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..

[gasheff53]

I think that is total bull*bleep*! The E-bay countdown clock adjusted itself twice while watching it. It's never done that before in all my years on e-bay. That fact that loads of people have responded to this thread shows that it's either a fault, or someone deliberately is fiddling the system, or it has become comprised by hackers.

[eburtonlab]

The E-bay countdown clock adjusted itself twice while watching it. It's never done that before in all my years on e-bay.

If your clock is not synchronized this may now be causing problems for you, for whatever reason.

What you do with that information is entirely up to you.

[a45heaven]

Whilst i can see you are being helpful in suggesting a possible solution - the same problem exists for bidders and sellers alike - are you suggesting sellers go on social media and warn all potential bidders that the auctions hosted by ebay may appear to be inaccurate?

Or maybe ebay could fix their own issue at their end ?

We do pay , and very well, for using this site.

[gasheff53]

The fault is entirely with E-Bay not some sync problem.  Next you will be telling us it's leaves on the line!

PS, I have already posted a message on one Model Railway Forum saying beware of the fault and there could be fiddling going off.  I would post more, but I am not a big social media user.

I certainly do suspect that E-Bay are fiddling.

Furthermore, I suggest that E-Bay launch a new LIVE bidding system that can be extra to the one you see now. That has only a large countdown clock, number of bidders and the price update as it happens, with NO refreshing!  Plus of course just the bid item (no images) And a bid entering box, which goes in as soon as you hit enter!

Personally, I will not be bidding on any more LIVE auctions here has it is a con, and I have already withdrawn any saved searches for Auction only.

[phonograph]

happened to me today,i won the item but at the 2 mins mark i was in the lead,then i hit refresh for the 100x time (i was refreshing every few secs to ensure i was in the lead) and then out of nowhere it informed me id won it? but there was 2 mins to go? i was poised to snipe also but it could of screwed me over if someone else had sniped me,not gonna complain though i got a item for a fraction of the price it should be lol

[a45heaven]

Is this the way auctions are designed to be on this site?

ebay land and reality are poles apart with denial and ignore being the staple diet for them.

We have gone beyond complaining to ebay, maybe there are other avenues which may work better?

I feel for the unpaid Mentors having to piggie-in-the-middle in this, not what they deserve or expected.

[Anonymous]

Exactly. I have no idea why the OP think it's a "glitch". It's not - it's deliberate.

Computers don't just make up random responses if a task is taking longer than expected. The response has to be in the code, and set to initiate if appropriate conditions occur.

This didn't happen many years ago - back then, if you won the auction, you were informed pretty much instantly. A couple of years ago, someone decided to put a delay in. Why did this happen? Who knows.

This is a little simplistic, but these responses work something like this;

IF auction end time = true

THEN

PRINT "We're determining the winner"

END

It's not a random glitch, it's deliberate.

[joarctic]

Can't think of a duller way to spend time than watching a bid countdown. Haven't you got any paint to watch drying ?

Sniping costs nothing & will save you a lot of heartache, I use Bidtamer & have got some very good deals on the back of it without ever watching the clock count down. If you want double the fun you could place a bidtamer bid and bid yourself at the same time while watching the clock, that way you're in both queues .....

[bluer_7404]

Sorry, but i think this is not the way, Last second bidding deprives the seller of getting a higher bids and also other bidders the chance of making further bids, Don't like it ! 

[stehos_fvl6h7af]

You had seconds added to your auction: for the SECOND time this week, I have had over SIX MINUTES suddenly taken off the auction that I was bidding on. I wasn't able to submit any of my final bids and the Texaco petrol can went for half what I was prepared to bid.  

What a shower !  I have finished with E-Bay auctions. I don't know whether they are rigged or whether they are just inept. Either way I shan't waste any more time on them.

[bcstampsuk]

Probably worth me reposting my previous post incase people are reporting the wrong issue to eBay . Auction end times are not being changed - you are being shown the wrong countdown information due to what I suspect is multiple different platform related eBay bugs.

---

I list 100s of auctions every month, auction end times are set by eBay on listing generation and this end time never changes. When my system generates a listing through the eBay API it stores auction end time (to the second) in its database (for integration with our backend software) so any kind of "auction extension" would be super obvious as it would cause all sorts of weird behaviour in my sytem.

Bidders are clearly being shown an incorrect time remaining in some instances and also sometimes seeing erroneous syncing won/lost/outbid behaviour at auction end - my friend had this happen bidding on her iPhone a few months ago. I suspect this is multiple different eBay glitches on various platforms / browsers / devices, but the end time of auctions are not being changed. If you click a live auction bid history you can work out the exact ending time to the second by looking at "starting price" entry. My auction tomorrow shows:

Starting price £1.50 23 May 2024 at 8:00:44pm BST

Its a 10 day auction so this auction will end - 02 June 2024 at 8:00:44pm GMT - the only time this is out is when listings straddle the daylight saving change when it will be exactly 1 hour earlier or later.

If you report to eBay support that auction end times are being changed then I don't think anything will be done because technical support know this can't happen. If you report that you were shown an incorrect auction time remaining and give details on what eBay platform etc then the glitches might get looked at 🤞

[bromley2008]

This has now been apprent for years and nothing gets done.  Like you I protest with my wallet and very rarely use Ebay now.

[juicylucy53]

Hi, thanks for that. It’s so frustrating isn’t it? The main point I was really trying to make is that the snipers in those extra few added on seconds are the sellers themselves, in my opinion, as it’s happened to me on numerous occasions and those particular bidders only ever have a low number of purchases. That’s why I believe they are the sellers’ own shill accounts. That is why eBay will do nothing, they’d lose quite a few sellers if they put a stop to it. I try to stick to buy it now prices and bid only when it’s obvious that the seller is a ‘normal’ person just having a closet clear out or a charity - those tend to be honest and upfront. Take care and keep up the fight!!! 😁
Sent from my iPhone

[juicylucy53]

Oooh, sorry to hear that. So irritating isn’t it? I’ve just replied to someone else re my thoughts, maybe you’d kindly read them. As I said there, I now buy mainly at buy it now purchase prices and only bid if it’s a charity or what seems to be a ‘normal’ member of the public having a closet clear out. They tend to be honest and upfront! Good luck to you going forward.
Sent from my iPhone

[juicylucy53]

Hi - thanks for your explanation and the time you’ve taken to explain the eBay processes. You definitely are one of the honest sellers on the platform.
My original point was that when the auction has ended, on time, my winning bid notification appears almost immediately if the seller is honest. On quite a number of occasions, however, it takes ages to appear - whenever this has happened I’m suddenly paying the top amount I bid, even though with just one second to go no one else has made a further bid / when I query this, I am told that loads of other people bid after me to raise the price to my top bid. I know this is not true as I’ve checked the amount of bidders and bids, before the countdown and after the auction ends - there are definitely lots of odd anomalies witnessed there too and the bidding numbers and times of those bids are just up the wall. This always happens when there is that 30 second gap between the end of the auction and me being informed that I am winning bidder, but at my top bid and down to the last penny I bid!! It stinks! In contrast, when I win normally, my win is listed almost immediately and is never at my very top bid. I’m not saying that eBay is even aware of this (who knows?), but there’s some kind of manipulation happening with certain sellers. If you know what you’re doing there are ways and means, there are always clever hackers around. If banks are getting their security breached, then I’m sure eBay can fall victim too! Take care.
Sent from my iPhone

[bromley2008]

Hi,
You are absolutely spot on with that and it's well-known that this happens commonly.
The way the bidding has been setup by ebay just makes it even easier and more profitable for them.

Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[prutt1]

To everyone:

For Windows - before you bid:

Click the clock in the bottom right corner of the desktop.

Click "Change date and time settings".

Click "Internet time".

Click "Change settings"

Ensure "Synchronize with an interet time server" is ticked.

Pick a server from the drop down menu.

Click "Update now"

OK out of the options.

[gasheff53]

Perhaps the E-Bay team should learn to set their own clock?

[say-ko]

Have you tried synchronising your computer clock with the time server manually? It usually happens automatically but it may need resyncing manually. There could also be a slight descrepency between your computer's time server and the Ebay one.

I used to see the same issue as you except the clock would be adding several additional minutes. I worked out it was because my computer clock was set to manual time sync and it had become several minutes out.

[say-ko]

YES! exactly what i did when experiencing the same issue 👍