Having a lead time at 5 seconds on a Sunday is a risky business - it's peak time on eBay so things runs sloooow...
AS does extend lead times when things get sloooow but I guess yours just didn't happen.
AS may give you some free snipes if you ask nicely.
Hey Sara (she works for AS) why not have a pop up message on snipes placed on Auctions that finish at busy times to warn of these problems so that newbies aren't disappointed unnecessarily?
R2