Long-form answers to the questions we hear most. If yours isn't here, the help page has setup-specific troubleshooting and you can always email us.
Long-form answers to the questions we hear most. If yours isn't here, the help page has setup-specific troubleshooting and you can always email us.
Yes. eBay's published policies permit sniping. Wikipedia: 'Sniping is permitted by eBay and is not forbidden by its rules.' Multiple sniping services have operated on the platform since 1999.
Yes. Courts have affirmed sniping's legality in multiple jurisdictions. In 2002 a Berlin court explicitly struck down eBay Germany's brief attempt to ban it. There has been no legal challenge anywhere since.
Because the extension runs in your browser, where you're already signed into eBay. The bid is placed using your existing eBay session cookie, the same cookie that keeps you logged into eBay when you open a new tab. We don't need credentials because we don't sign in as you; you're already signed in.
Those services run on their own servers and sign into your eBay account from their data centres. They need your credentials. Zero Hour runs as a Chrome extension on your machine and uses your browser session directly. No credentials transferred, no servers in the bid loop.
Yes. Chrome must be running and your computer awake at the moment of the snipe. This is the trade-off for never giving a third party your eBay password. We're upfront about it on the install screen.
The snipe fails with status 'auth_required' and you get a Chrome notification: 'Your eBay session expired. Sign in again to re-enable this snipe.' One click in the eBay tab refreshes the session.
Sub-second. The service worker uses chrome.alarms for the 30-second-ahead wake-up and an in-memory setTimeout for the final fire. Clock drift is corrected against zerohourbid.com/api/time at startup.
There's nothing different to detect. A snipe bid is a normal POST to eBay's standard bid endpoint, identical to a manual bid placed seconds before close. eBay has no mechanism to detect sniping, and there's no policy against it anyway.
No. eBay has not banned anyone for sniping in two decades of the practice being publicly available. Sniping doesn't trigger any flags in eBay's risk engine because it's just a bid.
Free for 1 active snipe. $2.95/month for unlimited. $49 once for lifetime unlimited.
Stripe Checkout. We never see your card number. You can cancel any time through Stripe's Customer Portal.
Yes. All major eBay regional domains are supported. The extension uses each region's standard bid endpoint.
Not yet. Firefox support is planned for v1.1 from the same codebase. Safari is not supported; Apple's extension model lacks the necessary APIs.
Chrome's mobile builds (Android, iOS) do not support extensions. This is a Chrome limitation, not Zero Hour's. No eBay sniper works on mobile browsers.
Only one active snipe per item at a time. Adding a second on the same listing replaces the first.
How many seconds before auction close the bid fires. Default 3 seconds. Adjustable from 2 to 10 seconds via the Advanced toggle in Add Snipe.
The service worker staggers them by 100ms to avoid rate-limit triggers. Both fire independently.
No. Zero Hour does not embed any analytics SDK, tracking pixel, or event reporter. The only request to our servers is a single anonymous entitlement check (random UUID to plan status). The marketing site uses cookieless aggregated analytics only.
An anonymous install UUID (for plan status) and, if you pay, the metadata Stripe provides for your subscription. Zero auction data, zero browsing data, zero personal data.
They're gone. They lived in chrome.storage.local, which Chrome wipes when you uninstall the extension. There is no Zero Hour cloud to back up to.
Not in v1. Planned for v1.2.
The shipped production extension is unminified. You can read every line on your own machine. There is no separately published GitHub mirror, intentionally: the binary on your computer is the canonical truth, and a public mirror could drift from it. The /privacy-architecture page walks you through reading the code.
Right-click the Zero Hour icon and choose Remove from Chrome. Or visit chrome://extensions and click Remove. All local data is wiped automatically.
Settings, then Manage subscription, then Stripe Customer Portal, then Cancel. You remain Pro through the end of the current billing period.
Refunds within 14 days, no questions. Email support@zerohourbid.com.