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43 replies

My snipe was placed about 1 minute early... cost me over $20 extra!!

R 2001rocketMember
This is not the 1st time this has happened. Mad
I would be better off placing the bids myself.

I have a 5 second snipe set as default... usually it comes in at 7 seconds. This one was at 56 seconds. Someone else was able to get 4 more bids in and double the price of the item!! Mad

What is the reason for this? ConfusedThis is a link to the auction bid history... CLICK HERE!
Should I stop using Auction Sniper?!

http://offer.ebay.com/ws3/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=3641051773

2001rocket
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

S snipersarabAuctionSniper Support
The auction ended on a quarter hour, during the busiest hour of the day, on the busiest day of the week on eBay, during the busiest day of the year.

eBay habitually has problems during such times and takes over 30 seconds to accept some snipes. If we bid with the default of 5 seconds left we'd miss hundreds or thousands of snipes each Sunday. We'd end up missing 100 snipes for every 1 time something like this happens. It's the lessor of two evils really.

If you'd like you may just want to manually snipe items that end exactly on 15 minute intervals between 5pm and 8pm.
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puppyraiserpuppyraiserMember
Hi Chatter.

I have to say I understand why he is upset. Sure he won, but a snipe is suppose to prevent just this kind of thing from happening.

By bidding that early, he paid a fair price, but lost a really great deal.

What I can't figure is how do you enter 4 bids in 40 seconds. I now know it's possible, but not by me. And yes I have a cable modem. Smile

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R 2001rocketMember
Here is another auction of mine that was bid 25 seconds early (instead of the 5 seconds as I have set as default). This time the under bidder was able to react to my so-called 'snipe" and increase his bid by $25. Hence, I had to pay that much more for the item. Mad

CLICK HERE to see the bid history on this auction.

I'm sure this must be happening to other people as well. Does anybody else have a similar example to discuss?

Just from these two bad (early) snipes, I had to pay out nearly an additional $50! Mad

I feel like I'm getting SCRE*ED by using Auction Sniper. If I had known they would bid these so early, I would not have used their service... it's just too expensive at $20-$25 above the normal AS rates!

2001rocket
S snipersarabAuctionSniper Support
quote:
I'm sure this must be happening to other people as well.

The solution is to bid manually on items that end on the hour, quarter hour, and half hour. But then when you lose because you tried a 5 second snipe and eBay was slow and your bid didnt get placed at all dont come crying to me.

Think of this way. What if we place every bid at peak times exactly when requested. Then we miss 250-750 snipes a day. Then we get 250-750 crying users telling us they just lost $xxx.xx because they woulda won for $xxx.xx minus what they think it's worth. Example. A person buying expensive mens clothing which he resales in his shop bids $50 on a pair of pants which he plans to resale in his shop for $150. No snipe means he's out $100+. Early snipe means maybe he paid $45 instead of $25 or $35.

Example. Heirloom type item up forsale, our customer has been on eBay and only seen one of them in 5 years on eBay. Which is worse, paying an extra $20, or the bid not getting placed? Missing the bid is far worse, espeically considering the bidder still pays at most their max snipe in all cases.

In just about every case it's better to have won, then missed the bid. As long as eBay allows sellers to schedule the starting times of auctions and as long as sellers all keep listing at exactly 7pm etc then this will be a problem. Too many sellers and buyers make eBay totally erratic at those times and lead times of 30+ seconds are needed to ensure the bid is placed. If you have a snipe that is on the hour, half hour, quarter hour then manually snipe it. Just be careful because your bid may not make it in in time.
J jabbergahMember
Hi 2001!

Nobody likes paying more than they have to, BUT you tell AS what YOUR maximum bid IS. If you are paying more than you can stand paying on your sniped wins, your sniped bid simply is too high!

I looked at your recent feedbacks -- you are quite a prolific buyer and seller! Smile The majority of your last bunch of wins were snipes placed about 7-8 seconds from the end of the auction. So you are willing to give up all those perfectly placed snipes and wins because of a couple not so perfect snipes, but still wins? As much bidding as you do, do you really have time to manually snipe ALL those auctions?!? Eek You must vegetate in front of the computer ever MORE than ME!?! Roll Eyes

Just curious, did you change your default lead time recently from 7 to 5 seconds? Maybe you should switch back to a longer lead. I've had good luck with a 9 second lead.

Jabbergah
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C ckMember
I would be upset as well if I were 2001, even when I won the item within my Max bid limit.

I just don't think it's right that AS placed his bid, which he specified 5 secs lead time, 1 minute early.

I would rather see my snipe didn't get placed due to congested traffic, eBay servers overloaded...etc than seeing AS places bids on my behalf but ignores my instructions.

Essentially, the service that AS provides is to try to place my MAX BID at the TIME that I specificed.

It's up to the users to decide what is the sutiable LEAD TIME for their interested auctions.

All AS have to do is to SUGGEST a longer lead time during certain time of the day and STATE that AS may not be able to place our snipes in time due to xxx...etc in the Add Snipe window.
S snipersarabAuctionSniper Support
quote:
I would rather see my snipe didn't get placed

So what you're saying is you'd rather lose, for less than your max bid, than to win for less than your max bid? I think you'll find yourself in the minority of our customers.

Most people would prefer to win as long as it was below their max, than to lose and never have had their bid placed.

This has been beat over the bush before. We wont be changing it, and we wont be putting in any sort of setting to only place your bid exactly when you say. All that will result in is tons of late snipes because eBay is slow and even more pissed off users than there are now. Either case is a losing situation for us here. We do one thing and people are angry at us, and we do another and even more people are angry. We're chosing the option that results in the least angry people, and the most happiest, because they at least won the item.
S snipersarabAuctionSniper Support
quote:
Essentially, the service that AS provides is to try to place my MAX BID at the TIME that I specificed.

I would have to asy our #1 priority is ensure you win, at or below your max. Our current system does that.

One which bids exactly when you ask would not because when eBay is slow your snipe wouldnt be placed at all. We'd have less happy customers. I suppose if you're bidding on something that there are always 5-10 of on eBay that is fine. But not when it's something that comes up once every year.
S snipersarabAuctionSniper Support
quote:
All AS have to do is to SUGGEST a longer lead time during certain time of the day and STATE that AS may not be able to place our snipes in time due to xxx...etc in the Add Snipe window.

That would be wonderful if people listened. But they dont, and they'd still be just as angry when their 5 second snipe wasn't placed in time because eBay was running 10 seconds slow.

Most of the people reading these message boards, and have made it this far in this thread are not our average customer. Our average customer could care less about whether eBay is slow or fast. They just want to be sure their bid is placed and they win. They are not nearly as technical and educated on eBay, sniping, and using our site as all of you are. Additional options, fields to fill in would confuse them, and extra text probably wouldnt be read anyways. The people reading this thread really are the cream of the sniping crop.

We of course try to hit every snipe as closely to the suggested lead time as possible, while still ensuring it will be placed in time.
R 2001rocketMember
Auction Sniper would have NO angry customers if they just INFORMED their customers!

All it would take is a short & sweet sentence below the "lead time" field/box that mentions...

"Your bid will be placed within 1 minute of your actual specified lead time".

This would likely make many customers think twice before paying Auction Sniper - they may just decide to manually snipe for free, and do a better job of it.
However, that would not be good business for AS. It seems they would rather make no mention of this (and collect the $$) by misleading their customers to believe that their snipe will be placed at the lead time they specify when that is actually not the case.

BTW, I have sniped most of my auctions manually (with about a 10 second lead) and I have never had a problem with a "late bid". Could this problem be more related to slow servers (lots of traffic/snipes) on the AS side? There must be a reason for AS sniping from 4 separate locations in CA (I read this info somewhere in this forum).

Now that I know how AS conducts their snipes (after discovering it the expensive way - as opposed to a small disclaimer on the AS snipe entry form!!), I will snipe the more critical bids on my own... for free... and do it right, just as I did for 2 years before I met Auction Sniper!

2001rocket
C ckMember
Before I continue with this discussion - I want to point out that I am happy with AS and Yes I would be happy to win the item within my max bid limit.

But this is a different issue here - a bid was placed a lot earlier than the time 2001rocket specified and he was not informed!

quote:
Originally posted by Sniper Sara B.:
So what you're saying is you'd rather lose, for less than your max bid, than to win for less than your max bid? I think you'll find yourself in the minority of our customers....


Not exactly what I meant.

I rather knowing that I am IN CONTROL - which means AS follows my instructions, place my sniper at the time I specified. if possible. I bear the consequence and risk as the result of my own snipe settings - Max bid and lead time.

quote:
Originally posted by Sniper Sara B.:
I would have to asy our #1 priority is ensure you win, at or below your max. Our current system does that.


This statement is really contradictory to what others have said about how one can win an auction - that is the HIGHER Bidder wins.

AS can NOT and will NEVER ensure a win.

What if the other bidder outbidded 2001rocket because the 1 minute earlier snipe allows enough time for him to raise his bid?

I have read pages suggest a long lead time under some circumstances to ensure a snipe could be placed, but I didn't see anything saying that AS may automatically place the snipes a bit earlier during peak hours.

Most people probably don't go back and check the bidding history to find out what was going on after they won the item, hence less people complaine about this issue.

If AS did something that is different from what a customer has specified and the customer was not informed about it, at least AS should explain and apologize instead of saying you won the item, what is your problem?

[This message was edited by CK on December 01, 2003 at 11:14 PM.]
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S snipersarabAuctionSniper Support
quote:
There must be a reason for AS sniping from 4 separate locations in CA (I read this info somewhere in this forum).

Yes, to be sure your snipe makes it. eBay is horribly slow at times. The more snipes from more servers on different internet backbones the more likely snipes will be placed successfully. It has nothing to do with traffic on our side. All snipes are placed from all 4 servers.

quote:
BTW, I have sniped most of my auctions manually (with about a 10 second lead) and I have never had a problem with a "late bid".

Probably true. However your sample size isnt as large as ours. We place more snipes in a day than you probably will in your life. And you snipe a lot so that's a lot of snipes Smile

All I can recommend in your case is not using us on snipes that end on :00 :15 :30 and :45. Any other should be fine.
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J jlr43Member
quote:
Nobody likes paying more than they have to, BUT you tell AS what YOUR maximum bid IS. If you are paying more than you can stand paying on your sniped wins, your sniped bid simply is too high!

I agree with this statement. If the sniper is complaining about how much he ended up paying once the auction ended, he obviously set his snipe too high. It's been repeated hundreds of times on the AS message boards - bid the max. amount you are willing to pay and let AS do it's job. AS put in your snipe and another bidder brought the price up but your max. bid still kept you as the high bidder. The same thing could have happened if another bidder had a proxy bid amount just under yours, your snipe was placed at the 5 secs. you set it at and you won the auction for your max. bid because of that other bid.
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C chatterMember
quote:
Originally posted by 2001rocket:


I feel like I'm getting SCRE*ED by using Auction Sniper. If I had known they would bid these so early, I would not have used their service... it's just too expensive at $20-$25 above the normal AS rates!



Sorry, I disagree completely. You put a certain amount in. If you feel that an additional $20 is too expensive, then you should not have entered that amount. No one compelled you to do so. At best, you are making an assumption that the auction would have gone a certain way, i.e., that if your snipe would have been entered at a precise time, you would surely have won because another bidder would have behaved another way. This is mere conjecture; you have no way of knowing this. As it stands, AS successsfully took steps to protect your bid by making sure it reached eBay in time. I would be thankful.


Another quote:

>>Auction Sniper would have NO angry customers if they just INFORMED their customers!<<

I disagree vehemently. I have been an AS member for nearly two years and a forum member for 20 months. In that time, I have seen FAR MORE complaints about snipes that did not get through than anything else. In many cases, this was due to insufficient lead times during peak hours, despite the many warnings that appear in this forum. Similarly, this forum also contains many references to AS submitting bids a little early when eBay is running slowly. I believe that AS members overwhelmingly would prefer their snipes reach eBay, even if a little early.


Another quote:
>>BTW, I have sniped most of my auctions manually (with about a 10 second lead) and I have never had a problem with a "late bid". Could this problem be more related to slow servers (lots of traffic/snipes) on the AS side? There must be a reason for AS sniping from 4 separate locations in CA (I read this info somewhere in this forum).

Talk about a non sequituur! AS sends bids through multiple servers to increase the probability that the bids will be placed. Somehow you have distorted that into a bizarre false conclusion.


Another quote:
>>Now that I know how AS conducts their snipes (after discovering it the expensive way - as opposed to a small disclaimer on the AS snipe entry form!!), I will snipe the more critical bids on my own... for free... and do it right, just as I did for 2 years before I met Auction Sniper!<<

And I think that is precisely what you ought to do. We snipers are frequently amazed at the whining non-snipers do, just because they lost an auction to a sniper. This is the first time I have read of a sniper whining that he won, despite unsuccessful attempts by other snipers. But you apparently have found an angle to moan about. And goodess knows, I cannot stand whining.

But feel free to set your alarm for the middle of the night, when you must snipe manually. I prefer to sleep and allow AS to do it, since I only enter what I can afford to pay. Wink
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C chatterMember
[QUOTE]Originally posted by CK:

I have read pages suggest a long lead time under some circumstances to ensure a snipe could be placed, but I didn't see anything saying that AS may automatically place the snipes a bit earlier during peak hours..[QUOTE]


This forum contains dozens of references to that very fact. A search of the forum with an apropriate phrase will reveal this.

I disagree that most people do not go back and check the bid history. That may be true of most eBay members, but AS members, especially forum members, have sniping down to a science. I almost always check the bid history on my wins, to see when the last bids came in, for how much, by whom, etc. This helps me plan for future snipes. I think that is true of most in this forum.

I do agree that the explanation offered by AS in this forum could be a little kinder and gentler.
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S snipersarabAuctionSniper Support
Thanks to everyone for at least thinking about both sides. As I've said AuctionSniper is in a lose/lose situation and we just try our best to keep more people happy than not.

I can totally understand why 2001Rocket is unhappy. I would have mixed feelings about it as well if it were my snipe. One the one hand I won and I know it coulda have been for less, but I'd still be happy to have won. But with a little sinking feeling in my gut at the same time.
D dippenmanMember
Come on you whiners! Sniping is the greatest auction aid going. For those of you who forget the purpose of sniping, it is this: To expeditiously assist in winning auctions at a maximum price (or less). I welcome you manual snipers to compete against my AS snipe! I'll be having a nice sip of brandy while you huddle in front of the computer, sweating out the last few seconds (stop watch in hand) in the middle of the night. On the other hand, keep on whining.......and losing. Big Grin Ed.
S snipersarabAuctionSniper Support
quote:
2001rocket,

Meet monkeybone

That's what I'm talking about. We obviously sniped ahead of time for monkeybone too, but it wasnt enough.

We are experts on sniping here, we're going to do our best to get your snipe in. That is the most important thing we can do. If we didnt do that how many users would we have? None. Better to be in a little early than not at all.

Anyone who trys to temp fate and manually snipe with only 5 seconds on these special case auctions is going to be very disappointed when they lose that unique item they really wanted because the snipe didnt make it. Perhaps 9 of 10 will work for you. And that may be good enough. But for us it's not. If we lost 10% of our snipers bids we'd soon have no customers.
region2region2Member
Sara

How about a warning Box that comes up when a snipe is placed on an Auction that ends at a potentially busy time?


Warning - your snipe may be placed up to 1 minute bfore the end of the auction to compensate for system/network speeds.
[] Accept
[] Use my lead time
[] Cancel snipe


That would save an awful lot of posts on this forum! Wink
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G grunsonMember
I think perhaps that two things definitely need to be addressed.

Firstly whether the bullet point on the home page stating "Place your bid exactly when you want … seconds before the auction closes!" overstates the true situation. It might perhaps need a footnote.

Secondly whether the FAQ entry for "What is the ideal lead time to use for a snipe?" should mention that the actual snipe time is adjusted.

Users really shouldn't need to search the forum to discover how it really works. If it is discussed so much here doesn't that suggest it is an FAQ?
W welpeMember
I had this happen to me today, as well. I was bidding on a low priced item, and I wanted to keep the cost down. I saw that there was one bid on it for $8. After deciding that $15 would be my max, I set phasers to "SNIPE". Big Grin

Anyways, the auction ended today at 17:00 (PST). I figured a 15 second lead time would be enough. The bid was placed with 35 seconds to go and this would be an accurate depiction of my expression: Eek

Fortunately, no other bids were made on the item and I won it for $10 and change. What really scared me was the fact that somebody had placed a second bid 1 minute before the auction's close, so I figured there was another watching it. Fortunately, they didn't place another bid.

In the end, I'm glad that AS placed my bid early rather than not at all, as the item I bought is common, the price was excellent.

Monty

P.S. This was my first win using AS. Smile
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W welpeMember
Thanks Shop!

I've already discovered that the ability to cancel a sniper is invaluable!

I found an Item that I wanted and put my snipe in for $200. Lo and behold, the nibblers took hold and drove the price up to 160 in the first two days! After the intial shock, I realized that I could probably find the item cheaper than $200 so I canceled the snipe. :-D

Thanks again,

Monty
B beezoMember
quote:
Originally posted by region2:

How about a warning Box that comes up when a snipe is placed on an Auction that ends at a potentially busy time?


_Warning - your snipe may be placed up to 1 minute bfore the end of the auction to compensate for system/network speeds.
[] Accept
[] Use my lead time
[] Cancel snipe

Good idea! I suggest you put it in the "comments & suggestions" folder for the next version of AS.

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