Question:
I just enlisted yesterday with AS and I asked for a 3 SECOND LEAD TIME. At close to end of auction I was following the bidding - I was bidding for two separate "matching" items - AS put my bids in ONE AND A HALF MINUTES PRIOR TO CLOSE OF BIDDING !!!!!!!! What earthly good does this do - I could have done that myself. Needless to say another bidder kept bidding against me every 20 seconds (& not in normal increments, but $5.00, $7.00 etc. increments), so by end of auction I paid the maximum of my bid. What a rip off!!! I've emailed AS twice for an answer as to why this happened and still haven't received an answer from them. I want everyone who reads this to BEWARE of this service. I won't use it again!! Nora

Choices:
not sure what I'm supposed to print here??

 

You clicked on 'poll' rather than 'discussion'...

AS support are all at home with their families for thanksgiving so you won't get a response for a while - BTW - what email address did you use? You'd do better to log a support call via the help tab IMHO.

Why was your snipe early? 'Cos that's what AS does when things are running slowly. 3 seconds on a Sunday evening is asking for trouble - most 'experts' go for 8 normally and 15+ on Sundays when the traffic is high.

And remember, it's not the last bid that wins - it's the highest.

You didn't say whether you won or lost - I'm guessing that you won so things aren't all bad.

I suggest you read the FAQs and search the forum as this problem has been responded to many times in the past!

And now a message to AS support:

SARA - HERE IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A PROBLEM CAUSED BY YOU NOT KEEPING PUNTERS INFORMED AT THE TIME THAT THEY PLACE THE SNIPE - IF THIS PERSON HAD HAD A MESSAGE 'POP UP' TELLING THEM THAT THEIR SNIPE WAS ON A SUNDAY EVENING AUCTION THEN MAYBE THIS POSTING WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED!

ALSO - THE FACT THAT THEY CHOSE A 3 SEC LEAD TIME IMPLIES THAT THEY HAVE NOT UNDERSTOOD THE BASICS OF HOW TO USE AUCTIONSNIPER - PERHAPS YOU SHOULD BE REVIEWING THE FAQs AS WELL?!

R2

Nora,

Those first impressions can be lasting. Can’t say I blame you. Had my first snipe been like yours, I would have felt pretty much the same way. Sunday evenings are very busy for ebay, and response times can slow up. And, those slow ups can be very random. One minute fine – next minute down the tubes. AS tries (boy do they try) to compensate for this, but sometimes they compensate too much. Since someone was able to place all those snipes, this would appear to be one of those times.

Not to make excuses, but I’d rather have the snipe go in earlier and take some nibbling than for it not to go in at all (that’s a personal preference).

You might consider trying AS again. There are some things that AS could/should improve, but typically the sniping side of the service is pretty impressive.

thanks to all who responded to my upset over the minute and a half snipe - I'm new to this whole thing (even this message center), so I do agree with what everyone had to say - also AS SHOULD inform "newcomers" about the 3 second time frame not being wise. I didn't know that. They ought to give very helpful suggestions about sniping - after all it's pretty basic rules I'd think. But alas, ones that I didn't realize. Yes, I DID win the items - and am happy, but it's really disconcerting to see the price sit at $25 for the entire 7 days, and then my bid goes in 1-1/2 minutes prior to closing and then up,up,up,up,up, every 10-15 seconds thereafter my bid was entered. You want to scream. Especially when it is your first experience and you're sitting waiting with baited breath for your bid to be entered right at the end - and here it is WAY ahead of time. I'll get over it - I already have - AS gave me 2 free snipes, but I'm not trusting of them now. (I want to bid on two items unfortunately at the weekend (end of bidding) AND on the hour and 1/4 hr. AS also said something about it taking longer when bids end on the hour and 1/4 hours - my goodness such a FINICKY little service!!! Nora (thanks to all who gave me some advice).

sorry - meant to add a P.S. for "Region 2" (whoever and wherever that is in the cosmos) - what is "BTW" and "IMHO" - sorry this is techno-speak I don't understand - I'm greener than the grass when it comes to this lingo. Ps. advise so I know for the future - thanks - Nora.

BTW = By the way
IMHO = In my humble opinion

Also, you'll see a lot of LMAO (laughing my ass off) and LOL (Laughing out loud).

Nora, BTW= by the way...IMHO=in my humble opinion.

Sniping on As is not such a big deal. I use 8 seconds during normal times. I add 10 seconds if the auction ends on the half, quarter, or hour. On Sunday between 5:30 and 8 PST, I add 15 seconds. One more little hint,always bid in an odd amount such as 21.76 rather than 20.00 and, last but not least, snipe the most you are willing to pay!

Region 2 is a play on the ridiculous region restrictions on DVDs. Region 1 is USA, Region 2 is the UK and Europe (guess where I come from!) etc. Nowadays you can buy multi-region DVDs so it was a pointless exercise.

TTFN

R2

Nora,

You might want this:
http://www.netlingo.com/emailsh.cfm   (roll down)
http://www.netlingo.com/

There's a pot-full of these lingo/jargon sites “out there”, but this will get you started.

AHHA! I wondered what your name meant R2!

quote:

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Originally posted by Nora C:
thanks to all who responded to my upset over the minute and a half snipe - I'm new to this whole thing (even this message center), so I do agree with what everyone had to say - also AS SHOULD inform "newcomers" about the 3 second time frame not being wise. I didn't know that. They ought to give very helpful suggestions about sniping - after all it's pretty basic rules I'd think.

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They DO give such suggestions. They are in Lead time suggestions in FAQ.. It is also mentioned quite frequently in this support forum.

quote:

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Originally posted by Chatter:
They DO give such suggestions. They are in http://www.auctionsniper.com/faq.aspx#64. It is also mentioned quite frequently in this support forum.

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True, but they don’t match what we’ve learned from Sara on this forum. Here’s everything I could find from the FAQs:



Lead Time
Lead Time is the amount of time in seconds from the end of the auction that you would like to snipe. A 5 second lead time will bid when there are just 5 seconds remaining. Auction Sniper recommends a 5 second lead time. Add 2-4 seconds more during peak times (5-10 p.m. PST and weekends).

The “add 2-4 seconds” would mean a 7-9 second lead-time during peak times, which isn’t what we’ve been taught. And most (I think) of the regulars on this forum use a minimum of 8 seconds during non-peak times.



Not in Time
We sent your snipe to eBay at your requested time, however eBay did not accept your bid until after the auction ended. This occurred because you set your lead time well below our recommended 7 seconds, or excessive internet traffic prevented your bid from going through in time.

“... our recommended 7 seconds ...”?



Auction Sniper will send your bid to eBay exactly when we agree to, on the right date at exactly the right time with a 5 second lead time. After we send your bid, it can encounter internet traffic and not reach eBay in time. In addition, eBay may not be able to process your bid in time during peak hours: you might want using slightly higher lead times between 6 and 10pm PST.

Wording such as the following might be misleading: “Auction Sniper will send your bid to eBay exactly when we agree to, on the right date at exactly the right time with a 5 second lead time.”



64. What is the ideal lead time to use for a snipe?

Lead time is the number of seconds from the end of an auction that you would like AuctionSniper to bid for you. We recommend lead times between 5 and 10 seconds, although we've seen times as low as 2 and 3 seconds work just fine. Currently, Auction Sniper successfully places 99.9% of all snipes with 5 second lead times.

We don't recommend anything less than 5 seconds Although we send the snipe on time, during peak times an eBay server may not process it in time. This is not the fault of eBay or us; internet traffic is just heavier at certain times. And during peak periods, you might consider adding 2-4 seconds more since their servers seem to be taking quite a hit during that time (5-10 p.m. PST), and on weekends.



Also, there’s no discussion of auctions ending on the quarter-hour.

The lead-time issue is obviously very important, and users shouldn’t have to come to the forum to get second-hand information from other users. Not to be a pain about this, but at least in this area, it seems apparent the FAQs could use some TLC.

eagerly awaiting Sara's response to my Suggestion (above) on this one!]

R2

and waiting...and waiting...and waiting......

Sara - have you read this? I'm sure you have so why not reply?!

R2

are you flogging that Chatter!

I wonder if Chatter’s picture is an innuendo. It sure looks like an innuendo.

quote:

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Originally posted by region2:
are you flogging that Chatter!

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I asked that after Chatter posted an image which is now gone... It was a dead horse so my comment could be construed as amusing!

R2