Atom's Unstoppable Bugs

[CakeMonsters]

One of the funniest things about @Atom (Auctions): they’ll email you 24 hours before your auction ends with “You can remove your reserve to ensure this auction closes with a winner!” Sounds great, right?


So you waste your time logging in… only to be greeted with:
“Reserve price cannot be reduced below the current top bid.”


And when you finally reach out to customer support, they have no idea what’s going on and barely understand the issue.. doubling the time wasted.


I’m even spending more time writing this post because I’m fed up with Atom’s endless bugs.

 

[Future Sensors]

Tagging @Atom.com

 

[Atom.com]

Thanks for flagging this, and we’re sorry for any confusion or frustration.

We do send emails encouraging sellers to consider reducing their reserve if the auction is nearing its end, but there’s one important safeguard in place:

The reserve price can’t be lowered below the current top bid.

This rule exists to protect bidders. If someone places a bid below the reserve, they’re assuming the name won’t sell unless the reserve is met and they might allocate their funds elsewhere. If the seller were allowed to drop the reserve below that bid after the fact, the bidder would be unexpectedly on the hook to purchase. That could lead to failed transactions and loss of trust in the process.

That said, the email you received shouldn’t have triggered if your reserve couldn’t actually be lowered, and we’re looking into it to see how we can improve the process.

We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience.