posted on April 1, 2001 06:18:13 AM
Well I woke up especially early to snipe five auctions and missed them 'coz it seems like eBay's clock was bugging out!
I know we just switched over to Daylight Savings Time, and I took that into account. I had five windows open and everything was looking fine, just minutes to go. Then suddenly, a few minutes early, all the auctions were ending. There's one slated to end at 6:11:35 a.m. that comes up "Bidding is closed for this item," yet as I type this the eBay clock says it's only 6:08:17. The auction page shows the auction as ending on time, and doesn't say anything about the seller ending it early (does it usually?) - but even if the seller had ended it early, that would be reflected in the "auction ends" time on the auction page, right?
Weird, and frustrating. I suppose (and hope?) it was a one-time deal having to do with eBay resetting their clocks for Daylight Savings Time. Yargh! Well back to bed ....
There were several auctions for some CD's I was watching, all from the same seller, that were scheduled to end after 7:00 AM PACIFIC DAYLIGHT TIME this morning.
I had neglected to write down either the items numbers, or the seller's name.
So, I used Item Search to look for them.
The first two of three weren't showing as of 6:45 AM PDT. I found the third, then clicked on "seller's other auctions" - and there the first two were - STILL OPEN in his list, but when I called the first up - still a half-hour in advance - IT'S CLOSED!!!!!
posted on April 1, 2001 07:22:59 AM
The second of the CD's just closed 15 MINUTES EARLY - still showing the ORIGINAL closing time, which hasn't passed yet.
posted on April 1, 2001 10:24:26 AM
WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH THESE AUCTIONS THAT CLOSED EARLY???
So, do we sell to the high bid and just forget it?
If we do not sell, we will get negged for sure.
And what will Ebay do for us?
What hoops must we go through?
This is a disaster.
The latest in a series.
Ebay, sell the thing to AOL and forget it. At least THEY have the staff (it appears) to handle problems.
... And while you are at it...have human resources check the personnel files for those degrees on your hired professionals. Do a thorough back ground check...would ya?
posted on April 1, 2001 10:45:34 AM
So it's not just me! I've never seen this glitch happen before. Tuff to prove, too, I imagine, unless you're there, refreshing and counting down the seconds waiting to snipe. Then -- ulp.
Man, I sure hope it's something to do with Daylight Savings Time. If this becomes a recurring glitch, it would be a real pain.
ItStillHurts - your experience sounds almost exactly like mine, right down to the auctions being for CDs. Dang man!
posted on April 1, 2001 06:18:13 PM
Auctions that still have an hour to run are dropping off the search page as though the auction has finished, but it hasn't. No one will be able to find any auctions that still have an hour to go. They have one time on the search page, but the item page has an extra hour to run.
posted on April 1, 2001 06:26:07 PM
If you click on view sellers other auctions it will bring up the whole list, even the ones with less than an hour to run
posted on April 1, 2001 06:51:53 PM
My auctions end in an hour but have already moved to the completed auctions lists.
So Sunday night, the time when the most auctions on eBay end - is once again royally messed up. The final crucial hour for your auction - when many people make their bids - does not exist. If someone comes back to bid on your item and looks for it, they won't find it - unless they already have it bookmarked.
This minor caveat probably has eBay mulling someway, somehow, they can claim this is not a completely unfair...
posted on April 1, 2001 10:34:43 PM
eBay will claim that is a Microsoft problem. The bug was discovered by Richard Smith, now chief technology officer of PrivacyFoundation.org, in January of 1999, and was well known.
posted on April 1, 2001 10:40:07 PM
Read what I proposed in the "performance anxiety" thread. I don't think it's as much oversight and accident as everyone might believe.
posted on April 2, 2001 12:59:34 AM
This bug in the Visual C++ Runtime Library was discovered by Richard Smith in January 1999 2 years ago as Rudy's above post already mentioned and was addressed by Microsoft in 8/05/99 1 1/2 years ago. Microsoft issued a Windows Update which fixed this library component in the early spring of 2000. http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/headlines/2001.asp
I don't think there's any excuse for eBay not correcting this problem since it has been well documented. IMO, this is just plain negligence on the part of eBay's programmers and anyone who had auctions impacted by this bug should get a FULL refund of their fees. I'm now wondering what else eBay neglected to fix!!
BTW, this bug doesn't correct itself until April 8 so I sure hope eBay is applying the fix.
Blanche
[ edited by bhearsch on Apr 2, 2001 01:03 AM ]
