Hi folks, new here, but using auction sniper for well over 5 years. I lost a VERY good pipe that I wanted... and it went WELL below what I was willing to pay. Contacted AuctionSniper... no response. I'm currently looking for another sniping site. Any suggestions?
I fail to understand the anger directed at Auction Sniper - the problem is with eBay not auction sniper.
lol, not exactly.
Ebay is trying to stop snipes to make more money, which is greedy, but what a big company does. Snipe companies are there to provide a service for the customer who doesn't want to end up in a bidding war with over inflated prices. It's a service they decided to provide (which we pay for) If their service is outdated then they need to update it, or at least be honest about it!!
Ebay is trying to stop snipes to make more money, which is greedy, but what a big company does. Snipe companies are there to provide a service for the customer who doesn't want to end up in a bidding war with over inflated prices. It's a service they decided to provide (which we pay for) If their service is outdated then they need to update it, or at least be honest about it!!
I called the idiots at eBay and they first informed me that sniping is against eBay policy, and then told me that it is ok, but the error messages for account verification are not from eBay, but from the siping tool itself, and that they have been getting a lot of calls about it.
Lost another auction due to account verification! I've had it! This is unconscionable! It has gone on too long and Each company blames the other and both the bidder and seller get screwed! I'm looking into alternatives. Auction sniper...this could be the death of you if you don't do something! After all the years I have relied on you, you do nothing to help me...shameful!
quote:Originally posted by StevieCL:
Lost another auction due to account verification! I've had it! This is unconscionable! It has gone on too long and Each company blames the other and both the bidder and seller get screwed! I'm looking into alternatives. Auction sniper...this could be the death of you if you don't do something! After all the years I have relied on you, you do nothing to help me...shameful!
This has spread to other sniper services as well is the problem. its not JUST Auction Sniper, though they appear to be the first, and their customer service lousy
quote:Originally posted by cpushack:quote:Originally posted by StevieCL:
Lost another auction due to account verification! I've had it! This is unconscionable! It has gone on too long and Each company blames the other and both the bidder and seller get screwed! I'm looking into alternatives. Auction sniper...this could be the death of you if you don't do something! After all the years I have relied on you, you do nothing to help me...shameful!
This has spread to other sniper services as well is the problem. its not JUST Auction Sniper, though they appear to be the first, and their customer service lousy
Well it will not end up doing either company any good...if people cannot be available to bid and sniper sites don't work, those people won't get the bid in...how does that benefit the companys?
quote:Originally posted by StevieCL:quote:Originally posted by cpushack:quote:Originally posted by StevieCL:
Lost another auction due to account verification! I've had it! This is unconscionable! It has gone on too long and Each company blames the other and both the bidder and seller get screwed! I'm looking into alternatives. Auction sniper...this could be the death of you if you don't do something! After all the years I have relied on you, you do nothing to help me...shameful!
This has spread to other sniper services as well is the problem. its not JUST Auction Sniper, though they appear to be the first, and their customer service lousy
Well it will not end up doing either company any good...if people cannot be available to bid and sniper sites don't work, those people won't get the bid in...how does that benefit the companys?
eBay wants more money, (new activist board is VERY focused on boosting short term profits) Sniping decreases the end price of some auctions (as it prevents bidding wars).
eBay wants you to bid early and bid often, so that they can make a bit more on fees, at the expense of pissing off some buyers.
Just lost an auction 5 minutes ago. Item was one-of-a-kind that I've never seen before. Please fix this!
Selling on ebay sucks now and now you can't bid with sniping...so why bother?
If eBay tries to say they are NOT the cause they are lying. There is no time to answer the verification question unless you are sniping in person with more than a minute to go - in which case there is no snipe. The problem is caused by eBay - their new management team has changed a lot of things to get more money with less work. They started by taking apart trust and safety. They disbanded the watch committees that were stopping fraudulent auctions. Since then they have been retrenching more and more. Blame eBay - they made a change that no amount of programming by a sniping company can respond to. It takes a living person to reply to the security question with answers customers never give to the sniping services.
Add me to the list of those who have lost now 4 auctions due to "eBay Requires Account Verification." I tried changing username and password to no avail. FOr a while the "Check Staus" under "My Snipes, "Account" was saying that it could not verify my account. However, this morning and now it is saying my account is verified and all auctions should be placed properly. However, I just lost another one due to this same issue. It is starting to get very annoying. Auction Sniper help is of no help. I too have been a member for years, but if this continues, I will look for another program.
If it is eBay wanting more money, then they are kidding themselves. I lost 4 auctions that I would have won if Auction Sniper had placed my bids. eBay, Auction Sniper, and the seller would have all made more money, and I would have been happy to get my items. Now I am pissed along with the rest of you.
You are actually incorrect about eBay losing money but eliminating snipes. I completed a two part experiment recently (since I started writing in here). I placed 100 bids on low value coins. They were placed at two levels - one just UNDER retail - the other at full retail plus 10%. I expected that I would lose the low bids but win some or most of the over retail bids. However, I lost all but one.
Try it yourself - if you place a bid on an item when it appears - someone will chip away at your number until they find and exceed that bid. If there were no snipes - eBay would definitely increase their commissions and we would lose our savings.
So it is my belief that placing a bid that matches your snipe amount will cause you to lose the auction or pay the snipe amount in EVERY case. (The only exception are "buy" snipes where you bid a huge amount and there you will just pay a lot over retail.)
Try it yourself - if you place a bid on an item when it appears - someone will chip away at your number until they find and exceed that bid. If there were no snipes - eBay would definitely increase their commissions and we would lose our savings.
So it is my belief that placing a bid that matches your snipe amount will cause you to lose the auction or pay the snipe amount in EVERY case. (The only exception are "buy" snipes where you bid a huge amount and there you will just pay a lot over retail.)
@swamperbob
The problem with your analysis is that you're assuming (or you're assuming that eBay is assuming) that as an alternative to sniping, we will all either manually snipe, or bid as you have. I for one will not. If I can't have a bot snipe for me, I simply will not bid, and instead will confine myself to BIN listings. And if other people feel the way I do, eBay definitely will lose money, as will their sellers.
The problem with your analysis is that you're assuming (or you're assuming that eBay is assuming) that as an alternative to sniping, we will all either manually snipe, or bid as you have. I for one will not. If I can't have a bot snipe for me, I simply will not bid, and instead will confine myself to BIN listings. And if other people feel the way I do, eBay definitely will lose money, as will their sellers.
Hello Community -
We have been looking into this issue and working towards a solution. Most recently, we have made some further adjustments on our end in this last week which were working towards a solution and have since seen significant indications that this work has brought improved results.
We are aware that the issue has not been resolved entirely - there are still instances of captcha's and other verifications occurring, however, significant progress has been made in this area and we continue to devote our resources toward a resolution.
I will update this thread again as more information becomes available.
Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.
- Craig
We have been looking into this issue and working towards a solution. Most recently, we have made some further adjustments on our end in this last week which were working towards a solution and have since seen significant indications that this work has brought improved results.
We are aware that the issue has not been resolved entirely - there are still instances of captcha's and other verifications occurring, however, significant progress has been made in this area and we continue to devote our resources toward a resolution.
I will update this thread again as more information becomes available.
Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.
- Craig
Having worked for eBay, I can only indicate that eBay has studied every angle for the potential of profit generation and they would not be making a move against the snipers unless they see a clear profit as a result.
They (eBay) studied the Coin Community Watch Group right out of existence as a result one of their studies.
I do know from discussions with others at eBay that "new" bidders were also seen as a profit area - retention of old bidders was a lower priority.
Also, which came as a surprise to me, the more technical bidding areas like coins and collectibles were seen as only marginal profit sources compared to other more market driven auctions (clothes jewels watches). At one point when they were being pressed by the ANA and politicians, eBay legal seriously considered ceasing auctions of coins because they were not worth it. They instead began the 6 year experiment with the Coin Watch Committee which tracked and eliminated fraud in the coins area. We terminated hundreds of frauds a week and the bottom line was a $1,000,000 loss on the eBay bottom line. Right after that new was published the committee was disbanded.
So I believe my assumptions fit the facts well. This is an orchestrated and very intentional move by eBay.
The only thing eBay actually fears is a law suit. This anti-competitive aspect of their behavior could be the basis for a class action law suit.
They (eBay) studied the Coin Community Watch Group right out of existence as a result one of their studies.
I do know from discussions with others at eBay that "new" bidders were also seen as a profit area - retention of old bidders was a lower priority.
Also, which came as a surprise to me, the more technical bidding areas like coins and collectibles were seen as only marginal profit sources compared to other more market driven auctions (clothes jewels watches). At one point when they were being pressed by the ANA and politicians, eBay legal seriously considered ceasing auctions of coins because they were not worth it. They instead began the 6 year experiment with the Coin Watch Committee which tracked and eliminated fraud in the coins area. We terminated hundreds of frauds a week and the bottom line was a $1,000,000 loss on the eBay bottom line. Right after that new was published the committee was disbanded.
So I believe my assumptions fit the facts well. This is an orchestrated and very intentional move by eBay.
The only thing eBay actually fears is a law suit. This anti-competitive aspect of their behavior could be the basis for a class action law suit.
Swamperbob - I'm sure you're right that eBay has looked at this and decided that there is money to be made by eliminating sniping. Of course I don't agree, but mine is a focus group of one. If they believe that there's more money in newbie bidders at the expense of the tried-and-true, then this move makes sense, as new users are confused and frustrated when a sniper takes an auction away from them. It is analogous to Microsoft completely changing the Office interface to attract new users, at the expense of all of us who now have to learn a new user interface. It's sad, because I will end up more or less abandoning eBay. Your bidding experiment (and thanks for that, by the way) proved what we all know anecdotally: sniping is essential.
Your notion of a class action suit is intriguing. I've never been asked for verification; I suspect eBay would have a hard time explaining why they seem to require it only of sniper bots, or why they don't allow bots in the first place. Hopefully AS is pursuing this strategem.
Your notion of a class action suit is intriguing. I've never been asked for verification; I suspect eBay would have a hard time explaining why they seem to require it only of sniper bots, or why they don't allow bots in the first place. Hopefully AS is pursuing this strategem.
I used to use AS quite a bit to get the items I was bidding on from eBay but I took some time off 'cause I was spending WAY too much money.
So, now I've started to bid on items again on eBay and low and behold, I've discovered that AS doesn't appear to work with eBay anymore: I received the same frustrating message that all of you have regarding "account verification" and have missed several auctions today because of it.
I've read through this forum and I'm of the belief that this issue is being generated by eBay on purpose.
I placed a manual bid on an item that I did not want the chance of losing and found it quite interesting that, after I confirmed my bid, I was presented with a "ad" to download the "eBay app" to stay on top of the auction and be able to rebid at a moment's notice.
I think eBay is trying to block out the snipping bots and force people to use the eBay app instead. Since most people have smart phones now, I can see eBay justifying this behavior by claiming that with the app, bidders can be involved in the auction process even when they're not in front of their computers. While claiming to give bidders "more access" this move, in my opinion, is to drive up final bid prices as many have speculated in this forum.
I would be interested in what a lawyer would have to say about a class action suit as, I suppose from a business aspect, that eBay is not required to allow 3rd party software to interact with their website regardless of what the user wants.
I think the whole topic would be new territory to explore from a legal and net neutrality point of view.
So, now I've started to bid on items again on eBay and low and behold, I've discovered that AS doesn't appear to work with eBay anymore: I received the same frustrating message that all of you have regarding "account verification" and have missed several auctions today because of it.
I've read through this forum and I'm of the belief that this issue is being generated by eBay on purpose.
I placed a manual bid on an item that I did not want the chance of losing and found it quite interesting that, after I confirmed my bid, I was presented with a "ad" to download the "eBay app" to stay on top of the auction and be able to rebid at a moment's notice.
I think eBay is trying to block out the snipping bots and force people to use the eBay app instead. Since most people have smart phones now, I can see eBay justifying this behavior by claiming that with the app, bidders can be involved in the auction process even when they're not in front of their computers. While claiming to give bidders "more access" this move, in my opinion, is to drive up final bid prices as many have speculated in this forum.
I would be interested in what a lawyer would have to say about a class action suit as, I suppose from a business aspect, that eBay is not required to allow 3rd party software to interact with their website regardless of what the user wants.
I think the whole topic would be new territory to explore from a legal and net neutrality point of view.
I've received this issue twice in the last few days and am unable to verify via the account area in auction sniper.
On both failures I had the response message from ebay is below.
I assume it's the same for the verify button although I have no way to know.
When I logged out and back in to ebay on my computer, I got the same message. On selecting the phone option, it confirmed my number then called me straight away with a code to enter.
I'm guessing that ebay keeps a list of computers that log into the account and that auction sniper servers that have not accessed it before are getting this issue.
I know that it may not be fixable in the last few seconds of an auction but using the verify account button it could select the phone or email option and have a way to enter the code into auction sniper for it to pass on. It may need to be done multiple times to get all the servers to access ebay but if that needs to be done for my AS account to work, then it needs to be done.
On both failures I had the response message from ebay is below.
quote:Choose how you'd like to receive your confirmation code
We'll send a message to the option you select.
By Phone (voice or text)
By Email
I assume it's the same for the verify button although I have no way to know.
When I logged out and back in to ebay on my computer, I got the same message. On selecting the phone option, it confirmed my number then called me straight away with a code to enter.
I'm guessing that ebay keeps a list of computers that log into the account and that auction sniper servers that have not accessed it before are getting this issue.
I know that it may not be fixable in the last few seconds of an auction but using the verify account button it could select the phone or email option and have a way to enter the code into auction sniper for it to pass on. It may need to be done multiple times to get all the servers to access ebay but if that needs to be done for my AS account to work, then it needs to be done.