Appalling new eBay bidding "glitch", more seconds added, & allows snipers to out bid a winning bid

[sam_in_barbate]

I have been buying & selling on eBay for over 15 years, & have watched whilst little by little eBay tweek elements which have worked perfectly, but this new little trick up the sleeve of eBay when bidding, takes the biscuit.

You find an item you want to bid on, you cancel everything in your day to make sure that you will be home, finger poised over the bidding button, & where I (for example) bid 4-5 seconds before the end of auction, this has been my chosen method for 15 years.

I first saw what I thought was a glitch a couple of weeks back, & where, over the course of 2 weeks, I had been outbid by other snipers, this AFTER I thought I had won the item, for, the seconds clock was timing down, 4 seconds before end of auction I place the winning bid, THEN the clock having almost hit 0 switches back & adds a new 5 or 6 seconds which count down again. I watched as my winning bid was then sniped & over the last 2 weeks lost all 3 items.

This has just happened a scant minute or two back on a fabulous item I had been watching for over a week. With 4 seconds to go I place what should have been the winning bid, then out of the blue more seconds were added to the clock, thank be to all the Gods, on this occasion I had added a far larger figure to my maximum bid, & did manage to win the item but at TWICE I repeat TWICE my original winning bid. Clearly, eBay are allowing watchers/winning bidders to think they have one clock which is slightly ahead of the actual end of auction, & allowing other bidders the chance to up the bid.

Yes, I am now regularly appalled by eBay's shenanigans, but this takes the biscuit, if there was an official body to whom I could report this I would..

[plpmr]

“EBAY has been adjusting the bidding process over the years now when people Prebid the other bidders get offered magic buttons that they can press with seconds to go that show them what they need to bid to win the item.”

As well as sharing your evidence/proof of this with us, bring your evidence to the relevant authorities as what you claim constitutes criminal offences.

[gallovidian]

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@prutt1 wrote:

"I asm not sure what kind of sniper people are expecting to bid after the official auction closing time."

When it's happened to me there's been a pause before the bidding starts again. Seems like people think it's over and are flummoxed by what's going on with the flashing pages. Then it hits them that maybe I got the timing wrong and it's not over.

It's not like it's a strategy.

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I think you are seeing earlier bids adjusted closer to that bidder's maximum in order to beat yours. Many people don't appreciate the information to be seen by "Show automatic  bids".

It would be a glitch if a momentary "You won" notice appears, just as ot would be a glitch of the other bidder was momentarily told he had lost. But it would be a glitch that doesn't deprive you of anything to which you are entitled.

Other explanations include an incorrect comoseputer clock (although that takes some careless too), a slow computer or a slow connection.  I often use Auctionsniper, a sniping website which is physically close to eBay, a location chosen for the simplicity of access via their state of the art commercial website. I have never had a bid incorrectly timed, or had my bod beaten by one placed in the last seconds, or later.

I think I made a significant point, that snipers go by the official finish time, Those are not sniper bids placed during th hypothetical few secoinds which are beating yours. I made it because the title of the thread says they do, and this must reflect on  the rest of the complaint.

[hill-walker]

"magic buttons"! Haha!

I think someone's been at the magic mushrooms 😉

[eburtonlab]

I was trying to bid within 60 secs to go, My bid was removed everytime I was entering my bid, but before I could submit bid it was removed in front of my eyes.

I have heard of problems bidding from the bid history page. Some users seem to be encountering an issue where the bid amount entered into the field disappears as the page updates around the end of the auction, making it difficult or impossible to submit a bid.

If you are using the bid history page to bid and are having a similar problem, try bidding on the item page instead. That may bypass the issue with the bid history page and allow you to place a bid.

[etradingonline]

Same here. Everytime I place a bid around the last 4-5 seconds the clock behaves funny and I keep losing items. Now I have to place bid around 30-40 seonds before the end of auction at much higher a price. Ebay are taking liberties. I think ebay are trying to force buyers to buy snipe sofware which is owned by ebay or they are in partnership with the software owner. Another extra income for ebay at the expense of the buyers.

[etradingonline]

The delay or internet lag is a possibility but if you ahve been using the same device for over 15 years and bidding in the same manner but now you can't win the auctions because of the way timer counter behaves you know something has changed, something is not right or the way it has been.

[thegyratinggiblet]

Yep. Just to confirm just happened to me with another minute added to the clock after the 6 second point. I was outbid and lost the item. This is the second time this has happened. *bleep* is the point of a timer at all if it just keeps getting extended. Screw you ebay. I'll shop elsewhere and stop bidding/ buying from this scam site from now on and vote with my feet.

[hill-walker]

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@thegyratinggiblet wrote:

Yep. Just to confirm just happened to me with another minute added to the clock after the 6 second point. I was outbid and lost the item. This is the second time this has happened. *bleep* is the point of a timer at all if it just keeps getting extended. Screw you ebay. I'll shop elsewhere and stop bidding/ buying from this scam site from now on and vote with my feet.

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Not disputing any of the above, but wondering why you consider an item selling at a less than the optimum price, meaning eBay gets less in fees, is a "scam"? Who profits from this?

[thegyratinggiblet]

@hill-walker - I'm describing the opposite. The item is selling for a much greater optimum price, when bidding time is extended and others are then encouraged to bid again where they would have otherwise missed out. But.....it could all be user error. I've got a new machine and have just noticed my computer's internal clock is running faster than GMT time which could be the problem. I've corrected that but bearing in mind the ebay timer is operating within the browser itself, this shouldn't have any bearing. Time will tell.

[tonkseey]

I ENTIRELY agree with you. The new bidding process is INFURIATING! As with virtually ALL of the so-called "improvements" that E-bay has found fit to make over the last few years it is a retrograde step. Users complain, but E-bay NEVER reverts to the older better system. To do so would be an admission that the management is incompetent. (Rather like the way the Chinese ledership has painted itself into a corner over Zero covid.)  Is it any wonder that across the world E-bay has lost it's previous position as the prmier online auction site? It is change for change's sake!

[sissygalore]

Hi Sam (and others on this thread)

Many thanks for your post. This has literally just happend to me twice this week! The first time (a few days ago) I thought it was a glitch - the clock ended and mine was the only bid so thought I had won. Then there appeared a message in the green bar saying 'determining auction winner' . As I was the only bidder that time, I won anyway and didn't think any more of it, but had to wait 2 minutes for the confirmation message to come through.

The second time it happened was this evening. Again mine seemed to be the only bid (placed several minutes before the auction ended) and I thought I'd won. Yet I didn't get the usual message in the green bar to confirm. Wondering what had happened, I clicked on the 'bidding history' button and saw that the clock was still counting down! In total around 2 to 3 minutes extra were added to the auction, and another bidder then bid a higher amount 1 minute after I had 'won' - and crucially after the auction had supposedly ended! My immediate thought was that the seller was trying to pull a fast one as this added £6.57 to my supposed winning bid amount. Who knows? 

In addition, the clock on the auction said it had ended at 9.09pm - but the count down continued for an additional almost 3 minutes. When looking at the page now it still says the auction ended at 9.09pm - when it in fact it actually ended at 9.12pm because the clock continued to still count down until then.

This is a really anoying feature that ebay have added and there can only be two options - they've either added it without telling any of their users - or they have added it but only offer it to high volume sellers on the down-low. As I'm not one of the latter I can't say for sure if that is the case, but it is something buyers do need to be aware of.

BTW your post is the only reference I've seen to this issue - so thanks for bringing it up.

[tresoweshillbilly]

YEP SO CRAZY iv bought stuff too for 15 odd years always bid in last seconds if im outbid thats fair..BUT only if everyones watching same countdown timer. also had stupid please wait while we confirm winner.!!.best of all,NOW  bid i have in bid box dissapears when another bidder places bid before i can release mouse button to confirm my bid.auctions ending way below what they should .

                      if you jiggle screen to show both actual auction time ,then your bid countdown time screen in front ..they are out of sync !!

[fotherbale]

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@thegyratinggiblet wrote:

@hill-walker- I'm describing the opposite. The item is selling for a much greater optimum price, when bidding time is extended and others are then encouraged to bid again where they would have otherwise missed out.

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I think you are missing the point - people aren't putting extra bids in; what has been happening is that they go to bid, and the clock times out and doesn't register their bid, then the timer resets and carries on for a few seconds, but does not allow them time to resubmit their bid.  In these cases sellers are missing out on those last second bids because they are being timed out early, and the items sell for less than the thwarted bidder's maximum bid.

It has happened to me several times.

[bromley2008]

Ebay has been aware o this for ages now and yet it is still happening. I think that items on Ebay auctions are over priced anyway, so im voting with money and using the likes of Facebook market place, Gumtree and Shpock which has cheaper prices and without all the seller fees, which means lower prices.

[fotherbale]

Just had another one this evening - my computer clock was synchronised online shortly before going to bid.  Item suddenly ended with 35 seconds still on the countdown timer! 

[archie.b.77]

Yet another possible "tweek" I have just noticed while bidding today. As I, much like yourself, sat ready to enter with a max bid it was repeatedly removed or effectively disappeared every time the current bid went up from another interested party. I tried several times to renter my bid, still well in excess of the current highest bid, only to have the amount effectively zeroed each time. The end result is that I lost out to a bidder who won at a final value £3.00 less than my max.

[eburtonlab]

sat ready to enter with a max bid it was repeatedly removed or effectively disappeared every time the current bid went up from another interested party. I tried several times to renter my bid, still well in excess of the current highest bid, only to have the amount effectively zeroed each time.

Another user encountering this problem has indicated this bidding method bypasses the bid-clearing bug:

From the item page click on the bid button without entering a bid amount.

A bid window will appear where you can enter a bid amount. This bid window should not suffer from the bid amount-clearing bug when new bids register.

Comparing the results on ebay.com and ebay.co.uk, this method appears to allow bid amounts to be retained when new bids are registered.

[bromley2008]

Hi,

I did try doing that but unfortunately it still cleared my bid and stopped me from entering a new bid.


Regards

[archie.b.77]

Aye, I know... I read his post too.

But what use is this "workaround" as he put it?

I am unable to enter a max bid in an amount of my choosing, an action previously available to eBay users until recently, which is the way we want it, worked perfectly well, and is still, as far as I am aware, an option on every other auction site.

[tresoweshillbilly]

I OPEN TWO WINDOWS ON SAME COMPUTER JUGGLE SCREEN TO TOP TO WATCH END TIME..AUCTION ENTER  BID TIMER IS STILL ENDING 6 SECONDS BEFORE THE ACTUAL END OF AUCTION .CRAZY OR WHAT ?