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Frequently Asked Questions

Accounts

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Is there a way to link multiple emails with the same username/password/auction?

You can accomplish this by setting each user up with the appropriate role on the Organization or Auction.

Within the organization, you can invite people to be a Coordinator.  This allows them full access to everything the organization is involved in (including all auctions).  Coordinators can edit the organization details, add/remove other coordinators, and create new auctions.

Within a particular auction, you can invite people to be an Organizer.  This allows them to administer that specific auction, but they cannot edit the organization details or create new auctions for the organization.  This is great for volunteers that are willing to upload auction items, but are not responsible for the organization.

You can access the Invite Coordinators and Invite Organizers functions from within your auction.  Just click the View/Edit link on the left side of the auction items table.  This brings you to the Auction details page where you will find the appropriate links on the right side of the Organization and Auction sections respectively.

This information is also summarized on the How It Works page.

Do participants need to create an account to bid on items?

Yes, bidders need an account in order to bid on items.  We require accounts so the organizers of the auction will be able to identify the winning bidders after the auction has ended.

How do I cancel my account?

Sign into your account and use the Contact Us feature to let us know you would like to have your account removed.  Please include a note letting us know why you are canceling your account.  We will remove your account and send an email once the account has been removed.

My account is locked when I attempt to sign in.

As a security measure, accounts are locked for 15 minutes after there have been 3 failed sign in attempts.  You will need to wait until the 15 minute time frame has passed before taking any additional actions on your account.

Another potential cause is the account has not been verified.  When your account was first created, an email was sent which contained a link to verify your account.  If you did not receive the email, or do not have the email handy, please send us a message using the Contact Us page and indicate what email address you used when registering at 32auctions.com.  If we can locate the account, we will try and resend the verification email.

I cannot sign into my account.  System says it cannot find the auction.

This message is displayed when trying to sign into your account using the View An Auction box found on the 32auctions home page.  This box is for entering the auction id and password for an auction you wish to view anonymously.

If you are trying to sign into your account, you should click the Sign In link found in the top right corner of the 32auctions header.  Clicking this link will bring you to a customer Sign In box where you enter your email address and password.

I am not receiving emails (outbid notification, bid confirmation, etc).

All 32auctions participants should received an email when they are outbid.  You will receive the outbid email only if your bid is the leading bid and then someone outbids you.  You should also receive an email when you submit a bid which confirms your bid and lets you know if you are the leading bidder.

Have you received bid confirmation emails?  If your email system uses a filter or spam blocker and is picking up the emails we send, you may want to check your spam folder for the emails.  Also, it might be worthwhile adding noreply@32auctions.com to your address book to ensure you receive emails from us.  All messages sent from the system come from that email address.

Auctions

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Can I run a live auction after the online auction and prevent the winning bidder email?

Yes you can!  Thanks to all the requests for this feature, we have added it to the system.  You can learn more about the Live Event After Online Silent Auction Package feature by reading the Features & Pricing page.

Can I use PayPal to collect payments and donations?

Absolutely!  In fact, 32auctions uses PayPal exclusively.  You can learn more about these features by reading the Features & Pricing page.

How do I cancel or remove an auction?

Currently, there is no way to cancel or remove an auction.  If there are items in the auction, you can remove all of the items, which effectively closes it down.  You will find a 'Remove Item' link at the bottom of each auction item.  The auction will automatically close after the end date passes.

Would you mind changing the auction dates?

Good news... you have complete control over these dates from within your auction.  To edit the auction dates, click the Auction Information link found on the left side of your auction table.  Then click the the Edit Auction link on the right side of the page.

Can we remove the need for an auction id and password?

We do require passwords for users to join the auction.  All of our auctions are private, meaning people have to be invited, given a link, or request access to join an auction.  Individuals who are invited to the auction use the credentials to join up and start bidding.  This allows you to invite a trusted network of people to participate in the auction.  When you setup the credentials, a link for the auction is also generated.  We provide a simple form for you to email the link and credentials to individuals.

Participants with a 32auctions account may also request access to your auction while viewing an item they wish to bid on.  The auction administrators will receive an email indicating a participant is requesting access.  Administrators can grant access to the auction by simply clicking a link contained in the email notification.  The participant will be allowed to bid after access has been granted.

You may also consider printing the link and credentials on fliers, post them on a web site, or share them from a social networking site like Twitter or Facebook.  The link will take anyone who clicks it directly into the auction where they can view the items and read about your cause.  After viewing the auction, they can decide to sign up, join your auction and start bidding.

What id and password do I provide to invite participants?  Where do I set them?

You will need to set an auction id and password for inviting participants to your auction.  You set these credentials on the Invite Auction Participants page.  To get to this page, simply click the Invite Participants link found on the left side of your auction table.

To read more about inviting participants, please see our How It Works page.

Is there a limit to the number of auction items?  Can you expand the number?

The free auctions have a limit of 32 items per auction.  There is a premium feature which allows for listing up to 200 items in an auction.  You may upgrade an auction any time prior to the auction ending.

How do I find an auction?

The auctions hosted on 32auctions are private and need an auction id and password to participate.  Typically, the auction id and password are provided by an invitation which may be sent by email, post card, flier or by a link posted on a web site or social networking site.  If you know someone who is hosting an auction on 32auctions, contact them to request the auction id and password for their auction.

Is there a way to upload email addresses when sending out invitations?

There isn't a way to upload email addresses at this time.

Where is the auction participants list?

Only auction administrators can view the list of auction participants.  To view the list, click the Auction Information link on the left side of your auction.  Then click the 'view' link next to the Participants count.

Auction Items

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How do I find out who won an auction item?

During and after an auction, the auction administrators can view the Sales Summary information.  There is a link on the left side of the auction table called Sales Summary.  Clicking this link will bring you to a page that displays a list of the items, the winning bid amount, and the winning bidder (including their name, email, and phone number).  If there is not a winning bidder, it will state that next to the item.

Who is the high bidder for an unsold item?

After the auction has ended, the highest bidder will be visible in the bid history window on the auction item.  To obtain the the highest bidder's contact information, view the Participants on the auction.  The participants list is viewable by clicking the 'view' link next to the number of participants on the auction information page.  This only applies to auction administrators.

How do I pickup and pay for the item I won?

The best thing to do is view the auction item you won.  Within the item description, there is a section called Pickup Instructions.  That should explain how you can pickup and pay for your item.  If you have further questions, you can contact the auction administrator listed under the Contacts section.  By clicking on the contact name, you can view the administrators contact information.

How do I make sure an item sells for a certain amount?

One suggestion for ensuring that the costs of an item are covered is to set a reserved price for the item.  This ensures that a minimum price is received before the item is sold.  For example, if a donated item has a cost of $1000, you can set a reserved price of $1000 (or higher), ensuring this cost is covered.

Why can't I edit an auction item after it has bids on it?

The system does not allow editing an item once it has bids.  This protects bidders from having auction items changed substantially after they have placed a bid.

What you can do is remove the auction item by clicking the Remove Item link at the bottom of the item.  This will remove the item along with any bids on the item.  Then you can re-list the item by clicking the Add Item link found on the auction page.  You can also email the bidder(s) to let them know the item has been re-listed and they can bid again.  You can get the email address(es) for the bidder(s) by matching the bid history on the auction item with the participant list on the auction information page.  Please see Where is the auction participants list?

Bidding

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There is no place to bid.  Is that because the auction hasn't started?

Correct.  Once the auction has started, you will see the bidding box.  You will need to be signed in to see the bidding box.

Can you remove or correct my bid?

Contact the auction administrator to inform them of the issue.  You can find their contact information under the Contacts section left of the auction items table.  The auction administrator can use the Contact Us feature to request support from the 32auctions team if they agree that a correction is needed.  The 32auctions team requires that the auction administrator provide specific instructions for how to correct a bidding error before they will take corrective action.

What happens in the case where 2 bids are the same?

Anytime the system receives 2 bids that are the same, the first bid entered into the system wins.  When the bid history displays 2 bids of the same amount, the bid which was placed first is a proxy bid.  When someone submits a second bid of the same amount, the first bidder continues to be the winning bidder because they were first to bid that amount.

Organizations

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Are we required to have an official "organization" or a 501(c)3 status?

There is no need to be a non-profit or not-for-profit organization.

Images

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I cannot upload an image

There are a few limitations in place for uploading images to the site.  First, the file type must be either GIF, JPG, or PNG.  This means that the file name needs to end with .gif, .jpg, or .png.  Second, there is a file size limit of 3 MB.  You can check your file size by right clicking the image file and viewing its properties.

Currently, there is a known limitation with Apple's Safari browser and Google's Chrome browser.  We are working on making this feature compatible with both Safari and Chrome.

Payments

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Why am I getting errors when I try to submit a payment through PayPal?

Errors displayed on PayPal are generally caused by an account which is not verified.  Please log into your PayPal account and make sure that it is verified.

Are we responsible for making arrangments for payment and shipping?

With a free silent auction, you as the auction administrator will need to arrange for payment and delivery of the items sold.  Our system allows you to set pickup instructions for the auction items.  Typically, we see auction administrators setting a designated time and location for the winning bidders to pick up and pay for their items.  We will provide you with the name, email address, and phone number (if available) of each winning bidder so you can contact them as necessary.  Our system also sends a notification to the winning bidders which contains the pickup instructions.

You can upgrade your auction to enable collecting payments and monetary donations through 32auctions.  You will still need to coordinate delivery of the items with the winning bidders.  See the Features & Pricing page to learn more about the payment and donation collection features.

How do I change the PayPal account associated with my organization?

Only coordinators of an organization can change the PayPal account.  It can be changed from the Organization Information page.  Just click the My Account link in the top right corner of the page, followed by clicking Manage My Organizations.  Click the organization associated with the PayPal account followed by clicking the PayPal Account link.  This page allows you to add or edit the PayPal account.

How do I issue a refund for a payment or donation?

Refunds need to be initiated from within the organization's PayPal account.  To do this, log into the organization's PayPal account.  Locate the payment you want to refund in the recent activity.  Click the details link for the payment.  Click the Issue Refund link at the bottom of the page.  Continue the process from there through the PayPal pages.

Why do I receive "PayPal Account xxx was not recognized by PayPal" error when I try adding a PayPal account to the organization?

This error occurs when your PayPal account is either not verified, not confirmed, or does not exist within PayPal.  Once you have created an account in PayPal, follow their 'Get Verified' instructions to verify your account.

Why are participants receiving an error in PayPal when making a payment or donation?

If the error is "Your payment can't be completed because the receiver can't accept payments at this time", it's due to a currency issue in your auction setup.  The currency chosen for your auction must match the currency on the organization's PayPal account.

How can I set up the payments and/or donations to go directly to a charity?

There are a few ways to have the proceeds from your silent auction go to a charity.

  1. You can setup the auction to use your personal PayPal account for collecting payments and donations.  After all payments have been collected, you can send the proceeds to the charity.
  2. You can check with the charity and ask to use their PayPal account for having payments and/or donations sent directly to their account.  When you enter the PayPal account into 32auctions, you will need to have the owner of the PayPal account verify it by clicking the link contained in the email we send to the PayPal account email address.  After it is verified, your auction will be able to collect payments and/or donations.
  3. You can ask a representative of the charity to create an organization on 32auctions.  They can add their PayPal account to the organization right away.  Once the organization is created, they will need to create an auction for you (by entering the name of the auction and start and end date/time) and invite you to be the organizer of the auction.  As the organizer, you will have the ability to completely manage the auction, but not modify the organization.  You can change the auction name, date, description, add/remove items, invite participants, upgrade features, etc.

Why do I receive an "Insufficient Funds" error in PayPal when attempting to make a payment or donation?

Please check your PayPal account and verify you have a credit card besides PayPal Plus associated to your account.  PayPal is working on an issue with processing payments using PayPal Plus.

Why do I receive "Your payment can't be completed because the receiver can't accept payments at this time" error in PayPal when making a payment or donation?

This error occurs when the currency for the organization's PayPal account does not match the currency used in the auction.  The auction administrator will need to change the PayPal account or the auction so the currencies match.

To view and maintain the currencies in the organization's PayPal account:
  1. Log into the PayPal account.
  2. Click on the Profile link in the menu bar.
  3. Under the Financial Information header, click the Currency Balances link.
  4. From this page, you can see the balances for each currency and configure the currencies for the account.
 

The other option is to update the currency used within the auction.  To do this, click the Auction Information link found on the left side of your auction table.  Then click the the Edit Auction link on the right side of the page.  Select the correct currency and click the Update Auction button.  Please note that it's dangerous to change the currency in a running auction.  32auctions will NOT perform a currency conversion on existing bids, starting bids, bid increments, etc.

Premium Features

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What are your fees for premium features?

Please refer to our fees page.

When can I upgrade an auction?

An auction can be upgraded anytime before the auction ends.

I paid for premium features, but they have not been applied yet.  Why not?

Sometimes there is a delay with PayPal processing a payment.  When this occurs, 32auctions is not notified of the payment from PayPal and cannot upgrade auction features.  If your premium features do not get applied after 2 hours, please contact us.

Where can I find more information about premium features?

You can learn more about our premium features by reading the Features & Pricing page.

Feature Suggestions

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I've got a really cool idea for your site.  How can I tell you about it?

Great!  We love receiving suggestions for improving 32auctions.  You can send us your ideas using the Feedback page or you can add them to the Requested Features discussion on the 32auctions Facebook Fan Page.

Miscellaneous

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We are concerned about our participants getting spammed.

Our site uses email to communicate with auction participants and administrators to inform them of relevant auction activity (auction starting, auction ending, bid confirmations, winning bid notifications, etc).  At times, we will communicate directly with the auction administrators for other reasons related to the site, or their auction.  The 32auctions team despises SPAM and will not allow junk mail to be sent from our site.

Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information.

Do you have any public testimonials that can be shared?

We do!  See the 'Read what people are saying about 32auctions' section found at the bottom of our home page.

Why are your fees so low?  How do you make money?

We get this question a lot.  Our fees are low because our goal is to help people raise money for their cause...period.  Charging high fees does exactly the opposite by taking money from causes that need it.

We also have revenue from the advertisers on our site.  Once again, this money is not taken away from the many charities trying to raise much needed funds.

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