eBay

portmanteau1998 · ‎08-26-2021

I asked a seller a pre-sales question by sending them an ebay message. They replied with an ebay message. I then attempted to reply to their reply, with some follow-up questions. Whenever I attempt to send the this reply, I get the following error message:

Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.ebay.com/cnt/ReplyToMessages?" on this server.
Reference #18.66243717.1630000147.1598246e

Following the link, I get a message that says "The question you are trying to answer is either invalid or older than 90 days. You cannot respond to questions older than 90 days." But the message I'm replying to was sent yesterday.

I am properly logged in when I attempt to send the reply, and I have even tried logging out and logging back in, changing browsers, changing computers, etc., and I get the exact same result every time. My account is active and in good standing.

I tried going through the process of contacting ebay, but none of the categories seemed to fit this type of issue. So, here I am.

Any ideas what might be going wrong, how I might resolve it, or how best to get this information to the right people at ebay?

Thanks.

eburtonlab · ‎08-26-2021

For some reason, eBay thinks the item number associated with that message has expired. It may be problem with the particular message or a bug regarding replies.

Try contacting the seller by composing a new message: go to the seller's feedback or profile page, then use the "Contact" link there. If you are prompted for an item number, choose a current item number or select "not about an item".

portmanteau1998 · ‎08-26-2021

Thanks for the advice. Will give it a try.

The item number associated with the messages is currently active (i.e., listed for selling), so this really looks like a bug. Is there some official mechanism for reporting a bug? I looked and looked and couldn't find an appropriate contact category for reporting a bug/problem with the site.

eburtonlab · ‎08-26-2021

Is there some official mechanism for reporting a bug?

That is an excellent question that I do not know the answer to.

Many eBay pages have a "Tell us what you think" link in the upper right. That works for general feedback about page features -- it might be worth using that link from the message inbox page, though I do not know how easy it is for someone else to recreate the same error as it seems to pertain to certain messages, and may be intermittent.

It is also possible to raise issues during the weekly chat with eBay staff, if you are specifically looking for an official response to a question.

It might be worth tagging one of the community team to see if there is a preferred procedure for such things.

jasmen@ebay

What is the best way for a user that has discovered a recurring error such as this to report it to eBay?

jasmen@ebay · ‎08-30-2021

@portmanteau1998 wrote:

I asked a seller a pre-sales question by sending them an ebay message. They replied with an ebay message. I then attempted to reply to their reply, with some follow-up questions. Whenever I attempt to send the this reply, I get the following error message:

Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.ebay.com/cnt/ReplyToMessages?" on this server.
Reference #18.66243717.1630000147.1598246e

Following the link, I get a message that says "The question you are trying to answer is either invalid or older than 90 days. You cannot respond to questions older than 90 days." But the message I'm replying to was sent yesterday.

I am properly logged in when I attempt to send the reply, and I have even tried logging out and logging back in, changing browsers, changing computers, etc., and I get the exact same result every time. My account is active and in good standing.

I tried going through the process of contacting ebay, but none of the categories seemed to fit this type of issue. So, here I am.

Any ideas what might be going wrong, how I might resolve it, or how best to get this information to the right people at ebay?

Thanks.

Good morning!!

@eburtonlab @portmanteau1998 Sorry you're having trouble! The best and fastest way to report bugs would be to contact CS. You're always welcome to reach out to eBay for Business on Facebook too, thanks!

Jasmen,
Community Team

centrefloater · ‎09-08-2021

For several weeks I was getting the same Access Denied message when trying to reply to Ebay messages from members or Customer services. but today, I started getting it when I tried to access any part of the Ebay system. It only happened using the Chrome browser ; Internet Explorer was unaffected.

From a Google search for similar problems, I got a tip about clearing the browser data - including Cookies - and doing a disc cleanup via System Tools. I did those two things, and the problem seems to be fixed. It may work for you too.

warnie_cbr600 · ‎09-30-2021

Having this exact same issue for the last 2 days. When trying to respond to a sellers message I get

Access Denied

You don't have permission to access "http://www.ebay.com.au/cnt/ReplyToMessages?" on this server.

Reference #18.5c052017.1633019889.1fa19c7b

Happens in any browser. I've tried clearing cache/cookies, and using a different IP address through a VPN (as recommended in a separate, but similar issue, ebay community forum). But nothing has worked. Desperately need to respond to a sellers message so very keen to hear of a solution.

eburtonlab · ‎09-30-2021

Without using a VPN, try going to the seller's feedback or profile page and composing a new message using the "Contact" link there. If prompted for an item number and the number you are using results in an error message, try choosing "not about an item" instead.

If that does not work on ebay.com.au, try on ebay.com or ebay.ca instead.