Auctiontime.com Bidding RIPOFF Internet
I placed a bid on a riding mower with 40 seconds left on the timer and then the timer increased to 2 minutes again. I contacted auctiontime customer support and they confirmed that this was correct. Their reasoning was that it gave other bidders a chance to place another bid. I lost the item at the last few seconds because I didn't get an additional bid in time. SCAMMERS do not do business with this company.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Jeff
Gaylordsville,Connecticut,
United States
Soft close
#2General Comment
Thu, June 24, 2021
Your issue is called a "soft close" and most auctions online use it now, including AuctionTime, who show that they do so. What it means is that, if a bid is placed within the last minute or two, the close is extended for a minute or two to allow other bidders to get a price in, This makes sense since the seller and auctioneer want to give bidders a fair opportunity to increase the price.
When eBay started up, what you tried to do was very common and I did it many times to "win" items that I wanted. I don't know if they changed their policy but think that they probably have.
When you were outbid it also extended the auction to give you another chance to bid, It appears that, instead of doing so, you used the time to make a phone call. In the future just make sure that you are aware if it is a soft close or not.
We all lose some auctions that we "really want." Hopefully you now understand that all it really did was correct a small glitch in the online bidding system to maximize the price for the seller.
This is also done for "in person" auctions. The auctioneer will say " going...going...." and someone blurts out what he may think will be the winning bid. The auctioneer will then say "we now have a price of ..... Do I hear a bid of ....+?" and wait a bid before starting again with the "going....going." The bid isn't final until he says "SOLD!"