I used A S for the first time today and did not win the item. I put in a lead time of 7 sec and you sniped at 18 sec which was 1 sec after the highest bidder at that point. With 18 sec left the same bidder had the next bid down in 10 sec to win the item. Now before you BITE ME yes I have read the FAQ and understand why but my point is if 18sec is what it is going to be then give it to me straight up on the sign up page. The page sets 7sec as your recommended time. It was a hard Item to find in that condition and I lost by 5 bucks however if I did not use A S I would not have been in the race at all. Positive is it can only get better

BF, how can it know when you set your snipe at 7 secs that the server speeds etc are going to dictate an earlier snipe at the end of the auction?
I agree that AS should just not bother asking you to specify a time as it's rarely adhered to at busy times and causes confusion!
It could say something like:

quote:

Warning - your auction finishes at 20:00:00 which is a busy time so we may need to lengthen the lead time.

but this doesn't allow for unforseen problems...

R2

yep, this issue has been excused away so many times, it is ridiculous. I made this argument months ago and it was also excused away and eventually locked and I think deleted...

pretty simple, auction sniper cannot do what other snipe services can....I think they are on the cheap with a crappy connection and do not want to fork out the dough to be on the backbone like the other services are who repeatedly place bids at 1 second left as opposed to the handicapped auction sniper that can at best drop a bid in at around 6-8 seconds....

they will beat you over the head with the excuses...but, it can be done with less time, it is being done with less time and others are repeatedly winning auctions against auction sniper sheep, period, point blank, end of story.....

watch, they will try to excuse my comments away...wanna bet?

I will not disagree with the claim that AS' "time set" function is a rote gesture. I don't think that anyone here will argue with that, provided the posts are made in a courteous fashion.

What some members here do take issue with is the sniper who does not understand the eBay proxy bidding system (including when newbies claim that they lost by X amount, as if they actually had any way of knowing how much they lost by).

I do wonder about members who post that other services are more reliable. Why are they still in this forum?

My reply would be that we old timers are still here precisely because AS has proven reliable (not flawless, but quite reliable) for a very long time. I have used them for well over six years, which is an eternity on the internet.

quote:

Originally posted by Chatter: ...snip...
I do wonder about members who post that other services are more reliable. Why are they still in this forum? ...snip...

How do they know that about the "others"; have they used all of "them" for any extended period??

Having a forum must expose AS to extra, and occasionally/often unjust, criticism/abuse. And sometimes the criticism/abuse takes the form of a crusade, which goes beyond just informing other users about a potential problem. It’s as if the poster is on some personal vendetta. For me, if I’m unhappy with a service, I’m more apt to move on, and usually quietly. The management of any company knows that behind a disappointed customer is the potential for that customer to become an ex-customer. Never understood the logic behind threatening to take one’s business elsewhere. Does that approach actually work, or does it just make the person feel better? Maybe it’s the equivalent of being crappy to a waitress. After all, they’re pretty much defenseless – pretty much an easy target. One rarely/never sees anyone get crappy with a cop.

Without input from other users, via something like a forum, how can one get any feel for how a site/service performs?

I don't know who owns AS and I don't need to, but I can give you some advice from experience. I ran a retail/wholesale manufacturing company in Australia for over 20 years. The success of my company was based on one golden rule.
No matter how wrong the customer is, they are always right. You will never convince an upset customer it was their fault that it didn't happen to their expectations. The feedback from kimmothy is a result of frustration that AS will never appear to be at fault. The best companies in the world don't always get it right. AS is a vulnerable business by is nature but the fact that it is still operating says enough. I may be wrong , but kimmothy, myself and so many others will get greater customer satisfaction, and respect AS more if it admitted it has issues with snipe times, but as I'm sure is true, is working to improve its service. Honesty is still the best policy and people love and respect an honest company. This is not to suggest that AS is dishonest in any way .
I have not given up on AS yet even though my first 2 snipes have not been successful. These have both been a flop because AS let the rest of the world bid to high (LOL don’t forget the customer is always right)