AS admits problems with BIDS!

I also had the same problem, contacted technical support and received the following response. Apparently there is a MAJOR problem here.
"We apologize for your inconvenience, but we are experiencing some difficulties with the program, due to which the snipes are not showing correct information and are not working properly. However it‘s being worked on and will soon be fixed.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this caused you."

I had the same problem as well, three of my snipes never fired, and the status still shows "Ready". My bid amount on my snipes would have made me the winning bidder in all three auctions, but now I've lost all three. I sent a message to tech support, and they didn't even bother to reply back to me.

They did credit my account with a couple free snipes, which I don't give a damm about. I lost out on three rare auctions which I won't be seeing again, free snipes or not. Thanks a lot Auctionsniper!

If they don't fix this fast, I'm moving on to another sniping service.

Just entered a new ticket... 4th in a week!

(Posted Saturday, March 18, 2006, 8:51:54 PM)

Subject: Snipes NOT firing... lost yet ANOTHER due to YOUR incompetence!!!!

Message: That‘s two items I‘ve lost now, because whatever you‘re doin‘ to this once reliable "service" ISN‘T WROKING! This used to be virtually totally reliable... it‘s been years since I‘ve experienced any real problems... and now, in the last couple of weeks, it completely SUCKS!

Two items lost because WINNING bids weren‘t placed, plus one snipe on the wrong item, which I must now purchase to keep my good standing at eBay. Thankfully, it‘s not a major outlay... but STILL something that I must now take the time and effort to sell, and who knows whether I‘ll recoup my funds on it.

Just now... eBay #~~~~~~~~~~, winning bid NEVER PLACED! The other? Hell, look up my previous "Help" (LOLOL) tickets... closed, since most of the board SEEMED to have gotten straightened out. Boy, am I a dope, or what??!

Let me know when you‘ve got this damned thing straightened out... YOU EMAIL ME when it‘s working. For now, I wouldn‘t rely on AS for anything but a toilet. Years ago, when things got bad for a bit, I surmised that you where running this out of your bedroom... sorry to see you‘ve moved it into the bath. And you‘re REALLY giving the plumbing a workout!!

I‘ve been a member since May, 2002... mostly well-satisfied and grateful, and often refer others here. Now I‘m SERIOUSLY checking out your competitors... if this "service" isn‘t reliable, it‘s FAR MORE than worthless... as it‘s now COSTING me FAR MORE than the price of the snipes.... here or elsewhere!

Sign me >>> TOTALLY disgusted!

Oh, yeah... STILL not listing "status" properly... but who cares if the snipes don‘t fire, or fire on the wrong item?

Craiger, __Thanks for posting that update. On my part I didn't actually bother to inquire with AS support. Your post says it all though. I'm still gonna use AS, and often too, but--as before-- only till I hear about any fair alternative.

AS is definitely going through a serious rough patch. If only they'd confront the problems and be candid about them. Burying their head in the sand, or whatever is it they are doing, is achieving nothing but loss of goodwill. Not that I ever had any special warm and fuzzy feeling toward AS that would keep me a loyal customer once shown an alternative tool. But the niggling "support" does for example deter me and I'm sure a lot of others from recommending AS to their friends and acquaintances. Goodwill does count for something. I agree with Camera (other thread) that these AS people come across as techies who perhaps lack an understanding of the value of courtesy in this all-too-human world. That, plus, maybe it's time to suppose that AS at this stage doesn't have what it takes, in software savvy or hard equipment, to address problems like this in a swift and capable manner. So maybe hoping the problem will just go away is as good a strategy as any.

I wouldn't use bidgroups for now. Other than that bids are being placed properly.

As always not every bid makes it to eBay which is a risk of sniping. There are times when things are great and we miss maybe 1 in 20,000 and there are times when things aren't so great and we miss 1 in 100. Most of the time that has to do with the internet and eBays speed.

Tonight the facility where our servers are stored changed some routes on our connections and that led to slow or no connectivity to our site while the routes made their way across the internet. That led to some missed bids.

Overall we're very reliable.

AS needs to address some loose ends, but if I were a tech reading the support ticket mentioned above, I do not know that I would rush to respond to something written in such a manner.

Prudence...

quote:

I lost out on three rare auctions which I won't be seeing again

Nothing is rare now that eBay exists!

R2

I wasn't aware that it was only Bidgroups that was malfunctioning. I can deal with that for now. I have a few more aucions that I will be participating in and will try it without a Bidgroup.

I dod notice that a couple of snipes that I places in the last few weeks did not get any sort of result - no email to say I had been outbid (which was the case).

I shan't jump up and down or throw my toys out of the pram, though - I do have a life!

I have been buying a lot of cheapish camera catalogues of late so for the past couple of months have nearly trebled my normal snipe quota.

Seeing the problems many of you have had, I expected to have some "misses". Nary a one!

Either I am outstandingly lucky or some of you have been oustandingly unlucky!

No repeat of auctions reported in error either.

Agreed, I don't use Bid Groups because I never really find a duplicate product! Yes, I do bid on Sunday night auctions.

Most Peculiar!

Paul

What's even funnier is when you even mention that there are other services that provide the same service.... well not the same because the other ones work.... they ban you from this discussion board and remove the posting. They did my other ID and will most likely do this one too. Oh well ID's are free so no problem there.... and if only one person reads it that better then none.

quote:

they ban you from this discussion board and remove the posting

Come now, you are not that simple!

If I provide (& pay for) a Bulletin Board for my customers am I going to let you even mention my competitors?

AS is not a charity and these boards are for the use of its customers. Free Speech is one thing and to be fair to AS, they practically let you say anything about them.

My grouse is that they do not respond to criticism. Far, far better to come out & reply and say "hey Guys & Girls we have a problem - difficult to track down - can you help?" 99% of us would say "sure" because when it is working well, AS is second to none.

Though I have still to see evidence of a problem.

Paul

quote:

Originally posted by Aceflier:
they ban you from this discussion board and remove the posting

Don’t know where you get that from. AS will edit out the competitor's name, or link, but they usually leave the rest of the post. AND, the only times (rarely) I’ve seen someone banned is when there’s strong evidence that the poster is shilling for another service.

quote:

Originally posted by Aceflier:
and if only one person reads it that better then none.

That almost sounds like you’re on a crusade.



The fact that AS even has a forum is fairly unusual, if not unique, for a sniping service.

Perhaps a stupid question, but what exactly is a bid group? I just selected an item from ebay to be sniped. How can I see it is in a bid group?

Thankx.

Koos

Koos,

Bid Groups. AuctionSniper's Bid Groups feature allows you to bid on the same item from different sellers. As soon as you win one auction at the price you want, we'll automatically cancel the rest of your bids.



More info:
http://www.auctionsniper.com/faqbid.aspx

Just had AS fail to transmit in spite of a 13-second lead time. I might have won that one too-- final bid was 5% below my snipe.

Bugs in AS are not new-- AS has been intermittently unreliable for a couple of years. Still there's no doubt that the frequency of failures, bugs, and just plain weirdness has increased dramatically over the last few months. Must be an 'upgrade'.

AS staff are typically defensive and argumentative when you point out that their software is buggy. A couple of years ago I remember this list did ban a guy who was critical of them, but I think the defense was that he worked for a rival company. AS is probably the best we've got, but if I get another loss like this one, I'll be looking around for a better solution.

Rick, thank you for your reply! Now I know what it is.

So, if I understand everything right, most of the problems with AS (presumeably) not sniping happen with the bid groups. Are there any problems if you have an ebay item in "my snipes", would the same problem be very likely to happen?

I want to win this auction so bad that I have AS on it and my friend has this also done so my chances of winning are therefore doubled. Plus I will use AS as a last resort, I will bid manually and hope that AS will work if this fails.

I just keep my fingers crossed, hoping this is the best solution.

Admitting a problem? maybe back earlier in the month -- but I just lost a phone to a bid way below my bidgroup snipe. I haven't used the service in a long time, and they used to at least acknowledge and try to explain problems. This looks as if the problem has been going on with bidgroups for over a week with no real explanation. What will be done for the many of us who have lost important auctions? And how will we know when the bidgroup problem is fixed?

Could AS send us an email about bidgroup is upgraded or something else, please?`

Thanks
Tama

Petronius, welcome to the fold!

We are all complainers here - normally against each other!

(no comment please Rick!)

Mind you when facing an outside attack, we all stop complaining about each other and pull together! An anthropologist would have a field day!

I don't use Bid Groups because of marital pressures. If I was unlucky enough to improve the efficiency of my winning process I'd be sleeping in the garage - with my cameras surrounding me!

Paul

I don’t mind when someone calls me a shill for AS, and to a large extent, that’s accurate. But when they call me an employee – that borders on insulting.