Could one online bidding [auction] platform try to disrupt a competitor’s online bidding platform for personal gain? When any platform is having up-time issues, is it reasonable to assume a competitor — or other entity — is the cause? Some are suggesting we shouldn’t rule out this possibility.
Here is an article regarding DDoS [Distributed Denial-of-service] attacks: https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ddos/what-is-a-ddos-attack/. Such an offensive is meant to damage the reliability of a platform, usually for a ransom of sorts and/or to make another platform more desirable in the market.
There’s not one single platform with absolutely no problems. Of those platforms, only a few seem to be good at communicating about the issues and their resolutions. Ask almost any auctioneer … “What is the issue with platform outages?” and you hear that there are indeed outages and just as often, “They don’t respond; they don’t communicate.”
I’m certainly not convinced one platform is attacking another, but in this day and age, I can’t rule it out. There are billions of dollars at stake here, and nefarious activities are present in far less financially material ventures.
We previously wrote about no auction being immune from disaster: https://mikebrandlyauctioneer.wordpress.com/2020/12/23/no-auction-is-safe-from-disaster/. Auctioneers are advised to develop contingency plans for when platforms go down and/or deny service.
As well, auctioneers need to endeavor to find reliability and maybe even more importantly, good communication. Auction companies that don’t communicate with their clients (customers?) don’t deserve our business — nor anyone’s business.
One of the most egregious practices we’ve witnessed more than once is lying. “Scheduled maintenance” is supposed to be “scheduled” and “maintenance” and not a sudden system outage without any notice. Possibly the second-most problematic strategy is to proclaim a problem is “being worked on” when it’s clearly not.
We’ll keep an eye on these and related issues and let you know if any accusations prove accurate. Until then, it appears auctioneers will be forced to endure online auction platform problems, little or no communication, and little or no resolution.
Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, CAI, CAS, AARE has been an auctioneer and certified appraiser for over 30 years. His company’s auctions are located at: Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, RES Auction Services, and Goodwill Columbus Car Auction. He serves as Distinguished Faculty at Hondros College, Executive Director of The Ohio Auction School, and an Instructor at the National Auctioneers Association’s Designation Academy and Western College of Auctioneering. He is faculty at the Certified Auctioneers Institute held at Indiana University and is approved by The Supreme Court of Ohio for attorney education.
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