Managed Member Communications

[community_team]

In order to protect the privacy of buyers and sellers and as part of our efforts to combat spam and phishing attacks, we’re no longer showing buyer email addresses in your orders. Instead you’ll see an alias email address.

You can read more about this change here, and leave any questions below so our experts can review.

[supercharger-parts]

How long will the alias email address be active?  I have cases where an item is not delivered internationally (or the customer didn't pay the taxes) and it comes back to me 6 months later.  I am not able to contact the buyer thru eBay messages that long after a sale so I rely on the email address on the customs form to contact them and use it to send them a refund. 

[shipscript]

International carriers typically ask for a recipient phone number or email for customs clearance and delivery. Many sellers still ship directly overseas on their own carrier accounts, rather than using GSP or eBay's Intl shipping. Can  the obfuscated email be used by the carrier? Will the recipient be able to respond directly to the carrier in response to such an email?

[3eyedfishcatcher]

Under the order details page where it no longer shows the buyers email address but the internal email address through eBay, If that email address is copied and pasted into a email will a user get the message. sent to them. I am asking not because I want to communicate outside of eBay messages but rathe ram tired of buying items from a seller and from that point forward constantly getting emails unsolicited from that seller about items they have for sell. While there is no way to stop the seller once they have your email hopefully this change will not allow them to still send out emails unsolicited to buyers..

[3eyedfishcatcher]

Also does this mean sellers will be able to use the eBay masked email to send  messages to users through eBay messages? Hopefully this does not mean the spam messages for items for sale will not start coming through eBay messages.

[mallybills]

Hi there @supercharger-parts,

Buyer/Seller email alias combinations will active for one year.   

Thanks!

Malinda

[supercharger-parts]

Thank you for your response.  That is good to know, I would think I would not be able to send a PayPal refund to them using an alias email but I guess I'll worry about that when it happens.

[mallybills]

Hi @shipscript,

The carriers will be able to use the email alias to send an email to the buyers.  However, the recipient won't be able to correspond with the carrier.

Thanks.

Malinda

[mallybills]

Hi @3eyedfishcatcher,

If the seller uses the aliased email address, it will reach the buyer today because eBay is not yet blocking any messages.  However, in the future, eBay will start to filter out spam and unsolicited emails.

Thanks!

Malinda

[3eyedfishcatcher]

That will be a great thing there is nothing worst than buying a single item because it was a good deal and getting spam messages constantly. If I was searching for a item and that seller had it I would possibly buy from again but getting spam messages just makes me not want to deal with them again.  The really bad thing is when you buy from a seller and you start getting messages to go to their own website rather than eBay. As a seller this really is offensive because you know they are trying to avoid paying final value fee's. It would be nice to be able to forward such messages to you for review.

[mallybills]

Hi @3eyedfishcatcher,

Any emails sent to the alias email address will only go to the users personal email address and will NOT appear in my eBay Messages.

Thanks!

Malinda

[shipscript]

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@mallybills wrote:

Buyer/Seller email alias combinations will active for one year.   

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Does "combination" mean that each buyer alias is linked not only to a specific buyer, but also to a specific seller, creating a unique pair of aliases for the two correspondents? And would that mean that external email sent to an alias could be easily traced by eBay to the party that divulged the alias?

[mam98031]

I did start a thread on this board for questions regarding this subject which has remained unanswered and that caused me concern.  brian@ebay  brought to my attention that this thread was were to find the answers.  While I don't really understand why they couldn't be answered on the other thread, I will comply as what is important to me is to get answers.  So here we go.

We're updating how we display email addresses

As part of our ongoing effort to combat spam and phishing attacks and protect the privacy of eBay buyers and sellers, we’re no longer showing buyer email addresses in your orders. Instead, you’ll see an alias email address. Now you can contact buyers using their alias email addresses and your “from” email address will also be hidden by an alias email address.

We’ll continue to provide you with all the information you need to fulfill your orders. The change will not affect your business or eBay experience in any other way, and you don’t have to take any action. Unique alias email addresses will be used for each buyer transaction. The same alias email address will be used for all transactions with the same buyer. Your seller ID will not be impacted.

We recommend that buyers and sellers always communicate with each other using ​eBay Messages​ so that we’ll have a record if any issues occur.

I completely understand why Ebay is doing this and I personally take no issue with that.  However I need a few questions answered.

When we have a current transaction with a buyer and have the need to have their real email address, are we still allowed to send an email to them within Ebay and ask them for their email address?

If so, what is the time frame on what Ebay considers a current transaction?  30 days from purchase, 60 days, or how many?

If not, will Ebay be providing a vehicle in which seller can create an after sale invoice for a buyer that needs to be paid?  Currently we do that through PP but in order to do that we have to have the buyer's email address.

There are several reasons why this may be needed.  The most common would likely be when a buyer gives the seller an incorrect ship to address and the package bounces back to the seller because of it.  When discussing the matter with the buyer, they decide they still want the item and agrees to pay for the reshipment of the package.  The seller then needs to invoice the buyer for that amount, again currently done through PP.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Running-Your-Business/The-Updating-on-how-the-email-addresses-Display/...

[carolynnq]

Will we be able to add attachments - for example, to attach a label?

[mam98031]

---

@mam98031 wrote:

I did start a thread on this board for questions regarding this subject which has remained unanswered and that caused me concern.  brian@ebay  brought to my attention that this thread was were to find the answers.  While I don't really understand why they couldn't be answered on the other thread, I will comply as what is important to me is to get answers.  So here we go.

We're updating how we display email addresses

As part of our ongoing effort to combat spam and phishing attacks and protect the privacy of eBay buyers and sellers, we’re no longer showing buyer email addresses in your orders. Instead, you’ll see an alias email address. Now you can contact buyers using their alias email addresses and your “from” email address will also be hidden by an alias email address.

We’ll continue to provide you with all the information you need to fulfill your orders. The change will not affect your business or eBay experience in any other way, and you don’t have to take any action. Unique alias email addresses will be used for each buyer transaction. The same alias email address will be used for all transactions with the same buyer. Your seller ID will not be impacted.

We recommend that buyers and sellers always communicate with each other using ​eBay Messages​ so that we’ll have a record if any issues occur.

I completely understand why Ebay is doing this and I personally take no issue with that.  However I need a few questions answered.

When we have a current transaction with a buyer and have the need to have their real email address, are we still allowed to send an email to them within Ebay and ask them for their email address?

If so, what is the time frame on what Ebay considers a current transaction?  30 days from purchase, 60 days, or how many?

If not, will Ebay be providing a vehicle in which seller can create an after sale invoice for a buyer that needs to be paid?  Currently we do that through PP but in order to do that we have to have the buyer's email address.

There are several reasons why this may be needed.  The most common would likely be when a buyer gives the seller an incorrect ship to address and the package bounces back to the seller because of it.  When discussing the matter with the buyer, they decide they still want the item and agrees to pay for the reshipment of the package.  The seller then needs to invoice the buyer for that amount, again currently done through PP.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Running-Your-Business/The-Updating-on-how-the-email-addresses-Display/...

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HELLO out there in Ebay land.  2 days of silence on a Seller Update with only a few questions that actually need attention and we are left to talk to ourselves.

Would someone PLEASE engage so we can get answers BEFORE these threads are closed.

brian_burke@ebay 

@Anonymous