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..

[fotherbale]

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@andrewlaidlaw1979 wrote:

Which makes me think that it's either the device someone is using is out of sync by a few seconds or they have an issue with their internet provider but choose to go by the whole eBay blame game rather than thinking of what the actual issue is and what prossible causes are in making their device slow or not showing the correct day/time 

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There are too many of us having these issues for us all to have a faulty time setting on our devices (especially as most operating systems nowadays automatically update the accuracy of the system time without user input). 

It is very easy to blame ebay - over the 19 years that I have been here, nearly every fault and foul-up has been down to ebay incompetence. 

[prutt1]

I've been here for 22 years. Don't remember that.

[bennotbill]

There are some great bidding "glitches" around. Last month I bid and won an item except that I had no record I did.

Item was coming to an end with just a single start bid. Put in a bid that was several times higher than that. Bid accepted, item ends and shows the usual determining winner etc notice. Just two bids total with the second bid same time as my bid and just a tiny amount higher than the first bid.

As I refreshed the page a few times waiting for the pay button to appear, thinking I got this really cheap, but it never appeared. I even emailed the seller and explained this and their words were we have been informed yes you are the winner but not in the usual way.

So that auction was a bust as I had no way to pay and I assume the seller had no way to send an invoice. Or probably any incentive to find a workaround.

[prutt1]

"do think there is any chance that the eBay suits will wake up & realise they have ruined, skuppered, cut the heart out of the search engine, that there are thousands of us who can no longer find, or get shown items we would be bidding on or buying?"

I use operators like + and - in the search field to help narrow things down. Ebay is bad, but nowhere near as bad as amazon. I don't expect it'll change. Huge companies get slow and complacent. If they can't adapt they eventually get replaced. Take's time though.

[satellitedior]

Hi,

I have just bid on an item in Germany,  the auction was drawing to a close & I placed my bid at 2-3 seconds before end of auction, then, after I had bid & out of the blue a few more seconds were added, a second or two later another sniper bid, pushing my bid up by 20 euros.

I won the auction, immediately looked at the bidding times, mine showed bidding at 22:24:49, a full 11 seconds before close of auction !!! His bid was placed 6 seconds after mine at 22:24:54, his bid should not have been possible for I was sat in front of my computer watching the clock run down, I bid 3 seconds before close of auction ???????? The auction closed at 22:25:00, do you think it is possible that this is an issue with the ebay auction timer?  I can't see how this is my computer for I have won other items over the last week or two, & tonight is the first time I have seen this reappear "((

[satellitedior]

This has just happened to me again, "(( At least this time I won, though at an extra 20 euros.

[andrewlaidlaw1979]

@satellitedior 

So in other words the other bidder that your compling put a bid in while the aution was still live with just a few seconds left in the auction while the listingwas still acting with the listing coming to an end at the time set by the seller at 22:25:00.

AS for the discrepancy in bid times. Just you tried clearing cookies etc on the brower thatyou are using. Ok I know a lot of modern computers within bought withinthe last 4 year this wont really be a problem but its just a sudestion.

Thats how ebay works regardless on when the bid is placed the highest bid wins regardles if soem one is manually inputting a bid in the last 3 seconds or using a sniper site to put a bid in at the last second.

There is a page in ebays help and support bid that explains how ebays automatic biding process works so the other person who put a bid in it seems were in the process of putting a bid in on the same itme as your self toward the end of the aution time.

Which is making me think that some people are possibly jsut complaining here about due to them putting in multiple bids rather than jsut the 1 bid at the maximum price that there willing to pay, but instead are comming on these board bitter that they endup paying more for an item or loosing out on an itme because they didn't put in their max bid.

And for what in the fear that they might get shill bid?

[sam_in_barbate]

For crying out loud, did you read the information, do you think I have no idea how to bid, I have had over 15 years on eBay, have won at auction countless 10s of 1,000s of items. I placed a bid with barely 2 seconds left to go, then, & please read slowly for you don't seem to understand what happend, the clock went back around 5 or 6 seconds.

This is nothing to do with being outbid during a typical auction, that is part & parcel of bidding on eBay, but when the clock switches back 5 or 6 seconds with only 2 seconds left,  then there is an issue.

[bennotbill]

There is something sort of odd going on. On a late bid the auction ended but the timer briefly flashed on 10 seconds. It was just a moment and the auction just ended as usual. I just put it down to a glitch.

[prutt1]

You're not listening, are you? Your reponse to every example here is that the bids that are being beaten are coming in before the auction ends. They are not. They are coming in AFTER it finishes. The clock runs out - then starts again. Go read the examples again. 

What is it you don't get?

[prutt1]

Describes exactly what's been happening to me.  The talk of computer clocks being off etc is rubbish. At times my clock has been off by several minutes and it's not made a blind bit of differene because the ebay clock always showed ebay time, not my computer time.

Have they changed something - to deal with sniping aps maybe - that has ballsed things up? I don't have a problem with manual sniping, that adds to the fun, but using aps to me is cheating and ruins the experience for everyone else.   

[prutt1]

Edit see my my earlier response - for clarity:

Bids are being beating by bids coming in after the auction ended then being logged as though they came in before the end.

[satellitedior]

Hi,

One of the decent friendly posters who replied here mentioned having 2 windows open watching the same auction, then if this wierd clock add-on occurs we can have more time to respond to it, come to think of it, it would be worth seeing exactly how the clocks behave if we have 2 windows opened, I am going to try this next time I bid....  x's

[lsk1111]

I'm in Overland Park,  Kansas and Just lost 2 bids tonight (11-15-2022) with this glitch that you encountered!!

It added more seconds and I was the highest bidder and had won the bid.  Then it showed that the bid still had seconds left.  This happened to me twice tonight.  We need to let the Ebay customers know more about this.  It's a big scam or something is very wrong.  I will not be involved with any Ebay bidding after tonight's episode.  Never seen nothing like this stuff!!!  What a scam!!!

Ebay needs to fix this stuff.  Who is scamming who now!!

[thesmokingrunner]

I had two windows open on an item yesterday so I could bid on one while watching the clock on the other.

The two pages should have showed the same time: they didn't. There was a 1-second difference between the count-down clocks on otherwise identical pages, and when I placed my bid the count-down timer in the 'Confirm' pop-up showed a third - different - amount of time left.

This site is rapidly turning onto an absolute joke. Where's Elon when you need him?...

[sam_in_barbate]

Hahahaha, welcome to my world ")  I am now bidding 2 seconds before end of auction, one upside, it does give the adrenalin rush of a few years back when a not yet seasoned bidder on eBay, gets the old heart a beating which must be good for you ")

[bromley2008]

The newest one they are using is the 60 seconds scam,

 HAPPENED to me on 19/11/22 on my PC not a MOBILE APP. I rang EBAY and they just said it was probably just my internet, computer etc, and told to me contact the seller and tell them not to sell to the winning bidder as they don't have to sell it the winner?!  I said no that's completely unfair and I've got excellent broadband and I was watching the auction live and had live updating as it happened.  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.

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. Its getting to the point where is a waste of time using Ebay anymore!

[bromley2008]

Crying?  So just Prebid and watch as the price goes through the roof as eBay manipulates the prices as buyers gets countless opportunities to keep bidding like a  gambling addict with a slot machine!

We all have  right to use the process of bidding to win the item without these ebay gimmicks!

[hill-walker]

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@bromley2008 wrote:

...watch as the price goes through the roof as eBay manipulates the prices as buyers gets countless opportunities to keep bidding...

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Sound like any other auction then, IMHO. Great for sellers. Great for eBay. 

[bennotbill]

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@bromley2008 wrote:

just Prebid and watch as the price goes through the roof as eBay manipulates the prices as buyers gets countless opportunities to keep bidding

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If only.