Online auctions

I am in the throes of an online auction for an HP laptop. The auction site is UBid.com. And I have learned a life lesson with this auction: don't participate in an auction where the auctioneer also holds a fiduciary interest in what is being auctioned. This auction was supposed to end 45 minutes ago, but Ubid keeps "extending" the time limit. Fucking assholes! I thought I was competing with other bidders, but, no, it seems that one of the active players is the auctioneer itself. This sucks so big time that I am almost speechless...almost, but not quite.

**Arrrggghhh** Unfortunately, the auction is now closed, and I seem to have purchased a laptop. Damn! Well, it is what I promised my son for his birthday, last month, so it is good that I finally got something for him that works. The Compaq I got on eBay turned out to not have a battery and the shell had some very strange ridges swirled around. (Possibly somebody thought this was a cool design: we all thought that something bad had happened to the machine. I sent it back and Jose has credited back to my credit card.) This machine is supposed to be factory refurbished so it should be in pretty good shape...and the description says that battery and a/c charger are included. So, it should be what my son and granddaughter need at this time.

OK, so, after the fact, I go and read the fine print. It turns out that they automatically extend the auction time if there is a bid made within the last three minutes. They keep extending the time until such time as there are no new bids within a three minute span. At which time the auction winds down, I guess. I think that policy sucks. It's like the stock exchange saying they will extend the trading day if there are any new bids or offers within 3 minutes of closing. That kind of bullshit totally changes the dynamics of the auction. Fixed goalposts at the end of the field define the game of football. The same should be true about an auction site. As it is, I will never...let me repeat that; never...go to uBid again. In fact, I will now go see if eBay has an equally egregious rule, and, if it does, I will drop my membership there as well.

'Nuff said...