eBay Auction suddenly ends with 14 seconds remaining?

[4rbd]

eBay item number 173158533364 this auction ended suddenly with 14 seconds remaining. I've been bidding since 1998 and I've never had that happen before or even heard of it happening. There was no buy it now option. Clock was clicking down very normal then when it hit 14 seconds remaining it immediately said Auction Has Ended.

[myangelandmyprincess]

the auction started a feb 13 5:46:22

and end feb 18th at 5:46:22

probably just a major lag time with your computer or device.

[laylajames9]

This is very common @4rbd. You may find helpful information in this thread:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Bidding-Buying/Just-told-by-ebay-support-that-auction-timing-can-be-of...

[partial*eclipse]

There can be a considerable lag between the eBay time versus the time left that shows on your computer, for instance if you close and re-open a window.  Here are two screens showing the same auction but with 6 seconds' difference in  time left.

[castlemagicmemories]

There was a very recent thread that advised that auctions were as much as thirty seconds off, this poster said they confirmed this with Ebay CS.

Someone provided the link, I see, earlier in this thread.

[7606dennis]

It goes to show why in all the WWII movies the characters where always synchronizing their watches.

[mudshark61369]

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@7606denniswrote:

It goes to show why in all the WWII movies the characters where always synchronizing their watches.

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@7606dennis,

You owe me a coffee clean up for that line.

Those old watches kept good time but had to be wound, no two ran the exactly the same, and combat was hard on them. That's why time hacks were important. 

@4rbd,

One way I synch with ebay is to time a page refresh.  If the refresh time takes 5-6 seconds that is how old the info showing on the countdown clock is by the time you receive it. I have to bid at 14 seconds left to have my bid show up with 1 second left.  Comcast says that is because our wires are old, and we are so remote and have few users on the circuit, so they won't replace them.

You can also use speedtest.net to check your broadband speed.  Call your service provider if you aren't getting the speed you pay for.

[chrysylys]

^^  The wire thing is silly.

I'm using the same 'wires' now as I was nearly 20 years ago when I used to '0 second' snipe on dial up.  Or try to.  I think the best I did was 1 second.

It's more of a system wide network thing with so many more users logged in 'constant on'.  I used to try to keep my PCs all synced to NIST but even that gets sluggish at times.

This company's servers are Glitch City and we all know that.  Things just don't work as well with listings as they used to.  Too many listings.  Too many users.  Auctions are not the priority they used to be since the focus now is on BINs.  My Tin Foil Hat says not to be surprised to find that auctions timers ARE out of sync by a few seconds in hopes of deterring more people from using that format.