An ebay member has a question for you

[beerandpizzaplz]

"An eBay member has a question for you.

A buyer is interested in the product you've recently purchased, but they have a question. Can you help them out?

The question: “Hi, Just wondering if this works with an i5 3470 right out of the box and is windows 10 compatible?”

Its something I bought not long ago now I've caught an email about it? I'm guessing its fishing- hoping its not an ebay brainwave to pester people bout their crusty shirts?

[beerandpizzaplz]

and how the hell do I edit it to break the damn hyperlink I included bah!

[*tippy*toes*]

I got one of them a few weeks ago about an item I had bought. I don't know if it was legit or not, but the question sounded genuine. All the links in the email looked legit, as in the link didn't say one thing, with the address it takes you to another. If it is legit, I'm not sure how these questions are being asked. 

[beerandpizzaplz]

well yes thats the thing - it sorta does look legit - idk if its just because its not a scammers first rodeo or because it actually is an ebay thing now - to ask purchasers technical (not that technical but still...) questions about products that someone else is selling?.. and if thats the case then i'd like to be pointed in the direction of the ebay genius' butt that needsa swift kick.

[committed_hoarder]

A few weeks ago I posted a msg here in the forum regarding Ebay removing the 'Ask seller a question' link at the end of listings. It turns out that it was another Ebay 'improvement' which resulted from a change of layout.

Where the 'Ask seller a question' button used to be there is now a Question & Answer section which contains  "Ask buyers & sellers about this product'.

It sounds very much like that is where your & Tippy's question has come from. Ebay are using their item purchase records & very reliable 🙂 product matching algorithm to forward  the question on to anyone that had recently (or not so recently) purchased that product. No doubt the potential purchaser thought he was contacting the seller.

Just another good example of Ebay shooting themselves in the foot as a result of poor coding of site.

- Buyer thinks asking question direct to seller.

- Seller does not see questiona as it is emailed to previous purchasers.

- Buyer does not get response from seller.

- Buyer thinks bad seller & moves on to next seller (maybe) or continues on with purchase which has already left him with a 'unpleasant shopping experience' from the start due to no fault of seller.

Knowing how well Ebay matches 'products' to exact matches, I guess that means that we can expect to see more spam coming from Ebay

Ebay are getting so many things wrong

- Their product matching is far from effective. I give it 1% accuracy.

- Confusing people with the wording & layout of the site.

- Annoying their members more by sending them even more spam about products that are quite possibly totally different items.

[go-tazz]

 Its something I bought not long ago now I've caught an email about it? I'm guessing its fishing- hoping its not an ebay brainwave to pester people bout their crusty shirts?

Have you checked the listing in question as the question may be in the new box at the bottom,(surely if the

question is asked and the seller or a buyer can answer then it should be in that box).

I've asked a few questions via that box but I've received no answers,(so it looks like a hit and miss box where you

may or may not get an answer).

My questions are more to do with why they are selling fake items and that's why the question may not be

there,(or it may be because no one has answered).

The only way we'll find out is if someone answers a question,

[phorum_junkie*]

Ebay is trying to turn into Amazon and they send emails to people asking  questions from prospective buyers about recently purchased items.

[beerandpizzaplz]

Yes it appears you have it in a nutshell - I just had not seen anything like it before, but if its a new thing that'd be why.

I'd just like to repeat that bit in the middle of your reply - in hope that ebay rescind this silly change:

- Buyer thinks asking question direct to seller.

- Seller does not see questiona as it is emailed to previous purchasers.

- Buyer does not get response from seller.

- Buyer thinks bad seller & moves on to next seller (maybe) or continues on with purchase which has already left him with a 'unpleasant shopping experience' from the start due to no fault of seller.

Further to that - In this instance I am being asked technical questions about computer components - from a sellers listing - 

I agree its quite reasonable for anyone asking to assume that the reply (or lack of) is from the seller - or a representative of them whom has some knowledge of the product and its applications and limitations. 

Instead in reality I am an unwashed roof plumber who is happy to fiddle with computery things, and is unfazed by the odd small electrical fire from time to time.

So yeah what happens if i give my best advice "She'll be apples mate" and someone's house burns down? (or more likely the stuff that I said would work fine doesn't and the buyer has to shell out much more coin for the fix)

I can tell you right now it WILL reflect entirely on the poor seller who may have no knowlege at all of the exchange of nonsense between myself and the buyer at the bottom of their listing.

[*tippy*toes*]

Are you an unwashed roof plumber? What I wouldn't have given for you a few weeks ago! I couldn't get anyone to turn up who said they were coming. I'd have been glad for the great unwashed to arrive!

[digital*ghost]

Wouldn't it be nice if ebay actually thought about how to communicate new things effectively, instead of just going - oh, this feature works alright on another site, let's just whack it on ours.

All it would take is some more descriptive wording, and an alternative link to send a message directly to the seller of that particular item, and people would immediately understand the difference between the two functions.

Clearly, a lot of buyers are getting these kinds of notifications, and it's not being communicated to them effectively what it's all about, either - here is just one example from a listing I found. Question is clearly for the seller, only other buyers have replied, and none of them understand what is actually happening (screenshot in the spoiler  - I've also blanked out the buyer's usernames, even though the Q&A is publically viewable, I haven't identified the listing this came from etc).

Spoiler