MEARS Auction Problem?

[teddy406]

I understand, from a bidder's perspective, what some of you are saying. You thought you won an item and then found out later the auction was still going. BUT, on the otherhand, if you were a consignor in this auction, you'd be pissed as heck that bidders couldn't access the site to make bids on your items. I got 3 or 4 emails from Mears explaining the problems and that bidding would be extended because of it. You have to look at both sides of this, and what could Mears do about it besides what they did? I mean the auction only went until 9 15 pacific time. It wasn't like it went on all night and morning like most the other auctions do.

[Tlewi11]

This is sort of funny. People complain on here when Highland Mint "agrees" to a price for someone to purchase an All-Star jersey, and then accepts a higher offer from someone else, but its ok for Mears to change their user agreed to Terms and Conditions?

Other auction houses have clauses that allow them to extend bidding at their discretion (smart), but Mears does not. Every bidder of Mears auctions must agree to their stated Terms and Conditions, yet Mears has decided that they are able to change the rules after an auction has officially ended? No email was sent prior to close. All emails were sent to re-open closed lots.

I agree that the consignors would lose out in this situation, but that is for Mears to deal with. Either they buck up money to make their consignors feel whole or they go after the company that hosts their auction site. If they were smart, they would have language in their contract to handle situations such as this.

So next time someone has an handshake agreement to buy an item and then the seller decides to sell it someone else, just think about this situation where there is much more than a handshake agreement in place.

A couple of weeks ago, Ebay had tremendous problems with their users being blocked from logging in for extended periods of time. Forums all over the internet had waves of people saying "the sellers better not back out of the auctions won at a steal price", but I guess that's ok, as long as it favors whomever chooses to speak up first.

I just wish their were rules on how these situations should be handled...oh wait, they are called Terms and Conditions.

[BVC]

Seriously? It's as if you haven't read anything posted about this auction.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES killed the extended bidding period - it was NOT POSSIBLE for a large number of bidders to bid. This situation is in no way comparable to the others that you described.

[PALEHOSE1]

I finally got around to consigning 8 items with Mears in this auction- White Sox GU jerseys, hats and some auto balls and could have done better on ebay due to the auction problems. Very disappointed.

[Longroad23]

I had the 2 Braun's in that auction. Disappointed there was an issue.

[BU54CB]

I understand, from a bidder's perspective, what some of you are saying. You thought you won an item and then found out later the auction was still going. BUT, on the otherhand, if you were a consignor in this auction, you'd be pissed as heck that bidders couldn't access the site to make bids on your items. I got 3 or 4 emails from Mears explaining the problems and that bidding would be extended because of it. You have to look at both sides of this, and what could Mears do about it besides what they did? I mean the auction only went until 9 15 pacific time. It wasn't like it went on all night and morning like most the other auctions do.

I'd be pissed either way because nobody knew what was going on. How does extending the auction help the bidders and consignors if most weren't aware of the situation. Its entirely possible many of the bidders didn't try to bid again after they couldn't get on and didn't know the bidding was extended.

If I was a consignor or bidder, I would not be happy at all. In my opinion, what Mears did was insufficient to both parties. They should have backup equipment to ensure this type of situation doesn't happen.

[BU54CB]

I'd be pissed either way because nobody knew what was going on. How does extending the auction help the bidders and consignors if most weren't aware of the situation. Its entirely possible many of the bidders didn't try to bid again after they couldn't get on and didn't know the bidding was extended.

If I was a consignor or bidder, I would not be happy at all. In my opinion, what Mears did was insufficient to both parties. They should have backup equipment to ensure this type of situation doesn't happen.

Or their 3rd party vendor hosting the auction should have a backup plan.

[BVC]

I'd be pissed either way because nobody knew what was going on. How does extending the auction help the bidders and consignors if most weren't aware of the situation. Its entirely possible many of the bidders didn't try to bid again after they couldn't get on and didn't know the bidding was extended.

If I was a consignor or bidder, I would not be happy at all. In my opinion, what Mears did was insufficient to both parties. They should have backup equipment to ensure this type of situation doesn't happen.

If you are trying to bid, and can't, you make a simple phone call. If you weren't really interested in bidding, then you give up. Extending the opening round of bidding until 11:00PM Eastern, seemed very fair to me, to both sides. You call what they did "insufficient" - you can't create a vendor back-up plan during the problem, and who knows what the vendor had promised them in advance, in terms of back-up plans? I think what they did at the time was entirely sufficient. If they don't get a back-up plan guaranteed for future auctions, then I agree that their planning is insufficient.

Or their 3rd party vendor hosting the auction should have a backup plan.

Agreed - 'computer vendor 101'.

[MikeKam]

Agreed - 'computer vendor 101'.

I believe it was actually a problem with the Simple Auction Site platform that caused all of the chaos.

[BVC]

I believe it was actually a problem with the Simple Auction Site platform that caused all of the chaos.

Agreed. They claimed that they have lots of servers, and only some were affected. What you are saying makes more sense than 'server issues', as the 15-minute rule started at 8:00 Pacific and ended at 8:15 Pacific, despite claims that it was only some of the servers. If that were the case, bids by the people on servers that weren't affected, would have kept the auction running past 8:15. Given how many AH's are on this vendor's software, there should be enough pressure to get it fixed.