I placed a snipe to fire 8 seconds before the end of the auction, normally this works fine and the snipes are placed at the requested time.

Yesterday evenng, my 8 second snipe was placed nearly 30 seconds before the end of the auction, allowing someone else in to win it.

Is it worth continuing to use this service if it doesn't do what it says on the tin??

On Sunday evenings, it can sometimes take longer for ebay to accept a bid. AS feels it’s better to bid too early than too late. 30 seconds will probably allow someone enough time to react to your snipe IF they are watching and ready. It has been mentioned once that a snipe went in a minute early on a Sunday evening. If you have difficulty with any of this, then you can either use this link http://support.auctionsniper.com/ to discuss this with support, or change service.


p.s. don't be surprised if region2 (user) leaves something about highest bidder versus the last one and the impact that has one who wins.

I have put a support request in, but it seems from reading other posts, that REGARDLESS of what time you put on, if AS servers determine that ebay is 'slow in responding' your snipe will go in early. So, self-evidently the processing to determine what 'slow' is, may be the problem.

The claim made by AS when you sign up is that your snipe will go in EXACTLY when you want and patently this isn't true. The speed that ebay takes to process the bid is a risk we all take and after some experimentation and advice from other users, we ought to be able to make our own decisions and decide whether to be cautious and put a longer lead time.

So why not be up-front and honest and change the advertising or even publish some real-time stats about ebay's performance? At least then we can make a decision based on fact.

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So why not be up-front and honest and change the advertising or even publish some real-time stats about ebay's performance?

You’ll have to ask support. Someone from support might address this on this thread.

Someone from support has replied, but the reply was very confusing and I bave batted it back.

It seems that the ebay servers are operating in a different time zone and coping with loads from other parts of the world.

The item end time corresponded to 12 noon PST which is very busy for the servers, although IMO Sunday evening UTC (GMT) would seem to be less busy than Friday or Saturday evening UTC.

It seems that 3 snipes are fired, one with calculated lag, the other two on time, and as the 'lagged' one got in first, the other two were ignored.

Confusing innit

If I get something more understandable off tech support, I'll post. They did respond quickly to the problem and were apologetic to the tune of two free snipes.

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Confusing

Yes. It would seem like the lagged one would always get in first? Maybe the other two are for backup?

You lost because they bid 8.53 pounds and you bid 8.03 pounds.

In fact they may have bid 100 pounds, who knows.
Since they sniped as well you are assuming they saw your bid then based theirs exactly on yours?

She's saying you were outbid by another sniper.

R2

jenny,

Could you post a link to the auction?

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She's saying you were outbid by another sniper.

I guess that is true. But they only bid once. It's not one of those cases where they bid and it wasn't enough so they rebid. They did one and only bid with 5 seconds left. The only way the outcome of this may have changed is if Jenny had bid more. The timing of the snipe didn't play in as far as I can tell. Unless the other bidder was there and watching, but still probably didn't matter.

Of course timing plays a part in it!

You can't tell for certain whether the winning bidder sniped or not. The fact is that my bid should have gone in 8 seconds before and it went in early, 23 seconds before the end of the auction. The bidder hadn't bid before, so the idea that their bid was already sitting there doesn't apply.

If my snipe hadn't been early and the higher bid WASN'T a snipe, they wouldn't have had a chance to get it in.

With a tabbed browser and a bid sitting ready to go in another tab, it is perfectly achievable to submit a bid in 22 seconds.

Anway, I am satisfied that the person who answered my support request did their job, investigated and gave me enough information to see that there might be a problem in the software that decides if a bid should be submitted early or not.

One interesting fact that did emerge is that the ebay servers for the UK are running in a different time zone, such that what we might think is a quiet time of day for a UK auction to end is in fact frantically busy wherever in the USA that PST applies. That is why Auctionsniper's servers are adjusted to bid early.

Thanks but I'd rather have my bids go in at the specified time and take the risk, since it is obvious that the 'sensing mechanism' isn't working properly.

Here's the item number if you want to look at the history, 360021954325, but as far as I am concerned, the matter is closed.

The P in PST stands for Pacific if that helps.

I understood that AS adjusts the time when response is slow, not when they think it is likely to be slow. Are you saying that AS adjusts their snipe time even when response time isn't slow?

Your item was due to finish at 8pm exactly on Sunday on ebay.co.uk so I reckon AS adjusted it correctly as this is a busy time.

And check out the winner - they sniped this item which had a proxy bid running on it: 220178658657.

To confirm my thoughts - AS adjusted the snipe time at a busy time and your were outsniped rather than out-bid.

I agree - AS should allow people the option of an exact snipe but then, I guess, they'd whinge when the snipe didn't get placed at busy times...

R2

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The timing of the snipe didn't play in as far as I can tell.

This, and posts in the past, make it sound like the measure of success is NOT based on performance but on consequences. If the snipe goes in early, as long as someone doesn’t react to it, then it’s “no harm – no foul”. Taking this to another setting – should the baby sitter do drugs, then, as long as the baby sleeps through it, the baby sitter did their job.

Do remember, this item ended at £8.53. Had it been £800.53 or £8000.53, there might have been more/some last second sniping. At higher prices, other snipers have a greater financial interest in monitoring the auction, and there’s a greater likelihood that someone will react to a premature snipe.

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You can't tell for certain whether the winning bidder sniped or not.

I do not understand. Of course the winning bid was a snipe; it came in the final minute from someone who had not previously bid, which makes it a snipe.

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The fact is that my bid should have gone in 8 seconds before and it went in early, 23 seconds before the end of the auction. The bidder hadn't bid before, so the idea that their bid was already sitting there doesn't apply.

What does the last sentence mean? I do not understand.