I just watched an item I wanted end without a single bid, for $800 less than what the dealer wants.

I've always trusted AuctionSniper.com, never had an issue in the years I've used it, but never again.

I entered the auction in about 3-4 days ago, checked it yesterday, everything seemed fine, checked it 6 or so hours ago, everything seemed fine.

Sure enough, it never bids. I log into the website to see the BS database maintenance message, saying its performed from 2am - 4am EST. Well it doesn't seem to be that time right now.

Sorry, but this is just absolutely unacceptable. I was even watching the auction in person the last few minutes, I could have bid myself, but I didn't because I counted on your site.

Might I suggest you invest in a off-site backup e-mail server to alert us of these problems? Not that it will really matter to me, I'm done with this site and plan to let all that I come across how unreliable your service can be.

These last few days have been very frustrating. If the collocation site power is failing, build in redundancy with multiple servers. A "snipe" does not require high bandwidth. If the power goes out, there should be UPSs to take care of the interim. And if your colo's power goes out for days at a time (which seems to be the claim here) then you need to find another colo. Any server you go with should have better uptime than this site has over the past few days. I understand that uptime is never 100%, but the last few days have been ridiculous!

quote:

Originally posted by aschrock:
And if your colo's power goes out for days at a time (which seems to be the claim here) then you need to find another colo.

They have. I think AS posted that it goes online tomorrow.

quote:

Originally posted by aphexii:
I just watched an item I wanted end without a single bid, for $800 less than what the dealer wants.

Anyone have any idea what this means?

quote:

I've always trusted AuctionSniper.com, never had an issue in the years I've used it, but never again.

Wow, never had an issue in "years," but lets a few bad days chase him off. Such mature, reasoned judgment.

quote:

Sorry, but this is just absolutely unacceptable. I was even watching the auction in person the last few minutes, I could have bid myself, but I didn't because I counted on your site.

Bad plan if the item was a "must have," but I guess this is what one would expect from a whining teenager.

quote:

Not that it will really matter to me, I'm done with this site and plan to let all that I come across how unreliable your service can be.

Now that's an original, never-before-been-heard threat. And with all of your friends, that would amount to a half-dozen attendees at a Hannah Montana concert.

And that is precisely where you can take your petulant melodrama. Don't let the door hit you....

quote:

Originally posted by Rick:
I think AS posted that it goes online tomorrow.

My mistake. It goes online tonight (U.S.) during the wee hours:
http://community.auctionsniper.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9...501099982#4501099982

quote:

And if your colo's power goes out for days at a time (which seems to be the claim here) then you need to find another colo.

1.) we didn't claim it's out for days. The circuit has overloaded 3 times since Wednesday. Each time has required several hours to turn it back on. We had already made provisions to move our equipment after the first interruption for this Tuesday but obviously it's died twice since and we're trying to move it faster now.

2.) we already have several other facilities and have moved some equipment there.

3.) you can't just move everything. Electricans typically need to run new power circuits to each cabinet to ensure enough power. There are other considerations as well.

We've been using this colo with few problems for almost 10 years. There was no reason to assume anything like this would happen. That company was purchased by another company sometime last year I think and the new owners are doing a poor job obviously. So we're moving our business to our other facilities. We should have that completed in the next day. In the meantime it would be best to manually snipe.

This is unacceptable,,, very unhappy

I am sympathetic for Sara and the Sniper team. It sounds like they inherited a rotten relationship with a provider. Hopefully you have a contract with your colo so that they'll pick up some of the transfer costs, because of all the downtime.

In the meantime, what would be nice is if we received emails when the site goes down. Otherwise we find out when bids fail to be placed. Also, as another suggestion, find a way to make our bids available to be viewed, so we can at least see which ones won't be placed. Maybe in the same email notification: "We expect a 6-hour outage, and the following snipes may not be placed: X, Y, Z. We advise you to place them on your own." (now this last part is a little bit in the dream category - if your power is out, there's not much you can do)

But when it comes down to it, the one thing this site is supposed to do is place a snipe. If it's not working, the purpose of using this site is defeated. Sorry guys.

Saying that it's best to not use auctionsniper if you really want an item is like saying your car will start anytime, except when you really want it to.

It sounds like you're passing the buck to the customer. And customers really don't like that.

In your contract with the collocation, they must have guaranteed some kind of uptime and have it up in a certain amount of time ( Contract) . Once they broke this agreement, they must have compensated some way or another. Can you tell us what they did to compensate?
What is the name of this collocation so we can spread the word and have this place closed down by word of mouth?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nonoy5,

I haven't been on here forever but I see that the dumbass CHATTER is still clogging up everything with meaningless and mean responses. Maybe, Chatter, you could try saying something useful rather than your same old tired silliness.

Anyway, is this why I keep getting some Microsoft 401.3 error message?

All I ask would be an email saying "technical difficulties" rather than just losing an item. Some how, some way, the billing system always works just fine.

Steve

quote:

Chatter

Either your work for AS or you're an idiot for blindly supporting this unreliable service. Nevertheless, you're an a-hole.

AS is a service which has ONE SINGLE PURPOSE - To bid on eBay auctions. When that service fails, those of us who DEPEND on it, get screwed. There are no exceptions, no excuses, the blame falls squarely on AS when the bids don't get placed.

I have EVERY RIGHT to be mad, I DEPENDED on AS to bid and the auction was never bid on. Could I have bid myself? SURE, but did I? NO, I expected AS to and had no reason to think it wouldn't.

Frankly I found your reply to be both childish and ignorant. You can stupidly pick apart my post all you want, but your poor attempts at humor just show you to be the ass that you apparently are, and don't change one simple fact, AuctionSniper has FAILED (a point which you seem to completely gloss over, convenient?)

Anyway, you don't know me, nor a thing about me. Your post is filled with both inaccuracies and assumptions that couldn't be farther from the truth. But wait, oh that's right, see my second sentence above.

And no, I won't let the door hit me on the way out. I'm done here.

Hi,

Welcome to Chatter and the nonsense she/he posts. I think AS must be the family business.

Over the years I have found AS to be reasonably reliable and user friendly but they, and their sycophantic cult followers, do not like criticism. Their failures are always someone else's fault, usually they blame their subscribers, but nothing is ever AS's fault.

To: Sniper Sarah

You said it would be best to manually place our bids. I just went through the entire process of signing in on my account and there was no warning to that effect on any of the screens. There are probably a lot of unsuspecting AS customers who are going to be placing bids, not knowing that AS can't place them.

You are doing a disservice by not placing a warning out there and that is just not good customer service.

Dear JLR,

The post by Sarah you are referring to was made when the Auction Sniper website was unavailable, and that does not apply at present. The Auction Sniper website and services have since been restored, so scheduled bids are being placed once again.

We are going to be moving our systems to a new colocation as soon as we can though, which will entail some down time, and I'll be posting information on that move in the "News" section of our forum when additional information becomes available.

-Mike

I am so glad I don't work for a small internet company any more. This has been a DISASTER and I can only imagine what's been going on behind the scenes trying to deal with this meltdown.

(Based upon the outward appearance, I would not be surprised if the colocation provider suddenly went into bankruptcy and the AS folks couldn't even get access to their stuff to port to a new server at a new location. This is just a guess, but I'm imaging dealing with lawyers and bankruptcy judges on a weekend in the summer. Or even just finding an alternative CoLo on a moment's notice.)

This is awful. But it's been the only major event which I am aware of in several years of dealing with AS. Hopefully it will pass and AS will be able to repair relationships with its customers and replace those customers who were so bummed out that they jumped.

Meanwhile, if anyone at AS has a minute, it might be nice to post an update letting the users know if the system is now stable. (It's now about 17:45 GMT on Tuesday, July 1 and things look OK but appearances can be deceiving.)

To AS staffers: Just remember, that years from now you'll look back on this and have the urge to bang your head on the nearest hard surface until the memory starts to go away.

Cheers,
The Old Bear

To Mike:

Well, when AS goes down, it is front page news and should first and foremost be placed on any screen that comes up when one logs on. Not sure why that can't be accomplished, since it is apparent AS does not have the resources (or doesn't have the courtesy) of e-mailing people with pending snipes.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JLR,

Hahaha, I found chatter to be very funny.

Look, if the site has failed just a few times in one week out of 10 years,
I say 1 outta 10 ain't bad.

If you're going to be so mad about it, I say you deserve to lose your items.

I don't like missing things, but they're just things, if it's 1 outta 10, I'm not about to have a fat whinge about it.

Not like anyone's cut off yer arm, mate.

You must be a pain in any relationship, business or personal if that's how you run your end.

You're probably not a teenager, but it's funny to imagine you are. I got more of an image of an indignant bitter old chook, but that's just my interpretation.

I guess my take on this is that it's still the best deal out there.
I took a free 15-day membership in brand B and I will use it until it's used up, but $50 for an annual membership? No thanks.
I'm hoping the bugs will be worked out here in a another week.

If you're looking at a no-bid auction and you're worried that AS isn't going to bid for you, then place a bid - this is simple.

I'm a new user and this was only my second snipe for a rare item that I really wanted.

I set the snipe for way over what it could possibly sell for because I can't access e-bay on my work computer

Guess what.

Got home all excited and found that the snipe had not been set and I lost the auction (and to rub salt in the wound the item went for a fraction of what I was prepared to pay!)

Now.....tech problems happen to the best run site.

But.....when I added the snipe late last night there was NOTHING on the site to indicate that there was problem with it.

But.....there was no warning e-mail say that loaded snipes may not go through.

I sent an e-mail to "support" and got a copy-and-pasted reply which led me to this forum where I find out that this is an on-going problem!!!

Why the ^&^%^%&^%^% was there not something on the entry page to warn customers?!?!?!

What a half-***** incompetant way to run a business!

Well folks, I'm off to one of the competitors out there.

I can't rely on a service like this doing what it says on the can and then not alerting their customers to the simple basic point of adding a flash to the front page to say "we have problems".

I feel sorry for businesses that rely on this "service".....wonder how many will also jump ship!

Jeez....I waited three years for that item today. Cannot tell you how sick I am at losing it.

quote:

Originally posted by Not_Happy!:
Cannot tell you how sick I am at losing it.

You're underestimating yourself - on both the threads you posted to.