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Bidders Burned by eBay in Time Change

DW Staff (dre)October 31, 2004

Regulars on the Internet auction site eBay know that deals are made in the final minute of bidding. But when clocks in Europe were set back an hour Sunday morning, many went home empty-handed.

https://p.dw.com/p/5nS2
Because bidding ended too early one washing machine went for $3Image: Bilderbox

Successful eBay bidders need to be quick of mind and quick on the mouse. But all the speed in the world can't help when the Internet auction house can't get the time change right.

In the night from Saturday to Sunday, clocks in the European Union were set back one hour.

In order to compensate, eBay said it would end auctions that started before the time change one hour earlier after the time change. In doing so, the site wanted to make sure to eliminate the extra hour given Europeans when they set their clocks back.

But bidders complained in the site's forum on Sunday that auctions ended an hour earlier than planned. As a result, many bidders found the items they were after sold far too early.

One person who auctioned off his washing machine was burned when the auction ended too early, before anyone made any serious bids.

"The Whirlpool, that I put up for auction, sold for only €2.50," he wrote in the EBay forum.

EBay technicians told the forum they were working on the problem.