AS fired 66 minutes early, possibly costing me $250

Nonsense!! Read the post above this from AS!!

Here is my correspondence with AS support.
What part of my posting do you find "nonsense"?

hdesousa@rcn.com
Customer Posted Monday, November 22, 2004, 6:44:25 PM Bid on 5935078781 was placed way too early.
Please let me know what happened!
Sam G.
Support Posted Monday, November 22, 2004, 8:04:43 PM I‘ve forwarded this to engineering. It‘s not clear why this fired early. On rare occasions, we‘ll fire some early pending maintenance. But that‘s usually only for scheduled maintenance times on Friday a.m.---not when this fired.

We‘ll find out what happened.

Our apologies!!!

Regards
-Sam G.
hdesousa@rcn.com
Customer Posted Thursday, November 25, 2004, 10:30:48 AM Hi,
I‘m still waiting to hear from you.
Meanwhile, for my own peace of mind, I‘m using another sniping
site.
regards,
Hansel

Vince S.
Support Posted Thursday, November 25, 2004, 10:59:08 AM We do this if eBay servers are running slow. We monitor how long it is taking them to accept bids. If they are running slowly we put in the bids that much in advance. If their servers then speed back up your bid goes in early.

The alternative is to always place bids exactly when we are told and to miss snipes when eBay slows down. If eBay were 12 seconds slow any snipe of 12 seconds or less would be missed. I think most users would prefer to sometimes have a snipe placed a little earlier than to have their snipe not placed in time and to miss the bid.

Regards
-Vince S.
hdesousa@rcn.com
Customer Posted Thursday, November 25, 2004, 11:34:42 AM I cannot accept this explanation. Your snipe went in almost an hour early, enough time to allow two bidders to try to outbid me. Ebay never runs that slow. I can see a minute early, if necessary, but an hour early??!!
Please try to come up with a better excuse that will assures me this was a non-repeatable mistake, or I will be too reluctant to use your sniper again, in case you make a similar mistake.
Vince S.
Support Posted Thursday, November 25, 2004, 11:47:12 AM We see these happen more frequently on auctions that end exactly on the hour/half hour. More rarely it can happen on those ending exactly on the 15 minute marks.

The reason that happens is because sellers will choose a default auction ending time---which are on the 15 minute mark, rather than specify the exact ending time. So, lots more auctions ending during those times translates into a lot more traffic which causes eBay to slow down and take longer to accept the bids we send.

Regards
-Vince S.

I was not doubting they said that to you. I meant that if they said it,it was horse manure! Look above at Sara's posting for that day!!

How about reading the first forum here, the first post in the News forum from that evening.

Also there is no way it cost you $250.

That other guy bid $777. You won for $807. I can't see any possible way of justifying it costing you more than $20. And that's stretching it even there since another fellow then bid $797 and you'd have to beat him by $10. So honestly it probably cost you $0 more.

I understand why you're angry. Please read my post from that evening. I don't think it cost you any extra that night however if you file a support case with a link to my reply from that night we'll be happy to credit you with some free snipes and if you ask extra nice the person answering that case might waive the fee for you on that snipe even though I still dont believe it did cost you any more.

There are several users here who are experts at analyzing bid histories and they put up fancy charts that will show why that's the case so you can get their opinion as well if they post.

Again I'm sorry for that error but honestly any other site also uses the same set of timer servers as we do to update our computer clocks automatically and it's possible for any of us have this happen to us on rare occassions.

quote:

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There are several users here who are experts at analyzing bid histories and they put up fancy charts that will show why that's the case so you can get their opinion as well if they post.

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Good suggestion for an AS tool!

Sara - when will the ending time problem be fixed - two of mine are negative, the third is next year sometime!?

R2

Reply to Sara:
1. No expert needs fancy charts to illustrate a point. In my experience, fancy charts indicate they neither have a case nor are they experts.
2. Here's the reason this early snipe may have cost me $250: I use my own name in bidding; that name is in most marble books and known to all serious marble collectors who sometimes bid when they see me bidding. That's one reason I started sniping, even though it does not decrease the amount of "hate mail" I get after winning an expensive item, it prevents others from 'running me up' during the auction. When my bid went in 66 minutes early, it was $565. The next bidder at $777 has "zero" feedback of 50%; at this level, it was probably a bid that was made simply to run me up and the bidder had little intention of honoring it. The next bid was one increment higher. It was a legit bid, but had my bid not gone in early, that bidder would still probably have bid one increment higher than the then existing bid, which would have been $410, and I would have then sniped the box at $565.
3. Your arrogance is astounding. Do you really think I would ask for a waiver of this sniping fee, or to beg for free snipes?

If you believe bigusus is a shill bidder then you should turn them into eBay. Shill bidding is against their rules.

It's pretty unlikely they cruised by in the last hour of an auction, saw your name, recognized it, and then bid a much larger amount than they were prepared to bid because they knew who you were. But if that is the case, then they probably were a shill bidder for the seller and you ought to get them booted from eBay and their bid canceled.

quote:

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I use my own name in bidding; that name is in most marble books and known to all serious marble collectors who sometimes bid when they see me bidding.

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Start a new eBay userId. There's your 5 minute solution.

Here's the link:
https://scgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?RegisterEnterInfo&siteid=0&co_partnerid=2&usage=0&ru=default

It sounds more like hdesousa is discussing someone(s) stalking versus someone shilling. It’s a legitimate concern. Considering that bigusus has been an ebay member since March 2001 with only two feedbacks (1 positive and 1 negative) it’s not an unreasonable concern on hdesousa’s part. Stalking was probably the primary reason I started placing manual snipes, and convenience was the primary reason I decided to use a sniping service.

Having been stalked myself, it would be very nerve racking to have an auction placed 66 minutes early. On the other hand, I can’t remember this happening before.

To Sara:
You are so patronizing ! Of course I bid under other names as well. Do you take lessons in how to blame others for your mistakes?

Quote:
If you believe bigusus is a shill bidder then you should turn them into eBay. Shill bidding is against their rules.

It's pretty unlikely they cruised by in the last hour of an auction, saw your name, recognized it, and then bid a much larger amount than they were prepared to bid because they knew who you were. But if that is the case, then they probably were a shill bidder for the seller and you ought to get them booted from eBay and their bid canceled.
--------------------------------------------------
There was no shill bidding going on. When a rare item comes up, numerous players are watching in the last hour. Your excuses are more irritating than your early snipe.

Is it me or is there some weirdness going on here?

Define weirdness.

Definitely weird!

R2

Sorry, I'm with Sara on this one. Why, if you are fearful of other watching you bid because you are so well known, would you use your own name?? That does not make a whole lot of sense!
The early bid part was cleared in the news and updates. Things happen.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mrs.M.:
The early bid part was cleared in the news and updates. Things happen.

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Too bad we have to pay for having our bids placed. That we could do manually and for free. We use AS to have our bids placed at the very last minute, automatically, not within the last hour.

AG

Well, I have never had a snipe placed that late so I feel it was a quirk in the system, not the norm. Personally, I think the little bit they charge is like buying a coke at MickyD'S! Not a great big deal. If I put a snipe in for fifty dollars, then any part of that I get the item at is fine or I wouldn't put it in at fifty dollars!!

quote:

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Too bad we have to pay for having our bids placed.

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Has AS changed policy? I thought AS only charged if the snipe resulted in a WIN, not just to place the bid?

You're right LxE - you're only charged if you win!

Just got my AS bill - $10 for a busy month. That's less than 2 pints of ice-cold Guinness in the Fidler's Elbow.

R2

I agree with you that the fair amount charged is not a big deal. Plus it helps you saving alot ;-)

However I had one of my snipe placed some 50' before its end, and I can tell you I was very, very upset ! It isn't the same strategy at all ; hopefully nobody increased my final winning bid. But I was charged by AS, and had the poorest answer I could get from AS support "this is normal", rather than free snipes... I was really, really angry.

I don't want AS to place my bid about one hour before its end when I ask for a lead time of 7 secs. I don't want to pay for my bid to be placed one hour before its end.

AG

AG, I do agree with you on that point! Like any other business, if you don't preform as you should, then you should in some way, perhaps, conpensate.

quote:

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Sorry, I'm with Sara on this one. Why, if you are fearful of other watching you bid because you are so well known, would you use your own name?? That does not make a whole lot of sense!

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I can totally see where hdesousa is coming from.

*IF* AS had performed as it were s'posed to, hdesousa would have had no issues with using their own ID to bid, their snipe would of gone in at the last few seconds and the little stalkers would of been all pissie because they didnt even know.

Now THAT would be fun!

I dont see why this has turned into a kind of hdesousa bashing post, when they have a legitimate complaint...what a way to WELCOME new users to the forum.

quote:

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Originally posted by hdesousa:
Here is my correspondence with AS support.
What part of my posting do you find "nonsense"?

hdesousa@rcn.com
Customer Posted Monday, November 22, 2004, 6:44:25 PM Bid on 5935078781 was placed way too early.
Please let me know what happened!
Sam G.
Support Posted Monday, November 22, 2004, 8:04:43 PM I‘ve forwarded this to engineering. It‘s not clear why this fired early. On rare occasions, we‘ll fire some early pending maintenance. But that‘s usually only for scheduled maintenance times on Friday a.m.---not when this fired.

We‘ll find out what happened.

Our apologies!!!

Regards
-Sam G.
hdesousa@rcn.com
Customer Posted Thursday, November 25, 2004, 10:30:48 AM Hi,
I‘m still waiting to hear from you.
Meanwhile, for my own peace of mind, I‘m using another sniping
site.
regards,
Hansel

Vince S.
Support Posted Thursday, November 25, 2004, 10:59:08 AM We do this if eBay servers are running slow. We monitor how long it is taking them to accept bids. If they are running slowly we put in the bids that much in advance. If their servers then speed back up your bid goes in early.

The alternative is to always place bids exactly when we are told and to miss snipes when eBay slows down. If eBay were 12 seconds slow any snipe of 12 seconds or less would be missed. I think most users would prefer to sometimes have a snipe placed a little earlier than to have their snipe not placed in time and to miss the bid.

Regards
-Vince S.
hdesousa@rcn.com
Customer Posted Thursday, November 25, 2004, 11:34:42 AM I cannot accept this explanation. Your snipe went in almost an hour early, enough time to allow two bidders to try to outbid me. Ebay never runs that slow. I can see a minute early, if necessary, but an hour early??!!
Please try to come up with a better excuse that will assures me this was a non-repeatable mistake, or I will be too reluctant to use your sniper again, in case you make a similar mistake.
Vince S.
Support Posted Thursday, November 25, 2004, 11:47:12 AM We see these happen more frequently on auctions that end exactly on the hour/half hour. More rarely it can happen on those ending exactly on the 15 minute marks.

The reason that happens is because sellers will choose a default auction ending time---which are on the 15 minute mark, rather than specify the exact ending time. So, lots more auctions ending during those times translates into a lot more traffic which causes eBay to slow down and take longer to accept the bids we send.

Regards
-Vince S.

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H,

My support answers from Vince have been less than accurate - 1 answer I escalated, another was only .50 and didn't have the time to chase.

I think he is close to the bot that gives the default answer.

A-

Sorry, Don't think I intended to nor was bashing him/her or anyone. However I did not agree and I don't think I need to lie either to please someone. I said exactly how I felt. If I were famous, I would not use my real name ever online unless I wanted attention brought to me for some reason. And the other point was for him/her to notice the problem was already posted.

New forum members seem to either get bashed or welcomed, with the occasional exception.