Gixen unable to place bids

[Guest]

Hi,

Thank you for the service, which I've enjoyed for several without a hitch.

Unfortunately my trouble free sniping seems to have misfired a little.

A number of recent snipes were cancelled due to eBay asking for verification.

I was then given instructions by gixen to set up a proxy address and refresh, which was successful.

The problem arose when I next tried to log into eBay, and was blocked.

I have since had to disable the proxy to enter eBay, however my last gixen snipe failed due to a time out error.

Please let me know if this can be resolved?

Best wishes

[Cupid]

What exactly is the error you get from Ebay when you have the proxy enabled and try to log in there?

That is what you need to resolve before sniping is going to work for you again.
_________________
Mark

[Guest]

Hi mark,

Thank you for your swift reply.

I have no error regarding eBay without the proxy. I can both log in and manually bid.

The problem arises when I try to enter eBay via the proxy... I was blocked.

I have used gixen for years and never had my snipes cancelled due to log in problems, and I know my passwords match as I'm a regular bidder.

On reading the recent posts, I've noticed a couple of other gixen users are experiencing similar issues this week.

Could eBay be selectively blocking gixen users?

[Cupid]

Undoubtedly Ebay has put measures in place that prevent you from logging in via the Gixen server.

What the proxy does is enable you to log into Ebay via the Gixen server.. so what you see then is what Gixen sees when it tries to place bids for you.

You need to sort out the issues you have logging into Ebay with the proxy enabled.

The fact that disabling the proxy removes the block for you at home is of no relevance if Gixen can not log on from its own server.

So, as I said, what kind of error do you get, from Ebay, when it is enabled?
_________________
Mark

[Gixen]

[Guest]

Hi mark,

My bids are failing due to eBay requesting text/verification, yet I have given eBay a text verification with the gixen proxy enabled, along with placing manual bids.

I am now able to enter eBay with your proxy active to place manual bids, yet snipes are still failing.

Thank you for your time

[Guest]

This is the same issue that I have been dealing with for a week.

I use(d) Gixen and ebay every day, but recently ebay has repeatedly blocked Gixen bids. I have gone through Gixen's instructions for logging out of ebay, disabling Flash, clearing the cache, setting Gixen's proxy, logging back in to ebay, going through the ebay email/phone verification process, manually placing a bid. Rinse & repeat.

Last time, Gixen resumed functionality after ~48 hours. Unfortunately, Gixen only worked for ~48 hours and now ebay has blocked my Gixen snipes yet again, and I'm back to square one. I went through all the steps again, and Gixen is still failing to place snipes. My guess is that there will be yet another ~48 hour "cooldown" time during which Gixen won't be able to place bids.

So, unfortunately for me, I can no longer rely on Gixen, which used to be nearly perfect and a life saver. And this sounds like something out of Gixen's control which is beginning to affect more users. I'm a reasonably heavy Gixen user (on average a dozen snipes a day), so it looks like ebay's new security rollout is targeting the more active users first. Hopefully it won't spread to all users.

One final note, using the Gixen proxy on a local machine works some of the time, but every hour or so the ebay website won't load on a local machine. This can last for up to a half hour. Changing the Gixen proxy back to "automatic" never creates the same problem, so perhaps there is something happening with the Gixen proxy in that it is causing so many errors that ebay is blocking *all* access to ebay from the Gixen proxy and not just Gixen snipes.

Just my $0.02.

[mario]

Dozen snipes a day or so is not too many - but if they all end at the same time that may cause this problem. Please email me with your username and I will take a closer look at your account.

[Guest]

Hi Mario,

I'm the same person that started this thread:
http://www.gixen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7851

I emailed you earlier today with basically the same info.

The snipes I placed have not been ending at the same time... that probably happens once every 2-3 months, but it hasn't happened recently.

Last time I went through the ebay verification 3x and then waited 48 hours. But Gixen only worked for around 2 days, and then it stopped placing bids just like last time. So, I went through the verification again today, but Gixen is still not placing bids. I'm guessing that I need to wait another 24-48 hours for it to start working again, but if it continues like this every couple of days, unfortunately Gixen won't be reliable enough to trust anymore.

I've been using Gixen for years with hardly any problems until recently. Usually this kind of error can be quickly solved by following your outlined steps (which I have successfully done many times in the past). I can't think of anything I am doing different now than I was 1, 2, or 3 years ago. There is definitely something different going on at ebay's end, and unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a solution this time.

[Guest]

I'm still having this same problem... I've repeated the instructions countless times, but Gixen fails to snipe every time.

I even called ebay to see if they had placed any additional security restrictions on my account, but they replied that there was nothing unusual about my account.

From Googling around, it appears that many other sniping programs are experiencing these same issues. And once an account starts getting these errors, it usually just continues to get worse.

The silence on this issues speaks loud and clear that there is no solution.

[Cupid]

Have you emailed Mario, with your Ebay user name, as he requested above?

Mario is the only one that can look into this behind the scenes at Gixen... and, as he says, he requires email contact before he can do so.
_________________
Mark

[Guest]

Yes, I have emailed him several times. A week ago the problem fixed itself (temporarily), so he didn't make any changes at his end. But he did acknowledge my email.

I haven't heard from him about my email from 2 days ago (when the issue happened again). I've provided my Gixen/ebay details in those emails, as well as all the data I can think of.

[Cupid]

Would I be right to assume you are located in Kansas City, Missouri, and that is where you normally access Ebay from?
_________________
Mark

[Guest]

No. I'm near Seattle, WA.

[Guest]

I didn't start this post (I linked to the other post I started).

My posts on this thread start with the one containing "Just my $0.02", fyi.

[mario]

Please re-send your email and include a link to this forum thread, I may have not received it.

[Guest]

Email re-sent.

Thank you for looking into this !

[mario]

Replied... more details via email. You had three snipes ending almost at the same time, and this triggered the problem again.

[Guest]

Thank you, Mario !

Gixen is working for me now. These are my observations:

I am not sure what triggered ebay's first verification process that caused Gixen to stop working. The first time there were no snipes ending around the same time, so something else might have triggered it. The result was that, even after going through Gixen's recommended cache-clearing procedures, I was unable to get Gixen to work for ~48 hours.

The second time, as Mario observed, is that I had 3 snipes ending at the same time (my fault for not noticing - I was just so happy to have Gixen working again), and that triggered the ebay verification and caused Gixen to stop working again. And like the first time, even after going through Gixen's recommended cache-clearing procedures many times, I was unable to get Gixen to work for ~48 hours.

Both times, I was able to manually place bids during the 48-hour "lockout", with and without using the Gixen proxy. However, I noticed that around half the time during these 48 hours, I was getting error messages when trying to access any page on the ebay website while using the Gixen proxy on my local machine (so I couldn't use ebay without reverting the proxy back to automatic).

So, this is my best guess at ebay's new restriction: once you trigger ebay's verification process, even after completing the verification and clearing caches, etc., ebay will block bids placed via the Gixen IP address for up to 48 hours. And during these 48 hours, there doesn't appear to be anything you can do about it. It might even be recommended to not even login to Gixen for at least 24 hours to see if ebay releases the restriction in 24 hours vs. 48.

Of course, this could just be happening to me and no one else, in which case the machine gods just hate me.

I hope this helps someone else. And thanks again to Mario for looking into the issue!

[robandjack2011]

Hi, I too am having the same problem continuously.
I spoke to ebay and their line was well use OUR proxy bidding service, typical they just want everything to bid up high.
I have tried the fix suggested by Gixen, clearing cookies etc but to no avail, it still won't work and I've just lost my 3rd item today.

[Cupid]

robandjack2011,

With the Gixen socks proxy enabled in your browser are you able to place bids manually on Ebay?
_________________
Mark