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, the same session 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. Your web browser must be running and your computer awake at the moment of the snipe. Two clicks in System Settings on Mac, or Power & battery on Windows, stops the computer sleeping while still letting the screen sleep. The setup page walks through it with screenshots.
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 extension uses chrome.alarms and the countdown clock is right, even if your computer's time is not.
There's nothing different to detect. A Zero Hour snipe is a normal bid via eBay, identical to a manual bid placed seconds before close. There's no eBay policy against it, in any case.
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 with unlimited monthly wins, no ads, no signup, and no eBay password handed over. $2.95/month for unlimited concurrency. $49 once for lifetime unlimited concurrency.
Stripe Checkout. We never see your card number. You can cancel any time through Stripe's Customer Portal.
Yes, plus every other eBay marketplace. All 18 regional domains are supported: ebay.com, ebay.co.uk, ebay.com.au, ebay.de, ebay.fr, ebay.ca, ebay.it, ebay.es, ebay.at, ebay.ch, ebay.ie, ebay.nl, ebay.pl, ebay.be, ebay.com.hk, ebay.com.my, ebay.com.sg, and ebay.ph. The extension uses each region's bid flow.
Not yet. Firefox is on the roadmap from the same codebase, no fixed date yet.
Not today. Zero Hour is currently a Chromium browser extension, and Chrome on Android and iOS does not support extensions. A future Safari build that runs on iPhone and iPad is on the roadmap to investigate, no fixed date.
How many seconds before auction close the bid fires. Default 6 seconds. Adjustable from 4 to 15 seconds via the Advanced toggle in Add Snipe. 4 is the floor because the full bid flow takes about 4 seconds end-to-end.
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 there for Pro users to ensure they get their benefits. The marketing site uses cookieless aggregated analytics only.
An install UUID for plan status, and if you pay for Pro, the email you used at Stripe checkout plus the Stripe subscription metadata. Zero auction data, zero browsing data, zero ad targeting.
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.
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.