I can't really address the email or status message questions, altho I've seen that happen before. I don't really look for or rely on the system emails. And occasionally I've a seen a snipe sit in a certain status for a while before it finally moves on to it's "resting place."
As far as why your bid didn't get placed, I have a good guess. I looked at the auction and it ended exactly on the 1/2 hour, on Sunday, during peak time... a triple-whammy. I suspect a 8 second lead time just wasn't enough time to get to eBay during three of their busiest time-frames.
From what the experts here have revealed, Sunday afternoon and evening is the busiest day/time on eBay. Other peak times are weekday evenings when people are getting home from work or getting online right after dinner. I believe Sat afternoons were mentioned also.
In addition, sellers who have scheduled listings must choose a listing time when they are setting them up. These listing times are every 15 minutes... so every quarter hour, half hour, thee-quarter hour, and on the hour, eBay is trying to upload a bunch of new listings. It will be slower then. And since Sundays are a popular day to add listings, it will be even worse.
So the auction you were bidding on ended on a busy day, during a busy time-frame, and on the half hour.
The experienced folk here have varying advice on exactly how much time to add to your lead time in these cases, but they all agree 8 seconds may not be enough time.
I have chosen to set all my snipes to go at 15 seconds as my default, and it has worked well for me. I have upped that to 20 on a few occasions just to be safe, and rarely have I lowered it.
As so many of the people reminded me, 15-20 second lead is still going to be hard to beat manually, AND it's the highest bid that wins anyway. So if your bid gets in between 15-20 seconds before auction ends and is the highest bid, it is less likely someone is going to have time to revise their max in time to beat you out.
I hope that helps... and I'm really sorry your bid didn't get placed. I know it must be frustrating.
diva (aka Dag)