Langtons time clock, about 2 mins ahead of the rest

[Bobthebuilder]

Wait until 8.58 to place your bid on a 9pm close, and sorry your too late
Not the first time either
Tested with multiple devices to check it wasn't once device only with a problem
Every other auction house closes on the dot to the second they specify

[tarija]

How is the auction "manipulated"?

[Bobthebuilder]

yeah that was a bit tin foil hat over the top, post edited.
But seriously, can they still not get this right?
For an auction to work properly the bids need to be able to go through right up until the bell.

[Diddy]

Are you saying the auction clock was still counting down but it wouldn't accept your bid?

[Bobthebuilder]

yes
happens around 2 - 3 munites before auction close every time for the last couple of months

[Ddavew]

i don't have that problem , the last auction i attempted to bid was early this month, the only problem i had was the slow response after i place a bid in the last 30sec, its very obvious that the response time from langton is a lot slower when it gets closer to ending time. just keeps loading.

[tarija]

A lot of people pinging bids at closing time.

Just put your bids in earlier!

[Bobthebuilder]

Yeah but that kind of goes against everything I've learnt about internet auctions, which is inherently different to auction room auctions where the hammer coming down is the clock.
To langtons defence, they came back to me promptly on my complaint with a whole heap of questions and enthusiastic approach to trying to rectify the problem.
I need to do quite a bit of work however to answer all the questions and give them the evidence and to be honest I'm just totally eff'd after a hard day at work so will need to address this tomorrow or the weekend.

[rens]

Yeah but that kind of goes against everything I've learnt about internet auctions, which is inherently different to auction room auctions where the hammer coming down is the clock.
To langtons defence, they came back to me promptly on my complaint with a whole heap of questions and enthusiastic approach to trying to rectify the problem.
I need to do quite a bit of work however to answer all the questions and give them the evidence and to be honest I'm just totally eff'd after a hard day at work so will need to address this tomorrow or the weekend.

i'd be interested to see where this goes.

[rens]

On a side note, some auction houses will allocate a particular lot an extra time if there is a bid in the last 5 or 10 minutes. I think Gray's did this (Have not been there for years). Probably get better results for sellers and more commission for the auction house.

[Polymer]

MW does this...if there is someone that bids in the last 5 it gives the previous bidder time to respond.

Nick - If you know langtons is ending 2 minutes earlier than what it says the best thing you can do is keep quiet about it . That way you can still bid at the last minute while others that try miss out..

[deejay81]

That's a bit crappy Nick.

Whilst for me Langtons has been pretty spot on with times, I remember kind of recently I put in a bid prob about 15 secs too late and it somehow registered my bid as the winning bid... but never had I had the auction close early?

[Bobthebuilder]

I just worked it out, and I owe Langtons an apology
But very interestingly, the langtons time clock ticking away on the lots is actually aligned to the time clock on the device you are viewing it on
So my PC's clock is 2 minutes and a few seconds slow, and so when the true time hits 9pm my PC shows its 8.58pm, and the langtons clock on the lot I'm bidding for still shows there is 2 minutes, based on the clock on my PC.
Although I thought I'd seen the same thing happen on my ipad, I must be wrong, because I just opened my ipad on the same page and lot on Langtons, and sure enough the langtons clock on the ipad was roughly 2 minutes ahead of what was being shown on the PC.
Apple 1, Windows 0

And yes, I am a goose

[Diddy]

Raises the question though why on earth they would do that? What point is there having a count-down to a time that isn't aligned to their auction system?

[Bobthebuilder]

Raises the question though why on earth they would do that? What point is there having a count-down to a time that isn't aligned to their auction system?

yes the rep was somewhat perplexed when i told her
and said she is going to talk to the IT team about it

[sjw_11]

very odd... so if I was bidding from over here I would need to separately watch a world clock to know when the auction would end?