What the hell happened here? I lost three auctions because AS didnt place the bids in time?? You've got to be kidding me!
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Hi Geekline,
Bugger about your snipes, heres Sara's response
Lexie
Bugger about your snipes, heres Sara's response
quote:
There was a problem at our colo facility tonight from about 6:50 until 8pm. Our servers placed the snipes, but they may not have made it to eBay because of the problem in the colo.
The system is currently updating all snipes during those times and they'll likely be listed as 'Unknown' once the computer has reviewed them all. At that point you may receive your free snipes here:
http://www.auctionsniper.com/freeSnipes.aspx
We are working with the colo facility to find out why things were running slowly during that time. We have used their services for over 4 years and they have always proved to be very reliable.
Lexie
Well, this really sucks. This system isnt worth a hoot if it dosent place the bids at the appropriate times.
Sounds like you need a new colo provider. Thats my other business. After looking around, you all have had alot of outages that you say your host is responsible for. If thats the case, its time for a new host.
I represent Wholesale Internet - a leading provider of dedicated and colo soultions. Thats what I do (other than buy stuff up on eBay) for a living.
Unlike most hosting companies, the one I represent owns its own network operations center. The buck stops here. We have the capcity and we dont have outages. Chances are whatever rinky-dink outfit you are dealing with now is simply a middleman selling to you at an inflated price. Not so with us - its our name on the contracts with our bandwidth providers.
Send me an e-mail and I'll make you an offer you cant refuse - your boxes or ours. We'd love to have the business and we can provide you with plenty of satisified clients to back up our promise.
Sounds like you need a new colo provider. Thats my other business. After looking around, you all have had alot of outages that you say your host is responsible for. If thats the case, its time for a new host.
I represent Wholesale Internet - a leading provider of dedicated and colo soultions. Thats what I do (other than buy stuff up on eBay) for a living.
Unlike most hosting companies, the one I represent owns its own network operations center. The buck stops here. We have the capcity and we dont have outages. Chances are whatever rinky-dink outfit you are dealing with now is simply a middleman selling to you at an inflated price. Not so with us - its our name on the contracts with our bandwidth providers.
Send me an e-mail and I'll make you an offer you cant refuse - your boxes or ours. We'd love to have the business and we can provide you with plenty of satisified clients to back up our promise.
An hour and a half of unsceduled downtime at a datacenter is inexcuseable, by the way. Five minutes is a big deal - after 15 minutes someone should be fired. After an hour, its time for a management change.
quote:You're Right ! but...
unsceduled downtime at a datacenter is inexcuseable
I don't think Sara said they were down ( If they were, shame on you Sara ), they
were running slow. That could mean their clock was three seconds off.
You have a very short lead time for auctions ending on an exact quarter hour in the
evening, even if they were running normally. You might consider longer times in the future.
Please don't take this post as an attack, as that is not my intent. It's just an
observation and friendly advice that you may consider, or not.
Now I don't actually KNOW the real percentages, but lets say on average 1 snipe out of 20 do NOT go through due to either ebay or AS problems.
Sniper#1 schedules 20 snipes. The first 19 fire as desired, and the LAST one fails to get placed.
Sniper#2 schedules 20 snipes. The first 10 fire as desired, the 11th fails to get placed, then the next 9 fire as desired.
Sniper#3 schedules 20 snipes. The FIRST snipe fails to get placed, but the next 19 get placed as desired.
Although the success/failure percentage for ALL the snipers is identical,imagine if you will how the demeanor/attitude and perception of the AS program of all those snipers will differ at various stages of their "sniping career". What will they think of AS after snipe #1, #11, #20?
After snipe#1, snipers 1 & 2 are pretty happy, sniper 3 is signing onto the forum to share how they think AS is a piece of s##t service!
After snipe#11, sniper #1 is bouncing off the walls enamored with the AS service! Sniper #2 is still pretty happy, but may sign onto the forum to calmly query what happened to AS's normally reliable service. Sniper#3 (assuming they KEEP using the service after the FIRST snipe failure) is finding themselves liking the AS service more & more!
After snipe #20,....well, you can fill in the blanks!
I suggest, especially to newbies is that now you've gotten your AS service failure out of the way,....
...SNIPE ON!!
Jabbergah
Sniper#1 schedules 20 snipes. The first 19 fire as desired, and the LAST one fails to get placed.
Sniper#2 schedules 20 snipes. The first 10 fire as desired, the 11th fails to get placed, then the next 9 fire as desired.
Sniper#3 schedules 20 snipes. The FIRST snipe fails to get placed, but the next 19 get placed as desired.
Although the success/failure percentage for ALL the snipers is identical,imagine if you will how the demeanor/attitude and perception of the AS program of all those snipers will differ at various stages of their "sniping career". What will they think of AS after snipe #1, #11, #20?
After snipe#1, snipers 1 & 2 are pretty happy, sniper 3 is signing onto the forum to share how they think AS is a piece of s##t service!
After snipe#11, sniper #1 is bouncing off the walls enamored with the AS service! Sniper #2 is still pretty happy, but may sign onto the forum to calmly query what happened to AS's normally reliable service. Sniper#3 (assuming they KEEP using the service after the FIRST snipe failure) is finding themselves liking the AS service more & more!
After snipe #20,....well, you can fill in the blanks!
I suggest, especially to newbies is that now you've gotten your AS service failure out of the way,....
...SNIPE ON!!
Jabbergah
When a datacenter is running slow, its because thhey failed to put a Plan B into place, or because they oversold thier bandwidth - something that has never happened at WI. We dont get slow. We have so much spare capcity it is isnt even funny.
I guess the only good thing about this incident is the fact that I do know the seller whose itesm I bid on but lost so I may be able to talk him into selling them to me outside of eBay.
I guess the only good thing about this incident is the fact that I do know the seller whose itesm I bid on but lost so I may be able to talk him into selling them to me outside of eBay.
quote:Send your recommendation to >> http://support.auctionsniper.com/ <<
We have so much spare capcity it is isnt even funny.
There's a better chance the 'Powers That Be' will see it. Being a customer,
I'm all for any and all improvements that can be made. Good Luck !
quote:
Originally posted by geekline:
An hour and a half of unsceduled downtime at a datacenter is inexcuseable, by the way. Five minutes is a big deal - after 15 minutes someone should be fired. After an hour, its time for a management change.***
I have to admit ignorance of this particular marketing strategy. Additionally, I see no reference to this style in books by Dale Carnegie or Thomas Peters or even P.T. Barnum.
In any event, I would suggest that geekline delay sending any proposal until the new management is in the position to provide an appropriate response.
*** Emphasis added by author of this post.
Just looked at your screenshot geekline and noticed that you've sniped in whole dollars. The modern thinking is that one should add a few cents (ie. 40.05 instead of 40.00) so that you're more likely to win against an existing proxy bid as most people tend to bid whole dollars.
R2
R2
quote:
Originally posted by region2:
Just looked at your screenshot geekline and noticed that you've sniped in whole dollars. The modern thinking is that one should add a few cents (ie. 40.05 instead of 40.00) so that you're more likely to win against an existing proxy bid as most people tend to bid whole dollars.
R2
http://coreman.com/nucleus/media/1/20021022-apostrophe.jpg
Well, really I didnt expect them to go up that high to begin with. But yes, what you mention is a good idea - thanks for the suggestion.
Yet another one - bid not placed in time. I even moved the delay back by two seconds. I want to be the last bidder int these auctions, I dont want to be placing the bids a minute or two before the end which would give someone else time to bid again. The chances of someone seeing they have been outbid and then bidding in the last four seconds are pretty slim unless they are a very fast clicker, but much more than that and they would have time to outbid me.
Any idea what made this one fail? Do I need to move the delay back even further?
That snipe was at 7pm. We recommend 30 second lead times on quarter hour increments from 5pm-8:30pm
eBay allows sellers to schedule items and so many schedule them for times such as 7:00pm 7:15pm etc that eBay slows to a crawl at those times and simply takes longer than 4 seconds to respond to and process your bid.
eBay allows sellers to schedule items and so many schedule them for times such as 7:00pm 7:15pm etc that eBay slows to a crawl at those times and simply takes longer than 4 seconds to respond to and process your bid.
But 30 seconds gives several more people time to bid once or twice each. There has to be a better answer to this issue.
eBay isnt THAT slow even at those times. I am on a crappy cable modem connection (Comcast really stinks) and I can still pull the pages up in five seconds or thereabouts. And I am manually clicking the mouse where you all are electroniclly clicking the mouse - it probably takes me a half a second to click a mouse, it should take a computer a few nanoseconds.
You all indicated you have servers colo'd somewhere. Regardless of where, you are sitting on at least a couple of T1s in somebodys basement and I would hope much more. Your server should be able to beat my cable connection to the punch every time without exception.
eBay isnt THAT slow even at those times. I am on a crappy cable modem connection (Comcast really stinks) and I can still pull the pages up in five seconds or thereabouts. And I am manually clicking the mouse where you all are electroniclly clicking the mouse - it probably takes me a half a second to click a mouse, it should take a computer a few nanoseconds.
You all indicated you have servers colo'd somewhere. Regardless of where, you are sitting on at least a couple of T1s in somebodys basement and I would hope much more. Your server should be able to beat my cable connection to the punch every time without exception.
quote:
Originally posted by geekline:
eBay isnt THAT slow even at those times.
Sorry, but it can be. It happens all the time; those of us who are experienced here have seen it many times, and it is with these experiences in my mind that AS makes these recommendations. Just because you have not seen it does not mean it does not happen. It happens all the time, which is why several people have complained about it this past weekend.
quote:
But 30 seconds gives several more people time to bid once or twice each.
No it doesnt. Not when eBay is 30 second slow.
So your bid gets placed at 30 seconds, someone else sees it and reacts at say 25 seconds left. They place their bid with 20 seconds left. eBay is 30 seconds slow so their bid makes it to eBay 10 seconds after the auction is over.
The only problem is that they arent always 30 seconds slow. Sometimes they are perfect, and sometimes they are in between. But until you place your snipe you dont know which. So you dont have a choice, it's either 30 seconds and getting your bid in for sure, or waiting and taking the risk.
Pulling up the page is not the same as bidding.
OK, fair enough. I have 14 snipes in now - the ones that end on an even quarter hour or hour, I put a lead time of 30 seconds in. For the ones that end on odd minutes and seconds, I put in 10 seconds of lead time.
Is that enough leadtime?
So why are all the sellers sceduling the end of the auctions for these even hours? You have to pay extra for that service and when I saw it there I though to myself "now who in the hell would pay extra for that?".
Are the sellers intentionally doing this because they know that it interferes with automated programs like this? These programs arent good for the seller - they are good for the buyer. Sellers like the proxy bidding system because people get into little wars with each other and drive the price way up in the process.
Is that enough leadtime?
So why are all the sellers sceduling the end of the auctions for these even hours? You have to pay extra for that service and when I saw it there I though to myself "now who in the hell would pay extra for that?".
Are the sellers intentionally doing this because they know that it interferes with automated programs like this? These programs arent good for the seller - they are good for the buyer. Sellers like the proxy bidding system because people get into little wars with each other and drive the price way up in the process.
quote:
"now who in the hell would pay extra for that?".
That's what I thought. They are paying 10 cents an auction to schedule when they end. They do it because they can then create auctions at 7 or 8am for example and have them launch and end at 7:30pm for example.
They dont do it to interfere with us, but because the most buyers are on eBay from about 5:30pm until 8:30pm. So they are working and creating their auction listings in the morning and then pay eBay the 10 cent fee so they dont have to come back later to launch the listings or create them then. They want to create them earlier in the day, but have them start and end during eBays peak buyer hours.
Basically eBay is a monopoly. If most of those sellers knew they could use any of many 3rd parties to do the same thing for free, or a much smaller free, and spread out their listings nicely they probably would. But that info is almost impossible to find unless you happen upon the small text link at the bottom of an auction created with such a program. Even then most people uses eBays because they are the easist to know about and find.
We recommend this program:
http://www.auctiva.com/products/MisterPoster.aspx
It's free and you can create auctions offline, then come back and launch them later. Or for a fee 1/4 to 1/10th or less of what eBay charges you can schedule them. If you schedule a lot of listings it ends up being less than a penny per listing vs eBays 10 cents.
True enough.
I remember when you could buy and sell for free on ebay, it was an advertiser supported service. I was one of the very first people on eBay and have maintained a seller precense of various items from time to time under different IDs. I was part of eBay before it was cool.
And since then, it has really went to pasture - you can't do anything on there as far as selling goes without a fee now. It has gotten to the point where some sellers cannot use eBay anymore because the costs eat into thier margins too much. Then they started telling everyone what they could and couldn't sell. Thier latest move was to get rid of the adult section. I knew that was going to come eventually.
I know about the alternative auction sites - some of them are good and others are not. It all depends. And yes, there are lots of things you can do to accomplish the same things eBay charges for - and if you are good with web design you can custom script your own goodies to do what you want.
The biggest scam to me is thier picture hosting. The only time I use it is when I only have one photo to display because they dont charge for that - yet. Otherwise, I stick the pics up on my server and link to them from there.
I remember when you could buy and sell for free on ebay, it was an advertiser supported service. I was one of the very first people on eBay and have maintained a seller precense of various items from time to time under different IDs. I was part of eBay before it was cool.
And since then, it has really went to pasture - you can't do anything on there as far as selling goes without a fee now. It has gotten to the point where some sellers cannot use eBay anymore because the costs eat into thier margins too much. Then they started telling everyone what they could and couldn't sell. Thier latest move was to get rid of the adult section. I knew that was going to come eventually.
I know about the alternative auction sites - some of them are good and others are not. It all depends. And yes, there are lots of things you can do to accomplish the same things eBay charges for - and if you are good with web design you can custom script your own goodies to do what you want.
The biggest scam to me is thier picture hosting. The only time I use it is when I only have one photo to display because they dont charge for that - yet. Otherwise, I stick the pics up on my server and link to them from there.