am
Hi, are you with a nz bank? What did you say to get the scammed money back? I will be going in to the bank tomorrow and any tips would be greatly appreciated!
April 8th, 2012 at 6:06 pm
People think Ziinga is a scam but it’s not. I won an iPad for EUR70 with 45 bids, you just need to watch the auctions closely and bid wisely.
Do not just go and bid on everything, when there are 10 minutes of an auction remaining, do not bid – wait till the last seconds, wait and bid in the right time.
Alayna says:
May 6th, 2012 at 6:27 am
Rosen works for ziinga, otherwise they would have mentioned the monthly subscription they take out of your account without telling you. You should be ashamed of yourself
lucylou says:
April 17th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
How can they sleep at night
Don't bother says:
April 10th, 2012 at 12:24 am
That comment is from Ziinga, look at other rants about them and the exact same comment comes up, and normally from someone new to the form with one post. They are really that slippery.
marie says:
April 9th, 2012 at 5:18 am
the point is when u paid it and then u will learn that u are already a platinum member and that u have to pay£59.99 monthly..and also b4 they send u the item u have to scan ur passport , credit card back and front etc. and send it back to them. now tell us if its not scam?
April 7th, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Thanks so much for your comments……. thank goodness i googled it first.
April 6th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
Thanks guys
you are money savers i saw the site and won a camera for 3gbp i was happy until they asked for the payment via card and then it got me thinking that who in their right minds would sell me a cannon camera for just 3 pounds so i closed the web page and googled and found this site i am lucky that all i gave them was my email address and i changed my password on that too./
thanks again i hope all of you get your hard earned money back and some drastic action is taken against them.
April 6th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
If anyone is looking for bidding on the penny auctions on-line, stay clear of “Ziinga.com”. They suck you into a three month contract at $89.00 per month. The contract you are agreeing to is way down the bottom of the page where you would not think of looking. It’s only after you agree to their crap, do they tell you that you have just signed up for their “contract binding”, their words, not mine, 3 month $89 per month contract. There is a way, so they say, to cancel all for $41 dollars. I have a million and one emails from this company telling me they have sent a form to fill out in order to get out of their binding contract. What a crock. I have given them 3 email address’s to send this so called form. This is the sort of scam that steals from you. Read all the fine print before agreeing to any terms!! I will never again agree to anything without reading the contract and conditions of any site, no matter how hidden they are.
April 6th, 2012 at 12:05 pm
If anyone is looking for bidding on the penny auctions on-line, stay clear of “Ziinga.com”. They suck you into a three month contract at $89.00 per month. The contract you are agreeing to is way down the bottom of the page where you would not think of looking. It’s only after you agree to their crap, do they tell you that you have just signed up for their “contract binding”, their words, not mine,…
April 6th, 2012 at 11:54 am
I just got registered and won an auction but I was having a bad feeling so I haven’t paid it yet and I didn’t give them my card number because I read bellow the 250 lace card I won that it also included a 7 day membership premium and them after that 7 days I would have to pay 69,99 euros every month for 3 months so I thought that was weird because I didn’t ask for it and tried to click the “terms and conditions” link and it went back to the “pay for an auction” page and did the same thing no matter link I clicked in… So I will not pay this but now I have an auction payment pending, can I ignore it or will they do something to get the money? I blocked them on my e-mail and changed the password but I’m scared..
GC says:
April 12th, 2012 at 11:15 pm
As long as you didnt give any payment info you are probably OK. They may have your address but they are not going to come after you. Someone said they sent a pic of their house trying to scare them but they probably got that off Google; they weren’t really outside with a camera!
April 6th, 2012 at 1:57 am
Nothing cheap or easy , is worth having.. I was playing around and pressed bid. Said I won a camera for $3.00, then directed me to a page to sign up. What errk’d me was the fact that “Terms & Agreements” was already checked off as “I ACCEPT”. Legally, thats wrong. The third party being whoever is signing up should acknowledge the terms, most sites dont let you go past until you’ve checked “I Accept” yourself. …almost got me.
April 5th, 2012 at 5:22 am
Yes i was well scammed, never got goods, but it cost me 3x £58.99 plus price of goods plus they had a cheek to charge £28.00 to get away?
April 4th, 2012 at 5:39 am
I got scammed out of £71.85 altogether and still never received my senseo coffee maker. I am seeking legal advice at the moment and also am going to take this to the national newspapers. I hope other people will follow in my footsteps so we can get this scam shut down!!!!
andrew says:
April 12th, 2012 at 12:50 am
contact your bank.or empty your account and close it down
Davide says:
April 5th, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Hi, today i fell for this fraud. I’m an Italian user, I’ll try to delete my account but ziinga wants 31 euros. I don’t know what to do.. I must pay or i’ll try to ignore them? Please help me! (sorry for bad english)
April 3rd, 2012 at 11:53 pm
I too have been mugged! Don’t touch ziinga.com with a bargepole, you will only come off second best. It is a big scam! There is nothing ethical about this company, which conveniently has its headquarters in the British Virgin Islands but is run by a company called Auction Management Ltd in Malta, whatsoever.
Once you fall for the scam you are locked into a so-called Platinum Membership Scheme for three months at an extortionate charge of £59.99 per month. The website says you can then cancel by sending an email to info@ziinga.com. Don’t believe it. They have flatly ignored my numerous emails and continue to try and take money out of my account.
Dealing with this is a bit tricky for UK residents in that the money gets taken out of your account by means of what it called a ‘continuous payment authority’, which is never a good thing. This is not the same as a direct debit. Some banks will tell you that this can only be cancelled by the company you have the agreement with. But this is not the case! New advice on the Financial Services Authority website clearly states: “Your bank or card issuer must stop them – it has no right to insist you agree this first with the company taking the payments”. If they won’t I’d think you have a case to lay a complaint against your bank with the financial ombudsman in London.
Please warn as many people about the ziinga scam as you can; the more people who can learn from our bitter experience the better. (P.S: I originally clicked onto the ziiinga.com website from an advertisement on Facebook. They will try and lure you from anywhere!).
Fred Perry says:
April 6th, 2012 at 5:25 am
I clicked on it because of facebook to! Luckily I had the sense to type into google ‘is ziinga a scam?’ – Thanks for letting me know
April 3rd, 2012 at 2:58 pm
they got my credit card details after winning a camera for $9, which I never received and was charged $20 twice for. Plus I bought $20 worth of bids. I called them to cancel on the chatline, they denied taking twice for the camera. I also told them I wished to cancel my account as I didnt want to send them the required documentation to receive the camera, which was photocopies of credit card (front and back), drivers license, utilities bill. Being worried about identity theft, I cancelled. But…a week later there was a further $90 taken from my credit card. When I got onto chatline again, they denied the first cancellation and then cancelled it again adding a cancellation fee of $46. They said the $90 was for the platinum account I never asked for. I am now stuck with quandary of cancelling my credit card account and having to deal with resetting direct debits etc…..Grrrr!!! they are rip offs and I only wish I’d Goggled them.
April 3rd, 2012 at 12:47 pm
Hey. I just registered with the site and thought it was a great idea until I saw this:
Due to Ziinga’s one gift per household policy, users need to confirm their identity by sending the following documents as proof:
Scanned copy of Credit Card (front and back)
Scanned copy of valid ID (passport or driver’s license)
Scanned copy of signed credit card form. Download and fill up the form from this link: http://www.ziinga.com/uk/pages/creditcard_form
I called my boyfriend up and he asked me to google up the reviews and her I am.
I didn’t put in my card details; only my email address. I have just changed my email password.
Do you think there’s any other precaution i should be taking?
Taylor says:
April 3rd, 2012 at 6:05 pm
Never give out details like this! They are con artists!
Unless you sent the copies of your card etc then there will be nothing to worry about
April 2nd, 2012 at 10:18 pm
It is a scam! Don’t be fool by the small dollar value they put on the product. Once they have you credit card details, they will take from it every month. Mine was suppose to be a camera for 50cents. Never got the camera and was charged NZD120.00 every month for the last 5 months. If I did not look at my credit card statement, I would still be charge. It took me 5 months to check my statement and if I was not looking for something else on the statement I would not have known that they were taking this much money from my account every month. I felt really stupid!
I hope this is a warning to anyone who thought of buying an iphone for less than $100.00 from Ziinga, think again!!!
April 2nd, 2012 at 8:22 pm
these people are in Australia too. What a scam, at no time when you register, do you know that the terms and conditions commit you to a contract. then they start deducting money from your credit card without your knowledge – funds withdrawn from your account every month.i am not sure how to get out of contract. They are threatening legal action for me to pay up now. Have reported them the consumer affairs and the police in Australia and am waiting to hear back form them.
please beware. they are just ripping you off. beware and best to not get involved with them in the first place.
tes says:
April 12th, 2012 at 6:57 am
Maxine, did you go to your bank to cancel this or just call up? I need to get this money back (im sure everyone else does too) and I want to say the right things to my bank to ensure this!
Maxine says:
April 5th, 2012 at 4:30 am
Cancel your credit cad. I too am in Oz. I cancelled my card and have got everything back. $11.20 for a phone I was supposed to have won and didn’t get, plus two payments of $89.99 for Platinum membership which I did not subscribe to. Do they think people are stupid enough to give copies of their card, driving license and a utility bill.
April 2nd, 2012 at 3:31 pm
SPAM!!! auctions go for weeks and no one wins. The just take $99.99 off every month.
April 2nd, 2012 at 11:19 am
Stay away from this group.Big Scam want all your private details.Passport/Driving licence,Bank account details,signature,photo copy of credit card .Basically you sign away your identity and they can rifle your aacounts at their leisure.
April 2nd, 2012 at 10:13 am
I agree with all the comments here. I can’t even remember how I got on their site and ‘won’ a Nokia phone. It never turned up, but money was taken from my account for a membership I didn’t know I had. An expensive lesson I’m afraid.
Maxine says:
April 3rd, 2012 at 2:56 am
Cancel your credit card if this does not pose a problem. I did, new one issued in three days and I got all my money back.
April 2nd, 2012 at 6:36 am
bid and won a camera then paid it with my debit card but then when i got an email telling me to do this and that i become suspecius and ask them to cancel everything but they said i have to pay £28.00.they send me an email about refund request .they deduct there the amount that i paid for the item(£5.00)….i did not touch it yet coz i rang my bank telling them to cancel my debit card which they did… my question is can this scammers still able to get some money in my account now that i cancel my debit card?
April 2nd, 2012 at 12:30 am
They are nothing but DOGS, What ever you do dont trust them. It started with me winning a samsung phone and then they wanted me to scan my credit card, license and other id to them b4 they even sent me the phone. i never done this though. i then checked with my bank and they told me that they had tryed to take out all this money twice,, sucked in to them as i had no money in my debit credit card for them to do so. i have now ordered a new card.ITS A SCAM,, IT SOUNDS GOOD TO SUCK YOU IN AND THEN THEY RIP YA BLING.
April 1st, 2012 at 11:33 am
They also hacked my email account and sent emails to everyone with viral links. I had to change my password
March 31st, 2012 at 9:01 pm
Total rip off, they take as much money from your bank account as they can without you knowing , they sign you up for a membership that you are unaware of, charging £59.99 a month for the privilege , and if you should happen to win , they ask for personal details that no one in their right mind would give, unless of course you would like them to steal your identity as well.Once you realize that they are ripping you off Ziinga wish to charge you £28 for the cancellation of the membership that you never knew you had. I went to the Ziinga website once I realized they were ripping me off, tried to reason with them on their live chat line, all I got was some zombie with answers totally irrelevant to my complaint,they also said that did I want to cancel my membership, I said I did not know I had one, so they sent me an email to cancel , and asked if I would open it straight away to cancel, I said I would not even open it, so they activated it themselves, and I received another email confirming my cancellation with the £28 charge added to what they had already ripped off me. My bank seem to believe that I have signed a biding contract, so refuse to get my money back, in total nearly £160 has been stolen from my account, I have now passed all this info onto the Fraud Squad via the Trading Standards Office, these people need stopping immediately!!!
March 31st, 2012 at 5:59 pm
Me to – the platinum membership (thank goodness I read everything in the email I was sent) is a complete scam. After a couple of hours on live chat they said they could cancel my membership but that would prevent me from being able to be involved in the auction – meaning that I would not get my goods – in fact they would charge me $54NZD to cancel the membership I didn’t even want and a further $54 as I was not completing the purchase (the item including shipping was $24) So basically I would pay them $108 and not get the product. but this was to avoid the $119every month for a minimum of 3 months. Thankfully after the lengthy live chat conversation I rang my credit card company and cancelled it. The $24 is still on my credit card but at least that will be all they can get their hands on.
Stay clear of this company.
March 31st, 2012 at 3:24 pm
I signed up with the Ziinga.com website. After I signed up I won a mobile phone which I paid for and never got…and then to add insult to injury they had the gall to debit my credit card twice for $88.99 without authorization from me. I have sent them e-mails demanding the refunds. They are nothing more than a bunch of thieves and scam-artists. BEWARE…DON’T EVER, EVER, EVER GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER. YOU WILL REGRET IT.
March 31st, 2012 at 12:39 pm
Ziinga in my opinion is a scam. I was sent an email advising me that I had won an IPOD Shuffle and to claim my prize all I needed to do was pay £2 for delivery. After my card details were received by Ziinga I was only then given terms and conditions and I was informed that I had entered into a ‘legal contract’ for 3 months which would cost me for my membership £59 per month. I then endeavored to cancel this ‘contract’ that they illegally put me into and I was then informed if I wanted to cancel I had to pay £28.
I emailed my complaint to ziinga, I telephoned the telephone number on the website which by the way redirects to Malta and the company isn’t in the UK. I was told no one is prepared to listen to my complaint and no one will give me the details of any of the directors/owners of the business so that I can liaise directly with them. Reality is they are extorting money from people. I too have cancelled my card and had the money refunded and now they are threatening me with legal action. This kind of thing needs to stop and they need to be held accountable.
For the record they have my £2 which was the delivery fee to get my FREE IPOD shuffle and yes you guessed it I never ever received the shuffle. Ziinga you should be ashamed of what you are doing. Go and make your money legally without scamming people !!
Ingrid Ovenstone says:
March 31st, 2012 at 1:06 pm
I have emailed my complaint to BBC-Watchdog and have referred them to this site so that they can see how many other people have been scammed by Ziinga. Hopefully something will be done to put a stop to this.
March 31st, 2012 at 4:42 am
Thank you for the reviews everyone.
I did win a bid but wanted to check other people’s reviews and experiences with the site before I provided my payment info. The link came from facebook, so I thought it was legitimate website. I;m so glad i checked this now and didn’t provide any card details.
Thanks to you all I didn’t get sucked into the scam, but it was close. Hope they get what they deserve.
Also shouldn’t big websites such as facebook and amazon monitor the advertisement they do? People have come to trust their names and will take the adverts as recommendations.
March 31st, 2012 at 4:05 am
This is a totally crooked operation. Advise against having anything to do with it.
March 30th, 2012 at 11:26 pm
I did not realize looking at a site can cost so much…you call them they lie and you never get money back. horrible place
March 29th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
i joined ziinga 3 weeks back, reading your reviews just realised i got scammed. is it too late for me to cancel my credit card
plz let me kno :(
Sam says:
March 31st, 2012 at 7:51 am
I got scammed a treat with this company also, my bank has said that they can cancel my card but they’ll probably still be able to take money out. So I’ve had to go ahead and pay the £28.00 cancellation fee, it is a bit of a kick but better than just shelling out £180.00 anyway!
Maxine says:
March 30th, 2012 at 1:08 am
Hi Nat,
It is not too late to cancel your credit card. I cancelled mine three weeks ago. I was issued with a new one a few days later. I have just checked my account and I have had everything Zinga took from my account refunded.
Like everyone else I was scammed into a Platinum membership which I did not sign up for.
Good luck!
March 28th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Dont touch with a barge pole. I supposedly won a canon camera & had to pay just $3 however the next thing i noticed was a charge of $92 on my credit card. They charge you $89 per month membership. Then if you try to cancel they charge you $42 for cancelling. My advice STEER CLEAR
March 28th, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Total scam they take your money for the goods and never deliver and despite cancelling they keep taking your money, they limit you to winning 2 bids in 14 days but charge 59.99 a month fee. My bank are refunding my payments but they keep taking them, they ask for a copy of your passport and the front and back of your debit card. My bank is referring them to the banking authorities to be fined. The worrying thing here is this was an ad on Facebook which was advertised as Groupon but when you click on the ad you are taken to the Ziinga site, total sammers and thieves BEWARE
March 21st, 2012 at 6:13 pm
Ziinga is an outright FRAUD!!!!!! They have stolen over $170 from my credit card for a $1 Coffee Make that I never received.
STAY RIGHT AWAY FROM THEM!
I have reported them to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission for fraudulent scamming.
A friend says:
March 27th, 2012 at 7:21 am
Here some info on them, hope this helps
Domain: ZIINGA.COM
Registrar: Eurodns S.A.
Registrant:
Company: Flamingo Intervest Ltd.
Name: Nikdar Masih
Address: OMC Chambers, Road Town
City: Tortola
Country: VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH
Postal Code: P.O. Box 3152
Administrative Contact:
Company: Flamingo Intervest Ltd.
Name: Nikdar Masih
Address: OMC Chambers, Road Town
City: Tortola
Country: VIRGIN ISLANDS, BRITISH
Postal Code: P.O. Box 3152
Phone: +35625572557
Fax:
Email:
March 18th, 2012 at 7:05 pm
I recently bought an ipod shuffle that they offered me and still have not received it and that was about 4 months ago yet they took the money out of my bank account. They say on the fine print that they need a scanned copy of your credit card both sides and your drivers license. common people who are they tying to kid!!! I shop a lot on ebay and they have never needed any of this stuff as proof of who i am!!! I think this is a huge SCAM so please everyone be very careful DON’T send them this information for your own good. Lucky they only took the $1.50 out of my account but still why do they need that information??? Be careful!!!!
Mickey says:
March 20th, 2012 at 6:12 pm
hi Elizabeth – don’t be too sure. it is a scam and they would not stop at $1.50 if they have your bank details. I would not wait for a statement from the bank – get on to them asap and cancel your card. Tell the bank what has happened and they will ensure that Ziinga does not withdraw any further funds. The outcome if you don’t will be £59.99 unauthorized funds withdrawn from your account every month.
StevieBee says:
March 19th, 2012 at 2:56 pm
You need to check as they sign you into their platinum membership without you realizing and that cost £59.99 recurring. If you want to cancel this rip of they charge £28. so beware..
March 17th, 2012 at 1:58 pm
I saw their site in a community so i decided to register and see the site, i tried to make an free offer and mysteriously i won. I accepted all conditions of use and i put my credit card. luckily my credit card was empty. I feel stupid
March 14th, 2012 at 7:24 pm
I appear to be one of the lucky few who read the small print first which is not something I normally do. I actually went on their live chat with a staff member named Iliana who eventually informed me after trying to sell me the FREE 7 DAYS if i didnt want to be charged £60 a month for 3 months dont buy the item!! Total scam people do not use this website at all.
March 14th, 2012 at 6:32 pm
Do not use they take money out of your account with out consent. I went on site to have a nose at the free trial won 50 free bids paid about £3 then found out they have taken £59.99 in very small print not made clear at all. DO NOT EVEN GO ON ZIINGA SITE IT IS A SCAM!!
Mickey says:
March 20th, 2012 at 6:23 pm
Well – HAVEN’T I BEEN SAYING THAT TO YOU ALL FOR MONTHS NOW??? To report them – that is the only way they will be stopped from trading in the UK/USA – log onto Actionfraud.co.uk and fill up the form of the amount you have been defrauded of. And of course send off an e:mail to watchdog. It has been months since I was scammed – and I periodically come on this review to update the site. The only reason I do that is TO WARN ANYONE AND ALSO TELL THEM WHAT TO DO, IF THEY HAVE BEEN CONNED. I don’t do it for myself!!!! I already lost money mid 2010.
lindy says:
March 15th, 2012 at 5:53 pm
Can any one scammed by these people report to watchdog on BBC Hopefully then be shown on T.V then closed down.
March 14th, 2012 at 3:28 pm
IT’S A SCAM!
Do not get involved:
You’ll never receive the items!
They will rob you!
And talking with them is frustrating, they dont give any straight answers!
March 14th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Do not even think of bidding for anything on Ziinga!!! Once you have made your first bid, you are then entered into a 3 month binding contract which they will charge you £59.99 for each month. I have to completely close down my bank account to prevent them getting more money, as I paid them by debit card and my bank can’t(or won’t!) stop them taking any more payments because they said I authorized it and there is nothing they can do! If you get ripped off please report them to the police, they have to be stopped.
March 14th, 2012 at 12:42 am
same as everyone else,sucked in to believing just signing up to take part in an auction,only to discover these leaches are taking money from my account on a regular basis.my bank is looking into it.hoping justice prevails
March 13th, 2012 at 5:58 pm
i never sign up for penny auctions, as most of us know they are all scams but it seems that ZIING have all of my details, full name, address, credit card info AND even the password that i sometimes use, i never use my card on line and i always use a pay pal account if i do.
ziinger will not accept that i HAVE NOT signed up for an account, but for them to stop taking a monthly subscription of £60 from my card i would have to cancel my account, which i must add again i do not have, and that i would have to pay £28 to cancel this…i refused to do this, a cancellation request was sent to me with an activation link which i DID NOT click, but just now i got an email saying my cancellation was successful and that £64.61 had been charged to my credit card..
ZIINGA ARE SCAMMERS AND ARE RIPPING PEOPLE OFF…DO NOT JOIN THESE SITES!!!…AND BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU GIVE YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS TO!!
jean bade says:
March 21st, 2012 at 10:16 pm
they are con men remember and they will have different ways of obtaining your details. they probabley know every trick in the book,i just want to bring to your attention that i received an email from a gaming site called Karumba.com yesterday,telling me i was their winner of the day, click the link to get my £5 prize, i new something was wrong after they had got me ready to play and i couldnt get this so called winning fiver, i contacted them via their details and who do you think it was “our friends” ziinga they were based in malta with no address but it was the wording of the email, exactly as ziingas they scammed me out of £159.89 in jan/feb and for that reason alone i wasnt going to give my details anyway but all the same what im trying to say is had i done so theyd of had my new bank details and no doubt helped themselves to whatever they felt like. i told them to fuk off and do one as i new who they were, i had a very lucky escape. so beware everyone they operate under the name of KARUMBA.COM how there quite getting away with it is beyond me, but i still havnt given up yet and im just making as much noise as i can and hopefully one day they will be brought to justice and shut down for good, they really do no need to be behind bars to protect people from being robbed anymore as its just seems to be going on and on………
March 12th, 2012 at 11:49 am
they said they wouldn’t refund my money because i made a bid.
Maxine says:
March 12th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Ken, if it doesn’t cause too much inconvenience, cancel your credit card, which I did yesterday, because they are taking money out for a Platinum membership which I had not signed up for. The bank is putting in a dispute with Ziinga, but I am not going to hold my breath on this.
March 12th, 2012 at 6:14 am
Conversation held with Ziinga this evening
Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with ‘Jake’
Jake: Welcome to Ziinga! How can I help you?
gezzbear: Hi Jake, I have read a lot of negative blogs in relation to Ziinga around the world – how can I be sure that this site is not a scam?
Jake: Please be informed that Ziinga is verified by Thawte, a leading global Certification Authority making the Web a secure place to do business. We make use of 128-bit encryption to make sure data in your transactions remains private and confidential at all times.
Jake: More information are included in the Terms & Conditions, FAQs and How To page. How the website works and complete policies are made available and are clearly provided to our users. We encourage our customers to read all necessary information before completing any transaction.
gezzbear: I understand that – i do not understand why the site is asking for scanned copies of the front and rear of credit cards. My bank has an automated action that requires me to confirm that I have requested the transaction. I don’t believe that further verification is required as – If I can prove that there has been a fraudulent transaction on my account my bank will refund the monies
Jake: We are asking you to send us copies of documents for verification purposes
Jake: As we have a one gift per house hold policy.
gezzbear: I understand that, however, I have provided the site with my credit card in good faith – it would appear to me that if I don’t provide the company with what “they require” whether it falls under the consumer affairs office or not you will hold a reasonable person to ransom. Enough detail has been provided to the company to identify who I am.
Jake: When you signed up you agree on our terms and conditions. It’s stated there that for promotional won item you need to provide the required documents.
Jake: The documents is due to one gift per house hold policy they need to confirm their identity by sending the documents as a proof.
gezzbear: I actually signed up upon the offer of a computer at a certain price and that was not forthcoming – Policy within your company does not over ride actual Acts of Parliament. To this point I have not received any further documentation from your company. With identity theft being rampant across the globe – your proof of id story seems to have been concocted from a piece of paper not from protection of your customers
Jake: Do you have an account with us?
Jake: All the details about the membership, its benefits and charges, are shown on the Payment page and in your receipt. More information are included in the Terms & Conditions, FAQs and How To page. How the website works and complete policies are made available and are clearly provided to our users. We encourage our customers to read all necessary information before completing any transaction. Furthermore, an e-mail receipt is sent to our customers upon purchase as a reminder about the membership charges and the 7-day free period. There is no intention to deceive as all necessary information is communicated to our customers.
gezzbear: YOu have now posted the same facts for a second time and failed to even provide a reasonable answer to what has been stated. I now require the name of your manager and a contact address (non email) in which I can escalate this matter further – you are being extremely obstructive. This is no way to treat an account holder.
Jake: You can send email to us at info@ziinga.com
gezzbear: Again, your obstruction is noted and will be forwarded to relevant parties. I ask again for a Managers name and an actual street and building number in which the office is related to-not some email address in which someone will be petulant and attempt to treat the customer (who is always right) with contempt.
Jake: ok.
Jake: That I can’t provide that’s why if you have a complaint you can send an email to us.
gezzbear: Please explain why your company fails to provide a mailing address. Is this because the site is not legitimate- you continue to obstruct – natural justice and procedural fairness. If you are unable to complete my request I ask that I am put in touch (straight away) with your manager.
Jake: with regard to the address, Suite 238, Vincenti Buildings, 14/19 Strait Street, Valletta VLT 08, Malta.
gezzbear: Thank you – what is the Australian subsidiary for this company?
Jake: This website is owned by Flamingo Intervest Ltd., OMC Chambers, P.O. Box 3152, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands and partly managed by Auction Management Ltd.
gezzbear: That is fine – however, this site comes up as Ziinga.com.au – who is in charge of the Australian arm. Clearly most people are not prepared to send their credit card details overseas due to the high proportion of identity theft. What measures have the company put in place to match the expectations of the Australian laws?
Jake: We don’t as this a international company.
gezzbear: So the company chooses to impart what it wants on unsuspecting consumers and withholds goods if they do not meet what the company wants.
Jake: You can check our company on our website “about us”.
gezzbear: I have Jake – this all seems to be a stalling procedure as you have failed to answer any of my direct questions. I am aware of numerous forums that state your company does not deliver on its goods and requests far too much information from its “Customers” I must say I applaud the automation in your reponses – however, it still does not offer any reasonable resolution
Jake: Everything is on our terms and conditions.
Jake: To summarize everything, we will not send the item, if you will not send the documents.
gezzbear: You really are a parrot arent you – no answer provided – Where are you based
Jake: Malta.
gezzbear: So who manages the Australian arm of the business?
Jake: I told you we don’t have.
Jake: Please be advised that we stand by our decision regarding this matter. Our decision is also in line with our Terms and Conditions which you have agreed on upon signing up with Ziinga. We have not in any way amended our terms and conditions therefore these information were clearly stated when you paid for the won auction.
gezzbear: So it stands to reason that when the hard questions are asked you hide behind terms and conditions that cannot be tried and tested in other countries. This has been an extremely enlightening experience. May you enjoy hiding behind your keyboard and half baked replies. I once again request the name and contact details of your superior.
Jake: We can’t provide that to you. That’s why I’m suggesting to send email to us.
Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.
I think there is now enough for everyone to make an informed decision.
DO NOT GET INVOLVED
Hannah says:
March 31st, 2012 at 6:13 pm
My Goodness it is almost a carbon copy of the response I got via chat. They obviously have a list of replies that they copy and paste word for word! – and all aimed at unhappy customers!
StevieBee says:
March 19th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
I don’t know if you read their terms and conditions but they state within them:-
You may cancel your account at any time by sending an email to info@ziinga.com.
Membership
Ziinga offers different types of memberships, each with a corresponding monthly fee.
When I asked about the different memberships I was told they only have one and that is Platinum. so what good are their terms and conditions if they don’t stack up in the simplest of statements.
I saw nothing about having to become a platinum member until I read the email they sent to me after bidding and paying for an item.
Maxine says:
March 12th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Thanks Michelle, that was very enlightening. I too have had the same responses when contacting them. Very frustrating.
As Michelle says, DO NOT GET INVOLVED.
March 11th, 2012 at 11:39 pm
I too have fallen victim to these scoundrels. I supposedly won a mobile phone, paid the money with my credit card, a few days later noticed an unauthorized amount taken from my credit card. I was told that I had signed up for Platinum membership, which I had not. Kept demanding scanned copy of credit card/passport and/or driving license and utility bill. I wrote to them and told them I refused to do this and no-one in their right mind would do so. Told I had a binding contract.
I went to my bank this morning and cancelled my credit card. They have put a dispute in to try and get my money back, but I am not hopeful of this happening.
I am based in Australia but note their office is in Malta and their company registration was done in some far off land! I think they are also linked to online gambling sites, although not absolutely sure of this.
Jean Bade says:
March 15th, 2012 at 4:47 am
i too have heard that these scamming bastards are online gambling/gaming site. excuse my language but ive been emailing these clowns for ten days and you dont get one straight answer, if i hear them say about their bloody terms and conditions once more i swear im not gonna be responsible, im not leaving it, im making as much noise as i can about these people, ive told them im gonna become there worst nightmare, i cant urge people enough, please complain wherever you can they cant be left to carry on thieving off vulnerable and decent hard working people, ive never come across anything quite like em b4.if everybody can just find 1 place or person to complain about them then theres gonna be a chance someone will just get to the right person to bring these bastards down. they’ve just told me, they make the web a safe place to shop. what a joke!!
March 10th, 2012 at 9:06 am
Thanks guys for the rating and review, I’m so sick of getting ripped off by these scam websites, now every website i go on to shop i always make sure to check up on reviews about the sites before doing anything else, saves me a lot of time and money.
March 9th, 2012 at 11:47 pm
Thank you so much for the information. I will definitely be staying away from ziinga
March 9th, 2012 at 6:02 pm
gosh i really got scammed. they took my money and said you never paid!!!!. stupid bastards!! stay away from this stupid scamming site! make fools of us working for money people!! i am reporting to police! whoever has been scammed report to police so with enough reports they can be shut down and our money will be back hopefully!
March 8th, 2012 at 10:33 am
Also scammed in South Africa, they deducted twice from my account, stay away !!!!
March 7th, 2012 at 8:41 am
they are the biggest rip off merchants on the net. they’ve just robbed me of £131.83 and i got nothing,they lure you in with a supposed “free” bid, obviously you are successful with that bid then they get your bank details and the next thing you know there helping themselves to your money and try and justify it by saying youve subscribed with them, which is total bull, in the meantime the successful free bid comes to nothing, there excuse with that is they need a receipt, a bloody receipt from who??then they expect you to mess about cancelling something which i didnt join, subscribe to or sign for and i now have the pleasure of them charging me another £28 for cancellation, with further threats of them taking £67.99 if i didnt do as they asked, i feel so stupid, but at least i can say this will never happen to me again. ive lost a total of £159.83 with the threat of them taking more, we’ll see, im now banned from their site because i apparently told the truth they say im abusive,funny no ones ever called me that before but i’ll lose no sleep over that. but please PLEASE listen to my story they will rip you off in the finish, guaranteed. dont go there is my advice, if i stop one person, ive done my bit. thank you for giving me the opportunity to give this review.
Jan West says:
March 14th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
Just been ripped off by Ziinga too. I’ve reported them and have a crime number. Hope everyone who has been ripped off reports them, then maybe they will get closed down. Going to have to close down my bank account to stop them getting more money!!
February 28th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
this Ziinga is just a rip off DO NOT GO ON THERE SITE AT ALL.
never give them card details
I have refered my account to New Zealand Police
Ann says:
April 17th, 2012 at 11:47 pm
I too got ripped off with these scammers. They promise me every month my refund of $119.99 will be refunded – what a joke, this has been going on since January and of course I do not get a refund. I am from New Zealand too – how did you get on with the New Zealand Police.
Am going to the bank tomorrow to cancel my credit card, even though they haven’t taken anymore money out since January.
February 27th, 2012 at 10:14 am
They are a scam I have charges on there site. I am going to report them.
February 25th, 2012 at 9:32 pm
JUST TO ADD:
IF YOU HAVE BEEN THE VICTIM OF FRAUD FROM THIS SITE, CONTACT YOUR STATE OR LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT AS WELL AS THE FBI >> BE PERSISTENT.
There is enough information here to at least warrant an investigation – based on reports submitted here and elsewhere it seems the following are plausible:
a) There is evidence of fraudulent auctioneering (items aren’t sent, this is especially damning if true as it would confirm that the site exists purely for the purposes of fraud).
b) The auctions seem to be rigged (timers/bidders) by an automated system.
c) Money seems to be taken from accounts in arbitrary amounts and without permission – in many cases this appears to be fraudulent or wilfully negligent.
AGAIN I CAN NOT SAY THIS ENOUGH TIMES REPORT THIS TO YOUR LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY AND THE FBI – IF ENOUGH COMPLAINTS ARE RECEIVED IT WILL VERY LIKELY RESULT IN AN INVESTIGATION AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS!!
It would be a happy ending to see these SCUMBAGS extradited to the us on multiple fraud charges OR the company given an exemplary fine.
With all these things it comes down to how many people who are affected take action, either through private legal action or by making enough noise that the authorities investigate!!! – NIOSEC.COM is the parent company, and a link to their document detailing their takeover of ziinga can be found below:
http://www.niosec.com/publisher/files/files/66cdf634f2cd56dee31dea6c1e0a851b.pdf
As I said below, this is a multi-million dollar company that has a US presence – they are VERY vulnerable if they have acted fraudulently.
THEY HAVE MADE MILLIONS FROM YOUR SUFFERING, THE LAW IS YOUR FRIEND!
Jean Bade says:
March 10th, 2012 at 2:19 pm
seems that this isnt the case here in the uk, im absolutely devastated by what these bastards have done to me but im equally annoyed by my banks attitude, its not fraud if i gave my details, well im sorry to say the definition of fraud as many meanings a few being, deceitful, cheater, dishonest, crooked, deceptive, untrustworthy, to name but a few, ziinga are all of these words as im sure we will agree, my bank told me “leave us out of it, its between you and them” even though i was stupid enough to gave my details i still think some responsibility should be taken by them after all i give them my money to look after and after supposedly being on a secure payment page i thought i would have some cover with them, hence to say im transferring the minute my new card arrives in nxt few days. i dont get how they are still were they are. heres another thing i was told by these rip off merchants, was this, after my claim for a refund because my bids remained untouched ziinga tell me that you get a bidding agent and they just bid for you regardless if your logged in or not, she proceeded to tell me this agent had bid with my bids for an i-pod, camera, tv, etc etc i dont want any of those things, how can a total stranger bid for you when they dont even no what youd want to bid for, you see it says money back guarantee if bids remained untouched, mine were, because i never visited the bloody site anymore after my initial one and only visit there, so all in all you cant get your money back because youve had one of their agents using your bids paid for out of your account and that makes your refund void, there an absolute joke and it doesn’t seem like i can do anything about it. they took £159.00 off me for nothing, absolutely nothing but the devastating thing is it was all i had, can anyone help???
February 25th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
SCAM FRAUD THEFT
Are the terms you should be using when you phone the FBI (if you are a US-resident and have been defrauded). The good news is that the company trades in the US and is owned by NIOSEC (www.niosec.com) which acquired flamingo intervest (owner of ziinga) you can see on the pdf’s on that site that ziinga has made a LOT of money, which means it is potentially very vulnerable to class action and criminal proceedings, US citizens especially should get on this because niosec is a big company and not the offshore safe-haven you might expect.
Mickey says:
March 20th, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Hi Jean Bade – it would be interesting to know what bank you are with – as some banks pursue Ziinga and some don’t. Lloyds TSB – won’t claw back funds from Ziinga!!!
February 23rd, 2012 at 4:35 am
Well, How stupid do I feel?
Just got my credit card bill in and noticed a charge from this mob of con men for £59,only then did I realize that they have been nicking the same amount since September last year, a grand total of £225.
Its not just the money, its the principle, some poor old souls out there
are being ripped off that really cant afford it.
These people are scum, I really hope they get their comeuppance.
John says:
March 7th, 2012 at 5:40 pm
The key to this is ALWAYS KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR BANK AND CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT TRANSACTIONS!!!
I cannot stress this enough!!!
Here in Spain you can contact the credit card / bank account issuer and reclaim the payment, as long as it’s done within a certain period. Internet companies do not receive their money immediately even though it appears as debited to your account.
My advice, apart from what has been mentioned elsewhere on this page, is to contact your bank or credit card company. In the case of a credit card, if the bank are uncooperative, you can contact the means of payment issuer (Visa, American Express, Mastercard etc)and they have the obligation to cancel the payment and refund you.
These scammers rely on people not keeping an eye on their accounts and not knowing their rights.
February 22nd, 2012 at 9:24 pm
Hi, i also fell for the SCAM -Supposedly won a camera which was needed as i was robbed not long ago and thought this would be an ideal replacement. Lucky for me my credit card was declined and my question is can they still take money from the account or was i one of the more lucky one’s and as a security precaution should i cancel my card anyway and get a new one? Also they have my email address and company signature -Is this a problem or am i safe??
XyZ says:
March 16th, 2012 at 4:17 am
Cancel your card. And keep close eye on your account.
February 22nd, 2012 at 5:13 pm
I have just gotten off the phone with my bank as Ziinga has taken an unauthorized payment from my account. I joined stupidly then still couldn’t bid, had to buy more credits so I cancelled which was still going to cost me 1/2 of the join fee, then this month they have taken another full amount from my credit card. Bad people.
February 21st, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Total rip-off! All they do is take your money and when you cancel they still take you money! BBB can’t help you either, its an over seas scam.
February 21st, 2012 at 9:39 am
Ziinga is a totally scam. They ask me to enter my credit card number when I sign up with them, few days later when I check my credit card activities then I found out that Ziinga has charged $149.00 from my card. I was wondered why am I been charged, I only sign up an account with them and did not start any activity yet. So I emailed them to find out why, this is their answer: —————
(The reason you were being charged was because you purchased a bid package of 250 bids for $149,00. You have left a balance of 188 Bids that we can refund to you.)—————
I have never authorized them to charge my card to purchased any bid package, and also if I did purchase 250 bids why only 188 bids left. Since it was already been charged,so I log on to Ziinga account thought maybe I could try to bid on something. After couple bids I realize the chance for me to win a auction is very rare. now I hope they will refund my money back, so I started an online chat with a Ziinga agent, this was the chatting:
——————————————
Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with ‘Ria’
Ria: Welcome to Ziinga Live Chat Service! For me to better assist you, may I have your Ziinga username?
Mindy: mmmmm
Ria: Hello! How may I assist you?
Mindy: I want to cancel my account and get my money back.
Ria: Let me check that for you
Ria: Please hold.
Ria: This username: mmmmm has no active membership with Ziinga
Ria: Can you please provide the last 6 digits of the card that has been charged
Mindy: but I could log on to my account and also I did tried couple bids,I still have bids left.
Ria: The bids will not expire, you can use them to place bids on any live auction
Ria: But that is non refundable.
Mindy: when I start my account I was told my bids is refundable.
Ria: As per Terms and Conditions
Ria: Please note that bid packages can only be refunded if unused. By policy, refund claims for completely or partially used bid packages are invalidated immediately.
Ria: And you have used it.
Ria: Is there anything else I can help you with?
Mindy: Once i use all my bids will my account be canceled?
Ria: No, as long as you did not requested to deactivate your account, you can still log in to your account.
Mindy: can I request to cancel my account now?
Ria: Please send email, request to Deactivate your account.
Ria: Once you requested this, you can no longer log in to your account.
————————————————————-
I realized what I got in to, a total scam. There is nothing I can do to get my money back now, I canceled my credit card numbers just to avoid any more unauthorized charges.
February 19th, 2012 at 9:10 am
You are now chatting with ‘Andrea’
Andrea: Welcome to Ziinga Live Chat Service! For me to better assist you, may I have your Ziinga username?
katie: can you only win 2 bids every 14 days?
katie: ktmymatey
Andrea:
Andrea: Thank you. Please hold for a moment while I check that for you.
katie: hello? Can you only win 2 bids per 14 days?
Andrea: A user can win 2 auctions in a 14-day rolling period.
katie: so i would pay £59 plus bidding charges a month
katie: for just 2 items?
Andrea:
Andrea: The product you’ve won £ 100 credit on 02/19/12 is tied up with the platinum membership that has 3 month binding contract.
Andrea: £ 100
Andrea: Please disregard that.
Andrea:
Andrea: The platinum membership cost 59.99 GBP and has a 3 month binding contract.
Andrea: Is there anything else I can help you with?
katie: yes I know but it works out that I would be loosing out. Especially when you don’t actually send the items. Do you realise what trouble you can get in to by doing this to people? No body has ever been delivered anything.
Andrea: We do required documents once you paid for the promotional won auctions
Andrea: Due to Ziinga’s one gift per household policy, users need to confirm their identity by sending the following documents as proof:
Andrea: Scanned copy of Credit Card (front and back)
Andrea: Scanned copy of valid ID (passport or driver’s license)
Andrea: Scanned copy of signed credit card form. Download and fill up the form from this link: http://www.ziinga.com/uk/pages/creditcard_form
Andrea: All required documents have to be submitted to info@ziinga.com.
katie: good luck with your job Andrea. You mug.
katie: cancel my user name please.
XyZ says:
March 16th, 2012 at 4:21 am
That is retarded. I hope ppl who run this scam get arrested and imprisoned.
me again. says:
February 19th, 2012 at 9:13 am
TOTAL SCAM. DO NOT FALL FOR IT.
February 18th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
Hi friends,
My name is abdullah and I can tell you that I am not lucky enough as you friends. I had clicked in Ziinga and I was surprised to see that a samsung GT C 3300 on 2012-01-09 for only $2.32 and also free shipping will be provided. I accepted, but to my great surprise I was asked to provide the following documents:
Because we have a one gift per household policy, you must confirm your
identity by sending the following documents as proof:
Scanned copy of Credit Card (front and back)
Scanned copy of valid ID (passport or driver’s license)
Scanned copy of signed credit card form
I refused to send those documents.
I was even more surprised when I got my bank statement to see that a sum of $ 99.99 was deducted without my consent and without any receipt.
February 18th, 2012 at 9:28 pm
anyone who says good things about ziinga obviously works for ziinga. they are a scam please do not have anything to do with ziinga.
February 18th, 2012 at 8:51 pm
yip just like everyone here on this site i have been scammed bought bids from the free auction next thing i know 67.99 taken out off my bank and now they want me to pay for me to cancel.
Joke big rip off they said when i got the bids it said about i would become a member after days7 days and pay this amount i did not see anything saying this did anyone else i will be cancelling my card also rip off cons.
Stay away from this site.
February 18th, 2012 at 6:10 pm
Thanks guys for the reviews as i was wondering if they could sell stuff for such low prices, however i think they have taken some heed to the review comments as when i won a bid it clearly said i would be paying £60 for a 3 months membership. So at least people will know now what they are signing up for.
February 18th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
As with most people this site came through a a reliable source…so I thought I’d give it a go…
Had a look at the free auctions and ‘WON’ a digital camera which is much needed…..however when it came to pay I noticed the so called membership fee and thought better of it before I put any details on…Now Im really pleased I google everything that asks for payments details…Don;t be fooled I rang the phone number which is a Leeds phone number to be told it was an invalid number and try again…
Lucky Escape I think!
February 17th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
I would like to know how these scam artists got my credit card number. Ive never bought anything online except from the Bradford Exchange. Can anybody tell me how I was robbed of 613.80?
KENNY says:
March 17th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
OMG 613.80 dollars???
February 15th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
I am glad i googled it first. Thank you guys very very much.
February 15th, 2012 at 4:01 am
I got email saying I had won a portable DVD so I ventured onto the Web site, decided I might have a go as it looked like some real bargains were to be had……. “had” being the Right word.. luckily I noticed some small print just before I had finished entering my card details saying that my accepting this item I was entering into a 3 month contract at £59.99GB a month … err I don’t think so, steer clear folks
February 14th, 2012 at 4:32 pm
PLEASE READ THE COMMENTS FROM MICKEY – I AM GIVING YOU ALL LEGAL ADVICE. The only way to stop this company is to contact your bank and cancel your credit card. Your bank will issue you with a new one. This will put a stop to Ziinga accessing your account to withdraw further unauthorized funds. Report Ziinga to actionfraud.org.uk – who is aware of Ziinga and can take action against them IF ENOUGH COMPLAINTS ARE LODGED AGAINST THEM. I know it takes about 15 mins to fill out their forms – but it is worth it to put this company out of business in the UK.
Elaine says:
February 19th, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Thank you so much for this advice i will be filling this out i dont want them to get away with this thank you again.
February 14th, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Total Scam, I bought an ipod shuffle but in order receive this ‘free gift’ they wanted me to send a scan of the back and front of my credit card, a copy of my passport and a copy of a utility bill. No way would I send these items to anybody! I entered into an online chat with them saying I didn’t want a free gift just the product I have bought. The total I paid was £8.41 (most of the cost was shipping!)they said they would refund I just needed to agree to the refund by clicking a link on an email, however the link was to authorize them to take a cancellation fee from me hence to take more money from my card rather than refund the £8.41 I have already paid.
My bank is refunding my money for me and I have reported them to Trading Standards, beware the total scammers
February 14th, 2012 at 11:12 am
Thank heavens I have picked up the lovely habit of Goggling things before making stupid choices Thanxx for all the warnings guys.
Sjoe
Mickey says:
February 14th, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Well done you – for checking it out first.
February 14th, 2012 at 8:35 am
Total Scam, I bought an ipod shuffle but in order receive this ‘free gift’ they wanted mw to send a scan of the back and front of my credit card, a copy of my passport and a copy of a utility bill. No way would I send these items to anybody! I entered into an online chat with them saying I didn’t want a free gift just the product I have bought. The total I paid was £8.41 (most of the cost was shipping!)they said they would refund I just needed to agree to the refund by clicking a link on an email, however the link was to authorize them to take a cancellation fee from me hence to take more money from my card rather than refund the £8.41 I have already paid.
My bank is refunding my money for me and I have reported them to Trading Standards, beware the scammers
Jean Bade says:
March 13th, 2012 at 6:37 am
my bank, halifax are just the same, after being on the phone with them for almost an hour,i was just made to feel like i was some stupid kid for giving my details, so i asked, because being over a certain age dosnt have its advantages when using the internet, what or how do i recognize when a site is ok and when should alarm bells ring, to which she replied, “Well i wouldnt go on any page were it says something is free” hence the dig because i thought it was a free bid. right and…. “look just leave us out of it, its between yourself and ziinga, its got nothing to do with us” excuse me who looks after my money to which i was then told my new debit card was on its way, no way am i leaving it at that either, like Mickey im curious as to who this good bank is, im now awaiting my card and then im kissing halifax goodbye. ziinga wont acknowledge me now my last 5 emails to them have remained unanswered, because, they know what i am saying to them warrants a refund and after using “their terms and conditions line” there really is no were else for them to go, see my original comments march 9th then this is how its finished, i said all my bids from my supposed subscription remain untouched, they said id used 10, not a chance id only paid one visit to a page on there site the night i bid for the still to arrive coffee maker and by theway were is my coffee maker the one ive paid you for, no reply to that, going back to me using my bids they proceed to tell me a bidding agent of theirs as used them on my behalf, not authorized by me they havnt, how the hell can anyone bid for me when they dont no what i want and how much there maximum bid should be on my behalf, she tells me then having a bidding agent is just one of the many “perks” you get when a platinum member, she proceeded to tell what they had unsuccessfully bid for me, not a single thing of any use to me, dont go off the subject i told her because no one has the right to use my bids paid for by me out of money theyd stolen from my a/c Who said anyone could touch my bids???? its in the terms and conditions line came again,its not because you cant possibly bid for someone without there permission, without knowing what i want and without knowing what maximum amount they could go to. so i will have a refund to which i got a silence and they now refuse to acknowledge my emails, does anyone know how i can get in touch some other way with these bastards, coz never in a million yrs am i leaving it, ziinga and there mates at halifax can go to hell but someone is going to give me back the money stolen from me. sorry ive gone on a little im just bloody furious with them. can anyone help with a number for me to get in touch, thanks.
Mickey says:
February 14th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Hey – you must have a good bank, as my bank won’t – yet!! But they will as I am in touch with the Ombidsman for Lloyds TSB, they are obviously still in the dark ages. Would love to know who your bank is so I can change to it from Lloyds!!!!
February 12th, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Please do not give any details to these scammers. I have lost £120 in two months to these thieves and unlikely to
See it again.
AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE.
Mickey says:
February 14th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
Dave – I hope you have contacted you bank to cancel your credit card or they will take funds off your account for a third month. Do this asap – and don’t forget to report them.
February 12th, 2012 at 10:31 am
All works good, and I thought I was having fun. However, if you buy anything, a bid pack, or win a bid, when you pay for it they enter you into “membership” at $99.99 per month, with a three month minimum. You can get a refund, though I did not get mine yet, less a $39.00 fee for ending your three month contract which you never authorized. Of course they say it’s in the fine print, but it is not. It mentions the membership, and what you get with it, but does not tell you you have to have it. The first 7 days they call free, so you don’t know you have it till you see it gone from your bank.
February 10th, 2012 at 7:34 pm
Is it possible, despite the cancellation of my credit card, this site uses my bank account to withdraw money or I have to cancel my account?
February 9th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
i want to know why my visa was declined i won 2 items but cant get them because my card was declined never happened before
Mickey says:
February 14th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Esther – have you not READ ALL THESE COMMENTS??? You have had a narrow escape – give it up – why worry about 2 items when you have just escaped being robbed of hundreds of pounds??? Are you from the same PLANET??? Everyone on this site has been robbed and you are complaining because you haven’t??????
February 9th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Ziinga.com
Biggest fraud going- don’t touch it, what annoys me it came to me through a reliable source- i never usually touch these sites but gave it a go- now am £130 out of pocket as they took money from my credit card- and i have now cancelled it and got a new one- they will not get anymore money, my company have been brilliant! You are told you have won a bid and it will be posted out within two weeks-nothing comes and they do not answer emails and their phone number does not work- funny that! People do not touch the site- it is a massive con- big time- hope someone can stop them- maybe google as you can find them through this search engine and probably others.
February 8th, 2012 at 4:00 am
ITS A SCAM!!!!!!
cancel your credit cards and inform your bank.
i will also be informing the police and trading standards of this company, i suggest other people do the same.
STOP THIS COMPANY FROM CONNING ANYONE ELSE!!
February 7th, 2012 at 6:16 pm
“DO NOT USE ZIINGA AUCTIONS”
This is nothing but a scam, yip you have guessed right Im one of those to also have been scammed into believing I had won a coffee maker rrp £65.00 for £12.43 so I put my card details in straight away thinking nothing of it. Then no coffee maker arrived but £59.99 withdrawn from my bank without my knowledge. I called the customer service telephone number and to my astonishment the woman on the end of The line was and still is the biggest idiot I’ve ever came across, totally blanked my questions and kept Asking if there was anything else she could help me with, she never helped me With anything so never mind anything else. 13 minutes I was the phone to the retard so god knows how much I will get ripped off with that call. “in fact I’m an even bigger idiot than she is as I gave this robbing company my credit card details!!! I’ve now to pay £28.00 to cancel a membership I didn’t want in the first place and had no idea I had in the first place.
Short end of the story is don’t entertain ziinga as there only objective is to ROB you of your money!!!
esther says:
February 9th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
thanks very much for that i wondered why the items were so cheap lets hope nothing else happens
noeline says:
February 8th, 2012 at 3:57 am
i have had the very same problem, i didnt even know i had entered into a membership, there was nothing about it when you try and bid on items, ITS A MAJOR SCAM!!!!
so either they take £58 a month for something you didnt want or charge you £28 to get out of it.
i have informed my bank and cancelled my credit cards, i had tried to negotiate with Ziinga and threatened legal action. next i will be informing the police if they try to take any money out of my account after i have cancelled my cards.
i think trading standards will get informed too.
February 7th, 2012 at 4:58 am
thank god for this web site i cancelled my debt card asap they no longer can deduct more money lot R46 but better then R1000′s
February 6th, 2012 at 4:18 pm
scammers they have no appointed rep and they are based in greece the office and the po box on a small islland in caribean if that doesnt say SCAM i dont know what does
Mickey says:
February 14th, 2012 at 4:02 pm
They are actually owned by a company in the virgin islands – Ziinga.com is a trade name of:
Flamingo Intervest Ltd
OMC Chambers,
P O Box 3152,
Road Town
Tortola
British Virgin Islands.
Although i have read in the shares index that Flamingo have recently sold Ziinga – (or more to the point CLAIM they have sold Ziinga so they can dis-associate themselves from fraud!!!
How do I know – I have been on their case for months now.
February 6th, 2012 at 3:39 pm
i also fell into the trap of ziing.com whata scam!!!!!!!! so stupid STAY CLEAR
February 3rd, 2012 at 12:30 pm
They were suppose to take $16.06 out of my account and they took that plus $100.00
mirand says:
February 5th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
you had better close your bank account because they will try and more from you.
February 2nd, 2012 at 5:49 am
I am the same as everybody I fell for the scam!! Signed up for what I was lead to believe was a free week membership to buy an ipod shuffle for £1, ended up paying £59.99 and to cancel my account i then had to pay £28.00 cancellation fee. They then took a further £59.99 when my account should have been canceled and now are doing everything in their power to not refund my money. Im so angry with myself for not researching this frudant site. Unfortunately they have my bank details and I am now going to have to conact my bank to stop any transactions to Ziinga. DO NOT give tis website any of your details!!!
Mickey says:
February 14th, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Hi Keri Jack – don’t be so hard on yourself – everyone on this site fell for it – simply because there was no notification to say the membership costs were included in payment for the item – that is not disclosed at the point of payment. You have done the right thing by contacting your bank – luckily – you did not ignore it – or they would have taken more unauthorized funds from your account. There is one other thing you can do: report them to ACTIONFRAUD.org.uk – PUT A STOP TO ZIINGA ONCE AND FOR ALL.
February 1st, 2012 at 6:16 pm
If i cancel my bank account within 12 hours of winning and paying an auction can Ziinga still charge me?
mirand says:
February 5th, 2012 at 1:46 pm
no, they dare not come after you. This is a Fraudulent company
January 30th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
DON’T FALL FOR IT!!!
I went to their site and ended up “bidding” on a camera, they then turned around and asked for a copy of the front AND back of my card, PLUS a copy of my utility bill. Luckily, I didn’t fall for that but unfortunately they have my debit card info.
If you fell for it, immediately cancel your card so that they have no way of charging you.
January 29th, 2012 at 9:25 am
I have won an item in there auction but as yet not received my item its been three weeks now sure it shouldn’t take that long.
Mickey says:
February 14th, 2012 at 4:12 pm
Hi B Chapman – NO – it does not take that long – because it has never been sent – and never will be. I have not heard from anyone who has received their PRIZE! There is probably not an electrical item in this warehouse/company – they will show you a picture on the site of an item – but have no intentions of posting it – because it does not exist – they are only after your bank details. THERE ARE NO ITEMS TO WIN. If you have not already done so – GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR BANK – NOW – ASAP.
January 29th, 2012 at 1:12 am
Guys n Girls ONLY use a debit card for anything on the net. That way no credit……and it fires up just like a credit card and you can only spend what in the account ..cash. Easy to stop and easy to limit. I just bid on a free camera and the only funds in the account are the $ 20 for the camera and post. Wait for further updates
Mickey says:
February 14th, 2012 at 4:21 pm
Hi RonB – That is not exactly true – yes you can only spend what is in your account – but who wants their account wiped out? if you have £60 plus in your account – they can take the lot – so using a debit card does not work. Ziinga is going to rob you whatever card you use. Using a mastercard on line – is a safer bet as you bank can dispute an action. if you feel in anyway uncomfortable about using a credit card – then the best bet is not to enter into any payment at all – but we are talk hindsight here. Once you are on this site you will have known credit or debit card aside – you have been scammed. Get on to your bank and have them cancel your credit/debit card asap.
January 28th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
ZIINGAA.. thank god I reviewed before giving my card detaisl adn saved myself from beign looted by this fraud company. below is my chat with online assistant of this company// plz friends save your time by not joining it.
Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are not currently in a chat session.
You are not currently in a chat session.
You are not currently in a chat session.
You are now chatting with ‘Nickel’
Nickel: Welcome to Ziinga Live Chat Service! For me to better assist you, may I have your Ziinga username?
you: Jitendra
you: JITSAA
you: JITSAA is my inga username
you: i need ur help regarding the free membership tht i have been offered with my first order
Nickel: Please hold while I lookup your account. Thank you.
you: ok
Nickel: Thank you for holding. How may I assist you?
you: i need ur help regarding the free membership (platinum) tht i have been offered with my first order
Nickel: Yes, what is your inquiry regarding the membership?
you: can I be offered any free membership!
you: ciz it says 99 permonth after 7 days
you: coz 99 per month is a big amount
you: i m not sue what benefits u offer for the return of $99
Nickel: The membership is free to use for 7 days. However, if you decided you don’t want to be a member anymore then there will be a cancellation fee
you: how much is that?
Nickel: AS a member allows you to:
Nickel: – Get 10% extra bids for bid packages purchases
Nickel: – Free Shipping
Nickel: – Free bid
Nickel: – Bid-For-Free auctions
Nickel: – Daily Bid Agent
Nickel:
Nickel: If you’re in the US the cancellation fee is $39.00
you: yes I m in US
you: and my shopping pattern is not regualr
you: can I be offered any other memebreship
you: ?
you: other than this platinum..
you: i m looking for some free membership plan
Nickel: Unfortunately, that’s the only membership we have at this time.
you: than th eitem that I bou is actually costing me more than market rate
you: because I dont have any regular plan to participate in bid
you: i m sorrybut can my cancellation fee be waived off??
Nickel: No, cancellation fee cannot be waived. Please refer to our terms and conditions on our site.
you: if yes than i can buy my item at winning bid and get the account cancelled..
you: if it is a no than I am not happy with this plan
you: it actually is costing me more than market usual rate
you: see that i won ipod shuflle for $10 with shiping cost
you: but if you made me to pay additional $39
you: it will totally cost me around $50
you: its market rate is $35
Nickel: I understand. Unfortunately, the iPod is a promotional auction in conjunction with our membership
Nickel: I understand.
you: what you have to offer me so taht i can understand the benfits
you: i doint see any benefits
you: equalling to $99
you: tht’s not in favor of customer
Nickel: I understand however, that is our promotional item.
you: do what do you suggest me?
you: what do you advice me in this regard?
Nickel: I’m sorry. I will not be able to provide you with suggestions.
you: are you customer care or advocate for ziinga’s non-friendly marketting tricks!
Nickel: I’m sorry you feel that way.
you: i m sorry but I think you are wishing my non-benefits
you: and are wishing to harm me financially and mentally
Nickel: There are other benefits of being a member. You may review it on our site.
you: request you to please think in customer’s benefits
you: I am glad that I didn;t gave you my card detials yet
you: and i m not hurt financially by your online bad tricks
you: i will put your comany in blog and review abt being so non-customer friendly
you: bye and have a good day
you: one last question
you: can you cancel my username
Nickel: I respect your decision.
Nickel: Please hold while I cancel.
you: i dont want to be a user anymore
you: ok sure
Nickel: Thank you for holding. I have already cancelled your username and you should receive a confirmation email.
you: thanks for not charging me for that
esther says:
February 9th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
I really feel sorry for you guys. I’m now soooo glad that my card was declined They must read all this so why are they still at it. SHOULD get the police or someone else on to them good luck those of you who got lumbered into thinking you were on to a good thing
January 28th, 2012 at 9:29 am
I was an idiot too! ‘won’ CAMERA for £3.00 put in my account details not realizing this was automatic membership until i decided to google Zinnga. If only i had the sense to do this 1st. I have since cancelled my card on the advice of the internet, but unfortunately they have taken £59 already as well as the £3 for the camera and £3 for postage. Sure it will be a miracle if I ever see the camera now and if I do the amount I have paid to Zinnga is well over the amount the camera is worth. Kicking myself for being such a fool!. I cancelled my account with ziinga and they said i would be charged £28 for this! As of yet i can not see that this has come out of my account, Just hoping I canceled my card in time so they cannot take any more money. I hope that by cancelling my card will not mean I have broken a contract i was unaware of and will make me end up worse off with Ziinga chasing me.
Mickey says:
February 14th, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Hi Lucy – They will not be able to access your account for the £28 – so you are safe. As for breaching contract – you will find that they are about to breach it themselves. There is no camera – and it will obviously for that reason never arrive. Their excuse for not sending it will be (and I can quote them on this), you cancelled your membership!!! never mind that you cancelled weeks and weeks later – the item was never sent. Ziinga will not pursue you – they have gotten money out of you and will move on to their next victim. How can a company pursue a person who has paid £65 – for NOTHING???
January 25th, 2012 at 12:58 am
I should have read those reviews. I gave the website my email. WIll it be ok? I couldn’t delete my account.
Mickey says:
January 28th, 2012 at 2:15 pm
Hi Kid that wants a free ipad – you will be fine as long as they don’t have anything else. The will try and contact you to reel you back in but if they don’t have your bank details you are safe enough. Well done for checking out the reviews first.
January 22nd, 2012 at 10:34 am
If you have been affected by Ziinga – which I imagine everyone on this site has been – THERE ARE A COUPLE OF STEPS THAT YOU MUST TAKE ASAP TO PROTECT YOURSELF:
Contact your bank asap – tell them what has happened and cancel your credit card – now that Ziinga has your details they will take unauthorised funds out of your account MONTHLY – so put a stop to it NOW.
The second and just as important step is: to report them – contact actionfraud.org.uk – be prepared to fill out a form with the details of this scam – it takes about 15 mins to complete but is well worth the effort to put a stop to this company. have at hand any details such as date the funds were taken from your account, any contact you have had with Ziinga, etc – they need these details in order to deal with the company (Ziinga).
tommy says:
January 25th, 2012 at 6:51 am
hi mickey my bank said i cant cancel my credit card as i had to give my 16 digit no. any other advice
January 21st, 2012 at 6:00 pm
I too have fallen victim to this site’s scam. I followed a link from Facebook (so avoid all advertising on Facebook),won a camera, filled in details to pay for it, have been billed for the item. I have asked them to cancel the free membership option, and am waiting for a reply back.
When I later reviewed my account with them and saw that my win was waiting for paperwork details, that started to ring alarm bells especially after seeing what they wanted. (Identity theft trick came to mind there), I reviewed the site and found that I am not the only other person who has fallen to this scam. Thank you all for the advice you have put up here, for I have cancelled my Debit card, and reported the site for their misconduct.
Mickey says:
January 22nd, 2012 at 10:18 am
Hi Chris – well done for cancelling your card – they will take off membership MONTHLY. So you have saved futher payments being taken. Make sure the bank knows why you cancelled the card – just to ensure they do not pay out any further funds – that way the bank is responsible for clawing back that payments. I would advise a notice in writing to the bank – if you have not done already. You have taken the right steps – and I hope that you are not bothered by them again – they will of course e:mail you – telling you you have won this or that – just trying to hook you back, but as you have learned they want a lot of personal details before they will send you this “item that you have won by magic”. Put any e:mails they send you into your junk. Good Luck.
January 20th, 2012 at 5:30 am
All I can say about this site is keep well clear it will screw you over big style you get charged £58.00 membership once you realise you have been ripped of and try to cancel they then charge you £28.00 for cancelling early so all keep clear
January 19th, 2012 at 5:36 pm
i like what it says at the top of this page 7 WAYS TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE, YEAH,
THE FIRST ONE IS GET ZIINGA SHARES.
STAY AWAY FROM ZIINGA.COM
January 18th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
My experience with ziinga is probably one that I don’t doubt a lot of people have had. I won the same item five or six times and then the whole thing resets and I am no longer the last bidder. After I sent in a complaint asking about why this would happen they blamed it on my internet service provider. This has never happened with any other penny auction I have been apart of. In fact I have won lots of items on different sites and never have come across this problem with any other site except Ziinga. After all this was over and I sat at my computer going to Ziinga’s site for some reason my account no longer existed and my almost 300 bids which I paid for were gone. I have lost a lot of money to this site and don’t recommend it to anyone.
Mickey says:
January 22nd, 2012 at 10:24 am
Hi Caitlin – you know what to do once you have read this site – talk to your bank. Get your card cancel asap – they take off more funds MONTHLY!!!! Tell your bank about it so that they can put a stop on any further unauthorized payments coming out of your account. And please – report them – this is the only way that will stop them trading in the UK. The more reports the better action taken against them. Good Luck
January 18th, 2012 at 1:07 pm
Hi there, I am yet another person (idiot) to fall into the ziinga.Com trap I won a digital camera for £0.00 + £1.00 postage and package, & paid with credit card,(so now they’ve got my bank details)
I then received a receipt which had underneath a membership fee of £59.99. I was horrified to see this as it said it was a binding contract that would continue for three months. I immediately cancelled this transaction,i then received another email saying that my cancellation was successful but there would be a cancellation fee of £28.00 . I sent another email to say that they do not have my permission to withdraw any funds from my account. Today 18/01/2012 they withdrew £1.00 for camera, £28.00 cancellation fee and £59.99 membership fee and they will draw for the next 3 months + This is the first and last time that i will be scammed everything from now on will be subject to scrutiny i am so unhappy right now,as is all of the other poor soles that have been caught out. They took my rent this week what are they going to take next? Please please stay away from ziinga.com and be aware and watch out for their next venture,it will come when that one fails if not before. Ziinga.Com = scam. Lets be careful out there.
January 18th, 2012 at 12:56 pm
OK Folks – this is what to do – lodge a complaint at actionfraud.org.uk as they know about this company. The more reports they get the more chance they can put a stop to them trading in the UK. Be prepared with dates and details though – because you have to fill out a form. Its the best chance you are going to get to stop them continuing to scam people.
January 17th, 2012 at 2:15 pm
Same here it was my fault partly because I panicked after “winning” a “free” bid auction for £3.00 for “£100″ “credits” I have emailed to end my subscription and charge me their fee.
January 16th, 2012 at 6:55 pm
so , here in Portugal we have the choice to make “virtual cards”, i made a 5€ credit card to pay a cellphone i won ( 3€ ), sent my details, even if they do not give anything, the card I created have only 5 euros available … so i will not loose much :P
just to see if it works or not
john says:
January 16th, 2012 at 7:30 pm
“Marcus: Welcome to Ziinga Live Chat Service! For me to better assist you, may I have your Ziinga username?
you: xxx
you: I would like to know the status of my order, and already paid and sent a copy of my details
you: and another thing, I noticed that there is a value of membership … How is that?
Marcus: Let me go ahead and check that one for you.
Marcus:
Marcus: May I have your e-mail address?
you: xxxx@hotmail.com
Marcus: Platinum membership is EUR 67.99 per month.
you: yes, and since registration is active right? how I’ll pay it, if i didnt asked for anything?
Marcus: Membership fees will be charged upfront to your credit card every month.
you: will it?
you: know, here in Portugal, we can create virtual credit cards, and I created a 5 € to pay for what I got, you already took € 3.01
you: now tell me what is going out of my account … nothing, except what I got paid for phone
Marcus: Unfortunately at this point in time we only accept Visa, MasterCard, Visa Electron and Maestro.
Marcus:
you: yes, I paid by VISA
you: and yes, the money has gone out of my account, but only 3 €
Marcus: The item you’ve paid for is a Promotional auction in conjunction with the Platinum membership.
you: which was the value of the bid
you: now I’d like to know the state of the process.
Marcus: Let me go ahead and check that one for you.
Marcus:
Marcus: May I have your e-mail address?
you: again?
you: xxxxx@hotmail.com
you: …
Marcus: I will be with you shortly. Please stay online.
Marcus:
you: ok
you: still cannot see anything?
you: ..
you: if by chance you not receive the product is not for the € 3 I get poor, I was smarter than you guys, I created a virtual credit card with 5 euros, and is less than a trick, the € 67.99, ask someone else, of whatever you want, because from me you guys will not take it
you: and keep with my address and my id .. get to know a friend from Portugal
you: who gave a gift of € 3″
January 16th, 2012 at 9:05 am
I bought a 100Bid credit on this site for £2.94p as i was hoping to bid on an i pad however i did fill in my details for the bid package and low and behold i got stung for Premium membership at £59.99 A MONTH FOR THREE MONTHS my bank have said i cant stop them as i willingly give my debit card details, i contacted ziinga and informed them im on benifits of £67 a week and was told tuff luck you singed up for a mebership
Mickey says:
January 18th, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Tony – get in touch with actionfraud.org.uk and report this they ask on their for if you have been financially affected by this scam and you can tell them how much you live on and how much you are out of pocket. maybe they will be able to help through victim support. The bank CAN DO SOMETHING about it – they can put a stop on your account so that Ziinga cannot take any further funds out – they will take out every month. Contact your bank again and get your account changed. This is not as drastic as it sounds – you get a new card and your old one cancelled. The account stays the same – but when Ziinga tries to take funds in a month’s time – it will refuse because they are using the old card details.
January 15th, 2012 at 2:16 am
I never sent in the forms and cancelled upon receiving receipt stupid moron that I am didn’t think to cancel my card and was charged $89.99 today, rang their number optus is disconnected. Rang bank, got to wait 2 working days until item is no longer in holding then I can put in a report however they can’t recharge as card is cancelled. But still its only a maybe if I get my money back. I’m off to the police to file a report tomorrow and then off to take a chunk out of the ACCC. Then I might give A currant affairs a call in Sydney. Seriously not happy.
Mickey says:
January 18th, 2012 at 1:05 pm
I wonder why anyone was giving them any stars at all it should be minus stars.
Steve says:
January 18th, 2012 at 1:48 am
You’re going to the police and you still gave them a 3 star rating? What have they got to do to get 1 star, kill someone?
January 14th, 2012 at 7:19 am
WHAT AN ABSOLUTE LOAD OF CROOKS – you win an auction, pay for the item, then unless you give them scanned copies of all the documents needed for identity theft you never receive your goods. Just to make you feel even better they charge you £59.95 a month for a minimum of 3 months.!!!
THEY ARE CROOKS – PLEASE BOYCOTT THE SITE AND TELL ALL YOU CAN NOT TO FALL INTO THE SAME TRAP WE DID. !!
THEY MUST BE STOPPED !!!
catriona degnan says:
January 14th, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Colin i have just reported this company to every fraud agency out there i just about got caught out but my bank helped me out.wish i had thought to google it first then i would have steered clear.
January 13th, 2012 at 4:46 pm
Unauthorized money was taken from my account. My credit card has been billed twice in two months for $92.00 each. When I contacted the site Ask-Ziinga.com that I have not agreed to any membership they told me that I am bought the iPhone of them and it has agreed to membership. I have never bought or got the iPhone from them.
January 13th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
warning do not use this site. i bid and won then they wanted my passport id, credit card photocopy. then when i asked to cancel my item that i won i was told that i had to pay £28 cancellation fee. as i broke the 3 month contract as in the terms and conditions on the website.
melissa says:
January 18th, 2012 at 5:33 pm
really!? omg i almost bought something right now….. glad i read this first :)
January 10th, 2012 at 9:42 am
Guys,
I signed up for an account, but just the user name and password, theres no way they can get my bank details can they?
I closed the page when it said i had to put bank details in for a registration.
Glad i read this though!
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 4:34 pm
Hi Rhyannon – they cant access your account without the bank details – fortunately. So you are safe.
January 8th, 2012 at 6:47 am
I bid on an auction and won and could not collect my prize as i did not log in first because i had followed a link from facebook and the page i was directed too did not have a log in button anywhere on it and when i went to put my details in it said that my email addy was already in use so i went into the online chat and all they could say was i needed to log in but could not direct me to the proper page that allowed me to do that so i lost out but after reading all these reviews sounds like the big man upstairs was looking out for me onece again, surely you would think that a reputable company like facebook would not have anything to do this bunch of rouges.
Shame on these scammers especially in these hard times people are struggly as it is but its like my parents used to say “if it sounds too good to be true it generally is” lets everyone on here who has been scammed and let down by this mob, spread the word and let everyone we know via facebook. Word of mouth will shut them down quicker than anything else, so spread the word
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 4:32 pm
You are very lucky indeed – or they would have taken unauthorized funds from your account when you went to pay for the postage. And still not sent the item.
January 8th, 2012 at 6:12 am
what a scam/ coffee machine for 14.95 NEVER ARRIVED but they still took 2 more payments of £59.99 plus the cost of the coffee machine from my account.
tried to call – no joy
SCAM SCAM SCAM
Asked for a refund – no joy
SCAM SCAM SCAM
Bryant says:
January 13th, 2012 at 1:03 pm
LOL! sorry just a happy bidder ;)
have you read this?! This is the reason why your coffee machine nevver arrive, they offered you to pay at a small amount, so it means it was a special offer
Promotional Auction and Special Offers
Due to Ziinga’s one gift per household policy, users need to confirm their identity by sending the following documents as proof:
Scanned copy of Credit Card (front and back)
Scanned copy of valid ID (passport or driver’s license)
Scanned copy of signed credit card form. Download and fill up the form from this link: http://www.ziinga.com/us/pages/creditcard_form
All required documents have to be submitted to info@ziinga.com.
As soon as the documents are approved, the package should arrive at the given shipping address within 2 to 4 weeks.
Read their T&C it is stated there.
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
ps: if you paid by credit card/mastercard or any other kind of card -CANCEL IT NOW!!!! The will remove more money next month and the month after that and so on.
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Hi Diane – If you paid by mastercard – contact your bank and tell them. They should pursue a refund for you. Don’t let the bank fob you off with terms and conditions (that you would have ticked on the site at the time). Ziinga has breached its contract by not sending you the item after you paid for it (and possibly the postage). I assume one of the other payments they took off your account will be for postage. That is why Mastercard is one of the safest ways to pay on-line – that and paypal.
January 7th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
so glad i read all this before putting in my card details.. i just made an account & won a camera on one of the free bids.. then thought to myself, this isn’t right? considering madbid is extremely hard to win anything on yet after literally two minutes i won a camera.. i do not think so! thank you all for notifying us all of the faults of this online scam.
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Hi Sammie – you are correct!! They engineer it so that you win instantly. It increases the chances of you continuing to bid (under the illusion that it is easy to win). That is the way they ensnare you – and take all your money.
January 5th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
Ziinga is deceitful, dishonest and a classic internet scam of smoke and mirrors. Reminiscent of the pyramid schemes where the end sale product is almost incidental to the process of signing up new “customers” for a fee.
January 3rd, 2012 at 6:09 pm
i registered on site tonight and said i won phone i payed without it telling me about monthly charge i cancelled account and it charged me 31 euro but cancelled card will it still come out of my account
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Hi Ciaran – No, if you have cancelled your card at the bank – they cannot access your account – well done!! There is however, a tiny problem with your item – you will never see it. That is- if they intended to send it in the first place. They claim that since you cancelled your membership – you are not entitled to the benefits – which is a joke because they will have already taken off the membership fee for the period of time that you actually won the item!! But is a small price to pay to get free of this scam. Just for peace of mind talk to your bank again and make sure the payments are blocked/stopped.
ROSE MARIE QUAGLIERI says:
January 5th, 2012 at 9:17 am
YES IT WILL I CHECK WITH CREDIT CARD COMPANY CALL YOUR COMPANY IF YOU have face book make sure you advise all your friends on facebook about this send these bastards a warning you will do that
January 2nd, 2012 at 10:59 pm
STAY CLEAR THEY ARE RIP OFF MALTA MAFIA. Their scam works this way. They lure you in with some free bids and be dam you win something. Then their scam is put into play.Lets get some easy money from this sucker. JUST STAY AWAY OR THEY WILL STEAL FROM YOU. Can I make it any clearer
Peter Rabbatts says:
January 5th, 2012 at 4:16 pm
Yes bunch of robbing bastards so why is there so little on the internet. Twitter, Facebook hardly give them a mention. Get on twitter and spread the word. Ziinga are crooks.
Col smith says:
January 3rd, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Will be reporting them today to a few places if correct ppl aren’t informed they will just keep getting away with it
December 30th, 2011 at 5:32 am
I won a camera for 7.00 AUD and of course didn’t see anything about a membership fee. When I actually got to purchasing the item they asked for my credit card details. However I only use my paypal account to buy things online…..now I’m worried if they will do something……far out I cannot believe I fell for that. WHY ARENT THEY SHUT DOWN. Absolutly ridiculous………. hope karma gets them………… please don’t fall for it……
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 4:54 pm
Hi Rose marie – They will have set up a recurring payment on your paypal account. You must access your account and cancel this recurring paynment or they can take more money off your account.
paypal is one of the safest ways to pay on-line but you can still be scammed. luckily paypal will step in and get you a refund.
Coleen smith says:
January 3rd, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Had this same thing happen n I had a 50 min fight on phone telling them there is nowher when u sign up saying 90$ a mont for membership so I cancelled my card so they get nothing. Biggest SCAM
ROSE MARIE QUAGLIERI says:
December 30th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
of course didn’t see anything about a membership fee. When I actually got to purchasing the item they asked for my credit card details. However I only use my paypal account to buy things online…..now I’m worried if they will do something……far out I cannot believe I fell for that. WHY AREN’T THEY SHUT DOWN. Absolutely ridiculous…hope karma gets them…please don’t fall for it…SCAM SCAM SCAM I did not see anything about membership either ROYAL SCAM I will disgrace them on my facebook wall and warn as many people as possible yes KARMA
December 28th, 2011 at 10:04 am
What a bunch of mischievous, robbing, liars!!!’ I hope they get their comeuppance! I’m generally very careful with these kind of sites which is why I read through the T and C’s carefully, alas, no mention of taking money straight from your account! Does anyone know if money has been taken without sending them authorization forms??
One last thing to say- FINGA TO THE ZIINGA
Betty says:
January 5th, 2012 at 9:52 pm
those people go in to your account an take money without you saying so they did me that way.They say the money has been put back in your account but no way it is always 5 to 7 days.They are all liars an thieves you can not believe them.They will rob you blind.
Cj R says:
January 3rd, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Yes they can and have taken money from my acc so change your card asap
December 28th, 2011 at 2:39 am
Thank God I read this before I signed uo! Thanks y’all.
bigdaddy says:
January 19th, 2012 at 12:07 am
yeah
December 27th, 2011 at 12:42 am
they are a BIG SCAM ,……….BEWARE
December 22nd, 2011 at 2:22 pm
im really glad i checked this out as Ziinga have just sent me an email saying ive won a free ipod shuffle and i have to pay one pound delivery, i then thought to myself “u dont get nothing for free” so i looked them up on the internet and found you guys and all the complaints!!! has anyone got on to rip off Britain as they’d love to sort this out?? or watch dog!! just an idea for anyone trying to stop getting charged, ive had a similar problem with another company and the way i stopped them taking money off me was cancel my debit card because they had my card number and this is how they took the money!! as its not a direct debit or standing order its so called legal for companies to do this, every new replacement card has a different number and 3 digit security code on the back, so if you report it stolen or lost even anyone trying to use the card number you signed up to Ziinga with will be declined as your replacement card number will be attached to your bank account and not your old card number!! Treat these robbing beeps like they treat you!! please let me know if this works for you guys as it has for me, good luck x
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Hi Joanne – yes – it does work – by cancelling your credit card at the bank – they will issue you with a new card, and anything attached to the old card will have to be set up again. Ao they will have no access to your account now.
As for watchdog – i reported this last year – I also reported them to Martin Lewis – the money expert – so he could alert others on his web site and various other organizations. So far nothing has been done about it.
naafi says:
December 23rd, 2011 at 6:53 am
Hi,
I am in the process now of reporting them to Watchdog.
I am sick of argueing with them.
Would be most helpful if other people could do the same, I am sure the more complaints the better.
December 22nd, 2011 at 12:49 pm
I have just had the same unfortunate experience with them.
i joined what I thought was a free auction site in approx November. I never saw anything about subscriptions when I joined.
i then won a free auction for a bid package. I paid them £3.78 for this.
I thought no more about it until today when I had the typical £59.99 taken from my bank account.
I spoke to my bank who said they can do nothing about it as they have discovered that it is a subscription to the site.
I did not authorize them to take this £59.99 and was nor aware that they were going to take a monthly subscription.
I spoke to them on their chat page thingy and was told that I would have to pay them this for 3 months or pay a cancellation fee of £28.
I asked the person if I paid the cancellation fee would I get back my £59.99 and was told NO.
She quoted the terms and conditions but I told her that I saw nothing obvious when I joined the site.
They have refused point blank to refund my money.
My bank say they can not stop them taking the money.My bank has cancelled my debit card in the hope that this may stop them getting the money but the bank think they can still get it.
help!!!!
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 5:04 pm
Hi Naffi – You did the right thing. cancelling your card at the bank will stop them accessing your account.
alisha says:
January 1st, 2012 at 8:27 pm
GET on to watch dog they could help you or raise money to sue Ziinga ,im so glad i didn’t buy anything from the site. there is nothing in the T’s and C’s that says they can take out money when they want so sue them. i would but im underage to even have an ziinga account.
December 22nd, 2011 at 12:46 pm
I have also had the same thing happen and my bank couldn’t help as its not an agreed direct debit I am going to report my card stolen and I,will be issued a new account number and security code and they hopefully won’t be able to take the next 2 payments from me? Has anyone else tried this?
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Hi Lotte – you don’t need to report your card stolen – a direct debit can be cancelled at any time – on saying that – this is when you are dealing with a reputable firm. You stop Direct Debit – they stop taking money. The bank has to issue you with a new card if you feel your account is threatened – in fact they encourage you to cut up your credit card and issue you with a new card – if there is anything iffy about a company. So just tell them the truth. They are there to protect your account.
December 19th, 2011 at 7:57 am
I have had the same happen to me as all of you, they have taken £59.99 from my account for membership I don’t want. I contact my banks disputes department and all they say they can do is send ziinga’s bank a letter telling them not to take anymore money from my account, if they do the bank say they will be able to get this further money back for me. However in the meantime I am going to make sure there is never any money in my account for them to take, and as this is not a direct debit or a standing charge the bank can not charge me for not paying. also as I am on sickness benefit I know when my payment goes into my account, so at one minute past mdnight on the day it goes in I will withdraw every penny, there is no system in place for ziinga to take your money from your account as soon as money goes in, they have to apply to the bank for this money, and if your account is empty they will try again later, hoping that next time money will be there. I hope this helps someone
Joanne W says:
December 22nd, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Listen Terry i know this is a pain but cancel your card because its not a direct debit or standing order you so called cannot cancel it!! they have your card details so it like your going shopping and using your card yourself!! apparently this is legal!! your Ziinga account is linked to your existing card and its long number on the front and security card on the back,when you cancel your card the bank then sends you a new one with a different long number on and security code, the bank cancel your old details and link up your new card details to your bank account, anyone then trying to get payment using your old card details will then be declined!! please try this asap and let me no how you get on!! dont let these robbing beeps ruin your christmas!! xx
December 18th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Ive been talking to their online Customer Services representative ‘Maggie’ for over an hour now, attempting to get the unauthorized membership fee refunded, less the cancellation fee, so everyones a winner, I get my account closed and they get their cancellation fee….what a pain in the backside.
This is what you may come up against if you are found to be in the same position as myself:
Maggie: We can process refund but less the cancellation fee of GBP28
Maggie: I have sent a voluntary unsubscription request to your email address. Please open it and follow the link provided. This will cancel your membership. Let me know if you are done so I can recheck your account.
**NOTE: No email was received and they proceeded to ignore me for 34 minutes, I then received the following after quoting various statements from my solicitor **
Maggie: I’m sorry but it is clearly stated on the payment section.
Maggie: I have already sent the cancellation link to your email.
you: then do cancell my membership, you can minus the cancellation fee from the UNAUTHORIZED membership fee taken from my account
you: So, a refund of £31 is required to the account named.
you: then my account is to be removed from the site
you: The total refund is the unauthorised membership fee of £59 less the cancellation fee.
**Again, no email was received and they proceeded to ignore me for a further 27 minutes**
you: Are you going to acknowledge and deal with the complaint or not?
You are not currently in a chat session.
I opened another chat, and was connected to ‘Andrea’, The conversation went as follows:
you: I was speaking to ‘Maggie’ however, she proceeded to close the conversation after ignoring me for a total of 64 minutes
you: I want my membership refunding into the bank account used on my Ziinga account, less the cancellation fee.
**16 minutes later**
Andrea: Thank you. Let me check your account first. Your
Andrea: patience is appreciated. I will be with you shortly.
**18 minutes later…**
you: Is this matter going to be resolved with yourself or am I going to be ignored again?
**13 minutes later**
Andrea: I’m checking your account now.
Andrea: I will be with you shortly.
**1 hour 16 minutes later…….**
You are not currently in a chat session.
*****************************************
Just to let you know, you can cancel any outgoing direct debits from your account, this will stop Ziinga attempting to take any more money from your account without authorization.
As to refunds?? Im going back to my solicitor as Ziinga seem to disregard everything said to them.
Note for people new to the site, CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT NOW.
Before they rip you off!!!
Mickey says:
January 12th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
yes – i am sure your phone bill was a fortune as well. For anyone else in this situation – bash off an e:mail to Ziinga cancelling account, and at the same time contact your bank and cancel your credit card. They will issue you with a new one. It is almost impossible to purse a refund as they seem to have found a loophole in the terms and conditions that actually make them legal – though dishonest – they know what they are doing in order to take full advantage of your account without getting done for fraud. Once you change your credit card and make the bank aware of the problem, they will be unable to access your account again. Don’t waste time and money on the phone because they WILL put you on hold and it will cost you even more.
annonymous says:
December 30th, 2011 at 5:25 am
I just was about to pay for a bid on ziinas that I “won” and i didn’t see anything in the terms and conditions stating that I had to pay 90.00AUD per month until I was asked to complete the purchase. I only pay for stuff with a paypal account and thankfuly there wasn’t anything about using a paypal……..they should leave me alone right……. I just found this site after my win…..
December 18th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
I signed up for a free seven day trial and read over all the terms and agreements before giving any of my information. After I signed up it took $149 from me and said it wasn’t refundable. So I decided 2 make the best of it and @ least win something, but to no avail. Its wouldn’t even let me win anything @ all. So I tried 2 call the number oh but it was disconnected(imagine that). Then I tried to chat online with an operator when they finally answered they just said to read over the terms and agreements. Which had changed from the last time I read them before I gave them all my credit info?? Company is a big SCAM!!
December 14th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Hello, I have the same problem! I bid for a camera at £1.96 and after a week they have charged me £59.99!!!! I am so upset and feel after reading this site I am obviously not on my own and would like advice on how to proceed with trying to get my money back and how to get these crooks prosecuted too!!!! I hope to hear from someone as I have spoken to my bank and they cant do much so what can you suggest? I am gobsmacked that this can happen and of course I have never received my camera that I bid for!
I look forward to any help…
Thank you,
Iveta.
terry says:
December 19th, 2011 at 7:34 am
Iveta
I am sorry you have had this happen to you, it has happened to me also.
my partner used my card to buy a camera which she paid £3.42 and won this camera, however as you proberbly now unless you send them a copy of your card front and back, also copy of passport or driving licence, and a signed credit card form they won’t send you the camera. however
they have taken another £59,99 from my account, all my bank can do is send their bank a letter telling them not to take anymore money from
my account, in the meantime all I can do is make sure there is no money in my account so they can’t take anymore, and as this i not a direct debit or standing order so long as the account stays empty they can’t take anymore. so when any money goes into my account I will remove it straight away. again sorry
December 13th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
These people are thieves, my daughter used my debit card to pay for a free auction she won , i then had $119.99 taken out of my account with out my knowledge, on speaking to them i was told that a $57 dollar cancellation fee would apply. There website is a con and they even had a New Zealand telephone number on there which implies that they have a nz office, incorrect, this site is all handled from Malta who have people answering the phone that cant even speak English. BEWARE YOU WILL GET RIPPED OFF, THIS SITE SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN
I am yet to see if the funds less the cancellation fee actually get put back into my account
lesha says:
January 1st, 2012 at 8:39 pm
hi,
i was just about to buy an auction on my mums credit card but then it the fact hit me, im not a idiot so why would i be so stupid and believe this. i suggest 3 things,
1, sue them
2, report them
3, dont be so gullible and believe your getting high quality iPod cameras for like £3 GET REAL.
December 13th, 2011 at 9:02 am
As with everyone else this is fraud – and I am taking it the full hogg.
I reported to my bank who are investigating this and it transpires that Ziinga took the membership fee off before the bid price so what happened to the 7day free trial? They have agreed to a partial refund but insist on the £28 cancellation fee which is ridiculous as I never used the site only a free trial. I’ll post how I get on.
December 11th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Oh My God I thought I was the only one they fooled, I also won product for 3 pounds then suddenly saw I was bound under contract for 3 months, I emailed numerous times with no luck, did not pass my details for confirmation of ID, that sounded a bit strange to me. They said they would not process my claim. I cancelled my membership and my debit card so they cannot take any further money from me. They told me I will have to pay 28 pounds if I cancelled early. What a rip off. Will check with bank to see how much money they have taken, I am so stressed with this whole experience.
Joanne W says:
December 22nd, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Listen do this now!! Cancel your card report it lost or stolen as each card has a different number on the front and security code on the back, when they send you a replacement card the long number on the front will be different and your security code will be different to, anyone trying to collect payment using the card details you signed up with will then be declined as its no longer the card linked to your account!! please reply and let me know how you got along!! dont let these lousy beeps destroy your christmas!! xx
michelle says:
December 12th, 2011 at 10:37 am
the exact same thing happened to me. I wasn’t sure whether to cancel my bank account as I do not want them contacting ”collection agencies” or to damage my credit rating.
I have tried to take this up legally with the customer service manager aka James Wilson. I spoke to him and begged him to let me off. He said he would and that I would not have to pay the 28.00 GBP cancellation fee. I tried to get it from him in writing and he declined; obvious sign he didnt mean it. Now, every time I e-mail them I mention his name. They do not answer my questions, just quote carefully-selected parts of their T&Cs! Funny what I found when I read them..:” Please be assured that you may unsubscribe at any time before the free days end. You can choose to cancel your subscription at any time by contacting our Customer Service team.” Surely this says something?
This company is scam and enjoy taking your money, DO NOT FALL FOR IT! IF IT’S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS!!
December 8th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
These people are thieving, robbing heartless ‘pigs’. Nowhere upon registration does it state anywhere about a monthly subscription service of £59.99. The website is appealing, particularly with Christmas fast approaching, in terms of getting good gifts cheaper but its a complete con. You have to purchase bids (very cheap) in order to obtain any items which is where they get your card details.
Ziinga are getting very rich on all the easily led (me being one) people who have signed up in good faith. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. If anybody comes up with a way of getting their money back – even through they said I could have mine back, I’m still waiting – genuinely, please let me know so I can help spread the word.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
i win as well and they assking me to send them my info.
Due to Ziinga’s one gift per household policy, users need to confirm their identity by sending the following documents as proof:
Scanned copy of Credit Card (front and back)
Scanned copy of valid ID (passport or driver’s license)
Scanned copy of signed credit card form. Download and fill up the form from this link: http://www.ziinga.com/uk/pages/creditcard_form
how someone can trust them.
December 8th, 2011 at 5:29 am
Won an item for a very good price which I paid for but they wouldn’t release it as they wanted all my debit card details again which they wanted to pay for hidden charges and further membership subs. No matter how I asked no amicable solution was offered apart from a refund which didn’t help me getting the Christmas Present I So wanted for my wonderful daughter and being disabled and on benefits this was the best opportunity to give her the one thing she wanted the Ipod Shuffle – Shame :(
monika says:
December 10th, 2011 at 11:24 am
DO NOT TRUST THEM!!!! , don’t give them any of your details if you already did check your bank account ,, they will charge you at least 60 pound for subscribing that you didn’t know about, as they giving you mamership as soon as you pay for that product you won, cancel your account as soon as possible, they already took 180 pound from my account without my authorization as i didnt want any membership, they choose for me without me knowing about it
December 6th, 2011 at 1:40 am
they are trying to scam me and my mrs out of £59 a month each for 3 months trying to say i entered a binding contract. i saw the clause after buying the first bids which puts you onto a platinum scheme so i cancelled the membership which they sent a reply to say my membership is cancelled and will end after the 3 months.
this is fraud and damn right theft.
hilda warren says:
December 20th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
so have they tried charging your account for membership fee and did you fill out the credit card authorization form and give it to them
December 4th, 2011 at 7:51 am
friggin scam, missleading terms and then they play stupid when you contact them… BIG AVOID! i have reported them to the police
nidge says:
December 6th, 2011 at 1:42 am
i have just gone through the same thing.
did the police have much to say?