No Contact with buyers even if they ask for help with an e-bay Item.

[biblioboy]

What you see are the extact e-mails and responses. So now you can not tell an e-bay customer that you have the item they want even when listed on e-bay for sale. And all the e-mails are being sent through the e-bay system.  

Good luck to all and remember we do have some power to fight this as, we own all the goods sold on fee-bay.  E-bay was once a good site as all of us who have been around awhile remember but it gets worst every year.  I have 40,000 item listed on over 5 different sites with only a few 1000 listed here. this is years of work and I will not let e-bay destory it.  My sales here keep droping and when I do not make money I will leave but my items will remain for sale on many other sites. 

Best to all 

biblioboy

[sharingtheland]

Forgive me if the statements in this paragraph have already been addressed; I haven't read all three pages and must dash now. 

coolections, you're teetering on the edge of your pro-ebay stance.  Isn't it supposed to be about a "better buyer experience", all the time, every time, every way?   This particular potential buyer may not even know how to "see sellers (sic) other items".   Maybe it was a better experience to simply ask about the availability of one particular item.

[stonevintage]

The message system is a wonderful way to cross sell items. If you get a friendly buyer that expresses they are a collector of certain items - it's a golden opportunity.

Many times over the years, I've made sales this way.  All I do is tell the potential buyer what day and time I'll list the item as a BIN and bam! They swoop it up and everyone's happy.  That's selling.

[megadestroyers]

"If not now I can see that coming in the future for those that continue to bypass the restrictions."

If you're really buying into the "off ebay" propoganda, step back just a few minutes.  Bypass what restrictions?  If an item is listed, it's for sale.  If the item doesn't sell, ebay still owns it for all eternity and you are powerless to do anything with it except let it gather dust?  That's interesting.

[thenobletuckylife]

If I remember correctly...it was the uniqueness of communication between members including 12 pictures that actually built ebay into the platform that it is now devouring.

I remember once when my children were young that both my son and daughter were "tussling/fighting" when my son let out a scream.

Mrs C went to investigate the situation and our 4 year old son indicated that his sister bit him on the arm. Mrs C inspected the bruising (which was pretty significant to the point of breaking the skin) when in her motherly wisdom saw that it was not the teeth imprints of our daughter but that of our son. Turns out that our son actually ended up biting himself...BUSTED!

I think of this now when thinking of ebay and how it handles it's sellers.

Mr C

[hioctane62]

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@stonevintage wrote:

The message system is a wonderful way to cross sell items. If you get a friendly buyer that expresses they are a collector of certain items - it's a golden opportunity.

Many times over the years, I've made sales this way.  All I do is tell the potential buyer what day and time I'll list the item as a BIN and bam! They swoop it up and everyone's happy.  That's selling.

---

Exactly. People also use it to negotiate "lots" of items, special deals for bulk purchases, and any number of other things that do not involve taking sales off of ebay. The way ebay is setting it up now, the only next step is to do away with the message system altogether.

[megadestroyers]

"I think of this now when thinking of ebay and how it handles it's sellers."

But obviously not the arm?

[d-k_treasures]

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@books...forthememories wrote:

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@moondogblues wrote:
Which might lead one to surmise that they are on shaky financial footing lately?

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Well, if they got rid of Can'tSeeMe and fixed the search, everyone's sales would go up...meaning ebay would make lots more money.  And sellers would be more successful here too.

Something they should think about.  And stop using "artificial intelligence;" it isn't nearly as effective as the real thing.  

---

What I can't figure out is how a company with NO intelligence thinks they can come up with artificial intelligence.

[d-k_treasures]

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@michael_atw wrote:

I have buyers asking me all the time if I have "x".  I sell rare, vintage items.  People want to know if I am getting or have something at the time.  I typically don't but this literally happens almost daily.  

---

Me too. And I LIKE it. It gives me something to look for at an auction.

[d-k_treasures]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@thenobletuckylife wrote:
And then how many of those "Flagged" attempts are being "remembered/stored" to use against you at a later date?

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Exactly how would they be "used against me"? 

---

I'm sure they will find a way. 

[ymeagainlord]

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@coolections wrote:

Not kidding. If I have something to sale I list it. If it is not listed no need to ask me. With that said it looks as if people do not grasp the idea of what Ebay is sellng. It is not personal web space. You need to open your own website for that.

---

Good for you, but I, like I'm sure many others here, have a whole BUNCH of stuff I haven't gotten around to listing (yet).

So if a buyer asks me do I happen to have xx then it's possible I do and if I can locate it I'm happy to list it for them.

[kaykeecorp]

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@coolections wrote:

Not kidding. If I have something to sale I list it. If it is not listed no need to ask me. With that said it looks as if people do not grasp the idea of what Ebay is sellng. It is not personal web space. You need to open your own website for that.

---

Unfortunately, your comments are not in alignment with eBay's own policies on member to member contact.

"we encourage open communication between our members..."

"communication between members is a key part of the eBay buying and selling experience..."

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe-spam-ov.html

[nowthatsjustducky]

Or alternatively, if it is not currently listed, the seller could go ahead and relist it here; or it may be listed elsewhere instead; in which case there is no harm in letting the buyer know; and advising them that it would be unethical to then end its listing over on Etsy so that it can be sold here instead.  Sauce for the goose, you know.

[michael_atw]

It's these things that slowly degrade Ebay.  Insidious changes.  TRS changes aren't insidious - those are the reduction of bonuses.  Things like fee increases, resolution center changes (for the worse), and banning M2M contact for no reason are what inevitably reduces the platform. 

[garmentvarmint2004]

Well,   that  certainly sounds  reassuring. 

[godzilla_goose]

coolections,

You are certainly right to your opinions as is everyone else.

IF I were an eBay seller, I would welcome questions and this has NOTHING to do with trying to do deals OFF eBay. It is a part of customer service and IF I am NOT answering questions, then I am not doing anything proactive in serving potential buyers/customers.

It is NO different than me walking into a brick-and-mortar store and NOT wanting to waste my time while in there. I had an idea in my mind what I wanted to buy from a Best Buy Store. I visited a Best Buy location that I had NEVER visited before and was GREETED at the entrance. I kindly asked the associate, "Could you please direct me to where you have your External Storage Drives? Thank you kindly." She answered AND gestured with her hands and directed me to the specific part of the store so that I could go and find the item and buy what I was looking for in less than 5 minutes. She CONVERTED a simple question by me into a successful SALE (in THAT particular Best Buy Store location).

Now, when eBay bots are being used to try and flag communications between buyers and sellers or between potential buyers and sellers, eBay is doing eBay sellers NO favour when the eBay seller, as far as I am concerned, is trying to address questions about items and nowhere has there been any overt indication that a deal is being formed OFF eBay.

For example, if @luckythewinner has to spend 30 minutes typing, re-typing, editing, typing, editing, typing, editing a message BEFORE it can go though, what kind of an impression is the intended recipient going to get if it appears that the seller is not answering in a timely manner (if at all) because eBay is IMPEDING communications between users?

If communication is being impeded, HOW is that kind of eBay "measure" supposed to increase SALES for sellers ON eBay? If a potential buyer asks @thenobletuckylife if he has a particular product, THEN and ONLY then does the eBay seller KNOW that there is interest in a particular product that the eBay seller CAN then list ON eBay and make a SALE ON eBay and eBay will get its Final Value Fees. To me, this approach seems more efficient than an eBay seller listing 1000s of items and hoping for someone to find what they are looking for ESPECIALLY when eBay Search is so buggered up to begin with and leaves potential customers LEAVING the site out of frustration.

To me, it is ONE thing that a potential customer can FIND something he/she is looking for ON site and it is another thing when the site, for whatever reason(s), is making this task more cumbersome and/or inefficient to the prospective buyer who then leaves the site out of frustration not being able to find what he/she is looking for when the product is being BURRIED on the site by the site's technology/algorithms.