eBay

prettywoman-2012 · ‎12-28-2019

O.K. so I just sold two things, and one of the buyers contacted me apparently while I was away watching Lorna Doone which is a fantastic movie, if you like King James era costume movies from England. So, I log in and see there are two messages from this buyer, and in one of them, she was asking whether she could purchase more than one of my items?

Of course, which seller would NOT be happy to see this, right? So, I replied to her (direct quote):

"Thank you for this message! Yes, you may combine up to three other items if you wish, let me know which ones and I will reduce the shipping cost to just 2 or send you an adjusted invoice on the other two items - since you already paid for this. Thanks and have a great evening."

This message was sent just fine. Next, I clicked on her other message, directly above the first one, in which she just shared that her and I share a similar taste in vintage jewelry. When I clicked on this message to send a polite response, this is what the eBay messaging system showed me:

"To keep everyone safe on eBay, please don't send messages that include contact info. Repeated attempts could lead to an account suspension or other penalties. Learn more about our member-to-member contact policy."

To which I can only say, "Whatttt?"

There was no contact information, telephone numbers, websites or anything similar to a html code, etc. which I understand would be flagged by the bots. My exact message (sans her name and mine) is what you see above in bold and Italics. I was then blocked from being able to send her a response to her second message, and had to use the reply button in her first message, to which I have already responded. Does the number 2 (as in two items) create a mortal threat for eBay's revenue?

To me, it looks like there is some programming error at fault, but I do not appreciate being punched in the stomach by these "kind" disciplining reminder while innocent! Hmm. Happy evening!

PW

susanscharmu-0 · ‎12-29-2019

Hi, My reply is not about messaging, however in another account kind of the same thing happened to me. Only it is a few listing, they keep telling me "I can not place a link in my listings" I have no links in any listings. 1 account only this keeps being said to me. I change wording & no luck. 3 different items.

People say listings are taken down because of gun parts, because of oil, etc. No one checks into these listings for other.

Just wondering do they hire people at home to go thru certain things, look at listings? There are so many people out there that would love a job, who know how to look for wrong things, who cannot get out. Why not hire them, people here in the States. The CS people they have now are, well you know.

I am selling ton of items, my husband goes to post office everyday with boxes. But, I am selling nothing here even though I am "giving it all away". My reason for selling is different than most of you, I do not do this to make money. I feel so sorry for all of you who count on selling as an income!! Good luck to all of you & Happy New Years, please be safe & have a nice one!!!!!

prettywoman-2012 · ‎12-29-2019

Hello Susan, Thank you for this response! First off, I would like to apologize for the two typos, one in the title of my post above (it should have been, "Has the messaging system gone haywire," and not, "Did the messaging system gone...etc.). The other error was in one of the last sentences, it should have been "reminders" in plural, not "reminder." I ran out of time to edit it...

So, again, thank you for your response. I am glad to hear you can sell your pretty things without having the need for the money, and that you have found success elsewhere, alas, I think it would be worth to try to talk with someone, they are sometimes servicing the call center with people from our country. And some of those foreigners actually speak very good English, but it could be a draw of luck.

Not sure what is causing the error message that you mentioned here. I know there used to be a forum for reporting technical issues, and perhaps you could try describing the problem, there, or call them when you have the extra time at hand. I am fully aware that much depends on when you call and whom you talk with, because that has been my experience, also (sometimes, there is no consistency just subjective opinions that they share, which is a training issue, and let's hope they will improve their services next year.

As to my issue from yesterday: I was a bit taken aback by the tone of voice and harsh threatening in the message I have received, including but not restricted to being "suspended," what gives? for a single digit (2) having been shared with the customer as in two (2) items. You would think good programming expert could, in my opinion, design a program that only flags messages where complete telephone numbers are shared, rather than messages with just one number in them?

I will just refrain from using even single digits in messaging, and use the alphabetic spelling instead.

I hope your issue gets resolved, also, and ave a very nice New Year

PW

divwido · ‎12-29-2019

Call it rabid paranoia and move on.

Good Moms let you lick the Beaters.

Great Moms turn them off first.

Anonymous · ‎12-31-2019

@prettywoman-2012 wrote:

O.K. so I just sold two things, and one of the buyers contacted me apparently while I was away watching Lorna Doone which is a fantastic movie, if you like King James era costume movies from England. So, I log in and see there are two messages from this buyer, and in one of them, she was asking whether she could purchase more than one of my items?

Of course, which seller would NOT be happy to see this, right? So, I replied to her (direct quote):

"Thank you for this message! Yes, you may combine up to three other items if you wish, let me know which ones and I will reduce the shipping cost to just 2 or send you an adjusted invoice on the other two items - since you already paid for this. Thanks and have a great evening."

This message was sent just fine. Next, I clicked on her other message, directly above the first one, in which she just shared that her and I share a similar taste in vintage jewelry. When I clicked on this message to send a polite response, this is what the eBay messaging system showed me:

"To keep everyone safe on eBay, please don't send messages that include contact info. Repeated attempts could lead to an account suspension or other penalties. Learn more about our member-to-member contact policy."

To which I can only say, "Whatttt?"

There was no contact information, telephone numbers, websites or anything similar to a html code, etc. which I understand would be flagged by the bots. My exact message (sans her name and mine) is what you see above in bold and Italics. I was then blocked from being able to send her a response to her second message, and had to use the reply button in her first message, to which I have already responded. Does the number 2 (as in two items) create a mortal threat for eBay's revenue?

To me, it looks like there is some programming error at fault, but I do not appreciate being punched in the stomach by these "kind" disciplining reminder while innocent! Hmm. Happy evening!

PW

Hi @prettywoman-2012, when we identify that there has potentially been a request/offer or attempted request/offer to take a transaction off eBay, both parties will receive the educational warning being discussed here. I wanted to clarify this as you may receive this kind of automated message again in the future, but it has no impact on your account by itself. We would only apply consequences for a violation of this policy if we investigate and find a violation of our policy of keeping transactions on eBay. Though you may not have received a message from your buyer with anything that could be considered a violation, your customer may have attempted to send this kind of message (thus generating the automatic message you referenced).

Again, I want to reassure you that you have nothing to worry about if you are not taking transactions outside of our marketplace. This is simply a policy we take very seriously, so we send educational warnings to both parties any time our system identifies an attempt to buy or sell outside of eBay. You can review more information about this policy here.

ga-8370 · ‎12-31-2019

Hi @Anonymous,

To keep everyone safe on eBay, please don't send messages that include contact info. Repeated attempts could lead to an account suspension or other penalties. Learn more about our member-to-member contact policy.

is shown as a banner whenever an eBay message is being composed. No paranoia here.

turquoisetulips · ‎12-31-2019

''Gone haywire '' is to imply it ever stopped . Tulips

prettywoman-2012 · ‎01-01-2020

@Anonymous Hi Trinton Thanks for clarifying this. I was wondering, though, since I definitely did NOT make any attempt in that message to take transactions away from eBay, if your software gurus could edit the programming so people who like me did not try to initiate or suggest a transaction to be completed outside of eBay on a given listings would NOT receive this message? I am not a software programmer, however, I believe in common sense. My common sense tells me, if a software can be created to flag such an attempt, then perhaps it could also be programmable to only notify the party who attempted such conversation, and only give that party the warning, instead both the initiating and the receiving party who does not even know (as is my case) that such attempt may have been made?

What do you think?

Thank you for your time.

PW

prettywoman-2012 · ‎01-01-2020

@Anonymous Additionally (sorry, I ran out of time to edit my above post):

There must be some way to communicate with sellers who did not engage in such activities. If we can distinguish between someone intending to rob a bank (the potential perpetrator) and the one who was almost victimized by such attempt (e.g., the owner of a bank or the teller, a.k.a. the intended target), telling both of them "next time you might go to jail" is kind of RUDE, in my opinion, and missing the point entirely.

I wish Mr. Sweetnam would read this thread, as this would be a great place to start with regaining sellers' trust, and definitely should go onto his bucket list of things to do, as in reviewing the tone of voice eBay communicates with people, that seems to be void of the recognition that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and not the other way around (at least according to the rule of LAW). Is there anything you personally could do to improve the quality of communications, so the accusatory tone is replaced by an adequate notice in a similar case, for example, "We have detected an attempt to lure you into an off-ebay transaction, therefore, some of the communication between you and the person initiating such attempt may be temporarily disabled. Rest assured, this does not affect your account or you personally."

Thank you for your time.

PW

Anonymous · ‎01-02-2020

@prettywoman-2012 wrote:

@Anonymous Additionally (sorry, I ran out of time to edit my above post):

There must be some way to communicate with sellers who did not engage in such activities. If we can distinguish between someone intending to rob a bank (the potential perpetrator) and the one who was almost victimized by such attempt (e.g., the owner of a bank or the teller, a.k.a. the intended target), telling both of them "next time you might go to jail" is kind of RUDE, in my opinion, and missing the point entirely.

I wish Mr. Sweetnam would read this thread, as this would be a great place to start with regaining sellers' trust, and definitely should go onto his bucket list of things to do, as in reviewing the tone of voice eBay communicates with people, that seems to be void of the recognition that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and not the other way around (at least according to the rule of LAW). Is there anything you personally could do to improve the quality of communications, so the accusatory tone is replaced by an adequate notice in a similar case, for example, "We have detected an attempt to lure you into an off-ebay transaction, therefore, some of the communication between you and the person initiating such attempt may be temporarily disabled. Rest assured, this does not affect your account or you personally."

Thank you for your time.

PW

Hi @prettywoman-2012, while I'm certain that the programming requests you have made are possible, our intention is to take steps to prevent violations of this policy and as such, want to send emails to both parties to ensure that everyone is made aware of where stand on this issue. While you won't be aware of another's attempt to send a message that violates this policy when we successfully block it, there is a higher chance in that situation that the other party has successfully sent messages that would violate this policy that we may not have caught. To ensure nothing is missed, an educational email is sent to both parties.

Though I totally understand why this has raised some questions, the current design of how these messages are sent is how we would like them to be sent. I'll continue to pass along feedback on this experience as I have since the emails first began, but wanted to be clear that similar feedback has been shared in the past and we've received confirmation that this is the intended experience.