Pool.com Auction Changes

[Whois-Search]

Hello Andrew;

We are sorry that you feel this way, and we appreciate your feedback immensely. That said, these changes were made as a response to an overwhelming number of complaints in regards to auctions lost in the final seconds of bid time (typically to users with software to submit bids on their behalf). As in any real life auction, the auction now ends when the bidding stops, with a 15 minute period representing the conventional 'going once, going twice, sold!'

As our philosophy is to allow any interested user an equal opportunity to acquire any domain name that they have backordered through our system, and as a great number of users are at an obvious disadvantage with respect to bid timing, we have made yet another attempt to even the playing field for all users.

I understand your frustration, and I will pass it along to our Director of Operations, and any necessary changes will be made in the next upgrade of Pool.com.

Sincerely,

Chantelle Skitmore
www.Pool.com

 

[BG]

Imagine if ebay were to do this............. nobody would use them anymore.

Why change something which works perfectly well, i tell ya why, it's greed, total greed.

People have no right to moan, they know the game, so play it.....

The people who moan only do so as they get nipped to the post everytime by someone who has a never ending pockets/funds and plays the game as it should be played.

Big mistake by pool...

Barry

 

[dvdrip]

It is greed alright cause all this will be over in couple of months.

 

[David G]

Originally posted by Whois-Search Hello Andrew;
We are sorry that you feel this way, and we appreciate your feedback immensely. That said, these changes were made as a response to an overwhelming number of complaints in regards to auctions lost in the final seconds of bid time (typically to users with software to submit bids on their behalf). As in any real life auction, the auction now ends when the bidding stops, with a 15 minute period representing the conventional 'going once, going twice, sold!'

As our philosophy is to allow any interested user an equal opportunity to acquire any domain name that they have backordered through our system, and as a great number of users are at an obvious disadvantage with respect to bid timing, we have made yet another attempt to even the playing field for all users.

I understand your frustration, and I will pass it along to our Director of Operations, and any necessary changes will be made in the next upgrade of Pool.com. sincerely, Chantelle Skitmore
www.Pool.com

Sorry my view will be very unpopular here but I agree with Pool on the concept, though it will drive up prices a lot.

As they said, in a real auction the auction ends when the bids stop. Can you imagine a real auction for some art and a bid was made for $500,000 and within seconds someone else bids $1,000,000 but he is told no, the auction is over? LOL. This is how it should be, when bids stop for x amount of time it's over.

I don't do Pool much anymore because I was outbid in the last few seconds almost every time, probably by automated bidding software programs, or else simply quick fingers, fast server response time and a big element of luck.

This decision by Pool makes complete sense to me and I back them up completely on the issue, surprised they did not implement it earlier.

 

[Whois-Search]

Hello Andrew,

I have read the email that you have sent to us and it is very unfortunate
that you, among others are interpreting the new processes in this way.

By no means were these changes made for greed, stupidity or because of WLS.

Please let me explain the reasons for the changes.

Time to Backorder, Time to Bid

We have moved all of our auction closing times to begin closing at 11:00 EST
for one main reason. The auction were closing at different times depending
on the TLD. We feel that moving them all to the same time will allow our
customers to have more of a set schedule.

Worry-Free Bidding

This change is obviously the most significant in your concerns. We have
done this for many reasons.
We have had many complaints from customers that they were not able to place
their bids in time due to the system not performing. We have gone through
all of our files over the last few weeks and this is what we have found.
There are many people that are trying to game the system. One way is that
people were hammering the site with multiple requests, therefore slowing
down our servers. They would do this after their bid was placed. This was
not allowing other customer to get their bids in. Obviously not all of our
customers are on an equal playing field. Some of the smaller customers will
go through the normal processes of bidding, while others have created 'bots'
to automate this process. To even out the playing field and to eliminate
the problem of customers not being able to place their bids, we have chosen
the method of extending the auction. This will eliminate the gaming problem
and the hammering away at the website problem.

We feel that customers will now start using the proxy bid system more as
there is no point in waiting until the last few seconds to place a bid which
will significantly reduce the load.

There have been many requests for this, and like all things, we will be
watching the affects of this. If it does not turn out to be positive, then
we will take the appropriate actions at that time.

Convenient Auction Display

Customers have a tendency to refreshing the Auctions page to see the latest
results of the current auctions they are in. We have separated this out
onto it's own separate page, placing the Auction history of domains won and
lost elsewhere, to increase the efficiency of the page.

I really appreciate our partnership and would not like to see it end. I am
hoping that my clarifications on the subjects help you understand our
motives were not malicious nor greedy. We are trying to give all of our
customers an equal opportunity to participate in all auctions they are apart
of.

Please respond to me with your thoughts on these issues.

Best Regards,

Taryn Naidu
Operations Manager
POOL.com

 

[dvdrip]

If I were Pool I would do the same but a real auction doesn't have proxy bids as the pool auction does.

And also when I have a proxy of 1000 and the current bid is at 100 why is the auction extended when someone bids 110?
Why don't they just do a transparent auction where proxy are shown or just doesn't exist.

Originally posted by RealNames


Sorry my view will be very unpopular here but I agree with Pool on the concept, though it will drive up prices a lot.

As they said, in a real auction the auction ends when the bids stop. Can you imagine a real auction for some art and a bid was made for $500,000 and within seconds someone else bids $1,000,000 but he is told no, the auction is over? LOL. This is how it should be, when bids stop for x amount of time it's over.

I don't do Pool much anymore because I was outbid in the last few seconds almost every time, probably by automated bidding software programs, or else simply quick fingers, fast server response time and a big element of luck.

This decision by Pool makes complete sense to me and I back them up completely on the issue, surprised they did not implement it earlier.

 

[Domain Investor]

.

 

[dvdrip]

Forgot to add that I will stop bidding. I was having fun today seeing people bidding at the last minute and after 15 minutes and again.... then I just got bored and closed the window.

Maybe they are still bidding!

 

[Whois-Search]

I hope they will use some of this extra money to fund an even greater fight against WLS.

 

[Whois-Search]

Hi Andrew,

As with any change, you expect to hear positive and negative feedback. I have personally spoken to a number of customers
who before were having trouble either placing bids, or responding to larger bids placed at the last minute. It is generally the larger customers who automate systems to place bids when their are only a few seconds left.

It was almost always the case that the more sophisticated technology would win the auctions. I do believe that only time will tell what will happen, and we are constantly analyzing the data to see if this is working out for the better or the worse. In the last 2 days, we have had quite heavy loads on our system, and no one has been unable to place the bid they wanted which is definitely positive.

I do thank you for your feedback, and you can trust that we are trying to do what is best for our customers.
I hope that this incident has not tarnished our relationship.

Regards,

Taryn Naidu
POOL.com