Get firedup if you are a member of DENSA (firedup.com)

Member Name: john.sw

Product:	firedup.com
Date:	04/02/01 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: A complete waste of time

If you think that The News of the World and the Sun are quality newspapers you will love firedup.com – the “auction site” that is also brought to you by News International.

However, anyone who is not a fully paid-up member of DENSA will soon realise that FiredUp, like its printed stable-mates is big on headlines, but low on content.

My quest was to find a few good affiliate sites for a client. We never recommend an affiliate scheme unless we have tried and tested it ourselves, so, armed with a credit card I logged on to firedup.com.

The layout was plain and simple – I hate having to wait for tedious Flash animations before I can get down to business – and as I read the heading in the columns on the left I realised that this was not really an auction site after all!

Most of the items offered for sale seem to be at a fixed price; take it or leave it.

There were a few items in an auction, so I tried my luck.

The mixed wine case, “bids start at £1”, sounded good, so, having registered I placed my bid.

The emails arrived as I was out-bid, and as I placed new bids.

The auction closed at 11:00am, so I logged in at 10:55 to check progress, and maybe place a last bid. Guess what? The database was down and wouldn’t let me in!

Later that day I received confirmation that my bid was successful. Two cases of wine at £19 a case. Postage and packing was clearly stated at £5.95.

I waited nearly three weeks for the wine to arrive, but there was only one case.

In the wine trade a case is, and always has been, twelve bottles. At firedup.com, apparently it is only six bottles.

19 X 2 + 5.95 = 43.95 in my book, but my credit card was debited £52.94.

Maybe postage was charged for two cases, even though it was in one box? Let’s try again.

19 X 2 + 5.95 + 5.95 = 49.90. So what was the other £3.04 for
? At the time of writing I have no idea.

What I can tell you is that firedup.com has been a great disappointment

· the wine took nearly three weeks to arrive
· it cost far more than I expected
· the “case” was only half a case
· the web site was unreliable
· most items were straight sales – not auctions at all

If you want to take my advice, do not even bother to log on to firedup.com.

The only consolation I have is that I can now drown my sorrows in some rather nice, rather over-priced wine!

Summary: