Notified I was a winner at $425 but Ebay accepted another bid and it cost me $76.00
On Monday I bid on 2 paintings. Auction ended at 8:52 am PDT. I got an email from Auction Stealer congratulating me on winning at $425. Ebay also announced I was the winner at $425. But Ebay continued accepting bids until 8:52:20. That cost me $76.00. I know it is a software glitch and fraudulant. How many other auctions is this happening with? I can't get past the offshore call center who keeps telling me to reach out to the seller. This isn't the sellers fault, some line of code uses minutes while the other uses minutes:seconds. Any ideas on how to reach a person in the states that can make this right?
9 comments
mudshark61369
·1 year ago@alleycat47 ,
"Auction ended at 8:52 am PDT. I got an email from Auction Stealer congratulating me on winning at $425. Ebay also announced I was the winner at $425. But Ebay continued accepting bids until 8:52:20".
As @lacemaker3 wrote, ebay does not post the time down to the last second that an auction ends where it can be found easily, like it used to be. To find the time down to the last second you have to open the bid history page by clicking on the number of bids already received on the auction. On the page that opens if you look below the first bid received you will see The date the auction started the number of days the auction will run, and the exact time it did start down to the last second in this case 8:52:20.
Since it seems you placed a higher bid, than the last one received, apparently not your highest bid amount, or you probably would have mentioned that, why would you complain?
If you placed what we call a Nuclear bid (one so high, you never expected the bidding to get near the amount) you ran the risk of another bidder doing the same thing, and one of you could have ended up paying possibly much more than the item was worth.
Have you checked Auction Stealer's reviews? The general service info on their site says "Our servers place your bid a few seconds before the eBay auction closes". It does not say they place a bid at the last second before an auction ends, so there is room for an experienced sniper or a better service, to get a later bid in. Sniper Kitty is still out there.
lacemaker3
·1 year ago@alleycat47, sorry, but Auction Stealer was wrong. They should not have done that.
The listing was started on 21 Jul 2025 at 8:52:20am PDT, and it was scheduled to end exactly 7 days later, on 28 Jul 2025 at 8:52:20am PDT. All auctions are like that. It ended promptly on time.
https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/306407815885?item=306407815885
The problem here, is not that the auction ended late. The problem is that eBay doesn't bother displaying the seconds part of the ending time, in a lot of places. So you were expecting the auction to end early.
We've been pointing this out to eBay since they stopped displaying the seconds, which was years ago. But it is clear at this point that they don't care.
I guess eBay can't afford enough pixels to display the seconds.
buyselljack2016
·1 year agoSeems that I have read before about someone being shown/told winner only to not be.
I t shouldn't happen, but apparently with many "servers" from all around the world and "lags" the system can get overloaded and as a rarity.............. temporarily give the wrong results.
eburtonlab
·1 year agoSeems that I have read before about someone being shown/told winner only to not be.
When a bid is submitted and becomes the high bid, eBay will provide a message that says something like "You are the high bidder at $XX.XX". If that happens when bidding at the end of an auction, some users may think that means that they have won the auction, but it just indicates that at the time the bid was received by eBay that was the high bid amount.
eBay may even display that message in the case of a tie bid, when the tie would go to the earlier bidder, though I cannot confirm that personally.
The only message that matters is the one that appears after the auction ends with a link to actually pay. That indicates that the auction has been won.
gator08041971
·1 year agoNot sure how it cost you another 76 dollars if you were already willing to bid at least that much more on the item?
eBay had you listed as the high bidder at one point. But obviously the bidding wasn't over yet. Someone else also wanted it real bad. But it sounds like you got it within your maximum bid anyway, so you shouldn't have spent more than you were willing to anyhow.
Right?
I think you are just a bit mad that you thought you had it locked up before it was done and someone else tried to get it as well and drove the price up near the end.
That is how this works. This is why I wait till the last few seconds before I even attempt to bid, unless I'm first to bid, then I just bid the listed starting amount only. If I win on that, great. If not I can check back near the end and try within my maximum amount I'm willing to spend.
*shrug
There isn't any trickery or cheating going on here. But very likely a misunderstanding of its workings and timeframe.
Good luck though.
monroe67
·1 year ago"Ebay also announced I was the winner at $425. But Ebay continued accepting bids until 8:52:20. That cost me $76.00."
How did that "cost [you] $76.00" ?
Seems to me more like it saved you at least $425.00 (with shipping and sales taxes).
eburtonlab
·1 year agoHow did that "cost [you] $76.00" ?
It sounds as if the OP was expecting the auction to end at 8:52, and at that time the OP was winning at $425. But a bid apparently arrived after that point, driving the OP's bid up to $501.
Examining the starting bid time at the bottom of the bid history page should indicate when the auction actually started -- and by extension, when it was due to end -- and whether the final bid was received before the auction's end time.
monroe67
·1 year ago"It sounds as if the OP was expecting the auction to end at 8:52, and at that time the OP was winning at $425. But a bid apparently arrived after that point, driving the OP's bid up to $501."
OK. I understand.
Doesn't that suggest, though, that the OP had placed a maximum bid that was more than $425?
Any bidder's "official" bids are raised (driven up):
(1) only when another person outbids the current bid and
(2) only up to the bidder's maximum bid.
eBay doesn't just say, "Oh, "alleycat" 's most recent bid was $425. But we're sure he would gladly pay $501 for these paintings, so we'll just bid $501 for him. He won't mind."
Seems to me that OP must have entered his own maximum bid as at least $501.
eburtonlab
·1 year agoBidding ends a set number of days after the auction started down to the exact second. Bids are accepted so long as a bid for a valid amount is received by eBay's server before the auction ends, even if those bids are not displayed on individual bidders' pages around the world until a few seconds later.
eBay does not extend bidding. Once you have bid your maximum, bid extensions can not help you, only hurt you.
For some unknown reason eBay no longer displays the ending time to the second at the top of the bid history page, but if there are any bids you should be able to calculate the actual ending time by examining the starting time of the auction at the bottom of the page. Auctions always begin and end at the same time down to the exact second, unless the auction is ended early by the seller. All bidders have the same time to place valid bids, and no one gets any extra time. eBay time stamps every bid as it is received by eBay, and the times are displayed to the second in the bid history if you use a desktop browser.
Being told you are the current "high bidder" while the auction is still ongoing is not the same as being declared the winner after the auction is over, even if the countdown on your computer reaches zero. If you are the winner, you should see a link to check out.
If you think you have encountered an auction where a bid was accepted after the end of the auction, examine the starting time shown at the bottom of the page closely and compare it to the time the bid was received and you should find that the bid was received before the auction actually ended. If not, please post an item number so that others can see it.
If you bid the maximum amount you are willing to pay (taking into account any shipping or taxes) then the only way you can lose is if someone is willing to bid more than you were and actually does so, or if someone bid the same exact amount, earlier.
No one can count on having the last bid, and bidders should assume that other bids will be placed at the end of the auction too late to be reacted to, and set their bids accordingly.
If your auction countdown is not behaving correctly, check to make sure your computer's time and time zone are set correctly, and the date and time are synchronized with an internet time server such as time.windows.com or time.gov.
Check your computer's time here:
https://time.is/
Any difference between your device's clock and eBay's clock can cause problems for you if you intend to bid in the last few seconds of an auction. If your clock is fast or slow by thirty seconds, either way, this can prevent you from bidding. Either your computer will think the auction has ended when it has not, preventing your from bidding, or else you will think you have more time when the auction actually ends. Neither helps you.
Synchronize your device's clock to minimize errors, and don't wait until the last second to place your bid.