Alan,
This question was asked on another topic:
Would it not be possible for the software to recognise these overload times and automatically compensate?
Sara from AS support left this response:
We do, and it still isnt enough. And how far in advance is too far? We get almost as many complaints from people right here in this exact forum complaining that we bid 20-30 seconds before such auctions ended.
As I've said many times here it's a lose/lose situation for us. Snipe too early and people arent happy, snipe too late and the snipe doesnt make it, and people arent happy. We do our very best to not bid too early, but not so late as to miss a snipe. Most of the time we succeed. We are doing a ton of snipes like these, most work out. We're constantly trying to make improvements in this area, and I'm sure eBay will sooner or later notice the lower # of bids at these times also and do something on that end too.
In any event we always offer free snipes for any snipe we miss reguardless of whether it was our fault. Here is the url:
http://www.auctionsniper.com/freesnipes.aspx
Since Sara's the expert, hopefully her explanation is better than mine.