eBay warning message

[happysimple]

Read below. Are you not allowed to auction an item for local pickup?? I posted an item as an auction for local pickup only and eBay sent the following message to me. I don't understand what I'm missing? We’re writing to let you know that activity on your account may not be following an important eBay policy that requires all transactions and payments to be completed on eBay. Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay aren't allowed. This includes: - Offering or requesting contact information or links within a member-to-member message without a recent transaction - Displaying contact information or links in a listing except as allowed in the policy or required by law Below are the details of where the activity occurred: 282847570608 - Sectional Sofa Gray Cloth Upholstered Modern Contemporary Couch Furniture In order to protect you and your buyers if something goes wrong, transactions must be completed on eBay. We’re invested in bringing you more buyers and helping your business grow. We want to continue to partner with you to do that. eBay provides methods to personalize a transaction. For example, you can make a private offer to your buyer or set up your listings to invite best offers. We understand that you might not have known about these policies. At this time, no restrictions are being placed on your account. However all applicable fees for the item(s) where this activity occurred still apply. We encourage you to review the details of the policy to understand what you can and can’t do. During the next 3 days, please make sure your selling activities follow these guidelines. If you don't, your account(s) may be subject to a range of actions, including: - Final value fees may be assessed when you have offers to sell outside of eBay, even if the item didn't actually sell. - You won’t be able to list or buy for up to 7 days. - Some or all of your fixed price listings may be hidden from search results for 7 days, and fees won't be refunded. - You won’t be able to send or receive messages with eBay members unless you have a recent transaction.

[ted_200 · Accepted solution]

I love a mile of boilerplate that doesn't really explain anything...

My guess is it has nothing to do with auctions or local pickup, but over "contact information".  Either something went through Messages that eBay thinks is an attempt exchange contact information (now not allowed), or there is something in your listing... like a ph# or something else... that they consider contact information. 

[ted_200]

We’re writing to let you know that activity on your account may not be following an important eBay policy that requires all transactions and payments to be completed on eBay. Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay aren't allowed. This includes: - Offering or requesting contact information or links within a member-to-member message without a recent transaction - Displaying contact information or links in a listing except as allowed in the policy or required by law Below are the details of where the activity occurred: 282847570608 - Sectional Sofa Gray Cloth Upholstered Modern Contemporary Couch Furniture In order to protect you and your buyers if something goes wrong, transactions must be completed on eBay. We’re invested in bringing you more buyers and helping your business grow. We want to continue to partner with you to do that. eBay provides methods to personalize a transaction. For example, you can make a private offer to your buyer or set up your listings to invite best offers. We understand that you might not have known about these policies. At this time, no restrictions are being placed on your account. However all applicable fees for the item(s) where this activity occurred still apply. We encourage you to review the details of the policy to understand what you can and can’t do. During the next 3 days, please make sure your selling activities follow these guidelines. If you don't, your account(s) may be subject to a range of actions, including: - Final value fees may be assessed when you have offers to sell outside of eBay, even if the item didn't actually sell. - You won’t be able to list or buy for up to 7 days. - Some or all of your fixed price listings may be hidden from search results for 7 days, and fees won't be refunded. - You won’t be able to send or receive messages with eBay members unless you have a recent transaction.

[happysimple]

Thank you very much. Your comment helped and I am still a little confused as to what eBay saw because I did nothing other than end the listing and realist it. Same info as before.

Thanks again

[castlemagicmemories]

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@happysimplewrote:
Thank you very much. Your comment helped and I am still a little confused as to what eBay saw because I did nothing other than end the listing and realist it. Same info as before.

Thanks again

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I believe the bots saw you ended a local pick up listing and assumed you were taking the transaction off ebay.  JMO

[ted_200]

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@happysimplewrote:
Thank you very much. Your comment helped and I am still a little confused as to what eBay saw because I did nothing other than end the listing and realist it. Same info as before.

Thanks again

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Did you receive (or send) any communications from any potential buyers through eBay Messages?  They're using a bot to screen them, people are getting dinged for sending a part number and eBay thinks it's a phone number or something. 

ETA:  If a buyer inquired where you live & how far away from them you are - to comply with the local pickup - that could be enough to trigger eBay's paranoia.

I didn't see anything in the new listing, but relisting anything after getting a warning for something will certainly draw the attention of eBay's bots again. 

[happysimple]

I had no potential buyers and there was no correspondence at all. I wanted to relist the item to extend the date that's all.

[ted_200]

Beats me.  If you still have no idea, you probably want to call eBay CS and find out what's going on and why you got that.  They're sounding pretty hostile there.

[happysimple]

I will call first thing in the morning. Thanks for all your help and to everyone else who replied.

[ted_200]

We'd be interested in hearing what you find out, other sellers are facing challenges with this issue at the moment.  Good luck.

[happysimple]

I will post my findings for sure. The least I can do for all the help I received.

[slippinjimmy]

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@happysimplewrote:
I will call first thing in the morning. Thanks for all your help and to everyone else who replied.

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It's a "warning" if you didn't do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about and a call will be pointless.

For local pick-up orders, if you get any inquiries from potential buyers asking you for info you should only give them the geographical (neighborhood) details. Specific address and other contact information should not be given prior to the item being purchased.

Ending the listing early might be what triggered the warning, you probably should have let it run to the end and then relist. Hard to tell for sure, the 'bots are still learning and they seem to be getting a few false positives.

[ted_200]

For local pick-up orders, if you get any inquiries from potential buyers asking you for info you should only give them the geographical (neighborhood) details. Specific address and other contact information should not be given prior to the item being purchased.

We sorta covered all that, and he says that's not it.  I didn't want to mention it, it would be ridiculous by even eBay standards, but it's possible his mention that the sofa is in a 3rd floor apartment might make eBay think he's trying to direct potential buyers to his house to do an off-eBay transaction. 

And the threats they detailed seem to be beyond the standard "warning" the blues (eBay employees) have been describing here.   Since he hasn't actually changed anything, I'm worried he'll get sanctioned as threatened if he doesn't figure out exactly why he got warned.

[slippinjimmy]

The OP's warning message is the exact same one that's been posted a couple of times over the past month or two.

It is somewhat different then one I recieved in March 2017 but parts use the exact same wording.

[coolections]

The OP changed the description 3 times. After that they ended the listing. My guess something was left out that we are not being told.