Changes to Contact Information Policy - email from ebay

[ramonv-majorleaguepins]

Anyone else get this?

It starts by saying that I have contact info in my listings.  Um, no.

Then it says I can add my phone number to my Q&A so buyers can call me.

Um, HUGE NO.

If they ever make this mandatory, it will be the last straw for me. 

Do they really think I want people calling me at every hour of the day (and night)?  

No, no, no. 

[ramonv-majorleaguepins]

Did a Ctrl+F and found that mobile thing. Never knew that was there, and really don't plan to use it. But thanks.

[superhudson619]

I am at my wits end with Ebay.

I provide discrete links to any effective information I find during my research for any particular item.

I also on occasion provide links to an external picture gallery if I need to provide more pictures.

I once provided a phone number for validating a Cable tv box...

NEVER ONCE have I added my phone number..People have sent me phone numbers, but I have never provided one myself.

I cannot fault eBay for trying to protect their interests, however it is the intelligence (BOT or some kind of AI I figure) behind this email that is baffling.

• It states that I have contact information in my listing, but does not provide a link to show it.
• Key word here is DISCRETE...Every link or phone number is different, does the eBay intelligence think I have that many points of contact...
• The link provided in the email is just to sign up for a "New Feature" that allows people to call me after the sale...What??  
• I have seen contact info  in other peoples listing and I think it is good that  a listing can provide some technical info or other information before a sale that is great. But after a sale???
   

Biggest gripe is that I am sent an email that provides no relevant information, no links to what they consider contact information.

If they found something, why cannot they show it to me instead of some stupid guessing game?

That sounds more like my dog staring at me and me trying to figure out what she wants.

Just like a number of recent changes, I am left scratching my head and feeling like a fool for using eBay as my ecommerce partner

Hudson 

[cynthealee2]

It is a pain in the neck, since they told us these would be legal and now poof they aren't.

I dunno a faster way and I haven't seen the one with the magic progams in a while or I'd poke them and ask them if they know a faster way.

Any one seen @shipscript lately?

[cynthealee2]

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@the_ibis_print_gallery wrote:

@cynthealee2

You're right, it probably is the image links, but unfortunately that's about 40 hours of work to fix. Also, they haven't identified which listings are noncompliant or stated that they'll supress the listings (as opposed to the links themseves), so I'm hesitatnt to start manually revising 2,000 listings without being sure that 1.) it's absolutely necessary and 2.) I'm revising the right thing. 

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If the mobile checker area under "non compliant links" is red when you open it... that's what's messed up,  and needs to be fixed.  I just don't know a faster way to do it on eBay.   If you were on Auctiva I could walk ya through a bulk edit, I simply don't list or revise (if I can help it) on eBay enough to know what area of the bulk editor you'd need.

Why they called it the "mobile friendly checker" and why they stuck it ONLY on the listing pages themselves I have no idea.  What I do know is to figure out what eBay is squaking about and will pull your listings over is under those three tabs.

PS once you have made the changes you have to hit save in THIS area and then "update" the listing.

For space I didn't show where the save button and the rest are on the "checker" thing.

[cynthealee2]

I found ship!!!!

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/bd-p/activecontent

[cynthealee2]

@ramonv-majorleaguepins@usgamecollector@the_ibis_print_galleryand anyone else that responded to the thread.

If you want to find out which listings eBay is ticked about run this:

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/ActiveContentScanner.htm

It'll find the issues... and yes some times it IS the links back to ebay that are the issue... if they aren't done correctly with the _blank thingy on the link it will trigger the bots.

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/itemdescription/bestpractices.html#usinglinks

Using Links

Links are allowed as long as they conform to eBay's link policy.

If your item descriptions contain links, please make sure that they are defined correctly. Specifically, make sure they each include a target attribute in the link definition. The target attribute specifies where to open the linked document. After June, for a link to be clicked on successfully, the target must be defined to open in a new tab or window by setting a target="_blank" attribute to the link definition. If you do not define the target accordingly, the link may not open successfully.

For example:
✔ <a href="www.yourlinkhere.com" target="_blank">eBay</a>
✘ <a href="www.yourlinkhere.com">eBay</a>

[the_ibis_print_gallery]

I thnk I might be able to fix this with the bulk editor by using find/replace to enclose the links within comment tags. So, I could do someting like replace "<a href" with "<!--" and "/a>" with "-->." 

[shipscript]

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@cynthealee2 wrote:

I found ship!!!!

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/bd-p/activecontent

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Yes, I seem to be the dedicated responder on the Active Content forum, LOL.

I'm frantically working on an update to the bulk scanner that will locate non-eBay links and non-SSL media, in addition to Active Content and missing targets.  It won't find contact info because most sellers know what their contact info is (email, phone, website), and can use find/replace to remove it.

The updated scanners should be ready later next week.  In the meantime, sellers will find a whole suite of compliance tools here:

http://www.isdntek.com/ebaytools/

And I am happy to provide assistance on the Active Content Forum:

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/bd-p/activecontent

[candles18]

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@the_ibis_print_gallery wrote:

I thnk I might be able to fix this with the bulk editor by using find/replace to enclose the links within comment tags. So, I could do someting like replace "<a href" with "<!--" and "/a>" with "-->." 

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If it's just a problem with the target, then replace "<a href=" with "<a target='_blank' href=".

[cynthealee2]

I don't speak comp so I have no idea.

Ship posted a LOT of information about it http://community.ebay.com/t5/Replacing-Active-Content/bd-p/activecontent

There are a lot of different threads one of them may deal with the picture enlarger.

[cynthealee2]

Ship it found all MY links... rofl then again 99.99999% of them have the links without the _blank...

But they will fix themselves as they relist as I fixed them on Auctiva 😉

ps

We luvssssssss you Ship

[shipscript]

I've asked eBay to tell us what triggered this letter.

I'll post here when I find out.

 

[cynthealee2]

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@ramonv wrote:
I don't think I've ever seen a pop-up to "go to the mobile-friendly checker."
I don't understand the "add _blank to em" thing you mention.
As for Auctiva. I can't get Auctiva and ebay to play nicely together, so Auctiva can't remove those things for me, and I have removed them at a pace of about 1 a week, because all my listings look fine to me, and to one ebay CS I spoke with. So, there is no fast, easy way for me to remove the Auctiva scrolling thing (not enlarger), but that does not contain any contact info.

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@ramonv-majorleaguepins

Sorry missed this earlier...

1) Auctiva is making those scroller's active content free.

2) If you open a support ticket on Auctiva they will remove ALL of them from your listings (they did mine in less than 4 hours from opening the ticket)

3) Do you know how to keep them off your listings going forward?  If not I can show you where that is on Auctiva.

[coolections]

It says they will ALLOW you to add a number, it does not say they will MAKE you add a number.

[ramonv-majorleaguepins]

Unfortunately, Auctiva is unable to remove them from ANY of my listings. Had a ticket open that went back and forth for weeks. No luck. Ebay token doesn't work. Ebay can't help, Auctiva can't help. They blame each other.
Is there a place on Auctiva to turn them off for future listings?