How is someone able to inspect before bidding if you cant give them your phone number?

[bretta75]

How can ebay expect someone to spend thousands of dollars on an item with out looking at it first?  You cant put your phone number on a listing or send it in a message to a potential bidder to give them your address.  

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

recent posts on some threads on these boards have reported that if a buyer sends a seller a message asking if they can inspect the item before bidding/buying then the seller gets a warning from eBay about selling off-eBay.

Quite ridiculous really, because sellers have no control over what a buyer sends them in a message.

[janeababe]

try writing your phone number using words......  I dont know if it would work...

eg:   zero four one four nine nine nine two one two  (sorry to anyone who might actually own this fictious number LOL)

[clarry100]

Print you phone number onto a sheet of paper.

Then take a photo of that and attach it as an image to a message.

The bots don't detect this (yet).

[*tippy*toes*]

That could work Jane. I've given my email by writing in full, with added bits. The bots pick up on things like abc at cba dot com dot au. I used to put the words in brackets, but they pick them up now too. The last few times I've written it like ABC ATtic CBA DOTh COMpany DOTh AUnt and said to follow the capitals. So far so good. Clarry's way works too (for now, until the stop allowing attachments).

[go-tazz]

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@clarry100 wrote:

Print you phone number onto a sheet of paper.

Then take a photo of that and attach it as an image to a message.

The bots don't detect this (yet).

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Not allowed from September(I presume they'll include messages in that):

Removing contact information

From September 2017 you won’t be able to include contact information, i.e. phone numbers, email addresses or social media profiles, in item descriptions, images, eBay Stores or seller profiles.

Buyers and sellers should always use eBay messaging tools, such as My Messages or Best Offer, to communicate with each other.

Sharing contact information in listings often leads to transactions being taken off eBay.

This is against our policies, and limits our ability to protect you in case something goes wrong.

We know that many sellers offer telephone support as part of providing great customer service.

From mid-2017, if you’re an eBay Store subscriber or list in the Motor Vehicles category, you’ll be able to indicate whether or not you’d like us to share your customer service phone number with buyers via the Ask a question link.

We recommend you update any active listings now which contain your contact details.

Sharing contact information will still be permitted within classified ad listings.

[stable05]

This issue is affecting me as well. Ebay have advised me that a prospective buyer actually needs to make the purchase first before they can receive contact details to inspect the item. This doesnt work on so many levels!

But I've been thinking (I have the flu so plenty of time on my hands): a seller could legitimately direct buyers wanting to inspect their high value items to purchase a $0.99 'bag of fresh air' or some other random object, a paperclip etc etc. Pick Up only of course. "If you would like to inspect item #????? then please purchase item #???? and i will be in touch as Ebay policy prevents me from contacting you until you have made a purchase from me.  You are not obliged to go through with the purchase of this $0.99 item'.  The buyer makes the $0.99 purchase which would enable the seller to legally provide contact information to the buyer, then when they come to collect their 'bag of fresh air/paperclip etc ' the seller can show them the item they are really interested in.? Then, if they want to, the parties could agree to mutually cancel the 'bag of fresh air/paperclip etc' sale (maybe the air wasn't quite the right flavour) so the seller has only lost, at worst, $1.50 all up (the listing fee for the 'bag of fresh air') but at least the buyer has been able to legally get the seller's contact details without breaching ebay policy thereby allowing them to inspect the item they are really interested in.  They can then go home and bid on said item in the knowledge that it is worth their investment....

Convoluted? Desperate? Or stunningly clever? 🙂

p.s. if you are reading this as an ebay representative please understand how commercially obstructive your 'no contact info before purchase' policy is - to both buyers and sellers (which i have spoken to you about directly several weeks ago). Sellers will be forced to take extreme actions like this (or other methods mentioned on these boards such as photographing your phone number) to try and encourage legitimate sales. At least with my idea it is a legal way to communicate with customers and ebay still make $1.50!!
Ebays justification (in regards to blocking contact information sharing) of 'we are trying to protect you as a seller/buyer' does not hold water, IMO

[collect247]

Look it doesn't matter well it never did a couple of years ago,I sold a few items that were pick up only.

The buyers did pay before they could inspect the items and once they came to collect their items they inspected them and took them.

But there was a couple that didn't want them after inspecting them so all I did was refund their money at the buyers request as they didn't want the item after all.

But I'm not to sure at what would happen now if a seller and a buyer went down this road?

[imastawka]

Add to the mix that there's no protection for pick up items.

If the buyer has to buy before getting any details, are they supposed to trust

that the seller will refund, if the item is not to their liking, when they inspect?

[stable05]

And - if the buyer purchases the item merely so they have the opportunity to inspect it, then other potential buyers will no longer be able to see the listing in your 'For Sale' list.  

If your 'inspecting only' buyer takes a few days to come and view the item, then you are potentially missing out on other sales opportunties for that item.