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..

[juicylucy53]

EBay don't care who wins, but the sellers do,  they're not prepared to sell their item in a fair auction! I believe  eBay are allowing the sellers to get away with shill bidding. As there seem to be only 1 or 2 bidders on many items now, the sellers who put items up at a low price to tempt bidding, but have no intention of selling at that low price are being given a get out by eBay (otherwise eBay will lose sellers if they're having to sell their items for peanuts). I bid on an item which only had 2 bids on at £11. To ensure I won it, I bid £32.55 with 5 seconds to go. I should have won it at a much lower price. Hiwever, after the auction I saw that highest bid before mine was originally £12.00. At 0 seconds with no other bids, what flashed up on my screen was: Item SOLD £32.35 (something like that) and suddenly there was another seller who'd bid just a few pence below me with 0 seconds to go and what a coincidence (not) at basically the exact amount as me!!!!!  Definitely stinks and not the first time this has happened to me. No 'you are the winning bidder'...just SOLD £32.35. IT STINKS and I think I'll actually just stop bidding altogether now (I only bid if absolutely necessary anyway, I just buy things with a fixed price due to all the dishonesty, a much fairer system really). Does EBay and the sellers think we purchasers are stupid? Well I for one will not be bidding ever again after this huge greedy price hike! We are not fools and you will be the losers eBay and dishonest sellers...I feel sorry for the honest ones as they will also be damaged by this. I now mainly only buy fixed price items and do now buy a lot from Etsy etc. EBay has kicked themselves in the foot by allowing this dishonesty! If a seller wants a minimum price for their item, then they should be honest enough to state the true minimum price they'll accept as a bid. Load of cheats who are biting off their nose to spite their face....this is certainly heralding the demise of eBay as a true auction site. We've had enough and are leaving in droves...so wish Ebay and the dishonest professional sellers luck...they'll need it. 

[gallovidian]

I must remember to tell the fairies at the bottom of my garden about this, in case they have eBay accounts.

[bromley2008]

Please don't admit to hanging about with fairies......

[rovermg4ever]

I have bid on a chainsaw and the time ran out with my bid winning.  The clock then wound back about 20 secs but my bid was still top when the time ran out again.  The screen says the auction ended at 19.52.  Then I find that I was not the winner as a further bid was registered at 19.59

What a system!

[bromley2008]

Sorry to hear that, but when you read replies to

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[bromley2008]

Hi, sorry to hear that. But as we are aware this is happening all the time but Ebay and some must be paid super fans write here that its all rubbish and us bidding just don't know how to bid?  Crazy isn't it that instead of sorting it out , they try to pretend it doesn't happen!

[jbt_484]

I knew that I was bidding against a machine because it's too quick. The bidding stops for days. Then during the last minute a higher bid than mine, not giving me time to bid.  The second time I was the only bidder. I watched the count down for "snipers" the countdown finished I thought I had won. A bid had gone in as it finished. My conclusion is a machine can be set to bid at the same time as bidding closes. I think bidding in the last moments is cheeting. It stops the seller from getting what the item is worth. I am sure that is not what eBay is about. People should use eBay properly and not try to cheet another buyer or seller.

[eburtonlab]

@jbt_484 

Then during the last minute a higher bid than mine, not giving me time to bid.

If you bid your maximum the first time and you are the high bidder you do not need to bid again. Then the only way you can lose is if someone is willing to pay more than your maximum.

[johnjulie30]

Do you not think other bidders are doing exactly the same as you?

There's no such thing as sniping...everyone with previous buying experience realises it's best to wait until the very end before bidding...if someone overbids you, it's simply because you didn't bid enough...

No one knows what your bid is until they place their own bid, which may be higher or lower than yours...

If someone overbids you it's simply because they placed a higher bid....they don't know what your bid is until they place theirs....that's EBay...

[bromley2008]

Have you for one moment read what people are saying?

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[the-upside-down]

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@jbt_484 wrote:

I think bidding in the last moments is cheeting. It stops the seller from getting what the item is worth. I am sure that is not what eBay is about. People should use eBay properly and not try to cheet another buyer or seller.

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Let's say you happened to see the outbid email and bid yourself in the last few seconds.  Would you think it unfair that everyone else did t have time to outbid you?   Of course you wouldn't!

if you're going to bid early and don't have the time/can't be bothered to be there as the auction ends then bid your maximum amount straight away.  Then you won't feel cheated as someone else clearly values the item higher than you.  

[bromley2008]

How does raising the price of the bid in the last seconds cheat the sellers?
So in auction houses if you took away the last bids that's cheating as well?

I'm sorry but you destroy your own argument.
Read what you wrote.

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[juliet8820]

Of course it is not cheating if in the last few minutes someone places a bid - that is after all the whole concept of an auction.  The bidder has, after all, to contend with other last minute bidders, and for that reason will likely place a bid as high or possibly higher than they would otherwise be prepared to do so, in order to win.  

That has been the way I have utilised eBay over the last 20 years: why push the price up during the listing period?  Just go in at the end with one bid and hopefully win: if that means bidding, eventually,  more than you would have done so, during a 50p / £1 increase each time you bid so be it.

As for not using eBay properly -  I don't think you understand the general concept of 'auction'.   That is purely your view of how eBay should be used.  How does it stop the seller getting what the item is worth?  An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, at that moment in time.  If the seller is not happy to accept a lower offer then they have the option to put a reserve on the listing. 

Your first and last statements contradict each other.   Your argument makes no sense.  You have also not factored in automatic bidding. 

[brad_pool]

They bid more than you and won -that's how a bid  works.

[brad_pool]

I think these people are clearly not understanding how bidding works.

[brad_pool]

Snipers being sniped . I agree . You've lost fair and square and not paid more than you wanted .

[j.eli-626]

Hello,this has saved me contacting e-bay because it has happed to me.I am very ill and don't have the energy to persue the case.j.

[nviv]

The person who won the auction using a last second snipe must have been prepared to pay a higher price than you, so how was this unfair?  After all.... you were perfectly at liberty to put a higher proxy bid in the first place. 

[bromley2008]

Please read the posts before replying, as when you do you will see how your reply has no bearing on this year long post......

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[davisondevelopments]

It is now up to 4 minutes, yes thats right minutes, !!