eBay Anonymizes Buyer Email Addresses

by: toolguy

it's email messages today

seller ID's tomorrow

Are you ready to be a supplier for EBAY?

by: Silver Ice King

Not the least bit surprised by this move and as Tool says be ready for Seller
IDs to start being taken out next.  Wenig stated for years that they wanted buyers to only refer to the purchase as i bought it on Ebay, but of course you can be sure that as soon as there is any problem with the item, it will no longer be bought on Ebay but purchased from (insert Sellers name) as Ebay will never take the credit for any problem that happens on their site, even when they are ripping Sellers off by overcharging them on fees.  

All this is going to do is cause more and more sellers to put a business card or some other type of insert so that the buyer knows exactly who they bought it from and how to contact the Seller outside of Ebay.  The more they try to hide a Sellers information from a buyer or a buyers contact information from the Sellers , 3rd party programmers will design programs which allow the Sellers to still see that information or buyers to see who they are buying from.  I do believe if and when Ebay hides the sellers name and contact information that sales will once again take a big hit as Buyers want to know who they are buying from as well as Sellers wanting to know who they sold to so each can make future decisions on whether to buy  or sell to that person.

by: pace306

Tool

the one flaw in the ointment of your supposed eBay plan is - that once eBay says "SOLD BY EBAY" - they become seller of record besides merchant of record and that may open them up to liabilities and (the horror) TAXES since THEY are claiming that the seller is just a supplier.

As well - if they do that - does the seller become an eBay employee?

Im not as convinced as you are that eBay wants to take things that far.

by: Ina

eBay had considered anonymizing seller IDs at the same time it decided to anonymize buyer IDs, but the decision was tabled at the time, a source had told us in 2015.

https://bit.ly/3gnuxmo

by: Geetar

I just checked. The buyers email address's are still on the order details page. I am sure they will get rid of it sooner or later. God forbid ...someone may steal from ebay, and take a transaction off ebay.

I use ink frog, and shipstation, and both have records of emails. I use shipstation to automatically send all the emails to mailchimp. I think I have a mailing list of almost 50k.

by: JamesDouglas

@Geetar I’m the seller who reported this to Ina. If it hasn’t happened for you yet, then it’s only a matter of time. I’m sure I’m one of the test guinea pigs for the new policy. It screws me up because my 20+ year filemaker buyer database is organized by email address. I have a lot of repeat customers, and the database saves on keystrokes. Now I have to start over with user ID’s.  

by: toyspast

I haven't seen a buyer's email on eBay in a few years. I could see it on Paypal until they removed it there as well.  Wonder why there's so many differences in this policy?

by: Marie

It appears to be something they are rolling out.  For me it started on the 21st.  I've checked with a few other sellers and it hasn't started for them yet.

by: Chicago48

I believe the buyer email is still visible through Paypal, if they pay through Paypal.

by: Goodfella

In the UK we haven’t been allowed to see buyer email addresses on eBay or Paypal for well over a year now, probably as a precursor to the new data protection rules which have been implemented by the EU. At best, you might be able to request someone’s email (for the sake of delivery arrangements, etc.) but people aren’t always willing to let you have them. I raised the issue of not being able to easily contact past buyers in an eBay questionnaire. I only hope that some enlightened soul took notice!

by: Jono77

I'm not sure that it is even legal to block buyer and seller communication when a sale has taken place.

Once somebody becomes your customer you have the right to sell to them again. eBay used to say it was nothing but I platform. A third-party introduction. They certainly behave like it has nothing to do with them when things go wrong.

What we need is a brave lawyer to fight the likes of eBay. They seem to be to immune to the laws that effect the man in the street.

by: windsorbear

Jono77, the whole problem there is that according to eBays Terms of Service, every time you log in to their site, you are accepting their Terms of Service, which in a nutshell states, we can do whatever we want, and if you decide to list here, you accept that we can treat you as we please, and that there will be no legal repercussions by you.  If you don't agree, then leave and never come back.  At least that's the impression I got the last time I looked at their TOS.

by: Duper2019

What I have found is the email address stays in the order detail for 14 days and then disappears

by: ssusannss

I left ebay a month ago after a forced return for no reason. So, luckily I have not had to use managed payments, and I have saved every single email address that I have ever sold to. I plan to email every single one of them with the web addresses of my new selling venue pages. Twelve years of email addresses. I always knew this day would come.

by: railady

I discovered that PayPal no longer shows any buyer email addresses, either. I tried every which way including actually asking a PP rep who claimed it was ''confidential'' (no matter that we did a business deal involving an actual money transfer, they were not giving out ''personal'' information about anyone).

It used to be possible to pretend to do a REFUND and when I got into that form, the email address would show, but that is gone as well.

I use Stamps.com and one of the assets about it is that every buyer's purchase shows up on one line with all the details: name, address, EMAIL ADDRESS and item details. I just copy everything into my contacts folder. Or, it's easy enough to create a .csv file of whatever information I want. And it even automatically inserts Tracking Numbers into my eBay list of sales, so I don't spend time doing this.  

I resent paying subscription charges for services, but happily continue with this one because so far it MORE than pays for itself in rate discounts -- but most importantly HOURS of time saved !!!    

by: lessthanthreerecords

I'm still seeing e-mail addresses as usual.

by: Marie

@Jono77

"I'm not sure that it is even legal to block buyer and seller communication when a sale has taken place."

They aren't blocking communication with the buyer.  Sellers are free to communicate with the buyer via this created email address of Ebay [similar to what Amazon does] or they can go to the listing and communicate with the buyer or they can go to the buyer's FB page and click on the link to communicate with them.  So we aren't blocked.  We just aren't allow to get their private email address anymore.  Not so different from what some other sites do.  

I personally liked it better when we had access to their actual email address but it appears those days are gone now.

by: Lightning

Cause: eBay changes something
Effect: Must be illegal
Actual: not likely

by: Lightning

To be part of the tally, I'm still seeing email addresses as usual, too.  Not to say that will last forever.  EBay has been cutting down the length of time that they are visible.  Used to be ongoing, then 30 days, most recently (past year or so) 14 days.  Not surprising that it may go the way of the dinosaur.

I have been downloading my sales info, which includes email addresses, from File Exchange every month.  You can set up a schedule there.  When the assigned time elapses, like a month, a link will appear in an email that is sent to you.  It tells you that your file is ready, and then you download it.  That system still keeps emails for at least 30 days, probably longer.  But that may change.  EBay must mean "constant change" in pig-latin (made famous by the 3 Stooges).  

by: censoredandcensured

Buyer email addresses still show up in order details for me too (yes, only for 14 days). As for PayPal, the buyer's email address is there - just look at the email address details in you email program and you will see under "Reply to" the buyer's email address is there.