eBay Hampers Sales Due to Messaging Crackdown

by: Lightning

@comet - Ebay doesn't care if a phone call is faster or clearer.  But they know for sure it is faster for the item to disappear off ebay if the number is there, or an email address.  There is no doubt that at some point they will just handle payments on their own, like Amazon, so that no back door deals can happen.  You won't even be able to get repeat business - no email address.  As soon as their "arrangement" with Paypal ends, things will change.  Then the best you can do is get someone to respond to a note left in the package. With some luck, of course, and if you are still in business by then.

by: Chicago48

There's always a workaround.  I have no problems with communicating with sellers strictly through Ebay.  And if I have to workaround, I use Paypal, which has the seller's email listed.

by: JWsax

I have reached my last straw with ebay after 17 years as a power seller. My $200K a year in sales holds no value for them but it is very welcome at Reverb.com and I am happy to have nothing for sale on ebay anymore. I'll use them strategically to drive traffic elsewhere but that's it.
I can't think of any company in the world that has as much contempt for its customers, the sellers, as ebay does.

by: Rexford

Slightly off topic, not once, but on two occasions this year, I have received (all in one day) a flood of backlogged emails from eBay that never arrived.  These are emails that I should have received the day that they were sent.

You can not depend on your emails to get to a buyer and you get not depend on your buyers emails to get to you.

eBay always give me another reason to love ecrater.

by: Windkissed

I bought an item from a Facebook group that auctions and when it went thru my paypal account they picked up an old address from something I had bought from a Target years ago.  I had an awful time finding the item.  It was shipped to that store instead of being shipped to me.  Then when I called paypal and complained they tried to blame it on me.  It had nothing to do with ebay??????Paypal is crap now.  They should of stayed with ebay.  I have had buyers try to get me to bypass ebay but I have never done it.  Ebay should stand behind their good sellers always.

by: GotToGetOut

Comet -- Ebay is now trying to make it against Ebay's rules to sell any items to customers they've made on Ebay.  I'm sorry, if I sold something on Ebay, I feel those customers are now my customers, not Ebay's and I can sell them anything I want if I make the deal outside of Ebay through another source.    

by: unhappyebayguy

Same thing happened to me. Had a guy make an offer on a vintage automotive part with his phone number in the listing. I noticed a crack in it 2 days later. Canceled the listing, repictured it, and relisted it with a revised noting the crack. Got an email inbetween from ebay stating I was suspended for 7 days.

Called in and told the guy what happened. 45 minutes later got things straight.... ;(

by: GotToGetOut

Chicago48, this workaround only works if the customer has made a sale through Ebay and you now know the customer's email address.  I agree, once you have made the sale, that customer should be yours and you should be able to contact them directly.   So, as many posters are saying here, Ebay's crackdown is basically geared towards first time potential buyers.  I'm waiting for the day when Ebay removes email addresses from all sales.  However, since Paypal is now not part of Ebay they will not have control over Paypal listing the email address so I think we will always have the email address on Paypal.  

by: DebraD

""I requested to purchases one of two items that were being sold together. Seller requested my email address and wrote she would then send me a PayPal invoice. I responded that eBay blocks messages with GMAIL."

In this situation, the seller does seem to be attempting to conduct the sale outside of Ebay. Sending a Paypal invoice is a common way of transacting outside of Ebay. So, I can see these messages being flagged and blocked. I too have had problems sending listing ID numbers for alternate listings. This has caused me to loose sales.

by: toolguy

I have no problem sending or receiving phone numbers thru eBay's messaging system.

They don't even need to be spelled out, the numbers work fine. . .

by: mcposty

Ebay coders and leaders are to dumb to differentiate between context and different numbers..it's no surprise considering how far the sinking ship has sunk thus far.

Bunch of no talent ignorant hacks can't even put in a freight tracking system.

by: cillianred

I completely agree that buyer/seller communication within eBay can be very frustrating and the suspensions mentioned here are ridiculous and completely unjust.

However, as a couple of others have pointed out, it's fairly obvious that the seller the OP was dealing with DID appear to be attempting to sell an item outside of eBay. If the attempt to send the Paypal invoice had been successful and the buyer had paid that invoice, then eBay would have been excluded from the sale. So eBay's intervention appears to be correct in this particular case.

by: Scotty

Off-ebay sales are one thing...my question to ebay would be ''how the he$$ do you actually make a sale ON ebay???''  This is pure desperation on their part...

by: Rexford

GotToGetOut says "Comet -- Ebay is now trying to make it against Ebay's rules to sell any items to customers they've made on Ebay."

What do they think that their large enterprise sellers are doing? Do they think that they don't mind data and then target the customers directly?

I am sure that it is a much bigger problem with the large enterprise sellers and the well known brands who are on eBay.

by: maxmad

About 90% of our repeat customers never return to ebay , they will normally go straight to our website,

Of coarse Our prices and selection of items is always way better on our website, it will always be that way, sorry ebay you take too much money from every sale, which includes fees on shipping, it's real easy to compete against you, ebay customers quickly become our customers and OUR Customers are not stupid, ebay is the stupid one.

Go ahead ebay block communications all you want, in fact, why not just get rid of it all together, it makes no difference to us, it will only hurt you more, .

by: maxmad

ebay put us thru pure hell for a very long time, we jumped thru all the burning hoops, we obeyed their every command and change, to only see our online business be destroyed by them.

Well that was 3 years ago, today is a little different story, ebay is meaningless to us, and we really don't care about their next wave of seller destruction, we're in business for ourselves, not for ebay, it doesn't mater what they do or who they think they are,

We will do everything in our power to take every last customer from ebay , just like they did to us, it's called payback.

by: Toledo Maude

@Scotty ''Off-ebay sales are one thing...my question to ebay would be ''how the he$$ do you actually make a sale ON ebay???''   I agree completely.

Once a buyer pays, I send the buyer a confirming E-Mail with the buyer's E-Mail address from the Paypal transaction.  Included in the note are links to my Etsy store.

Once the item is shipped, I send an E-Mail confirming the shipping and advise that Etsy is a much nice place to shop with lower prices.  

by: comet

Trying to make a sale ON ebay is fraught with issues.  Not SHOWING our listings is the biggest one but then to DENY us the merest ability to answer a QUESTION--most of which as I have said before---are legit ones to find out if an item will do what the buyer NEEDS it TO do!  Car parts for certain years will NOT fit cars made in certain PARTS of the year--at times "half year cars"  use different parts!  So how is it HELPFUL to order an alternator--say--for a '74 F150 that was made in January when the alternator is for a truck made in September!  How are you going to determine this?  How are you going to KNOW if that stove igniter is going to WORK if you are looking on your phone or a tablet where the DESCRIPTION is hard to FIND; hard to SEE; and parts may not DISPLAY?  

I also wonder what happens if some one contacts you about something and then--as mentioned above--the item is found to be MIA;  or damaged;  or--in MY case---one shoe is sitting here while the other one is--MIA.  I went NUTS trying to FIND this extra large  shoe--and I agreed that WHEN the other one turns up I will contact  the potential buyer--but---it's been MONTHS and no shoe!  Meanwhile I had several Messages convos with this guy!  And I HAD to remove it--what  good is ONE giant shoe?  Will ebay NOW punish me for TRYING to take care of this buyer?   I certainly did NOT ever indicate that I would sell these OFf Ebay!  But I did remove the listing.  Sigh.


When I mail the one repeat item I sell I always enclose my card with contact info AND I write on the box instructions and my GMail;  however this is not a "wearing part"  so unless you buy another one of these rare bikes or know some one who has one--you are prob not buying more of these.  

I would think one way to AVOID pissing ebay off if you DO decide to take it off their site is to NOT USE PAYPAL.  If ebay can SEE  that you corresponded with the buyer; then remove the listing;  and THEN a payment shows up in your Paypal account for that item--well;  guess I've gotta give them that one.  Use a USPS Money order instead or a credit  card via some place other than Paypal!!!
Just one more stupid thing ebay does to make SURE both the seller and buyer HATE THEM.  Sad!  

by: Marie

@comet
You stated "Ebay is now trying to make it against Ebay's rules to sell any items to customers they've made on Ebay."  While this may be Ebay's desire, they would have no way to police this unless members were to give Ebay permission to monitor their personal email accounts.  I'm not sure why any member would agree to that.

If Ebay were to try and make it part of the UA that they had permission to monitor your personal email address[s], I'm not sure how legal that would be.

by: WOODJUNGLE! ON EBAY

"If Ebay were to try and make it part of the UA that they had permission to monitor your personal email address[s], I'm not sure how legal that would be."

101% not legal.