"Oops, Something went wrong, try again later" when messaging buyer

[argy_eyes]

Experts,

This came up last year (scores of forum messages) but I didn't see any resolution beyond "it started working."

I get the message as soon as I hit "Contact Buyer" and have seen it for the last 3 days.  [The tracking on the buyer's item has been stuck on "Out for Delivery" in London for a week. I'd like to make sure the buyer knows that.] I sent one message to the buyer last week but got no reply.

I happened to send a "Contact Buyer" message to another buyer this morning and it worked fine. It almost looks like the buyer has set up some kind of "do not contact" filter on his account. If that's the case, I would like to know it (from the eBay message) rather than being told to try again.

Thanks,

Mike

[shipscript · Accepted solution]

@argy_eyes 

While members can block communications from other members, that option is not available when a transaction is in play -- or for the duration of the subsequent resolution period.

That common error message seems to appear for many reasons and may not always be related to a "try later" solution to some temporary programming glitch.  With that in mind, it would be helpful if you could try all the various contact options available to you on the site (through the sale, directly from the buyer profile, and elsewhere) because they may each use a slightly different URL to reach the other party.  Also note whether the buyer name has any peculiar punctuation that one of the contact methods may not understand. The fact that you reached a second member later should mean that the contact method you chose for that second buyer does work. If the same method fails for your first buyer, the issue may be with the buyer name or may be that the buyer is no longer a registered member.  Check their feedback page to verify they are still a member and have not recently changed their name.

And lastly, software updates occur on Thursday evenings, so tonight would not be the time to rely on anything. Try again tomorrow.

[argy_eyes]

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@shipscript wrote:

@argy_eyes 

It would be helpful if you could try all the various contact options available to you on the site (through the sale, directly from the buyer profile, and elsewhere) because they may each use a slightly different URL to reach the other party.  Also note whether the buyer name has any peculiar punctuation that one of the contact methods may not understand.

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Thanks @shipscript .  Nice to see your username again.

As per your suggestion, I tried several things. All gave me an immediate "oops" message until I tried "Contact Seller" (the buyer sells under the same username).  I've already messaged him via the non-eBay email in one of his listings, so I'm going to hold off a while before I hit send that way.  I don't want to annoy him before he leaves feedback. And FYI, the user name has a special character, a dash.

Mike