Couple of MAJOR PROBLEMS with AS! Didnt BID on this ITEM!!!

If you had a bid go through for something you didn't bid on, there are two possibilities that I can think of--either you accidentally transposed or mistyped the numbers when you put them into the program, or your account has been hacked. If this happened to me, I'd change my password in a hurry. The hacker doesn't have to be a friend or family member. It may be someone who saw your nickname and guessed your password or whatever. But I doubt AS had anything to do with that.
There are a lot of times when I've gotten outbid notices after the auction. The reason you bid your max to start with is so you don't have to go back and keep raising your bid. That's the deal with AS--you bid your max and let the program do the work.
I suggest you go back and look at the number of that mixer, to see if it's close to another item you may have bid on. If not, I personally would change my password with E-Bay and AS in a hurry. But that's just my two cents worth. Steve and Chatter 163 are the real experts on this board, and they could probably tell you more.
--Christine

Sorry--And Rick. Sara works for AS and may be able to help you, too.

Well I dont transpose numbers, I copy and paste them and view the auction immidiately afterwards. I had no desire or interest in a product like this. I have no record of this product besides the OUTBID Notice.

Doesnt matter I have already registered with another service and totally cancelled my service with AS.

I believe it was a system bug that AS could not help or identify, but getting support to say that is like pulling teeth.

Thanks for reply

Roman

I no longer use AS- problem solved..

Roman

Maybe filing a support case on our help tab, and including something useful like the item # from the auction you got an outbid notice on might have helped.

Again this is something I've never seen happen, but I suppose anything is possible.

As for outbid notices we check once a day during the first few days of an auction, and then more frequently as the auction draws to a close. Perhaps the bids werent placed until near the auctions end, that is the case in most auctions. In that even we may not have checked in those few hours right before.

Additionally outbid notices werent being sent from Friday morning until Monday afternoon due some updates we had ran here on Friday morning.

Perhaps your ISP had email troubles as well as we dont send outbid notices on ended auctions. Thus you should never get one after the auction is over. Perhaps a few minutes before it ends as a worst case, but never are they sent afterwords.

I did file under the help tab and didnt recv'. any help until then, Because when I sent an email i sure didnt get a response til much later!

And YES I did include the auction # that I didnt Bid on- goodness read other post and you will see that I did!

How do you think I was able to answer all the questions that you asked before you even asked them like, Maybe a child in your house bid on an item? I saw that you had responded to someone with that answer before regarding the SAME thing happening to her with some auctions for Kobe items. This person was also a Power Seller and had managed to rack up $600.00 in auction winnings. So I remember quite clearly.

Your the second support person to say that this is unusual yet I have seen at least 4 similar mishaps on the message board- AT LEAST.

My ISP is AOL and I have been getting other mail just fine but I wont rule it out.

I also read issues where people cancelled auctions and the auction still went through!

You know instead of AS admitting its faults alot of the time support will say "that's impossible", especially in regards to hackers. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!

I think that this was a bug or glitch in the AS system and to avoid this ever happening again I have simply cancelled my service, have been refunded my balance and it's a dead issue.

Why don't you go and read all of my post and emails that I have sent to support and you will see that I did submit the item number. Besides, I thought that AS could find this information easily, simply by looking over my records and past auctions.

But like i said the concept of sniping is a good one, and I am trying to be positive about the AS service regardless of this situation.

Maybe I will return after AS does a TOTAL upgrade, for now I think I will try some other services.

Also if you wouldve read all of my post you wouldve saw that I did want to remain with the AS but I would like a better answer to something like this with more then a "i dont know", "maybe you did...". When a customer gets answers like that its very discouraging. Like your support isnt being very supportive to something this serious. You would think that Support would be more helpful. Support didnt even advise me to change my password or anything. Even if this is the most obvious thing to do and the easiest, not 1 support person even said that. To me, that's poor support and service, instead all I heard was basically, it's not us, it's you.

Obviously I never bid on this product, given all my other auctions were for designer clothes/shoes and fishing tackle and gear. Then you see a Kitchen Mixer? Come on, there is a problem here!

I have cancelled my service so there is really no reason to respond to any more of my messages or post the service was good til this glitch/bug happened.

PS- Thanks to the suport member who did refund my balance, that was very nice. I will be checking frequently for upgrades because of that 1 person...

Roman

Since Roman is gone, I'm throwing this out for general discussion:

"If our sniper accounts can be hacked ...". - He's assuming the problem is with AS. It's much more likely the problem is with ebay. After all, his user id is visible in ebay.

"NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!" - It's not impossible that he is wrong.

"Maybe I will return after AS does a TOTAL upgrade." - If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

"Support didnt even advise me to change my password or anything. Even if this is the most obvious thing to do and the easiest, not 1 support person even said that." - If support had suggested this, he might have complained that AS thought he was stupid or were being condescending.

" ... given all my other auctions were for designer clothes/shoes and fishing tackle and gear. Then you see a Kitchen Mixer? Come on, there is a problem here!" - Come on! Is he actually suggesting that AS should include software that determines the types of items we purchase, and then tell us we are sniping an item we've never sniped before?

"I no longer use AS- problem solved." Another way to handle this problem is a quote from everyone's favorite AS sniper: "Somebody broke into my eBay account and listed two items for sale on eBay France under my userid. I cancelled the auctions (one of which had 15 bids on it already) and got eBay to credit my account for related charges, but it was a major lesson to me to change my password every now and then. EBay says they have no way of tracing the miscreant who used my id." The same thing happen to this 2nd sniper. The 2nd sniper found the problem, fixed the problem, didn't blame anyone, and went back to posting, sniping, and eating. The 2nd sniper is a person that spends their time solving problems, instead of fixing blame!

Wow - then the software could determine the strangest sniper.

Let's see - over the last year I've bid on:

1st Issue Revenue Stamps
1980 World Series Memorabilia
White House Historical Society Christmas Ornaments
Royal Albert china teapot
Scuba gear
Restaurant gift certificates

Hmmm.... what would the software think of me

It would think you're a funny guy.

quote:

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Steve and Chatter 163 are the real experts on this board, and they could probably tell you more.
--Christine

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Naaaahhhhh. Steve and Rick are the real experts here. Chatter is just a back-up to the Big Boys.

As far as Roman is concerned, his question may be a valid one, and we have not seen his prior communications directly with AS, which may explain why he is so frustrated. HOWEVER, Roman should remember that this is a public forum--one populated by many AS boosters--and the "coming in, loaded and ready to fire" style just does not go over well here. It certainly does not go over well with other AS members, and it appears to not go over well with some AS staffers who, if the truth be told, probably could be a little thicker-skinned when it comes to handling member complaints. One does need to take a certain amount of gruff when one is in that line; the key is to "hook" the member's "adult," as my old customer service training taught me.

I agree with Rick that any hacking effort is likely to have been eBay-related, since that is where the Roman's eBay ID is exposed. He said he received an outbid notice; one infers that he means an AS outbid notice, since he is complaining here, but he does not explicitly state this. Is it possible that the outbid notice was, in fact, from eBay, rather than AS? Since Roman also complains about not receiving outbid notices from AS, I am not sure what to think.

Ford is also right to point out that the purpose of sniping is to set one's own max and leave it alone. I could not care less about any outbid notices, because once I have set my max, that's it, no matter what the price is.

AS probably could be a little more subtle (and in some cases, swifter) in their responses. But this needs to be matched by a comparably affable demeanor on the part of the member.

Chatter: As always, the Queen of tact and diplomacy, with a unique and keen insight into the bigger picture, and helping to minimize testosterone poisoning.

I just had a thought--that's scary, I know Is it possible that an E-Bay glitch could have sent an outbid notice to the wrong person? I know of e-mail that was sent, and not returned or delivered. (Not a computer whiz here. Just an internet addict.)

Okay in response to your reply:

"If our sniper accounts can be hacked ...". - He's assuming the problem is with AS. It's much more likely the problem is with ebay. After all, his user id is visible in ebay.

- #1 I ASSUME nothing without some kind of research or investigation. Also, I am a SHE not a HE. You might not want to make your replies gender specific, but thats minor.

- #2 KEYWORD "IF"!!!!!!!

- #3 I was under the assumption that your user ID is not visible til a successful auction ends. So you are saying what? That another bidder, from within ebay hacked into my sniper account? Ummm possible but not likely, but hey, anything is possible.

"NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!" - It's not impossible that he is wrong.

- #1 I made this comment after reading a post on a verrry similar subject/ problem to mine, where a bidder said that his/her AS account couldve possibly been hacked. The reply from SUPPORT was "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE". My reply to that was "NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE". I made this statement in direct relation to supports comment to hacking into AS is impossible.

- #2 What could I have possibly did wrong with this issue? Yes, I am wrong about many things and this COULD be one of them, but given my past auction history with AS and my selections that were made from those auctions AND the fact that there is NO RECORD of me EVER bidding on this item with the exception of an OUTBID NOTICE THAT I RECVD VIA EMAIL, I seriously doubt that I am wrong in this situation.

"Maybe I will return after AS does a TOTAL upgrade." - If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

- #1 Any service or business can always be upgraded or improved with the help of customer feedback, technology, finances and persistence!! AND upgrade doesnt necessarily mean that anything is "broke" only that it can be made better.

- #2 Obviously something is "broke" or could be made better, otherwise why even have a forum or message board for other than friendly communication between AS and bidders? The truth is that alot of the messages on the board are service complaints, whether it's user error or not someone, somewhere had a problem and if its on the board for everyone to see and has the little red faces, then its pretty escalated in the eyes of the bidder. The message board/ forum is also a venting station where you possibly can see other people experiencing the same PROBLEM you are- hmm, so much for the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

"Support didnt even advise me to change my password or anything. Even if this is the most obvious thing to do and the easiest, not 1 support person even said that." - If support had suggested this, he might have complained that AS thought he was stupid or were being condescending.

-#1 Stating the obvious isnt always obvious to some people which is why its necessary when giving good customer service or support. In most support fields stating the obvious is protocol, meaning, you have to do this. Just like when you have problems with your computer or Cable/DSL connection. When you call their support line they usually tell you to do something you've already done. This might be stupid and even annoying but they're doing there job AND they have to tell you to do the minial little task, it's protocol. Like I said sometimes the obvious ISN'T OBVIOUS TO SOME!

" ... given all my other auctions were for designer clothes/shoes and fishing tackle and gear. Then you see a Kitchen Mixer? Come on, there is a problem here!" - Come on! Is he actually suggesting that AS should include software that determines the types of items we purchase, and then tell us we are sniping an item we've never sniped before?

- #1 I have read various messages where support did JUST THAT! THEY REVIEWED ALL OF THE OTHER AUCTIONS THAT THE BIDDER WAS BIDDING ON!!!!!! Actaully it's very useful to them to help them figure out if the person did actually bid on this item or similar items. Perhaps if they do find a similar product they can begin to honestly question if the bidder did bid on this item and was unaware of this or not.

- #2 I never EVER suggested AS provide software that would tell us when we are sniping an item that has never been sniped. That service is already given to you in your My Snipes and Folders. But see that's just it, the item NEVER appeared in any of my folders or My Snipes!!!!

"I no longer use AS- problem solved." Another way to handle this problem is a quote from everyone's favorite AS sniper: "Somebody broke into my eBay account and listed two items for sale on eBay France under my userid. I cancelled the auctions (one of which had 15 bids on it already) and got eBay to credit my account for related charges, but it was a major lesson to me to change my password every now and then. EBay says they have no way of tracing the miscreant who used my id." The same thing happen to this 2nd sniper. The 2nd sniper found the problem, fixed the problem, didn't blame anyone, and went back to posting, sniping, and eating. The 2nd sniper is a person that spends their time solving problems, instead of fixing blame!

- #1 If your going to quote me- have enough respect to quote me directly. Maybe you should consider using the CTRL+C (to copy) and CTRL+ V (to paste). Bet you knew that already, but hey, how do I know that you didnt I also said that perhaps in the future I would return to AS.

- #2 The problem has been fixed, I have cancelled my account, been refunded and I am with another service. Fast replies to my emails and other great features that AS doesn't have. Slightly more expensive but well worth it in my opinion.

- #3 Also please BE AWARE anyone and everyone makes mistakes! The 1st person I blamed was myself, thinking that maybe I accidentally bid on the wrong item, but if I did that, where are the records of this activity? Also in the outbid notice i recvd. the bid amount was $50.00 for a Kitchen Mixer. I would never bid on a mixer and even if I would, I wouldnt pay $50.00 for it.
It's not about blame, it's about finding the problem and correcting it. Since AS couldnt give me any other answer then "i don't know.." or "maybe you.." then I decided to end my service. If the problem wouldve been addressed properly and answered satisfactorily, then I wouldve changed my password and still be with AS.
When I say satisfactorily I dont mean anything outlandish. I mean simply stating they couldve said, " well change your password", or " maybe there is a bug or a glitch. I will research it and get back with you", but I didnt even get that.

Your business and/or service is only as strong as your support. Which in my opinion, was below satisfactory.

I hope this helps you fully understand this incident.

Back to sniping and bidding for me

Have a great day!!

Adriana
AKA
Roman

Roman

Well honestly if the gung ho, holier then thou AS member followers want to bash me and my comments on here I could careless!! They have NO IDEA of what emails were sent to me from AS support and vice versa which is a great point that you made.

Also it was an AS Outbid notice



Ciao,
Adriana
AKA
Roman

Roman

LOL I will have to use that!! It's cute!

Re:

Chatter: As always, the Queen of tact and diplomacy, with a unique and keen insight into the bigger picture, and helping to minimize testosterone poisoning.

Gotta get a bumper sticker made of that!!

LOL

Adriana

Roman

That's totally possible! Maybe you should be hired by AS to be on there support team

Roman

I'm thinking that last post was directed at me. If it is, it's not accusing me of being on the payroll, but it's one step closer. I'll just have to wait for that to happen.

Geez if I got this kind of response from the AS support themselves I probably wouldnt have left! LOL!! I am sooo popular..no such thing as bad publicity LOL

Adriana

Roman

Adriana,

I'm won't try to talk you into staying with AS, but I would like to encourage you to stick with this forum. Anyone that would spend as much time as you have on your posts, is a good addition.

And, we discuss a bunch of other things besides getting upset with AS, or getting upset with those that get upset with AS.

You don't have to be an AS sniper.

Think about it.

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Your the second support person to say that this is unusual yet I have seen at least 4 similar mishaps on the message board- AT LEAST.

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Nope. All of those turned out to be customer error.

quote:

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I also read issues where people cancelled auctions and the auction still went through!

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Again I believe all of those were customer errors. I check each and every case on these boards personally. Unless I reply back to the boards saying it was our fault, then it was the customers error. They either bid twice on the same item, or didnt delete their snipe like they had thought etc.

quote:

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Like your support isnt being very supportive to something this serious.

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I take every post like this very seriously.

quote:

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Support didnt even advise me to change my password or anything.

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I looked through your account and didnt see a bid on a kitchen mixer. Why would I tell you to change your password if I didnt believe someone had access to your account?

For all I know it was an eBay bug, we were checking for outbid on some item you bid on, and eBay instead returned the text of a different eBay item. Unlikely, but it's possible. It's also possible it was a bug in our system that checks for outbids, or a bug in the microsoft operating system code that our programming is written on top of.

I think i will stick with the forum and message board for awhile in the iterim of budgeting these viscious auctions. During the last days of auctions I am ghost. Meaning I am so focused on winning that I really cant be distracted. Will probably end up strapping a feed bag to my family's face because I hate to be disturbed by ANYONE. Besides I am not a domestic Goddess!LOL!!.

I like to believe I have a lot to offer in the field of Ebay auctions (despite popular belief). I have been an active bidder/seller for 2 yrs now off and on. However, I am not as experienced in sniping as I would like to be, which is why I read the boards, look for hot tips and suggestions.

We can all improve and strive to be better and when I say all I mean everyone, AS, sellers, bidders, we as a whole.

Right or wrong I will debate til the death, til the bitter end (HA HA) with percision executed flawless victory and knowledge. I am not in the feeling sparing business, so sometimes feelings get hurt, people get upset, and If I offended anyone I am sorry. As far as my feelings, I find a good debate most exciting and excellent comic relief. My feelings went relatively numb years ago!! LOL HA HA!!

My background is business management, customer service management, entreprenuership, mom, warden, etc.

The whip is a'crackin- back to work for me..

C-Yall round!!

Adriana
AKA
ROMAN

Oh My Goodness! Wonders never cease! Could it be that AS is at fault? Maybe??? Just maaaaybe?? Do my eye's decieve me!! But I think you said that AS COULD be at fault with a bug!!?? I am still in utter disbelief of this reply- I will have to futher investigate this!!

"Your the second support person to say that this is unusual yet I have seen at least 4 similar mishaps on the message board- AT LEAST."

Nope. All of those turned out to be customer error.

- Point being originally support said that this was unusual, and I found atleast 4 seperate incidents where this happened. So this isn't unusual, perhaps rare, but not unusual. I only went through the 1st couple of pages- no telling how many more are buried in there.

" I also read issues where people cancelled auctions and the auction still went through!"

Support: Again I believe all of those were customer errors. I check each and every case on these boards personally. Unless I reply back to the boards saying it was our fault, then it was the customers error. They either bid twice on the same item, or didnt delete their snipe like they had thought etc.

- All the post I read regarding cancelled/won auctions thoroughly explained that they did not double bid and attempted to cancel numerous times and the auctions still went through. I also noticed someone said they tried to refresh pages to force the AS system to update and cancel and this didn't even work. Customers are going to make errors, thats why your here, but perhaps this issue needs to be investigated further. Maybe there is a practical solution to this problem? Maybe a few more system updates from AS to update our snipes more throughout the day and not just once or twice. I also do not believe out of ALL of those messages posted with that type of error that every single last one of those people made the same error. For support to say that is slightly ludicrus.

" Like your support isnt being very supportive to something this serious."

Support: I take every post like this very seriously.

- Well support was NOT being supportive. The only answers I recvd from support was " I don't know.." and " Maybe you did this...or that." There was no help, no suggestions about fixing this matter, NOTHING. Support should be about solutions, even if the only solution you can give me is something very obvious! At that point anything wouldve helped. Support didnt even advise me to change my password or anything.


Support: I looked through your account and didnt see a bid on a kitchen mixer. Why would I tell you to change your password if I didnt believe someone had access to your account?

For all I know it was an eBay bug, we were checking for outbid on some item you bid on, and eBay instead returned the text of a different eBay item. Unlikely, but it's possible. It's also possible it was a bug in our system that checks for outbids, or a bug in the microsoft operating system code that our programming is written on top of.

- Oh my GOD LOL!! This is the best one yet!! LOL
Well you wouldnt find any mixers in my auctions either! Why? Because I never bid on an mixer, but got the AS OUTBID NOTICE!! I can SEND YOU THE OUTBID NOTICE EMAIL IF YOU WANT FROM AS!! lol. I have said this on this board and directly to support at least 10 times through out this entire dilemma! Yet just now they are suggesting, no, no MENTIONING, is a better word! Mentioning something about change of password!?

That's been my point this whoooole time! I didnt bid on it, there are no records of me bidding on this YET i get an outbid notice from AS stating that I have been outbid on a Kitchen Mixer and I need to bid higher then 52.00. YEAH RIGHT! Me BUY a mixer? Me pay over 5.00 for it from WalMart?? HA HA! I barely even know how to use a mixer! I have one for decoration!!

Anyway, I really can no longer afford to entertain myself or support any more or at least for awhile.

Good luck to everyone and GOD Bless!



Roman

Roman, we are glad that you wil stick a around a bit longer. I must say, however, that I am having a difficult time following your posts, as your system of quoting other posts and then making your responses to each is confusing to say the least. I have difficulty telling which are the quotes and which are your responses.

May I suggest that you use the quotation feature of this forum? This is done by clicking on the " " marks at the top of the post you wish to cite. This will automatically post the entire post at the start of your post; it will be inset, centered, and the original poster will be identified. If you like, you can also edit it at this point, omitting part of the post, if you don't wish to post the entire message. It makes following who is saying what a whole lot easier!

An example of this will appear immediately below this post.

quote:

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Originally posted by Rick:
Chatter: As always, the Queen of tact and diplomacy, with a unique and keen insight into the bigger picture, and helping to minimize testosterone poisoning.

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Speaking of gender errors in this thread, as Roman did earlier, I am sorry to say that Rick made one himself. But thanks for the compliment.

King of Tact--not too sure about that one

I knew that there was a feature like this on the board but I am just smothered with auction budgeting and cant play with it right now...But I will

I figured that it would be a tad confusing so that's understandable!! Sorry bout that

Thanks for the welcome!

Love and Pee's
Roman

Roman

When in Rome...

Why I said that...I dont know..just thought that I should say something..LOL

Roman

Roman

Not my day for gender. Apologies to both of you.

I'm going to stick with they, you, it, who, them, and whom.

Live and learn.