Bidding Owl has a rating of 4.85 stars from 55 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. Reviewers satisfied with Bidding Owl most frequently mention online auction, customer service, and non profit. Bidding Owl ranks 18th among Auction sites.
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We have used BiddingOwl for several years but were discouraged by some of its quirks. We decided to go with another site this year but that failed for many reasons. We decided to go back to BiddingOwl and, WOW!, what a surprise. The NEW BiddingOwl is as full of features as you would like. The site has been updated and is modern and efficient. In addition, the customer service team is incredibly responsive, usually replying to questions in minutes.
I was actually shocked to see a bill from Bidding Owl after my experience with them. Everything about this experience was terrible - from the picture hosting (there is no way to edit or modify your pictures and everything was posted sideways) to the fact that they can charge after the fact without disclosing pricing or the fact that they'll take 5% of non-profit fundraising money after doing absolutely NOTHING. We had nothing but problems with them, and for the most part, my auction tanked when in years past it's been our highest rated fundraiser. Customer service is non-existent and the phone number on the site doesn't work (but has recently been changed from a 1-800 number). I emailed them to complain - no response. This screams "scam" and I'm considering filing a complaint with the FTC.
We have used BiddingOwl for several years but were discouraged by some of its quirks. We decided to go with another site this year but that failed for many reasons. We decided to go back to BiddingOwl and, WOW!, what a surprise. The NEW BiddingOwl is as full of features as you would like. The site has been updated and is modern and efficient. In addition, the customer service team is incredibly responsive, usually replying to questions in minutes.
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We used this for an online auction for our non-profit.
This site is great! I love that all of the auctions on here benefit nonprofit organizations. The bidding process is easy, and I've never had a problem receiving my merchandise!
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I used gift cards.
Bidding Owl made running an auction very easy. We have a live event with two weeks of pre-bidding which raised over £700 at the pre-bidding stage. Very excited about what will happen this afternoon.
Great help, quick replies to emails with all the information I needed. I very much recommend using Bidding Owl!
Tip for consumers:
Great company
Products used:
Auction Site
I have used Biddingowl for four years. The first year I had no idea what I was doing and they patiently helped me through the whole process. The next year I had a glitch right before the auction went live, and they helped me fix it very quickly. This year, I feel like an old pro with only a couple of questions, but they are still very helpful. The site is clean, easy to use, and makes us look like a highly capable organization. I really appreciate all the help they have offered through the years.
We've been using Bidding Owl for a few years now for our non profit fundraising event. There are clear instructions throughout their site and they are always available for a call to walk you through a problem. There fees are reasonable and they don't require any upfront payments so you can earn revenue from your event and then pay them their percentage. Win-win.
Bidding Owl provided an EXCEPTIONAL online auction management experience for our non-profit education foundation's recent fundraising event. Bidding Owl has always been amazing, but their recent software updates are PHENOMENAL! Adding auction item information, photos, and links to donor websites was SO SIMPLE! Our online auction site looks so professional and beautiful! This was my first experience entering all of our auction items and I actually found it ENJOYABLE & so rewarding to see the final product! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND BIDDING OWL!
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The customer service at Bidding Owl was truly exceptional!
We've used Bidding Owl for the past several years for out PTA online auction and it's been wonderful! Customer service is super helpful and very responsive.
Its a great site to run an auction, Its very user friendly and the tech team is beyond helpful! They are extremely nice, friendly and always there to navigate through any technical questions! This is our 3rd time using Bidding Owl for our school auction without any hurdle!
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2nd year using this platform. First year we had lots of questions and had a learning curve to overcome on our end because we had never done an online auction before. But the auction went off smoothly. Second year the front end business of loading items/photos went much smoother. Had a glitch when the auction closed and the winners did not receive the notifications they should have gotten right away. The customer service people do respond quickly. There are some upgrades I'd like to see like the ability to sort your onscreen bidder list, look up winner for each item faster, crop and edit pictures after they are uploaded, etc. If those added I'd definitely give them a few more stars, but for the price and service I think it's a good option for small nonprofits.
Tip for consumers:
Make sure you take the time to familiarize yourself with the site before you start loading your auction items. Things will go much smoother.
We have been using Bidding Owl for our online auctions since 2015 and have had many great experiences with them. The Auctions run smoothly and the folks that work there are very nice, helpful and most importantly, competent in all aspects of setting up and running an online auction! They do a great job during the entire set-up of each auction and helping us set-up and design the website for each event. Our non-profit organization, the United States Lighthouse Society, has now had many successful auctions with them and they have all done great.
On a different note, there are two distinctive financial differences between them and other companies that we have experience with:
1. Currently they do not charge a flat annual fee just to be able to have auctions with them. We found that many other companies charge a fee simply for the ability to have an auction on their site. This is difficult for us to justify, especially when we don't know how much money an auction with make (or lose).
2. The percentage they charge is the same or less than the other companies that we have used or looked into for our online auctions.
For us, the financial reasons are enough to use Bidding Owl for our online auctions, but when you combine that with the great job they do and that they go out of their way to ensure that your auction is successful... The decision to use them for our online auctions was very easy.
We highly recommend Bidding Owl to any non-profit looking to have an auction.
Tip for consumers:
Support lighthouse preservation: United States Lighthouse Society - USLHS.org
Products used:
Online Auction
We are a nonprofit high school and use BiddingOwl once per year to host the online auction portion of our Spring Fundraising Gala. It's been a great free, convenient option, and it helps us keep more of the money we raise!
When doing our online auction, we found this site easy to set up. With the necessary information even if we are not a US based organization.
We also received positive feedback from those who decided to bid on our items, as it for the most was self explanatory how to go about registering as both a bidder but also bidding.
Our bidder also likes the function that let them know if someone over bid their high bid.
We liked the fact that the company reached out to each winning bidder and let them know that they had the winning bid at the end of the auction.
Our Rotary Club used Bidding Owl for our Internet auction and it worked very well. We will be using it again
This is really an easy auction platform to use. We have used it twice and are getting ready to do our third. It's ended up saving tons of time versus trying to do it on Facebook and was the cheapest option. The customer service is great and it's easy to customize.
Products used:
Auction platform
Site was relatively easy to figure out how to use. Helpful support documents. Responded to email questions next business day. Bidders don't seem to be having issues, easy to register and bid. Easy to export item list. Would have liked to be able to customize winning bid email and invoice, but maybe in the future. Liked that we could opt out of using PayPal through bidding owl website and use our own payment website.
I was tasked with finding an online auctioin site and after much research chose Bidding Owl. Why? A real person actually answered the phone when I had questions. And, ongoing questions sent by email got prompt and helpful replies froman actual person. My Friends of the Library group were first time online auction users and Bidding Owl was a great partner. They will lbe the "go to" choice for alll future auctions.
Tip for consumers:
Great company! Great service!
Products used:
Online auction platform
Bidding Owl has been amazing for us. It is simple to use and allow for online pre bids from auction patrons along with on site bids and the checkout and payment process was so smooth. It allows us to sell tickets to our events, handle sponsors and volunteers and the auction setup and implementation portion is so user friendly.
Products used:
Online auction tools
The Bidding Owl auction site specializes in helping non-profits. We are a private non-profit animal shelter that operates on donations only. This is the second year we have used BiddingOwl as our auction site for our signature annual fundraiser in which approximately 225 guests attend each year. The program is user friendly. The site looks very professional for your guests. Their customer service personnel are always available and very patient and knowledgeable. They provide a live group training which is great. All that are involved in your auction fundraiser can ask questions and have hands on experience before the event. This eliminates having one person learn the system and try to train others. The fee charged is very reasonable. One upgrade I would suggest is being able to send pre-event texts and emails to guests from the previous year and new guests that register.
Tip for consumers:
Think of possible scenarios and ask questions of their knowledgeable customer service before your event so you will be prepared for any situation a guest may ask about.
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Utilized their auction site for our signature annual fundraiser two years in a row.
Our band boosters utilized bidding owl.com for our spring silent auction in 2022. This was our very first time to use online software to run a silent auction. It was very easy to add the items into the system and everything went smoothly during the auction. The bidders loved being able to see the items online, bid, see when outbid, and check out online once the auction was over! We increased our earnings by more than 4 times what we did the years before using only a live system! We raised about $3400 when live online before the in person silent auction event even began! We will be using them again this year for our spring silent auction and highly recommend the software to any group fundraising using a silent auction!
Products used:
Online Silent Auction
Bidding Owl allowed us to provide a friendly user interface for our donors. Tracking the payments has been easy. It would be ideal if we could upload multiple items, or reusing past items can be helpful. Not sure if we can or if I need to learn more. 1st time to setting t up.
I was actually shocked to see a bill from Bidding Owl after my experience with them. Everything about this experience was terrible - from the picture hosting (there is no way to edit or modify your pictures and everything was posted sideways) to the fact that they can charge after the fact without disclosing pricing or the fact that they'll take 5% of non-profit fundraising money after doing absolutely NOTHING.
We had nothing but problems with them, and for the most part, my auction tanked when in years past it's been our highest rated fundraiser.
Customer service is non-existent and the phone number on the site doesn't work (but has recently been changed from a 1-800 number). I emailed them to complain - no response.
This screams "scam" and I'm considering filing a complaint with the FTC.
Bidding Owl was a tremendous help with our fundraising for our non-profit. The site was very easy for use to manage, it was easy for the bidders, and the reporting aspects made closing everything out very efficient. It was great to have the ability to connect to PayPal and the fees were vey reasonable. I highly recommend this site to other non-profits.
The Bidding Owl site for Hanson's button Barn is just great! The max bid and bid now options are so easy to use and instruction is so clear. The Button Barn is an awesome site and I have used Bidding Owl on it for a few years now. Perfectly simple and I recommend it highly!
Tip for consumers:
Button auctions can be confusing, but Bidding Owl makes it simple.
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Buttons
Loved using this website. As a principal, I was incharge of our online event and it was a huge success.
We have been doing in person auctions at our church (The Plymouth Church in Framingham) since 2005, using our own (very old) proprietary database. It was antiquated and left a lot to be desired. 2020 was to be another in person auction, but with the pandemic, we decided to go online for the first time. We found Bidding Owl through friends who have run auctions, and we will never ever go back to the way we did auctions before. Bidding Owl makes it so easy to set up the auction, add items and all the details around it, get paid by the buyers, notify people, and so much more. We decided to stick with the online format again this year, but if we go to in person, we will definitely looking to use Bidding Owl.
Products used:
Online auction site
There is a reason BiddingOwl is the top charity auction provider in the industry. They offer exceptional customer support and a full-service management platform to ensure your auction event, whether it be online or in-person, runs smoothly. Besides online/mobile auctions, BiddingOwl supports traditional paper bid sheets, tickets, donations, paddle raises, fund-a-need and more. Try them out. You won’t be disappointed.
I am sorry that you misunderstood our pricing. We offer a free service for traditional paper-bid sheet and outcry auctions. However, the use of online auctions is not free. We charge 5% of the highest bids placed. This is detailed on our website on the Pricing page (desktop) http://www.biddingowl.com/price-comparison.cfm
Further, when you sign up for an account the pricing is detailed on that page as well. * Silent and Live Auction manager is FREE; Online Auction Feature (including online pre-bid on silent and live items) is 5% of highest bid. I understand that this page might be misleading at first glance.
Please know that when you set up your site your ran the Online Auction Wizard. In this wizard in step #4 it asked you for a credit card number. As stated on the page: "In order to run your own online auction on BiddingOwl.com, we charge 5% based on your high bids. Once your auction has ended, BiddingOwl.com, LLC reserves the right to charge your credit card based on the amount of highest bids." On that page is also a checkbox that asks you to agree to the terms and conditions. Which you have agreed to.
I am very sorry that you have this misunderstanding. Yes, we do advertise our free version of our software heavily, however, online auctions are subject to a charge.