quote:I assume AS adjusts the time based on the variability of pings to Ebay.
AS does adjust the lead time - particularly at eBay's busiest times.
I think you will find it is a little more sophisticated than "pinging" eBay. I think AS automatically adjusts based on response times to earlier bids - hence the errors!
However. AS does try to respond to the situation and this is not an option available to the ordinary bidder.
If AS had not adjusted, then the likelyhood is that your bid would not have got through on time!
In this case it does look like you lost, because they placed it too early, based on their data for eBay's response time. However, in the majority of cases, I have found that AS is accurate and places the bids at the time set.
The problem is that this forum represents - if you like - the complaints department - and so gives an undue prominence to the failures.
If you read the postings, most reports of early bid "failure" here are not that they have been "outsniped" by manual bidders, but that they simply did not outbid the existing proxy bids or other snipers.
The cases where AS gets it's timing wrong and allows enough time for a manual bidder to see your bid and respond are, I genuinely think, quite few in number and only a very small proportion of the total bids placed.
However, I wish they would "come clean" and give us an rough guide here, as to the numbers sniped, as that would at least enable those who have a problem to see what the odds are. If it's 1 in 100, 1 in 1000 or 1 in 10,000 would I am certain help those that complain see the the whole situation.
May I also enter a plea to all those who post here. Without an auction Number it is impossible to determine whether it was the lead time at fault or the competition for that item.
Paul