Links in eBay messages no longer allowed

[sin-n-dex]

I used to be able to send USPS and Canada Post, etc, links with tracking. I used to give Chit Chats tracking links all the time.

Now I got this when trying to provide an international buyer with Stallion Express tracking info:

C.

[a_c_green]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

I used to be able to send USPS and Canada Post, etc, links with tracking. I used to give Chit Chats tracking links all the time.

Now I got this when trying to provide an international buyer with Stallion Express tracking info:

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Right; you'll need to reword your message as a text description of whatever you need your buyer to look at. For example, you might tell him to Google the web site for that company, although hopefully you can still pass along tracking numbers or whatever else is relevant for him.

[robbie31415]

It's not all links, I've had that a few times.

They may have a white-list and maybe stallion isnt on it.

Or maybe they made changes blocking them all

Hard to know eBay makes silent changes so it's hard to know without testing.

The last time I provided a USPS link it worked.

Does ParcelsApp support that tracking? Maybe it would work.

[wastingtime101]

I could be wrong, but I think @iamalwaysright posted recently and said they couldn't send an Asendia tracking link through eBay messages?

Either way, the screenshot in the OP specifically says they "prohibit the use of links that take users off the eBay platform" so it sounds like they are banning everything except eBay internal links.

Can you confirm if this is a recent change devon@ebay ? We can't, for example, send buyers a USPS link through eBay messages? That was always possible in the past but I'm seeing a lot more reports of blocks with eBay messages.

If that's the case then what ACGreen suggested is probably the best we can do - tell the buyer to enter tracking at the carrier's website and make them look it up themself.

[robbie31415]

Perhaps, I sort of want to test it, but don't want to send any buyers a random message.

I know I recently gave a local pickup customer a google maps link within the last month, so it would have to be a recent change.

Best way to test if it's all links would be with the USPS as it's a trusted link and if there was a whitelist I'm sure USPS would be on it.

[wastingtime101]

Try to send me a link through eBay messages if you want - post a USPS link for tracking or missing mail. You'll know if you see the block and if you don't see a block I can tell you if the message comes through with the link.

OR - send a message between your selling ID and posting ID.

[sin-n-dex]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

I used to be able to send USPS and Canada Post, etc, links with tracking. I used to give Chit Chats tracking links all the time.

Now I got this when trying to provide an international buyer with Stallion Express tracking info:

---

Right; you'll need to reword your message as a text description of whatever you need your buyer to look at. For example, you might tell him to Google the web site for that company, although hopefully you can still pass along tracking numbers or whatever else is relevant for him.

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I gave the buyer the reference and told him it's "Stallion Express". Probably what irks me more than seeing this message is that they completely delete everything I wrote, after providing a wordy explanation about shipping and such, they just go and delete it all on me because they don't like the link.

For a while I was in the habit of copying and pasting my messages in case ebay didn't like them. I used to get "bad request" a lot for saying things like "I transact in US Dollars" or something about money, that eBay flagged as scam bait.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@robbie31415 wrote:

It's not all links, I've had that a few times.

They may have a white-list and maybe stallion isnt on it.

Or maybe they made changes blocking them all

Hard to know eBay makes silent changes so it's hard to know without testing.

The last time I provided a USPS link it worked.

Does ParcelsApp support that tracking? Maybe it would work.

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Good idea - ParcelsApp.

Stallion Express must not be allowed, but you're right that USPS links seem to go OK (at least they did in the past, same with Chit Chats, I had no problem providing tracking there to customers who were concerned about their package).

I will try a ParcelsApp tracking link next time.

C.

[a_c_green]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:
I gave the buyer the reference and told him it's "Stallion Express". Probably what irks me more than seeing this message is that they completely delete everything I wrote, after providing a wordy explanation about shipping and such, they just go and delete it all on me because they don't like the link.

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I agree that saving your message in a text buffer (Ctrl+A to highlight it all and then Ctrl+C to save it) before hitting the Send button is a good precaution, but the last time I got blocked this way, I was able to just hit the Back button on my browser (Chrome on Windows 10), and it took me back to my message window with the text still in it.

In some testing recently, I found that an external website would be blocked right away (I don't know if there's a whitelist of accepted third-party sites), but it knew the difference between that and a link under *.ebay.com, and would accept that.

What it still fails to do, from what I can see, is provide the IRL as an actual working (clickable) link within the message. That's basic stuff in any texting app, and yet the silly "updated" desktop messaging utility that is trying to look like a texting app still cannot do that much.

[robbie31415 · Accepted solution]

I was able to send myself a USPS link.

So as I thought it's not all links.

Ebay probably just doesn't recognize Stallion.

[wastingtime101]

Thanks for testing/confirming @robbie31415 .

[sin-n-dex]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@sin-n-dex wrote:
I gave the buyer the reference and told him it's "Stallion Express". Probably what irks me more than seeing this message is that they completely delete everything I wrote, after providing a wordy explanation about shipping and such, they just go and delete it all on me because they don't like the link.

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I agree that saving your message in a text buffer (Ctrl+A to highlight it all and then Ctrl+C to save it) before hitting the Send button is a good precaution, but the last time I got blocked this way, I was able to just hit the Back button on my browser (Chrome on Windows 10), and it took me back to my message window with the text still in it.

In some testing recently, I found that an external website would be blocked right away (I don't know if there's a whitelist of accepted third-party sites), but it knew the difference between that and a link under *.ebay.com, and would accept that.

What it still fails to do, from what I can see, is provide the IRL as an actual working (clickable) link within the message. That's basic stuff in any texting app, and yet the silly "updated" desktop messaging utility that is trying to look like a texting app still cannot do that much.

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I had enough messages deleted I ctrl-A/ctrl-C if I write a lot, especially if I'm looking stuff up and spending lots of time on a message. (Sometimes I even do those on wordpad as a backup).

I sent an eBay link to a buyer on Sunday and he got it fine, since he bought the item. I've done USPS, Canada Post and Chit Chats links in the past, but I haven't been a Chit Chats client since April, so I haven't got recent info.

Stallion Express is starting to concern me. I got an email about third party vendor for USPS postage (that was a previous thread), and they're not on the list of authorized vendors (or they're listed under a parent company that I don't know the name of). SE uses Asendia for a lot of shipments (like International ones), and I read in this thread that eBay won't allow those links to be shared.

C.

[iamalwaysright]

No. My recent one was with asendia using the parcelsapp link thru the messaging within the INR case. I never sent a direct eBay message to the buyer. It was fine for me but I never double checked if my message removed any characters off that link when I sent it. Sometimes I notice eBay removes an apostrophe or quotation in the INR message system.