@nudgea wrote:Are they hiding from buyers pre sale questions for a reason
Yes, but not necessarily for the reason you presume. I mean that's certainly a possibility, but it's not the only one.
There is a setting on ebay for sellers that blocks questions from members who have not already purchased.
A few reasons I can think some sellers might opt to block messages, that don't necessarily indicate they are dodgy sellers:
- The receive a high volume of messages daily and can't answer them all, at least not without hiring dedicated staff members whose sole duty it is to respond to customer enquiries - some of them would already have staff to do this just with buyers who did go ahead with a purchase; someone has to sit there are reply to all the "please post ASAP" messages so that someone else can actually get on with posting the items (not relevant to your post, I know, it's just a bug-bear of mine
) - Their description already conveys all of the information they want to convey
- To prevent offers / negotiations on items because they don't negotiate (on price, delivery options, or any other factor), and to avoid having to use the most offensive word known to some people: no
- To prevent being hit with policy violations because of the content of another member's message
- They don't speak any of the most common languages spoken in the countries in which they would receive questions, or at least not well enough to avoid slapstick comedy-level misunderstandings
