Missing Auctions: Talk with admin

[admin]

As many are aware there was a major site issue this weekend, which resulted in the corruption of our auction table in our database. In our 3+ years in existence we have never had anything even close to this happen, and I am still in shock that something like this was able to happen to us. I know many of our members put a lot of hard work into their auctions, and it is very hard for me to face you all and tell you that this is all our fault (mostly mine). There will probably be much speculation to the cause of this issue, like we were hacked or someone is out to get us... This is not the case here. This is simply an issue that we were not prepared how we should have been. I cannot even to begin to express my apologies, as there is no way for me to put in words how I am feeling right now. All our members are the best, and I have let you all down in a big way.

The site as a whole will get over this issue and keep moving forward, and we greatly appreciate our members that will continue with us. We know that there will be some that are going to be too upset, and will want to move on. We understand this frustration, and wish you the best in whatever decision you choose to make. Those that decide to stay, we will be issuing site credits for lost time. These credits can be used for listing enhancements and store upgrades. Please email me at admin@webidz.com (mhtml:{920C6325-ED0B-4CA5-9F4B-2CEDD21C0112}mid://00001456/!x-usc:mailto:admin@webidz.com) with the details of your lost time and auctions. Although we cannot restore the auctions that were lost in the last couple weeks, we will do our best to reconcile lost time through this credit. Please allow up to a week for this credit, as this is going to be a very busy week for me.


We worked all weekend trying to resolve this issue to the best of our ability. As of this morning about 4:00 AM PST, all auctions were restored that are able to be restored. We take backups every week, in the event such issues occur. We were not aware that some of our auto backups were not being recorded correctly, thus resulting in having to use a backup from about two and a half weeks prior to this incident.

What this basically means is that all auctions currently on the site are those that were listed before our backup, and most auctions listed after this backup were lost from our database. Sales that occurred during this period are still in the database, and will still show in the members area... but the auctions connected to these sales for this period will most likely not be available. If you listed auctions from the auction manager, your lost items will still be available in your auction manager database. You will be able to select these items and re-upload if you wish, to repopulate lost items to the site.

I wanted to post here in the community earlier, but was very busy trying to resolve the issue as much as possible. I had one of our staff post here in the community yesterday, to basically let you all know that we knew there was an issue, and we were working on it. I was not trying to ignore the issue or our members, just trying to fix as much as possible as fast as possible.

For the next day or two I will only be responding to this thread, as I have much work still to do that resulted from this issue. I will also be developing a specific maintenance schedule over the next few days, to prevent this from happening again. We have always performed our routine maintenance while the database was live, which has proven to not be the best avenue. From this point forward we will have routine maintenance once or twice per week during off peak hours, where the database will be off and the site will not be available to members. This will ensure that all backups are full and accurate, and no corruption exists.

[mj-trading]

Folks! Like we said yesterday! M & J has been on this site for over 2 years and we don't recall anything like this ever happing! You old timeres like us that remember when the bay first started!! Remember all the trouble they had in the first year? Heck way more than Webidz has had in the years we been here! There is clinches in every site you go on! Admin is human like we are! We all make mistakes! Please stay and give another chance! I think you'll be sorry if you do leave and see this auction site pop threw the roof as a top Auction Site the way it has grown over the last few months! Sure you might have lost and have to do your 50, 100, 200 or even 300 auctions again! Look at us! We lost over 2300 auctions! Were staying!

M & J TRADING is here ADMIN to stay!

[katandron1]

KnR's Emporium is here to stay also...

As MJ has stated......this kind of stuff can happen anywhere at anytime.......if you were on Ebay (and yes they are human there too and this could happen there also) would what's his face there be willing to give any site credit or offer to restore as many auctions as they could possibly restore?......Not a snowballs chance in H***. Does what's his face come into the community there and help the members on the site with problems? Nope he doesn't. We have an awsome Admin and an awsome staff with him.

[burdock]

I am new to the site and i am blaming the seller and I had advice from other s that it was the seller doing this ands after all it was the site problem boy do i feel like a fool.

[admin]

None of these issues were caused by any of our buyers or sellers, it was all us. We are very sorry burdock for the issues, as well as the confusion we have caused you. Many thanks mj and kat, for being so positive during this dark time. I know both of you have been affected greatly, and this only shows how wonderful you really are. In looking through some of the other threads on this issue, I am amazed at the amount of support many of our members are showing. We have a bunch of really great folks here, and I really appreciate you all.

[mj-trading]

J! Just make sure you have the coffee on when we come out west to visit!!:rolleyes:

[katandron1]

Ya James cause I have already said the party is at your house when we top 20k,,,,,and that time is not too far away.......John,,,,,I thought it was gonna be booze and not coffee.....coffee is for the next morning to take care of the hangover so we can all drive back home:D

[unclejunk1]

I assume it is ok to start relisting the lost. I'm in for the long haul!

[mj-trading]

I"m listing right now Uncle!
Kat 1 beer would put me out now days with all the med i got to take!
ADMIN SMILE!! Things Happens!!

[borninice]

I'm not going anywhere! I'll be back to getting my listings up as I have time. Thanks for the update!!!

[unclejunk1]

I tell you what, if I am ever in a fight, I want Kathy and MJ backing me up. I am not looking for one but know I would not have to worry.

[mj-trading]

SHHH!! Uncle! You'll get us in trouble!!! LOL!!:rolleyes:

[katandron1]

And another thing that comes to mind yall.....I read in a couple of posts and yes the blog....that buyer/seller information was lost forever to never be seen again.
Not so. As hard as our Admin works for us on a daily basis, it is our responsibility to develop the buyer/seller relationship. I had just purchased a phone from mj on friday night, sunday morning it was still in my won items but it said that the auction had been deleted, I immediately contacted mj to make sure he had all the information that he needed from me. As sellers and buyers, That is our responsibility......Then if there is no satisfaction, address it with Admin at that time.
I can see how a seller could lose track of an order if they dealt with alot of transactions per day. It happens everyday everywhere, doesn't mean you are a bad seller. But as a buyer, one should know what they bought and contact the seller should anything at all go wrong. Do they need anything to complete the transaction? It's when you never hear from your seller that it then becomes an issue. Not just because the site went down and all the information is gone forever and ever.

UNC.....I'm only 5'3"....But my dad, 2 brothers, and 7 uncles taught me well.....you and mj just stand back and watch.

[unclejunk1]

Hey my wife is only 5' 1 1/2" - I run like heck from her. She always said dynamite came in tiny packages.

[mj-trading]

As a seller, As soon as something sell here or on are other sites, we print a copy off right of way and stick it in our sold slot on the wall! When a buyer pays that slip goes into the paid slot, when sent it goes into the sent slot and a tracking number is sent to the customer the same time! So like Kat says! We as sellers have the records 99.9% of the time!

Uncle! Just think we can sit back and have a beer while Kat handles our problems!!

[unclejunk1]

My Doctor will not allow a beer! I tried it and found out why! Live and learn the hard way.

[elkaye]

I also plan to stay here. I do understand how computer problems like this can happen and as long as the administration makes every effort to resolve problems I will continue here. (As long as the problems are occurring TOO often!). Luckily I only had 46 items listed and I have them all in WAM, even the ones I listed before I started using WAM. I will repost all of those items this evening and hopefully we can get this site back up and moving!

[katandron1]

Note to Admin........
Mark Kat off your "credit" list.
I was very very lucky in I really didn't lose anything. I had been planning out my April strategy and had uploaded every running auction into Wam 2 weeks ago, where I have been editing information. And mj thought I was ahead of myself on time LOL. I also edited most every listing I had running on the site to end no later than the 3rd or 4th. As soon as those ended listings hit closed tab, I was gonna delete them anyhow.
Please take any "credit" that I would have figured up and apply it towards the site, advertising, whatever you see fit to do with it.
I was lucky and didn't lose anything that I wasn't going to delete myself, I know others were not so lucky and they deserve the "credit" that you will be giving them.

[mj-trading]

Same here ADMIN! The credit you talked about! Use it on the site were you think it will do best!

[rnrgiftsnmore]

Note to Admin: No credit needed here, as "Life is what happens while you are making other plans". Or as hubby says "*hit happens!":D No one blames you, and if they do, I know some folks that will deal with them.

R n R Gifts n More wil reamin here, this is as close to home as we have found and don't really want to test drive any more sites at the moment. We feel like we have a vested interest here, and are not willing to give that up.

Sorry peeps your stuck with my coffee early in the am, and my sometimes warped sense of humor. :rolleyes:

So what if I have to clean the store, it was not set up the way I wanted anyway. So am taking down all my listings and going to get then up right(I hope) this time.

This cleaning will have to wait till the end of the week, as we are having overnight company, til Thursday. Yes, our 2 granddaughters are coming for spring break visit. So will be very busy going to the Children's Museum, and the movies, to see Horton Hears a Who.

I will drop in for a few minutes every now and again, and after the girls go to bed, Meanwhile, I will continue to make coffee in the cafe, and do my welcome greets, heck I was even doing them yesterday during the period the "Unknown".

Bidding you all great success,

[Lanascountry]

Thank you, Admin..I have been here nearly 3 of webidz 3.5 years and I knew it had never
happened before. Many thanks as always to you and team for all your hard work!! :)

[Lanascountry]

BTW, NO credit for Lanas-country either, Admin..Jeez all you do for all of us.
Thank you and many many thanks to all our wonderful forums members and
community leaders (you KNOW who you ALL are:D) for being here when I HAD to
work..Life just goes that way, huh?? :D:p

[sniperace66]

No problem take me off the list too. Your doing a great job (admin).
I came from ebay and would never get this kind of sevice from them
just a bounch of lies .

Keep up the good work admin and to your staff. :)

[piazzapizza]

Of the 94 auctions I had open on Saturday morning, there are now 50 in my closed auction file. I assume it is safe for me to go and relist them now? As for the other 44, hopefully my WAM inventory has not been corrupted by this. If not, it will be simple for me to upload those 44 again. All I ask is someone tell me, has WAM been corrupted too? Will I need to recreate my templates and the 44 auctions?

[rnrgiftsnmore]

Phil,

No your WAM data has not been corupted by this. Just upload your selected listing and go!!!

Bidding you great success,

[katandron1]

Wam is not directly linked to the site until you set it to upload or move your listings to it.........all your listings in wam are fine......uploading mine right now

[mj-trading]

Kat i just hit 2000 now iwam !! little over 200 left! Long time to load isn't it!

[piazzapizza]

Roz, those listings currently in the closed listings on the site, are they cool to relist or maybe I should just upload all of them from WAM, like starting fresh.

[katandron1]

Keep it up mj.......a little slow in loading but soooo many of us are at the same time.
Phil your closed listings are fine.....go in and fine tune edit to whatever you want and relist.

[mj-trading]

I only have 40left then it will speed up for you!

Look at home page!! Were back over 31,000 auctions!! WOW!

[admin]

Sellers can relist closed auction, or upload from the auction manager. Your auction manager database would not have been affected by this issue, and would still retain all your data as you originally input. Auctions on the site in your closed tab would also be fine to relist.

[increase]

It is unfortunate for me that I wasn't aware of the auction manager, So I have ineffect lost all my work! I'm not going to dwell, but I do have a question! Am I going to get charged again to re-list all my auctions? I know it isn't much money, but I'm scrambling a sticks here to recoupe something for my loss!?

I'm off to go find and download the auction manager!

Thanks in advance!

[admin]

increase,

We are very sorry for the loss that we caused you. We do not charge fees for basic listings, so it sounds like you must have been listing with enhancements. We have not made any announcements yet, but all enhancement fees have been removed until Sunday night at midnight PST. So you would not be charged any fees, even for enhancements. This fee removal was effective earlier this morning.

Also, if you read the original post (linked below) for this thread, we are offering account credits for sellers that have been affected by this. Just send an email to admin@webidz.com, and detail the amount of time and auctions lost. Although this in no way resolves the issues we caused, we want to at least make an effort to compensate our members, and let all know that we are truly sorry.

http://community.webidz.com/showthread.php?t=5106

Below is the link to the Auction Manager downloads and tutorial page.

http://www.webidz.com/auctionmanager.php

[librarian42]

Hello admin,
I understand how these things happen. I have heard of simlar things happening on ebay and other sites.
I lost about 200 auctions. I will have to try to figure out which ones those are and get them relisted.
One questions, I have noted that none of my auctions are automaticly relisting like I set up. Is this a remaining artifact of the problem that will resolve itself in a day or two. Or is this a another problem? :eek:
Good Luck on Keeping the Boat Afloat and More Power to You, Drake.

[admin]

Drake,

Auto relist is currently functioning correctly. There was some recent changes to how items relist, so maybe this is causing some confusion. Now when items relist, they relist with the same auction number if there are no bids. This change was instituted for various reasons:

1) resolved relisting duplicates issue
2) better seo advantages for sellers and the site
3) better database performance

I have looked into your account and do not see any closed items that have not been relisted. Possibly did you relist these?

[CreationsWithHeart]

Hey Admin! I'm still kinda new here with only about 17 auctions so far, but I'm going to stay. Please stop beating yourself up over this. There are so many bigger problems in life that make this not so bad!! The way I see it, is that it's just another thing to put on the "to do" list! :D I choose to not make it a problem. Hopefully the tons and tons of people here feel the same way! It's like family here! We all have to stick together! So, I better get to work! I don't have WAM! See everyone around! :)

[admin]

Julie,

Thank you very much for the encouraging words. All our members have been so wonderful through this issue, it is absolutely amazing. We have a great group here, and I don't know what I would do without you all. We will all get through this, and we (WeBidz Staff) will have learned a valuable lesson. Although I am realistic and know issues will happen, I don't like making mistakes or causing such issues.

[CreationsWithHeart]

How 'bout instead of calling it a mistake, call it a lesson learned. We learn from lessons and do better because of them! Just think, if this hadn't happened, you'd never have known things weren't running right! That's how I like to look at things! Now, you have a great day! :D :)

[admin]

Julie,

Definitely yes, any mistake should be looked at as a lesson. If a business does not learn lessons from mistakes, they should close shop and go home. I don't usually look at mistakes/issues in such a hard manner, as we make them all the time... But never on this scale. I usually use it as a lesson and move on. My biggest point is that our members need to know that we are sincere about the way we run our business, and will not take such issues lightly. Many have told me that we can blame this on an outside entity, but I cannot operate in this manner. If there is something on our end that could have prevented such issues, we need to take responsibility and fix it for the future.

I have always held the belief that if you never have failures, you will never succeed. Mistakes and issues are bound to happen... We just need to learn from them and keep them as minimal as possible.

Wishing you a great day as well

[katandron1]

Dear Admin,
Please may I speak for most if not all WeBidz members......
Everyone here has at one time or another been on or are currently on another auction site...Of those other auction sites, how many of them would have done what you have done for us before the big "crash"? And the customer care in which you have shown us after the big "crash" has been nothing short of amazing. You have restored as many auctions as you possibly could have AND are giving site credits to all to compensate for losses or damages, even though we have argued against it. In short, you could have just ran as far away from this place as you could have, taking what little bit of change that we pay for listing here, never facing any responsibilities, and left every member of this community hanging in the wind. You chose not to do that, and THAT my dear James and WeBidz staff, is the exact reason that the members are sticking behind you and will continue to do so, and calling WeBidz a home. We already know the great lengths that you and your staff go through to make this one of if not the best site to be in the online auction world. It will grow bigger than you have ever imagined, and remember, your throwing the party at your house when we hit 20k members,,,,please inform Mrs. Admin that the world will be knockin on her door in the next month or so.

[mj-trading]

Amen!

[dcacperfectsoundsolution]

Hi
i had 69 listings which got deleted.
Can someone check and see if they are anywhere at all in your system?
Also i had alot of them on turbolister. If I Install WAM is there a way to import from turbo so i can save alot of time? I spent over 2 weeks listing since march 18th, and this for example
9 Saint Dymphna Sword Bible Crown Columbia Italy Statue

which was the last one before it got lost in the system.
Can anyone help me please?
Thanks
Clifford
@ DCAC

[admin]

Dear Admin,
Please may I speak for most if not all WeBidz members......
Everyone here has at one time or another been on or are currently on another auction site...Of those other auction sites, how many of them would have done what you have done for us before the big "crash"? And the customer care in which you have shown us after the big "crash" has been nothing short of amazing. You have restored as many auctions as you possibly could have AND are giving site credits to all to compensate for losses or damages, even though we have argued against it. In short, you could have just ran as far away from this place as you could have, taking what little bit of change that we pay for listing here, never facing any responsibilities, and left every member of this community hanging in the wind. You chose not to do that, and THAT my dear James and WeBidz staff, is the exact reason that the members are sticking behind you and will continue to do so, and calling WeBidz a home. We already know the great lengths that you and your staff go through to make this one of if not the best site to be in the online auction world. It will grow bigger than you have ever imagined, and remember, your throwing the party at your house when we hit 20k members,,,,please inform Mrs. Admin that the world will be knockin on her door in the next month or so.

I tried to run, but the shock collar kept getting me.:) j/k... I would never give up on you guys or WeBidz, it's not in my blood. I am not much of a party person myself, but I know the other half would love it. She always tells me that I work too much, so I guess I am more of a party pooper.

[admin]

Hi
i had 69 listings which got deleted.
Can someone check and see if they are anywhere at all in your system?
Also i had alot of them on turbolister. If I Install WAM is there a way to import from turbo so i can save alot of time? I spent over 2 weeks listing since march 18th, and this for example

9 Saint Dymphna Sword Bible Crown Columbia Italy Statuewhich was the last one before it got lost in the system.
Can anyone help me please?
Thanks
Clifford
@ DCAC

Clifford,

Yes, you will be able to import from Turbo Lister. I have sent you an email with further details, as well as some other information.

[my4monkeyboogers]

I lost, I think about 47 listings. I had listed them over the past few weeks. I am not sure if it was before the 2 week guideline I had read about earlier.

Is there any word on how things are going or if they will be able to bring back any other listings? Or should we start reposting?

Thanks!

[librarian42]

Thanks admin,
That explains it. I was used to the auctions cycling as they where relisted. When they got a new auction number they ended up at the the top of the list. Now that they don't get new number the list will always have the last item that I listed at the top. Or at least that is how I think it will work ;).

Good Luck with everything. I will continue to list, Drake.

[piazzapizza]

Absolutely right, Admin, you guys have the right attitude and it is such a pleasure after the Bay. Quick question, I got an email from you folks about the credit and replied that I would like to use a small portion of it to upgrade my store to a featured store. Did you get my email?

[admin]

Phil,

I am sure we did get your email... We have over 1,000 emails and tickets in the last week, so needless to say we are a little backed up. We are also trying to audit all accounts, to see which members have lost listings. That way we can try to compensate our members that have been affected by this. I know there are going to be some that we miss, but we are trying to get as many as we can. if you do not hear from us about this within the next 48 hours, please feel free to send us another email.

Drake,

The default sort order is by biggest auction number. So it will basically sort by the order you initially listed the items. Now when items relist, they will not go back to the top of the list, as they still retain the original auction number.

Helen,

The auctions that were able to be recovered, have been recovered. We are sorry for any loss that we have caused you. Please see the email that we sent you earlier this morning.

[toolusa]

Although I haven't had any sale on WeBidz yet, I've lost about 850 listings.

But don't we all honor Admin's honesty and efforts!?

I'll just use the WAM to re-upload everything.

Keep it up Admin.

[ezpchardware]

Although I haven't had any sale on WeBidz yet, I've lost about 850 listings.

But don't we all honor Admin's honesty and efforts!?

I'll just use the WAM to re-upload everything.

Keep it up Admin.

I agree with this.
Those things happend, learn and move forward is all I suggest.
Test those backups every now and then is my suggestion.
Most admins often doesn't test there failsafes.
I for one, lesson learned.

What is that backup auction thingy some were talking about, the ability to edit auctions offline sure sound interesting to me.

[admin]

Members using the auction manager can backup all their individual auctions in the auction manager, by clicking file>>backup auctions from the auction manager menu bar. This would provide you a backup copy of all your auctions, and provide you assurance that you will not loose any data.

You can use the auction manager while you are offline... creating auctions, editing auctions, etc. Then connect and upload all your changes. If you are on dialup, your auctions/edits would take longer to upload. But you will not have to sit there and wait for slow pageloads. You would just click to upload, then walk away from your pc and let the software list all your auctions/edits.

[borninice]

So if we just want to change something in an existing auction, we can make the changes on the lister and then hit upload and it will edit them. It won't just start a new listing?

Just trying to make sure I understand this in case I decide to download?

I have all my auctions back up now!!!

[admin]

Dee,

Yes, by making changes to an auction and uploading, it would just modify the existing auction.

[katandron1]

Okay guys........

For those of you that remember the WeBidz "crash".

And how our little "friend" decided to do a whole blog about it, and how this would never happen to the giant.

And how it happened to our site because we are run by nothing but a bunch of computer geeks that had no business running an online site?

Check this one out......
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/17/paypal_ipn_meltdown/ (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/17/paypal_ipn_meltdown/)

Not exactly the giant, but let's not forget who owns pay-pal.

Kuddos to James and his crew for busting butt and correcting a problem for us, in what I consider to be a very timely manner after reading the above link (2 days).

Let's also remember all of the sites (our other sites) that have paypal linked into them as a payment source.

Nope will never happen to the giant because it is run by competent people who never would let anything like that "crash" ever happen on that site. Because we all know, they never mess up !
Make sure to scroll down and read some of the reply links.
In case yall can't "hear" it.......I'm being as sarcastic as I have ever been in my life.

[unclejunk1]

Paypal glitch? Is it a glitch when you cannot get paid or send money? Well to be fair it could happen to any site. A good reason not to point fingers huh!!!!

[katandron1]

My thoughts exactly Rick.......wonder if he posted a book for the whole world to see over there just like he did here.
I doubt it.