Such a wonderful feeling to see an auction go several dollars under your maximum bid due to an undescribed issue from the service which is supposed to give you an "edge" above the rest.
http://www.auctionsniper.com/SnipeConfirmation.aspx?sid=66367082
Do I really care what an "unresolved bidgroup item" is? No...it smells like AuctionSniper screw-up to me...and angry board messages on same issue from as far back as 2005 tells me not to hold my breath for a solution.
I just created this bidgroup and added the auction an hour prior to it closing.
Less than a month ago, AS placed another one of my bids not 5 seconds but -33 seconds- prior to the close, allowing 3 additional bids to come in, including 2 from a single rival bidder. The auction ended at Aug 3 @ 5:39:50 AM, not a high traffic time in my view, and not set to end at the top or bottom of the hour as the usual excuse. Just good'ol malpractice on a Sunday.
My experience with AS is that as of late its effectiveness is degrading. I've used this service for years and used to trust AS. Now I'm worried about which auction they're going to screw up next.
UPDATE: Just got another one of these prized "Unresolved Bidgroup Item" errors. What a joke.
You bet they won't try to explain "Why was my bid entered 30-40 seconds before the close?" in a FAQ.
I challenge AS to release their quality statistics. What proportion of snipes are not placed in time, how many are placed 10+ secs prior to the desired leadtime, 20+ secs prior to desired leadtime, 30+ secs prior to desired leadtime...let customers decide what an "rare occurrence" these are. You're so good at timing and compensating..you are bound to track this? Where's the trend headed?
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