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Tue Sept 11 2012 08:24:42

eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout Glitch

By: Reader

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Dear Ina.
eBay had a glitch this afternoon (Monday, September 10) that no doubt cost many sellers some money if they had auctions ending at about 13:30 PDT.

I bid on a pair of shoes that ended at 13:30:09. The shoes had been bid up to $76 and with 20 seconds to go before the listing ended, I placed a bid for $117. Or tried to. I entered the amount in the box that appeared on the screen and pressed the "Review and confirm bid" button. Rather than accepting the bid, the box kept looping back. I pressed "Review and confirm bid" every time, but the box just kept looping back. My bid never "took" and the shoes sold to someone else for $76.

My wife called eBay to find out what was wrong and was told that the bidding issues were related to a payment and checkout issue they were having; she was told that in trying to fix the checkout issue, eBay temporarily screwed up the bidding function.

The result, in this one case, was that a seller sold a pair of shoes for
less than they would have otherwise, and I was unable to purchase the shoes I wanted. (How many times over was this repeated on the site, I wonder?)

When my wife politely expressed her dismay at the situation, the customer service rep hung up on her.

It will be interesting to see if eBay offers to compensate sellers whose auctions ended during the bidding malfunction period. My guess is that they'll probably get the same great customer service response that we did.

Sincerely,
Shoeless in Sedona



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Readers Comments

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: mylifeisgood This user has validated their user name.

Tue Sep 11 11:01:00 2012

The words Ebay and Compensation should never be used in the same sentence.

The only thing Ebay compensates is the dictator in the lead chair.

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: Bloggo This user has validated their user name.

Tue Sep 11 12:13:09 2012

Q: Is there any other major e-commerce site as dysfunctional as eBay?

A: No

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

This user has validated their user name. by: Ric

Tue Sep 11 13:14:51 2012

This is what happens when the underlying code eBay runs on is older than the programmers tasked with working on it.

Every time eBay attempts to insert a new function or feature, they end up code blocked because today's programmers do not understand eBay's antiquated system.

Add the fact that to save time and money, eBay prefers to live test changes instead of fully testing them prior to release, and you end up with a site that is constantly experiencing glitches.

eBay does not really care as the only ones negatively effected are buyers who can not complete purchases and sellers who lose business as a result.

Of course, eBay refuses to make announcements of system issues in order to avoid having to refund fees and to prevent investors from fully understanding how the daily glitches negatively impact sales.  If investors knew the frequency with which buyers and sellers experience problems, they would surely reconsider their investments in eBay stock.

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: NullApps This user has validated their user name.

Tue Sep 11 15:01:06 2012

The reason why sniping is optimal is exactly because of cases like this where a random last second bid was not processed.  If this wasn't the case we'd all bid how much something is actually worth from the beginning and there'd be no point in waiting til the end.

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: HarmonyGroveAntiques This user has validated their user name.

Tue Sep 11 15:22:25 2012

This literally just happened to us on item 261093683307!

We placed a bid with about 15 seconds left (yeah we shouldn't snipe, blah, blah, blah) and eBay showed us as the high bidder with a bid of $30.25. The item refreshed when it sold and our bid was just gone! The seller/eBay just lost an additional $3.38.

Wouldn't waste my time/breath to report to the fine CSRs at eBatty!  

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

This user has validated their user name. by: Ed Gadfly

Tue Sep 11 15:39:39 2012

eBay Philosophies

1. There are plenty more where this batch came from.
2. People are stupid.
3. See item 1.

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: comet This user has validated their user name.

Tue Sep 11 23:13:48 2012

WOW a case where ebay sided against the buyer??????

I dont understand!

You wold think that they would have canceled the auction slapped the seller with some previously unannounced  policy violation of the system and forced them to refund the entire amount plus shipping handling dealer prep tax title and license fees and hand deliver the shoes to the OP.

Because at ebay THAT is what Customer Service really looks like.

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

This user has validated their user name. by: Bill

Wed Sep 12 00:59:00 2012

One of the biggest problems that internet buyers will just get up and leave is glitches in the system.
Everybody wonders why there are no buyers any more on eBay it is because the IT idiots completely have turned off so many of the buying public and they have left for good.

Bill

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: Tiffee Jasso This user has validated their user name.

Wed Sep 12 04:44:07 2012

I don't think it was a glitch. I have ran into sniper programs that block bidding on an item in the last few seconds. When I complained about it, Ebay stopped the practice for a while. But I have noticed several times this past year, the sniper block is back. Frustrating for buyers and costs sellers and Ebay big bucks. Ebay should ban all sniper programs.  

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: wallflower This user has validated their user name.

Wed Sep 12 08:43:52 2012

Tiffee - how do sniper programs block bidding? I use a sniping service. All it does is place a bid, just like anyone else would. I have used it on and off for years, never heard of ebay blocking these bids. How would they do that? Block all bids coming from a domain that it knows is a sniping service? How can you tell when a sniper block by ebay is active?

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: HarmonyGroveAntiques This user has validated their user name.

Wed Sep 12 08:59:59 2012

Tiffee,

The only problem with your theory is we did not use a sniping program. We bid from our desktop PC manually.

The problem is that eBay's IT is F-ed up and they lie, conceal and hide those ever growing glitches from the stock buying public.

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: moonmyst This user has validated their user name.

Wed Sep 12 09:30:12 2012

I just had my first laugh of the day, thanks to Tiffee Jasso's comment. eBay won't ban sniper programs. Heck, eBay IT employees are probably the ones who came up with most of them.

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: fadedglitter This user has validated their user name.

Wed Sep 12 13:47:31 2012

i had so many buyers complaining about glitches when i was selling on ebay.now that i sell on etsy (fadedglitter42263)i have never had a problem,low fees and LOADS of traffic.i hope more people just give ETSY a try,they will be glad they did.their stress levels will go way down!!

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: BackInBlack This user has validated their user name.

Wed Sep 12 15:35:26 2012

I'm curious why people are so anti-snipe. As a seller, I don't mind---I'd rather sell my item at minimum bid in the last 10 seconds than not at all.  As a buyer, it's about the only way I buy. Would you rather have my higher snipe bid (whether manual or automated) in the last 10 seconds of your auction, or NOT AT ALL?  That's what I thought.

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: JB This user has validated their user name.

Thu Sep 13 12:21:38 2012

We don't bid on eBay anymore.

There has been so much talk about how eBay is favoring a diamond selling format, I was just curious if this might not be a way to move buyers to sellers eBay may be favoring.
Perhaps sellers eBay wants to herd buyers to.

Just a thought of course.

I suppose since it closely relates to sniping it would be difficult to determine.

But it would be interesting to see if a bidding scenario with a smaller seller and diamond seller of the same item and price would bring up the same glitch or not.  

Perminate Link for eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout   eBay Shopper Unable to Bid, Told It Was a Checkout

by: timeaftertime This user has validated their user name.

Sat Sep 15 17:52:33 2012

There is nothing wrong with sniping.  I use it all the time.

I do not have cable. I live in a rural area and depend on wireless service. Others have satellite or a slow internet connection (DSL, etc.) Even a simple storm can disrupt our service. If our power goes out, we can't bid! let alone use anything electrical.

Sniping is a truly welcome tool for us. It eliminates a lot of risk.

I can bid from my own PC within the last 6 seconds but if my power is out or my connection is slow, this is just not dependable!!

Anyone can beat a sniper's bid. My snipe bids have been outbid many times. All you have to do is bid the maximum you are willing to spend. The only bidder who can beat you is someone who has a higher maximum (sniper OR ''Regular'' bidder).  



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