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Ebay shouldn't be giving out our personal numbers anymore.
Seller is harassing me using my personal phone number obtained from eBay's seller back-end to harass me after reporting his fraud. I assume he is angry that the case was ruled in my favor after I provided piles of evidence of his scam. However, the disturbing issue is that he is now harassing me using my verified eBay phone number. After over an hour trying to address this with eBay's customer service, first using the never ending AI chat purgatory and finally talking to a real human, the call was dropped but not before eBay customer service told me they do not provide sellers the buyer's personal phone number. As a seller, that is clearly inaccurate. I can see the phone numbers on my end and I don't understand why eBay would deny this. (Talk about gaslighting!) Has anyone else had this problem or figured out how to remove your number so these scammers can't use it for purposes that violate terms of use and policies or crimes?
5 comments
mr_lincoln
Mentor6 months agoHi @moriartysbookshelf
If you are talking about your cell phone you can have his number blocked and report him to your service provider too. If you have a land line I suspect your service provider can do the same thing. eBay can't do any of that for you, sure they might be able to send a warning to the Seller but I am not aware that they do that.
Reviewing a potential Seller's Feedback history prior to a sale it might reveal issues that are not apparent as you look at their listings. While some less than Positive FB can be subjective (because not all Buyers are honest) if there is a trend for certain type behavior it might show up.
A Seller who has not sold that much but has a high incidence of less than Positive FB could pose a potential problem.
moriartysbookshelf
OP6 months agoAll good info and standard operating procedure. This seller is wild. Leave negative feedback in positive feedback so it can't be removed without a call to customer service. The problem I am having now is that eBay is denying they provide phone numbers, but I spoke to someone higher up today and they finally acknowledged they do provide phone number's to sellers (which everyone but eBay seems to know).
mr_lincoln
Mentor6 months ago@moriartysbookshelf
Yes, Sellers are given phone numbers on transactions and they are visible for quite some time on the order details, I just checked one of my Sold items from December 14th and the phone number is still there. I think for some types of transactions it is necessary but Sellers who abuse the privilege of that personal information should definitely be punished since THAT is NOT the intended use and I am sure they are violating the eBay User Agreement that they agreed to prior to selling ... would have to double check that but I am sure there is a legal clause governing that.
moriartysbookshelf
OP6 months agoOkay. I thought, Am I going crazy? I'm looking at my eBay screen and seeing my buyers' phone numbers while eBay customer service is on the phone telling me they don't provide seller's phone numbers. And what is all the more infuriating is how difficult it was for me to even get a person who can barely communicate in English on the phone. This is not xenophia or any of that. It's just basic simple business. If we can't communicate with the people/platforms we do business with and if they can't seem to provide reliable information, it seems there's nothing left to do but roll the dice and hope nobody on eBay screws you, or get off the platform because eBay apparently doesn't care enough about customers to protect them or even help them when they know one of their user's is being targeted for scams and abuse. Just saw this video "A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator" and it seems like a great summary for what doing business online is like today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Upf_B9RLQ.
mr_lincoln
Mentor6 months ago@moriartysbookshelf
When I got into industry as a Service Engineer installing computer scales throughout north America my service Manager told me that the Sales Department gets the first sale but the Service Department gets all the rest. While not technically true the point was very clear. If you provide bad service you will lose customers, period. You can have the best "whatever" in the world but if you can't provide excellent service you will limit how many are sold, period.
Companies that do not listen to what their customers are telling them are doomed to fail ... and "customers" for an internet sales venue includes BOTH Sellers and Buyers.
You are NOT the only one to complain about foreign phone support and eBay is NOT the only company that employs offshore foreign call centers.