Sniper Software Adding Time to Auction After Zero Seconds

[juker01]

Anyone else watch an auction they were winning count down to zero only to see time added and a new countdown that ends with you losing?

I've watched two auctions that reached zero with me winning. In one 2 seconds were added. Another had 9 seconds added.

This is beyond fair and is cheating.

I hope ebay fixes this.

Mick C.

[simba6]

That is not what is happening.  That count down timer is NOT eBay's clock.  It a script running on your computer and it gets re synced every so often.  When that happens it's changed to be in line with eBay's clock. Depending on if it was too fast or too slow it can jump ahead  or back as needed to match up.

As eBay's servers get busy it gets re synced less often leading to bigger jumps.  Also there have been some issues with it the last few weeks too.

[janet9988]

There is sniper software to add time to auctions?

[lamber9347]

If there is software which adds time to auctions, then it would be happening to every auction out there and that's not the case. I still use auctions and they end at the exact time I set them up to end at. Personally, I would benefit as a seller if that were happening, but it is not. I believe simba6. Best of luck to you.... 

[woodland_gnome]

You have one (or both) of two common misconceptions:

1.  The countdown is NOT an accurate measure of the time remaining in the auciton, or the time left for you to submit your bid.  It is rather a series of snapshots of the then available status of the auction that your computer uses your clock to smooth out the time counting down so it looks like that.   Due to the time it takes for data to get back and forth from you to eBay and back and the time it takes to process a bid there will be bids received by eBay in the last few seconds  that will not be accounted for in the display until some time after the countdown gets to 0 (ALWAYS refresh the page a few seconds after the end before you rely on the apparent results).

2.  eBay time displays are truncated to seconds, minutes or sometimes hours in different places (and sometimes at different times).  An endtime DISPLAYED  as 12:34 does not mean it ends at 12:34:00.000, but rather could be anytime from then to 12:34:59.999.  The auction ends (and bids timestamped after that time rejected) exactly x (the "duration in whole days) times 24 hours after the start to some fraction of a second (not sure if it is the anniversary of the fraction of a second it started or the end of the full second, but it is not the beginning of the second and certainly not the beginning of the minute, unless by coincidence that that's when it started).  The starting time is displayed to the second on the line with the starting price at the bottom of the active bid list if there is an active bid (if not you can look at the listing page on ebay.co.uk which last I checked still displays to the second on the listing page).

[mudshark61369]

@juker01,

What the gnome and simba wrote about delays between the time info is sent from ebay and received and displayed is true, especially you have had the listing open for a while without refreshing the page every now and then.   You can tell the exact time down to the second of when an auction will end by clicking on the number of bids in (  ) on the listing page, even if none have been received yet. On the bid history page you will see the exact time a listing started down to the second, and those additional seconds over a minute will be applied at the end of the auction, though not displayed.

Do be aware that it is not always the last bid received that is the winning one, but the highest bid.  That bid can be placed days before the end of an auction, which will show up in the bid history, if you refresh the page just after placing a bid.  If your bid is placed in the last seconds, there may not be enough time for a "you've been outbid" notice to be sent.  You may even get a "you are the winner" notice, but then find you did not win.  If you open the bid history after the auction ends you will see exactly when the winning bid was placed.

[juker01]

It is ebay's clock. I've watched 100's of auctions count down to zero and have never seen what had happened. This is only happening on a certain sellers' auctions as it is the same buyer sniping me. I told ebay about it and I think they tackled the problem successfully. The reason I say this is the last auction with this seller the same thing happened. Counted down to zero with me winning, then at zero time was added. 9 seconds. And not because of my computer. After that counted down to zero a message appeared. "We are determining the winner". After about a minute it came up with me the rightful winner. The "we are determining the winner" is something I have never seen either.