Sellers who post contact information to avoid fees

[bluestskiestradingpost]

I've just about had it with Ebay, but being that it's become or primary income with a home Ebay business, we are kind of stuck. 

It's the sellers that constantly show their contact info - phone number, email address, physical address or web page.   They use Ebay as a cheap form of advertising to get buyers to contact them directly - and avoid the Ebay fees.    I've reported MANY violations to Ebay and go back and check often to see if anything has been done.  I find them still showing there info, so I guess Ebay doesn't care - even if this has been a rule for 20+ years?

I feel I should do the same thing since it seems to work.  How else can a seller have 1,200 items listed and only show 143 sold??   It's easy to see that they are doing deals outside of Ebay.  

I report often, email Ebay complaining, and just get the sugar coated "we thank you for being a seller for 23 years" and all that fluff, and thank us for reporting the issue. 

We are in a fairly small niche of sellers that sell grocery / restaurant equipment, so competitions is a fairly small number of sellers compared to those that sell typical collectable "smalls" which Ebay is known for.  

I'm annoyed with this ongoing issue, and over the last few years (since pandemic) we have had a harder time finding and selling the gear we have done well on.   Then these clowns, get away with offline sales?! 

Frustrated.

[ebooksdiva]

If you are reporting the listings that is all you can do. 

[bluestskiestradingpost]

I report them all the time. Then go back and check often and it's still there.  Reporting them seems to never do anything. I often think I should do the same since that seems to work for them, and no penalties.  It's really getting harder to be an honest seller and succeed anymore.  

[fab_finds4u]

I think it's allowed for some sellers. I know if you sell cars on eBay Motors and have a licensed car lot you can put your phone and email in the listing.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

I would think a seller that may be doing this in their listings are taking a huge risk! What comes to mind is fraud, theft, spam mail, spam txt, maybe even robbery / break-in if they know where the seller now lives, and so on. There is no security for the seller and record of communication through eBay. 

Maybe I'm thinking too hard, but we all know when you register for something in person or on-line, your information will be shared and sold at some point.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Since you sell the same thing, you are the competition, so your reports are ignored. 

[bluestskiestradingpost]

Exactly! 

One seller had his URL and his full name including middle initial.  It took just a few minutes to find out where he lived, how much he paid for his house, and a lot of other information.   I do like the protection that Ebay does as a firewall between us and buyers, and if some sale goes wrong, Ebay will -sometimes- side with the seller and protect us from some unreasonable request. It's rare, but has happened a couple times when Ebay stuck up for us.   Cash sale outside of Ebay?  No protection, but it still REALLY annoys me when they get away with this.

[bluestskiestradingpost]

Yeah, I'm  pretty sure Ebay doesn't care.  The high margins of the items we sell gets them good profit, but when people make offline deals, Ebay won't get anything.  I'd think they would take this problem more seriously. 

We sell a lot of grocery/restaurant equipment, and it's a relatively narrow niche compared to the average "collectables" seller on Ebay, so it's extremely frustrating when we keep losing sales to offline sellers that share their info.

[dentalsales4u]

My items are FDA approved items and I am suppose to have the medical disclaimer included in my listings.

I had a few listing taken down a few years back because the disclaimer didn't have a contact name and phone number included.

So, I added the contact name and phone number as they said I needed.

eBay then removed the phone number in my listing that they told me was required.......some times, the things eBay does just doesn't make any sense.

[ms.rodriguez*]

This is so true. It's like the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.   To the poster, if you are a competitor, get a new ID and report that those sellers. Obviously don't sell those same items that you are reporting.

[bluestskiestradingpost]

Stop selling high margin stuff we have done for years and go back to trying to survive on thrift store pickings?  That won't work.  I don't know what a new ID will do, we'll still see them out there cheating.

[bluestskiestradingpost]

I've sold a few things like that too with medical gear.  I put the disclaimer, but never had contact info there.   I guess that just shows Ebay isn't paying attention to anything?

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@bluestskiestradingpost wrote:

Stop selling high margin stuff we have done for years and go back to trying to survive on thrift store pickings?  That won't work.  I don't know what a new ID will do, we'll still see them out there cheating.

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That is not at all what the poster said.

1.) They said 'don't report on the EXACT same item that you are selling' meaning- pick another of the 100,000 items that could be sold for a restaurant that the competition is selling and

2.) using 'another id' to 'report' would show that id as NOT SELLING the same items. If 'numerous' reports were made against the same seller, then the squeaky wheel gets noticed! 

again- you are the competition so you have to think smarter than the average bear.

[bluestskiestradingpost]

True.   I do go through their store sometimes and report many items. Often they are things that we don't currently have in our store.   I do see the other ID method now,  I could just log in and report with our personal account rather than the business account.   That's a good idea. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     You are never "stuck". Many sellers, myself included, have diversified across multiple forums and venues. EBay no longer holds the quasi monopoly they once held. These days I sell less that 20% of my items on eBay. A lot of the other sites/forums don't have the buyer base but there are a number of sites/forums that have a very specific merchandise area and the buyers who frequent those sites are target shopping.