eBay

jordangtp · ‎06-21-2018

I'm selling an item with Buy It Now, and I'm accepting offers. I received an offer for the item yesterday and I countered it. Then things got weird.

I received an email from the user who made the offer, sent directly to my email address. It was not sent via the eBay messaging system (I'm a web developer and inspected the email headers — it never touched eBay's servers), I have never published this email address anywhere, and I have never worked with this buyer before (he's a new eBay user).

When I did not respond after an hour, he messaged me again through the actual eBay messaging system, claiming that he was having a hard time contacting me and he was afraid his first message didn't get through. He also apologized and stated that he was 80 years old and struggled using computers. When I didn't respond to that in two and a half hours, I got a phone call from eBay, where a representative lightly scolded me for not having responded to this buyer's inquiry yet (right in the middle of a busy Wednesday workday, and I have a 100% positive feedback rating).

When I asked the rep how this other user could have emailed me directly, she confirmed that shouldn't be possible.

When I messaged the user in question and asked him how he got it, he said "I had a terrible time trying to get an e-mail to you to ask questions. Kept getting notice of not being sent so I called eBay and they sent me several different note codes that I just had to enter that did not look like regular e-mail addresses so one of them apparently got thru to you."

I've been an eBayer since 2006, and I have absolutely no idea what he's talking about.

Is there a mechanism for any other user to access any other user's email address? If you call eBay, will they give out the email address of any user? What is a "note code"?

What is going on here? If a confused 80-year-old can get my email address, what could a more sophisticated user with bad intentions be capable of?

brjen-32 · ‎06-21-2018

First I'd block the buyer.

Then I would assume some CSR gave them your email address, I would also bet the call you got from eBay wasn't really from eBay.

gkyn29 · ‎06-21-2018

Sounds like you got phished.

n2knowledge · ‎06-21-2018

@brjen-32 wrote:
First I'd block the buyer.

Then I would assume some CSR gave them your email address, I would also bet the call you got from eBay wasn't really from eBay.

Yes, maybe call and ask for safety and trust team on this one. IF WE Can't give out email addresses through the venue - why can EBAY give them out for out of venue sales!

a_c_green · ‎06-21-2018

There have been similar stories in the past where a CSR did indeed call the seller on behalf of the buyer, such as what sounds like happened in this case. Given that the CSR had access to the seller phone number, it's not that much of a stretch to think that the CSR might have shared your email address with the buyer, too. I'm in IT myself, and I don't know what the buyer is referring to as "note codes" either.

jordangtp · ‎06-21-2018

@brjen-32 wrote:
First I'd block the buyer.

Then I would assume some CSR gave them your email address, I would also bet the call you got from eBay wasn't really from eBay.

I was suspicious of the call, too, but it was from eBay's customer service number, the rep confirmed my account name, and never asked me for any private information.

mrv71 · ‎06-21-2018

That's why I don't give eBay a real phone number. How many weirdoes are still out there????

sin-n-dex · ‎06-21-2018

@a_c_green wrote:
There have been similar stories in the past where a CSR did indeed call the seller on behalf of the buyer, such as what sounds like happened in this case. Given that the CSR had access to the seller phone number, it's not that much of a stretch to think that the CSR might have shared your email address with the buyer, too. I'm in IT myself, and I don't know what the buyer is referring to as "note codes" either.

I got an email from eBay two hours before the end of an auction to tell me that a zero feedback bidder didn't read my description or look at my photos and he doesn't want what he bid on, could I cancel his bids because he doesn't know how.

They called it a "courtesy" email, and gave me the buyer's case reference number.

So eBay does contact sellers about things buyers are complaining about, however I never heard of it being done by phone until now. I err on the side of caution anyway and treat all calls suspiciously.

Cheers, C.

eurydicesjewels · ‎06-21-2018

I can absolutely see this happening. Maybe someone who got his call was feeling a little sentimental (I know a stretch) and decided to help this old guy out. When you didn't respond, maybe somehow he got the same CSR again (another stretch) who decided to chide you for not responding. I had one CSR that I wouldn't dare repeat what she said to me and the next two times I called in, I was immediately passed to her. That was unpleasant.

So many strange things happen. Nothing surprises me anymore.

The person at the top of the mountain didn't just fall there, just hope he actually climbed up.

dougsue123b · ‎06-21-2018

It is easy to spoof a phone number on caller ID. So never go by that.

1stufftobuy · ‎06-21-2018

They could have used advanced search.

When someone does use this method you should get an email that informs you that another member requested your info and give you their info.

tiramisu41 · ‎06-21-2018

@sin-n-dex wrote:
@a_c_green wrote:
There have been similar stories in the past where a CSR did indeed call the seller on behalf of the buyer, such as what sounds like happened in this case. Given that the CSR had access to the seller phone number, it's not that much of a stretch to think that the CSR might have shared your email address with the buyer, too. I'm in IT myself, and I don't know what the buyer is referring to as "note codes" either.
I got an email from eBay two hours before the end of an auction to tell me that a zero feedback bidder didn't read my description or look at my photos and he doesn't want what he bid on, could I cancel his bids because he doesn't know how.

They called it a "courtesy" email, and gave me the buyer's case reference number.

So eBay does contact sellers about things buyers are complaining about, however I never heard of it being done by phone until now. I err on the side of caution anyway and treat all calls suspiciously.

Cheers, C.

I got a "courtesy email" once from PAYPAL saying that one of my buyers realized after she bought something from me that she had the wrong address in her account so she contacted PayPal for help. The CSR from PayPal asked me to send it to some other address.

I thought it was complete bee-ess, called both eBay and PayPal, and both said they never had heard of that happening or that it was a legitimate thing for a CS rep to do. I ended up cancelling the sale, saying "Problem with address" but out of curiosity, I called PayPal back until I was able to get a hold of someone with authority.

Sent a copy of the message I received so they would know who sent the message to me. A couple of days later I got a rather sheepish call back from the PayPal higher-up I had spoken to. He admitted, the CS rep indeed worked for them and had sent the message, but also said it was *not* SOP procedure, and he thanked me for letting them know the incident had happened so they could "do some coaching."

So bottom line, I think CSRs at both eBay and PayPal from time to time have "gone rogue" but for obvious reasons, I don't think they've gotten kudos from the powers that be for doing so as it can cause all sorts of problems especially since you really have no way of knowing if the contact is legit or someone running a scam/con.

tamaralea · ‎06-21-2018

Maybe the buyer works for eBay.

jordangtp · ‎06-21-2018

@1stufftobuy wrote:
They could have used advanced search.
When someone does use this method you should get an email that informs you that another member requested your info and give you their info.

Yeah, I've actually had that happen to me before with a scam buyer who got my phone number, so I was looking out for it (but they were actually a buyer). At that time, eBay did notify me that the seller had requested my personal information.

This time, however, I checked my spam folder and double-checked all other messages from eBay, but I was never notified of anything like that and the item has not sold.

fab_finds4u · ‎06-21-2018

Note code. Like a MailTo link. Have you ever sent a message to someone on Craigslist using their message reply system? You get a string of letters and numbers @ blah blah blah craigslist for their email address. You send the email to that address and person in the ad receives the email without you knowing what their email address was. CL was the middle man to pass on the email. Something like that. I think that's what they mean about the note code.

eBay used to share contact information if a buyer placed a bid, made an offer or bought an item. All the seller or buyer had to do was go to advanced search and request it after a bid was placed or an offer was made and eBay would send both parties each other's info. Then eBay caught on a lot of sales were being completed off eBay to avoid fees. Therefore, eBay decided to stop sharing contact information unless the buyer had won.

On the other hand,,,,,,,,,,the buyer making an offer is showing a strong interest in your item. I believe eBay was only trying to make sure they could contact you so they can ask questions and be able to negotiate or come to terms. You are trying to sell it, right? They may have been blocked from your eBay messages because you blocked buyers that don't have a PayPal account and they don't have a PayPal account. Just saying that's a good reason for them to contact eBay and tell them there was a problem with you getting their messages, and eBay tried to be helpful by giving them a note code to pass on the message to your email address.

I seriously don't know what the big deal is about them having your email address. I do know when I first joined a transaction was supposed to have transparency for both parties. You agreed to share your contact information with someone who placed a bid or won. That's because you have a right to know who you're selling to and who you're buying from. Your contact infornation is your name, address, phone and email address. That's all eBay will ever divulge. You personal information is your birthdate, SSN, and banking information and that's never given out.