Look guys, clearly eBay is trying to defeat Snipe sites. This is a new reality. They probably developed some sort of rule-based code routine that checks IPs, time to auction end, and other fingerprints that differentiate a human user from a third party program. I believe a major parameter is a user's session length compared to when they place the snipe bid. Meaning that in that split second after the AS program logs in, it places a bid. Also the lead time for the bid may be being detected too. 4-5 seconds before auction end is clearly a marker for a Snipe bot so that also may trigger the verification. Maybe the user's history of bidding at the last minute is a factor.
I suppose eBay wants us all in front of the screen in the last 10 minutes of an auction to maximize the hammer price and consequently their profits. I know that automatic snipers and that whole are really not part of their business model, meaning they want to maximize eyes on the screen, also to drive up ad revenue, no. of clicks, add-on buys, etc. They've got teams of developers and analysts whose only purpose is to defeat Snipe sites and increase human clicks and page views. Most if not all online retailers or other sites that deal with the customer to get their online $ hate third-party automatic programs and bots which take the place of a human interaction with their site. The only good bot is *their* bot, as to what is allowed. eBay makes their money from humans who spend time on their site. Maximizing the time a customer is on eBay is not what a third party agent does so that's why now, as Snipe sites get a bigger share of the winning bids, they've declared war on us. And your bottom dollar that eBay has made sure that verification is never triggered when a human user bids, even at the last minute. So the assertion from AS that eBay does this from time to time is a lame excuse. I'd like to be treated a little more intelligently by AS Support, thank you.
So here's the deal. Auction Sniper knows very well this is an anti-snipe weapon. The fact is that it could be a business killer for them and it has been happening for some time tells me that they're either clueless or powerless to do something about it. By now they would have reasonably developed a counter fix to the verification check. I'm getting really fed up with the AS support, being unfriendly, clueless, and ineffective. This may well be their final straw.
Here's what I'm going to do in the short term.
For auctions of items that I definitely want to win no matter what, I will bid manually.
I have increased the lead time on one of my upcoming snipes up to 8 or 10 seconds, just to test if that makes a difference.
I am also going to log in and stay logged in to eBay within 15 minutes (min avg cookie session time) of auction end.
I am also going to start sniping with another AS account just to see if eBay is going after the hard core habitual offenders.
In the long term or sooner, if eBay continues this BS and AS doesn't find a fix, if the above ideas don't work, I'll drop AS like a ton of bricks and walk.
I'll let you know.
In any case the best solution hands down is a downloaded snipe program that we can install on our own PCs which snipes for us from the IP with which we logged in and stay logged through auction end. Letting a third party do this for us always was never a guarantee of getting the winning bid, thus with a high degree of risk because we're delegating to a third party agent. Now it seems that those chickens have come to roost.
This reminds me of those heady days of the Wild West Web of the mid to late 90s when search engines were constantly fighting web coders that modified web site pages to get higher search result placement. Most of you weren't even born yet (joke). It became so bad that search sites were even blocking the worst offending web sites and even server IPs from displayed results. There were young men and women "hired guns" ("search engine gurus") who represented that they had cracked the search engine's code and could achieve amazing results for web site business owners. Major money was spent, many late night hours burned. Some of the more astute guys even got sued by the search sites. No, really.
Anyway.., AS needs to fess up and come clean to their customers about what they know and don't know. Everything. I surmise that might not be very much and that's why they're playing the same old unprofessional, lame broken record to us: "It's eBay's fault".
This situation could very well completely change the AS business model to one that may fail the company unless they develop a solution quickly. Folks are not going to keep losing items with AS. Very soon we'll walk.
Thoughts?
-FU
I used to use AS all the time, but now i'm scared to use it for anything I want as I have lost 2 many things
The MOST annoying thing is that AS still won't acknowledge that this is a problem, they are still denying it and pretending it is some new ebay security and not a way of ebay cracking down on snipes.
GUYS - admit it and write some new code as suggested by Fed Up
By the way _ I always leave my computer on but this does not help in any way
The MOST annoying thing is that AS still won't acknowledge that this is a problem, they are still denying it and pretending it is some new ebay security and not a way of ebay cracking down on snipes.
GUYS - admit it and write some new code as suggested by Fed Up
By the way _ I always leave my computer on but this does not help in any way
AS removed my reply to Jacobsen AND my follow-up to my original post:
" Sniper Mike D.
posted June 02, 2015 10:11 AM
Hello FedUp,
This message is to inform you that we have removed one or more of your recent posts for mentioning competing sniping services, which is not allowed on our Community Forum.
Please consider this message a warning that similar posting in the future could compromise your ability to make use of our forum.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter,
Auction Sniper Forum Administrator "
This speak for itself. This is AS today. AS is clueless about keeping customers. Suppose they'll be working off of churn.
Screw this. I'm history.
-FU
" Sniper Mike D.
posted June 02, 2015 10:11 AM
Hello FedUp,
This message is to inform you that we have removed one or more of your recent posts for mentioning competing sniping services, which is not allowed on our Community Forum.
Please consider this message a warning that similar posting in the future could compromise your ability to make use of our forum.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter,
Auction Sniper Forum Administrator "
This speak for itself. This is AS today. AS is clueless about keeping customers. Suppose they'll be working off of churn.
Screw this. I'm history.
-FU
Update: I just won an item with AS, without the verification holdup, but with the fol changes:
1. I upped my bid lead time to 11s.
2. I logged into eBay with my acct within 15 mins. of auction end.
3. I interacted with links on the listing up until hammer time.
Not sure what made the difference.
1. I upped my bid lead time to 11s.
2. I logged into eBay with my acct within 15 mins. of auction end.
3. I interacted with links on the listing up until hammer time.
Not sure what made the difference.
hmmn
Maybe just lucky?? I won one with AS last weekend, but then lost the next one….
something has come up that I really want now. It feels safer to me to write to the ebayer privately and try to get it for a fixed price. I have done this twice now and it has worked
Maybe just lucky?? I won one with AS last weekend, but then lost the next one….
something has come up that I really want now. It feels safer to me to write to the ebayer privately and try to get it for a fixed price. I have done this twice now and it has worked
Well, it won't work anymore to trust just setting the snipe and leave it to finish the auction any more ....ok ... understood the severity of the problem, is there any way for us to help AS work around the new eBay environment ?
What if the bidder also makes an initial bid, early on, just to establish their place in the bid process for the particular item ?
and what if they are logged into eBay at the time of the auction end ?
Would these two conditions ensure that eBay not defend against the bid placed by AuctionSniper at the end ?
What if the bidder also makes an initial bid, early on, just to establish their place in the bid process for the particular item ?
and what if they are logged into eBay at the time of the auction end ?
Would these two conditions ensure that eBay not defend against the bid placed by AuctionSniper at the end ?
Alx
I did that to one of my items, left an early bid through ebay, and then left my final bid with AS for £180
I item sold for £99
I had left my computer on and logged in to ebay -
I got the ebay requires verification blurb… so, no, that does not work, not if you really want something
I did that to one of my items, left an early bid through ebay, and then left my final bid with AS for £180
I item sold for £99
I had left my computer on and logged in to ebay -
I got the ebay requires verification blurb… so, no, that does not work, not if you really want something
ok, thanks for info ...
really nothing to do except proxy-bid thru eBay, planning if possible to be onsite near the end of the auction.
One thing to realize ... if other users of AS are becoming wary, there may not be any, or many, snipes from other bidders to worry about anymore ...
really nothing to do except proxy-bid thru eBay, planning if possible to be onsite near the end of the auction.
One thing to realize ... if other users of AS are becoming wary, there may not be any, or many, snipes from other bidders to worry about anymore ...
"Sniper in Training" huh ..... ok, we realize that if you have fewer than x posts in the message boards, you get this description - but really, after about 15 years and a thousand snipes, .....
Here is an idea I saw on a different thread in this board .... has it been explored yet ?
If you have a phone app that is logged into eBay all the time, as they are typically doing, and then AuctionSniper logs in to place your snipe, perhaps eBay's security measures are triggered by the double log-in situation.
Has this already been investigated ?
If you have a phone app that is logged into eBay all the time, as they are typically doing, and then AuctionSniper logs in to place your snipe, perhaps eBay's security measures are triggered by the double log-in situation.
Has this already been investigated ?
This problem has happened to me several times, too. It's very frustrating. I called eBay. They said all was fine with my account; verification was not required.
I've reset my passwords on both eBay and Auction Sniper. I deleted and reentered my credit card info on Auction Sniper. I went to my Auction Sniper account and clicked "Check Status," and got the following message:
Verified eBay login information
Your account has been verified and all snipes will be properly placed.
Still my snipes aren't recording!
Here's the communication thread with Auction Sniper:
Your Previous Comment: (submitted [Sunday, 6/7/2015 8:02 PM PDT])
My snipes are not recording. This has happened several times. I received the following email message after today's most recent snipe fail:
"Ebay Requires Account Verification
Your snipe did not win because of the reason above
Click here to see eBay's response to your snipe"
When I click the link, I get this message:
"Enter a verification code to continue
To keep eBay a safe place to buy and sell, we will occasionally ask you to enter a verification code. This helps us to block unauthorized users from entering our site. Please enter the verification code in the image below and click on the "Continue" button to enter our site. Learn more about our security policies.- opens in a new window or tab
Enter the verification code Click for help"
A six-digit number is displayed. When I enter the number, another six-digit number is displayed. This goes on and on. I tried listening to the number using several different browsers, but the audio does not play in any of the browsers.
I need your help to verify my account with eBay so that my snipes record.
Thank you for your help.
Reply (submitted [Sunday, 6/7/2015 8:24 PM PDT])
Hello,
Thanks for contacting us regarding this matter and I am sorry to hear the trouble you are facing.
I've reviewed your account and found that snipe for provided item # is showing up status message ‘Ebay Requires Account Verification’. The 'View Confirmation' (an eye shaped icon) located at the right of the snipe is displaying the message you received through the email.
The "View Confirmation" page is not an actual eBay page, but a snap shot/record of eBay's request when Sniper attempted to access your account to place the bid. You will not be able to access/verify your eBay account via this page. Please do not enter the number again and again on this page.
As we are unrelated to eBay, we have no control over what eBay may present at log in and eBay may present such a request at any time for any account. Sadly, our service is unable to complete such a request or otherwise work around it when eBay presents it, and so in those cases, Auction Sniper is unable to place your bid. I am not aware of any similar service that can work around such a request.
Typically, this situation resolves itself in a period of time and snipes are then set normally. Please be informed that our engineers make every effort to make adjustments on our end to reduce the likelihood of such occurring.
If you have any other questions or encounter further difficulties, please don't hesitate to ask!
Sincerely,
Auction Sniper Support
I've reset my passwords on both eBay and Auction Sniper. I deleted and reentered my credit card info on Auction Sniper. I went to my Auction Sniper account and clicked "Check Status," and got the following message:
Verified eBay login information
Your account has been verified and all snipes will be properly placed.
Still my snipes aren't recording!
Here's the communication thread with Auction Sniper:
Your Previous Comment: (submitted [Sunday, 6/7/2015 8:02 PM PDT])
My snipes are not recording. This has happened several times. I received the following email message after today's most recent snipe fail:
"Ebay Requires Account Verification
Your snipe did not win because of the reason above
Click here to see eBay's response to your snipe"
When I click the link, I get this message:
"Enter a verification code to continue
To keep eBay a safe place to buy and sell, we will occasionally ask you to enter a verification code. This helps us to block unauthorized users from entering our site. Please enter the verification code in the image below and click on the "Continue" button to enter our site. Learn more about our security policies.- opens in a new window or tab
Enter the verification code Click for help"
A six-digit number is displayed. When I enter the number, another six-digit number is displayed. This goes on and on. I tried listening to the number using several different browsers, but the audio does not play in any of the browsers.
I need your help to verify my account with eBay so that my snipes record.
Thank you for your help.
Reply (submitted [Sunday, 6/7/2015 8:24 PM PDT])
Hello,
Thanks for contacting us regarding this matter and I am sorry to hear the trouble you are facing.
I've reviewed your account and found that snipe for provided item # is showing up status message ‘Ebay Requires Account Verification’. The 'View Confirmation' (an eye shaped icon) located at the right of the snipe is displaying the message you received through the email.
The "View Confirmation" page is not an actual eBay page, but a snap shot/record of eBay's request when Sniper attempted to access your account to place the bid. You will not be able to access/verify your eBay account via this page. Please do not enter the number again and again on this page.
As we are unrelated to eBay, we have no control over what eBay may present at log in and eBay may present such a request at any time for any account. Sadly, our service is unable to complete such a request or otherwise work around it when eBay presents it, and so in those cases, Auction Sniper is unable to place your bid. I am not aware of any similar service that can work around such a request.
Typically, this situation resolves itself in a period of time and snipes are then set normally. Please be informed that our engineers make every effort to make adjustments on our end to reduce the likelihood of such occurring.
If you have any other questions or encounter further difficulties, please don't hesitate to ask!
Sincerely,
Auction Sniper Support
Basically, unreliable ....
Look, .... if eBay was not opposed to the sniping of auctions, they could easily provide their own sniping feature, just as well as the proxy bidding system. It would probably entirely replace regular proxy bidding, because once understood by their buying customers, who would want to have their bids appear before the end of the auction ? At least it might foster a different style of auction, like a sealed-bid auction. The snipe-able auction would be at the choice of the seller.
For now, eBay seems to have effectively undermined the reliability of sniping services, such that only those bidders who are not end-users would care to risk snipe bidding. Anyone who really wants that item, who is invested in getting it for themselves, should just use the eBay auction system as it is normally operated - with proxy bidding, or be present at the auction end with a manually-placed "snipe" bid.
For now, eBay seems to have effectively undermined the reliability of sniping services, such that only those bidders who are not end-users would care to risk snipe bidding. Anyone who really wants that item, who is invested in getting it for themselves, should just use the eBay auction system as it is normally operated - with proxy bidding, or be present at the auction end with a manually-placed "snipe" bid.
This problem is not only happening here but the same problem is happening over at -- as well. I was told by ebay support that this is happening because ebay is tightening up security when auto bidding takes place. -- and -- seem to be working ok. and i have not tried my -- account yet. So good lick everybody i think times are changing.
I have been having this same problem with Auctionsniper for weeks. At first they tried to push it off on Ebay but Ebay states they have nothing to do with it. This is a glitch with Auctionsniper which they either cannot fix or refuse to acknowledge. Yesterday I confirmed my Ebay information on Auctionsniper one hour before an important auction was going to end and my snipe was still not placed. Dennis Nedry did not screw up the systems in Jurassic Park as bad as Auctionsniper is screwed up. They clearly did some sort of recent system upgrade which has corrupted the system. My complaint to Auctionsniper has not even been acknowledged so I have ended my snipes and switched to another system as I cannot depend on this site any more.
I lost 4 auctions tonight!!! Same response eBay requires account verification. I can**NOT** find anything on eBay on how to stop this. ASniper gives me **no** answer either. Same old canned response.. Not their fault. I can place bids manually with no trouble. I have to find another service this is getting ridiculous. I **********CAN'T***** always be at the PC to place bids. I work for a living and do sleep sometimes, so I am not 24/7 at the pc to place manual bids. I am soooo mad.
What is sad is that sellers are losing money too! Their items would have sold for more.
I lost an auction that I would have won, but for this problem - I've tried the AS "check my login" link which has previously been a reassuring double-check, even it says "we are unable to check" or words to the effect.
I have a support request with AS, but until that is answered - as many others have commented, I don't see as I can rely on AS currently.
Whether it's eBay or AS' problem is almost immaterial, as an end user I don't seem to have any choice but to vote with my feet after many years of good service. The next auction I am watching, is 4 days time.
I have a support request with AS, but until that is answered - as many others have commented, I don't see as I can rely on AS currently.
Whether it's eBay or AS' problem is almost immaterial, as an end user I don't seem to have any choice but to vote with my feet after many years of good service. The next auction I am watching, is 4 days time.
I also lost a snipe due to Acct Verification problem. I have contacted the seller and told him he lost a lot of money because my high bid was much higher than what he actually got in the bidding process due to my bid being blocked. In some cases, he may lose the entire sale if the Acct Verification "feature" blocks the one and only actual bidder who happens to be using AS. I think the pressure has to come from the sellers.
I advise you to go somewhere else. I am using another company now and it is working just fine.
I asked, like all of you, to no avail, for help fixing this problem.
seems they don't mind losing all their customers
I asked, like all of you, to no avail, for help fixing this problem.
seems they don't mind losing all their customers