I just missed an auction because your system decided not to place my bid because the seller (in the USA) doesn't post to the UK. I operate from both the USA and UK and wanted this item shipped to my USA address. I had no idea that your software would fail to bid because it knew (crystal ball obviously) where I wanted the item shipped.

This was a rare but vital piece of electronics that has now sold for substantially less than my bid, to a seller with 3 ebay transactions on record. I hope this is a genuine buyer (we all had to start some time) but it's not promising. Why was there no ALERT when I set up the snipe to tell me your system would not bid. The sellers shipping exclusions have been set all along.

I would have bid manually had I known your system was inclined to play god.

Hugely unimpressed, and very annoyed to have missed such a rare item that I would have easily won had your system either placed the bid, or told me it wasn't going to. Surely accepting the bid is tantamount to a contract to bid on my behalf, assuming I'm still in the auction at the time specified?

Hmmm.

It appears that this seller put a restriction to block bidders based on the shipping address.
The sniper tried to place a bid, but it was refused by eBay for the reason I mentioned above. That has nothing to do with the sniper, your manual bid would not work as well.

There is no way for the sniper to guess such restrictions set by the seller in advance without placing a bid. Unfortunately, crystal balls don't work that far.

In the future, when not sure, please place a minimum manual bid first. If your manual bid did not work, your snipe will not work too.

OK, thank you for your fast response. So you're saying that it's ebay employing the crystal ball then and assuming that because an account is n the UK that the shipping address is also the UK. I suppose that's a fair assumption in most cases, but clearly any argument is with ebay.

It's not clear however from your website report of the bids that the sniper actually placed a bid and it was rejected - it looks (to me) as though no bid was placed. Perhaps you could improve this in a future benefit so that those who've just "lost" an auction because ebay rejected their bid are fully aware and vent their annoyance at ebay and not you!!!

thanks again,
tsg

I was under impression that you actually checked the status of your snipe and saw the message saying that there is a restriction. That message came directly from eBay.
If you see something in the status message, that means Myibidder actually tried to place a bid.

Please note that this is not just eBay, that's your seller who added such restriction on his/her listing. Most sellers don't do that.
eBay just obeys their restriction settings (using crystal ball, of course).

I had the same problem. You may have different addresses specified in eBay but you have only one "primary" address and it is the "primary" address that is used for the check. If this address is in a country which the seller inhibits, you cannot bid nor snipe. You need to set your primary address correctly before the time of bidding/sniping.

I had a similar problem with an auction earlier (Item 161029187129). Before trying to snipe I asked the seller if he would post to my country, he accepted and put me on the exemption list. I even placed a bid to be sure. No problem. Then I made the snipe and happily waited, just to know later on that myibidder didn't bid due to "Seller has restriction on shipping addresses"...

Is this the supposed behavior?

I'm trying a similar auction tomorrow, with address restriction but on exemption list.

furiouszahn wrote:
I had a similar problem with an auction earlier (Item 161029187129). Before trying to snipe I asked the seller if he would post to my country, he accepted and put me on the exemption list. I even placed a bid to be sure. No problem. Then I made the snipe and happily waited, just to know later on that myibidder didn't bid due to "Seller has restriction on shipping addresses"...

Is this the supposed behavior?

I'm trying a similar auction tomorrow, with address restriction but on exemption list.

Wrong Item ID.
The righ is 221229073998.

I see your manual bid. Seems like the seller put the restriction back after your manual bid.
This is rare when sellers change their requirements while auction is active, but sellers are allowed to do so. Maybe the seller changed his mind?

Here is the full message which was provided by eBay:

Code: Select All

Sorry, this item cannot be sent to Portugal.
* The seller has specified that this item cannot be sent to addresses in Portugal
* You can contact the seller for more information, or find similar items offered by other sellers.


Hum. Awkward. He looked like a nice guy.
Well, thanks for your help.

He may still is a nice guy. Some sellers could put it back by mistake without knowing what they are actually doing.
I hope you won't see those things anymore. Based on my experience, this is rare.