#860376

Emphasis added.  

Food for thought:
How do we know this is not the exact intent of Bitcoin.  The questions are: Who is the target and who is the creator?

Situation has been resolved for both parties.  Waiting on a payment address from hippich.  Contact was successful with mybitcoin.com by making a throw away account and using the internal messaging system.

BiddingPond.com now supports SSL sign-on and registration.

We can personally recommend slicehost.com and nearlyfreespeech.net . Nearlyfreespeech.net being very good for small blogs and things not requiring much and to be done cheaply.  Slicehost if you need full customization. Stay away from godaddy as much a possible lots of problems.  Namecheap.com as an alternative for domain names and DNS although can't vouch for their hosting.

*Edit*
Also, if you wish to do anything controversial always make sure your hosting provider is different from your domain registrar.  It's good practice to do even if there is nothing controversial as it provides redundancy, technically and legally(take down notices,etc.)

Thank you working on it.

Problem was related to the way Adblock plugin blocks ads.  This issue has been fixed.  Thank you "theGECK" for help with troubleshooting this issue.

Thank you for supporting the site.

BiddingPond.com has removed the "buy now" fee active immediately until April 30th, 2011.  What this means is you can now list items with "Buy Now" only for free!  No auction needed!  Go on list stuff now!

Yes,
BiddingPond.com also deletes auction data as well. Our retention policy is at least 30 days for complete auction information.

This is a good idea and is liked.  We have someone looking to join our development team. If it works out we will include this on the to do sooner than later list.

Is anyone else able to replicate usability problems?  Looking at usage data it seems people are having an easier time using the site.  Using multiple OS/Browsers and browsershots.org still unable to replicate a problem.  There is a single user using RockMelt.  Is that you?

I'm sorry for the confusion.  If you would like your auction edited please send the text you would like appended. Alternatively, for this auction your Bitcoin address in the payment address field is possible just send the proper address.

All data was copied over from the old site. You "should" be able to relist that auction by going to http://www.biddingpond.com/yourauctions_sold.php .  If it is for some reason not there, please provide the auction number and we will get the auction data for you.

Is it possible to take a screen shot/explain what is not displaying correctly.  Also, please provide OS,browser version and screen resolution.  You can e-mail us at contact@biddingpond.com or alternatively post here.

The Short answer
1) There is no need to use us as a third party
2) Your method is still valid and works very well
3) Protection to the sellers reputation
4) Additional optional features in the future will require this

Our Questions
1) What do you believe would be a better alternative?*
2) Would you prefer an opt-in service in which you either get access to the extra features or not?**


*We do not like the idea of allowing the seller to enter any address in the payment address field. As there is nothing preventing a scammer to state that they did not provide an address and it is a biddingpond.com generated address(a Bitcoin peculiarity in inability to determine destination). Yes, we do understand that there is nothing preventing a scammer from saying they they never received payment from us. But, that will come down to trust (if you chose to use the optional feature).

** This option we believe works well.  But, understand that if we implement this feature those who chose it will not be able to provide some features to their buyers.


The Long Answer

There is no obligation for the seller to require the users to use the payment address listed in the auction.

We agree to the working nature of the following transaction process that you are currently using:
1) Buyer Wins Auction
2) Seller / Buyer make contact
3) Payment information provided
4) Payment Sent + Shipping information sent
5) Payment Receipt confirmed by buyer
6) Item shipped
This is also the reason why we would never prohibit any seller from accepting payment in an alternative way.

To simplify the transaction process our current system is as follows:
1) Buyer wins auction
2) Payment Sent
3) Seller notified of shipping address
4) Item shipped
We also plan on shortening this process one more step by allowing the buyers to include shipping information that is automatically forwarded to the sender after payment is sent(optional). This will further streamline the process and make it easier for less tech savvy individuals to purchase items.

We also will be implementing the following optional features which will require us to handle transactions:
1) Escrow and Arbitration
2) "Trusted Sellers" Program
3) Ability to purchase items in USD and send payment in BTC to Seller (for the less tech savvy)
4) Other features which we do not wish to reveal at this time to keep us competitive


There is also a very real and very important benefit that we chose to include last.  By publicly posting a Bitcoin address that is generated by BiddingPond.com and is unique to each auction we can protect both the sites reputation as well as the seller's reputation as others can in fact see if the buyer did send payment. This provided with proper tracking information from the seller can effectively prevent Feedback Extortion.

I would just like to reiterate that these features are optional and the old BiddingPond.com is not going anywhere.  BiddingPond.com prefers giving the sellers and buyers a "hands-off" approach with their transactions but, we do understand there are buyers and sellers who wish otherwise and we will cater to those individuals through our additional, completely optional, services.

One way our "hands-off" approach can be seen in practice is our failure to require payment of selling fees before we forward payment to the seller.  This allows the seller the choice to pay us, not the requirement to pay us.

If you would like please send me an e-mail at contact@biddingpond.com and we can discuss it further.

The "Bidding" code was not touched and I have no fear about those types of bugs showing up as it does not depend on other parts of the site code.

The "Payment Address" field is a simple way for users to send payment to the seller.  When payment is sent to that address the auction will be marked as paid in the seller control panel and after confirmations are received will be forwarded to the sellers bitcoin payment address. 

You may update your payment forwarding address at:
http://www.biddingpond.com/edit_data.php

If you do not provide a payment forwarding address all funds will be held in a "Bitcoin Wallet" until an address is provided which can be viewed at:
http://www.biddingpond.com/user_menu.php?

Seller's are under no obligation to use this feature and may instruct the buyers to pay however they wish.  This is simply a convenience feature which will mark auctions as paid and simplifies payment issues for the buyer and the seller.

The new biddingpond.com is now live! There have been many changes to the site!
Although we have tried our best to iron out all the bugs if you do encounter one:
Please report all bugs to http://www.biddingpond.com/msgboard.php?board_id=4


Some of the most notable changes are as follows:

New Layout
Account Balance and Bitcoin Wallet
Auto generated payment addresses in auctions
Unique QR code per auction
Social Network Integration
Ability to list "Buy it Now" without also requiring an auction
Ability to automatically re-list the item if it does not sell.

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Some things we may need you to do:
1) Update your Bitcoin forwarding address so we may forward payments sent to your auction address.

You may do this by going to "My Control Panel" at the top of the page when you're logged in and clicking on "Edit your personal profile". At the bottom you will see a location to enter your Bitcoin address.

2)Pay us your back auction fees. Any accounts that reach -25BTC for money owed will be temporarily suspended until payment is received. If you need some time to pay please contact us at contact@biddingpond.com. We will also be auctioning off listing credits all this week to help those with large balances catch up and to celebrate the new site becoming live.

---------------------------------------------


Unfortunately during the move some items are not working and are currently being worked on. These items are:

1) Payments sent to bitcoin auction address will not currently forward to your forwarding address immediately after confirmations. We will manually process these transactions every day at 12pm EST.  (We hope to have this corrected by the end of the day. When it is payments will be forwarded after 5 confirmations)

2) Payments received through the auction "Payment Address" will not automatically update the auction as paid(this should be fixed by the end of today).

Regarding the situation in this post by Hippich:

Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 2:11 PM
BiddingPond was notified of a situation in which a user stated that they (disregarded)/(did not see) the do not use this feature message.

Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 2:39 PM
BiddingPond responded to the user notifying them that they would contact mybitcoin.com to see if they received the transaction and could handle the situation.

Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 2:54 PM
Contacted mybitcoin.com about a couple of account issues we have been having regarding access to mybitcoin.com account as well as this issue.

Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 2:52 PM
BiddingPond Was sent information about a bitcoin transaction that does not belong to the biddingpond.com wallet and has no way of confirming if payment was indeed sent.
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1FcPBRy8JY5tTbG39hDHkubqTU82kN28cv

With the suggestion that we remove the link completely instead of placing in bold before the submit button not to use the payment feature .

Tue, Mar 8 about an hour after suggestion
All non-functioning payment methods removed and a message stating to contact the seller placed on the site.  It should be noted that over 100 auctions have closed since the payment methods were non-functional and this is the only situation that has been reported.  This is also the reason why it was not changed as there have been no issues, complaints, and/or suggestions to change it.

Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 9:06 AM
BiddingPond contacted about the status of the situation

Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 10:24 PM

BiddingPond responds regarding status of the situation.


With Regard to mybitcoin.com:
No Response from mybitcoin.com . We have been trying to resolve an account related issues with them since:
Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:15:56

We used the contact information available on their website. We sent both an encrypted(PGP) and unencrypted message to them.


Time had been the biggest constraint for implementation of a stable and secure payment method. We originally were going to use an outside payment processor(Mybitcoin SCI, mtgox, etc.) but trust became an issue.  Specifically, we do not trust anyone to handle payments on behalf of our customers besides us and the customer themselves.

Also, a payment procedure that people would like to use, that is better than just listing a payment address in an auction, and is as convenient had to be though of and tested.
The BiddingPond development site has solved that problem.  All auctions will have their own bitcoin addresses auto-generated.  If the seller provides a forwarding address, payment will be immediately forwarded to their address after 5 confirmations.  

If the seller does not provide an address, Bitcoins will be held in a wallet that can be withdrawn at a later date and/or transfered to another user.

We also DO NOT REQUIRE the seller to only accept payment this way as people have varying levels of trust and we also do not wish to interfere with how buyers and sellers wish to pay for their items.  If the seller would like to include different payment instructions in the listing they may do so.  This feature make payment tracking easier though as it will auto mark items as paid after 5 confirmations are received.

The biddingpond development site is scheduled to go live on 03/25/2011 notification has been given on the site here:
http://biddingpond.com/viewnew.php?id=5


Back to Hippich Situation:
Even though payment methods were clearly marked do not use and we have no way of confirming that payment was ever even sent to BiddingPond or that this situation is even legitimate(we do believe it is and DO trust Hippich).

As an act of good faith, and the fact that we do consider Hippich as a trusted community member, we are willing to reimburse hippich 50% of the lost bitcoins and give him a 300% listing credit on the website.  If and when mybitcoin.com resolves the issue on their end we will send the remaining 50%.

As always BiddingPond strives to provide the best customer service possible.  Most questions and concerns are answered within 48 hours of receipt.  If you do have a problem we ask that you contact us at contact@biddingpond.com .  We request that you contact us first before posting in the forums and that you allow us to resolve the situation to your liking.  Not doing this causes us to have to perform double the work to resolve the issue as we then have to make multiple responses and handle additional inquires.