eBay Hampers Sales Due to Messaging Crackdown

by: pace306

Nirvana smelled like Teen Spirit

eBay smells like despiration

by: Ric

And to think eBay and their investors still wonder why their GMV is stuck at low single digit growth rates.

eBay does more to hamper sales than they do to encourage them.

by: angryllama

WOW. I never EVER do any sales off eBay, but I could easily have been SLAPPED SILLY like that one person reported to have been suspended .... but because I had NUTZY buyer pestering me for a reduced price sale and after a flurry of No, Why not? NO! Why not? back and forths with this NUTT I elected to just END the listing right after I BLOCKED that "bidder".  From the OUTSIDE with the attitude that SELLERS ARE SCUM that eBay operates under I could have been tormented, too.

by: Ming the Merciless

Such draconian measures (probably conceived by Brian Burke) would be unnecessary if ebafia didn't have a lengthy and horrific history of lying, cheating, and stealing from sellers. To say nothing of exponentially growing fees for providing fewer and fewer services and not displaying listings.

In retaliation, many sellers delight in taking sales off ebafia so the crackdown continues.

Ebafia has no one to blame but themselves, but they will make ALL sellers pay dearly regardless of whether the sellers are guilty or not.

The frontier justice of ebafia: judge, jury, and executioner.

by: Ming the Merciless

@angryllama

I also have had to end listings early and hold them for several weeks after a obnoxious or contentious buyer caused problems.

I was concerned that these spoiled rotten blocked buyer babies might have friends or family buy the item  for the purpose of leaving undeserved negative feedback and stars, making a false SNAD claim, and returning the item.

Then I have to hope to that buyer baby has moved on when I finally relist the item.

by: Philo

I only do ebay sales on ebay and this has burned me 4 times year to date.  Can't email people instructions or links, this is my #1 issue.

by: weber796

EBAY HAS LOST CONTROL OF THEIR OWN DAILY NEW RULES. SELLERS BEWARE UNLESS YOU ARE SELLING FROM CHINA THE RULES DON'T APPLY AND THE FEES ARE NOT WHAT YOU AMERICANS PAY.

by: Barbbie

Once the person buys, you should be able to send instructions but I often have people who want quotes of many items mailing together which I will normally make them an ebay item no. which has been blocked by bots for being a phone number.

by: cobalt50

I was suspended for 7 days after tring to give a potential bidder my phone number.  Never sold the item and relisted it today. eBay allowed the message to go through and then assumed I was trying to sell a piece of furniture without going through them.  I stopped the auction at the owners request because she was nervous about having a buyer come and look at it.  I sat out for 7 days and relisted the armoire today.  Don't let me send a message and then kick me off.  A little too "big brother", I think

by: Lightning

If someone is dumb enough to say they are going to send a Paypal invoice while using ebay's messaging system, they should be banned for life.  Are they so lazy that they couldn't separate the items into 2 listings? Another reason to be banned for life. Maybe ebay is trying to identify the lazy, stupid sellers.  Seems to be working.

by: ConnecticutGal

Happened to me, too, and I've never, ever sold off Ebay.  The potential buyer just wanted a pendant and not the gold chain so I tried to quote just for the pendant.  

by: donald

I don't think the majority of sellers have the time of extra effort to make a sale off ebay.

Ebay must be desperate to worry about the small percentage that does.

by: Vernfern

Whoa, I have some large items to sell on eBay that will require local pickup. eBay is shooting themselves in the foot when they are making pickup communication impossible.

Once an item is sold, common sense would be to not block messages between the buyer and the seller. The catch here is common sense in the same phrase as eBay. Just plain unbelievable.

I am working toward the day I can walk away from eBay. Oh will I never look back!  

by: Lightning

The OP has made no mention of a closed sale. They are referring to a live item for sale. I have never seen Ebay block communications on sold items, just those currently for sale that might walk their way off of ebay.

I once started answering a buyer's question, and when I typed the third word, a warning came up.  And none of those 3 words could trigger a warning.  It was just automatic, probably due to language in the BUYER's message.

by: comet

I see a LOt of sellers with phone numbers and other ID info inc street addys in MOTORS esp PARTS.  How else are you going to get info on if  a part is going to FIT before you buy?  However it is not for ALL only seemingly the select few (however many thousands that might be) but mot for the likes of ME.  When I am selling in PARTS I tried to post a phone nmumber only to get a NastyGram.  This is annoying and I KNOW it has cost me sales.  

I sell motorcycle stuff and I have heard from customers that they have tried to get in touch and can't.  I have tried to send MEASUREMENTS  that must seem to the uneducated Ebay bots like phone numbers or emails. I will admit to trying to give NON USA buyers contact info so as to avoid THEM having to pay almost as much as an item is worth in shipping--when I can ship it for $11 and Ebay demands that I charge them $32 for a 6 OUNCE package--- I know I would want the OPTION to pay less.  Sometimes I hear back;  sometinmes--not.

And I too have SENT MESSAGES that seem to not actually have GONE.  

I doubt that  most ebay sellers are LAZY---most are just trying to get by and deal with the insanity that Ebay tosses in our way to make it HARDER to sell there;  And they wonder WHY their numbers are tanking and their members hate them!  Sad!

by: ySirTinLee

Once a person buys, can't buyer and seller communicate through their regular email?

by: comet

@Lightening---"Live" items for sale sometimes DEMAND info that a phone call might easily SOLVE  whereas a Message might not be as fast or as clear.  So this IS ebay once again trying to insert themselves in OUR business.  This has been an issue for the entire time Ebay has been in business.  I would venture that MOST sellers are not looking to "cheat" but rather to solve problems before they start.  I had a potential buyer who was NEW and who alsed all sorts of questions inc how much the (posted one flat rate postage)would cost with in the US this week!  If I had to go answer that I COULD have been picked up by their bots and punished--all because I was daring to use NUMBERS in a Message!  They buyer must have figured it out because they bought and paid.  But heres another thing--on mobile sites it is sometimes almost IMPOSSIBLE to locate  info;  and buyers WANT INFO!  Ebay hides it.  So a buyer might just BUY and be disappointed.  Ebays fault?  YES.  Another way they ruin our-and their-business.  

by: comet

@ySirTinLee---YES.  But  that is AFTER the sale;  ebay is now trying to make it MUCH harder to communicate when the sale is LIVE so no one can remove the sale off ebay.  I "get" it but really most of these questions are NOT to find a different way to buy, they are to clarify stuff like sizes or fitment and shipping or local pick up options.  I have "disquised" my phone number a few times--some more successfully than others--to try and work these things out so a customer CAN BUY.  Meanwhile ebay is so terrified they chop off their own nose.  

by: eXtinctBay

@Vernfern

Once the item is sold, both buyer and seller have access to the other party's e-mail address. So communication through eBay Messages would be unneccessary.

I just had a potential local sale fall through because I could not leave my phone number so the buyer could pick up the item, which he needed immediately.

But this buyer did not actually purchase it yet, so the communication was suppressed.

How about when I buy something from a seller who has their own website and sends an e-mail stating that they sell the same merchandise directly for less than eBay prices??

I can see the next move being no address exchanges becoming available, even after the sale. All correspondence would take place strictly through the site's messaging system. This is already the case on Amazon.

If this did happen, there could be even more ''unintended consequences'', since bots would cancel certain necessary communications.

by: LasVagueness

An "eBay Hampers Sales" title could stand on its own and generate a flurry of comments. Let me count the ways...