Bidgroup failure - AS 'Can't Sign In'

If no one comes up with a better idea, try filing a support request using the following:
http://support.auctionsniper.com/

Cool, thanks Rick. Didn't know about that option.

Posted Thursday, April 14, 2005, 2:49:17 PM
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To place your bid, we signin to eBay up to five minutes before your snipe time. This status means eBay did not respond to our login requests soon enough for us to place the snipe. This error should be rare, and only happens during extreme spikes in eBay traffic.


Thanks,
-Arjun Y.

I'd like to thank Rick and Arjun for the very, VERY quick responses!

My lesson is--as always--that no matter how carefully I plan something, any number of other factors can occur to muck it up!!

In essence, THIS failure WAS 'time' related. If there were more time between auctions I'd have had a better shot.

My other lesson--as I find time & again about AS--You guys ROCK!

Your first snipe might not have been able to sign in either. You'd need to check the confirmation link next to that losing snipe.

You should do this and figure out the problem else your next snipe could miss as well with the same unable to sign in message.

quote:

Your first snipe might not have been able to sign in either. You'd need to check the confirmation link next to that losing snipe.

You should do this and figure out the problem else your next snipe could miss as well with the same unable to sign in message.

Hmmm...very interesting. Altho I got the 'Status Summary Report' stating that my bid was below increment on the first auction, which it was, I followed the confirmation link & to my surprise, found that the seller ALSO wanted to confirm that bidders have a PayPal acct!
Soooo, that meant linking my PayPal acct to this auction -- i.e. LOGGING IN to PayPal!
You're right! I couldn't have won either of these auctions. And I had no way of knowing this unless I tried to bid beforehand.
Now this gives me something else to check/ watch out for before setting a snipe!
Ay yi yi... always so much to do!
Thanks Sara -- no wonder you guys are deitys

Suggestion: AS does a test log in and a "nearly" bid (ie. all the way up to but excluding the confirm button) sometime prior to the auction's end to verify that all is well before the 'last second'...

R2

quote:

Suggestion: AS does a test log in and a "nearly" bid (ie. all the way up to but excluding the confirm button) sometime prior to the auction's end to verify that all is well before the 'last second'...

That sounds like a lotta work for AS (having to do not one, but two different functions for every snipe, and at odd times) -- and cause hassles for us, too, if it were notifying us at all hours... *however -- what if your Suggestion were modified so that when we *place* our snipe, THAT's when AS does its 'test' sign-in? Then we'd know immediately...
I wonder if that would work?
And I wonder what other barriers to defeat that there are out there... I don't know a whole lot about programming, or what else might be lurking on ebay.

Thanks region2!
Cheers,
Dawn

Dawn,

You’re the second one that this has happened to in as many days - here.

quote:

what if your Suggestion were modified so that when we *place* our snipe, THAT's when AS does its 'test' sign-in? Then we'd know immediately...
I wonder if that would work?

That does sound reasonable. I wonder that as well – maybe they have no way of checking? You could send that as a suggestion to AS: ideas@auctionsniper.com.

quote:

And I wonder what other barriers to defeat that there are out there... I don't know a whole lot about programming, or what else might be lurking on ebay.

Here’s a list of the current status messages (potential gotchas):
http://www.auctionsniper.com/SnipeStatus.aspx

quote:

Here’s a list of the current status messages (potential gotchas):

Looked at list -- didn't there used to be an "Out Sniped" status? Why did that go away?

This may shed some light.

A little more/less light.

Thanks Rick.
I checked through the 'gotchas' and seems the problematic ones of those could be intercepted with an immediate "sample sign-in" and/or "false bid sign-in" on snipe set-up... perhaps I will suggest it but with half credit to region2 for the original!
I still checked it out myself before placing a snipe last night, however!
I've learned my lesson....

Dawn

Please do suggest it to AS and take all the credit on this one - I'm always making suggestions to suggestions@auctionsniper.com so I guess they'd like to hear from someone else!

R2

Hiya region2.
I already did ~ but only took 1/2 credit:
"Re: Preventing sign-in failures....

suggestion noted. We do try and figure out as many of those cases as we can in advance.

We dont specifically test all of them during snipe creation because of the time and resources connecting to eBay and such. As well eBay is constantly changing their site and it is very very possible that one of eBays changes
would make us think the snipe was not valid and we wouldnt let a person add it. So we opted instead to always let them add it and then try and inform them as soon afterwords that we knew otherwise.

We do keep track of all these things and hope to include as many as are possible in future updates depending on many factors such as how many people it affects, time and difficulty in programming the change, and so forth. We
try and take on things that will give the largest return in customer satisfaction.

We have been noticing more sign in issues recently as eBay adds more of these darn restrictions. Talked about it yesterday in fact. So we know and we're keeping an eye on it. It's on a list.


----- Original Message -----

To: <ideas@auctionsniper.com>
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 5:18 PM
Subject: Preventing sign-in failures....

> Hi there.
> Rick suggested I suggest this idea.
>
> I'd like to note that the original idea belongs to "region2":
>
> "Suggestion: AS does a test log in and a "nearly" bid (ie. all the way up to
> but excluding the confirm button) sometime prior to the auction's end to
> verify that all is well before the 'last second'..."
>
> I say, how about AS perform a "sample sign-in" or "false bid sign-in" on
> snipe set-up so that when the ACTUAL bid is placed, the chances of running
> into a "Can't sign in" failure (because seller wanted only PayPal users,
> buyers from certain regions, or it's an adult or private sale, for example)
> would be apparent at the *outset* - rather than upon sniping when it's too
> late.
>
> Just my two cents....based on a bidgroup experience.
>
> Thanks for a great product!
>
> Cheers,
>
> dzigrrly
> Sarasota, FL