Account restriction for asking a buyer to provide a postcode for a shipping quote

[ozstockman]

Hi guys,

Exactly as the title says. Straight away after I asked my buyer to provide a postcode to get shipping cost for her order and received her reply with it  I also received an email from eBay that my  eBay account is now has a restriction on it for 7 days because of that. They included that part in their email where I asked the buyer her postcode and included her reply with just four digits for her postcode.

A call to eBay removed the restriction but I had to insist to do it immediately not within 1-2 hours as they offererd me to fix the problem.

They have told me they will fix it but I have never had any trust in what eBay tells me.

Be aware of it.

[digital*ghost]

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@porcelain_dolls_by_me wrote:

I do get the sense EBay are paranoid about the upcoming arrival of Amazon and are determined to beat their sellers into submission insofar as toeing the party line.  Well the smaller sellers anyway.

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My feeling is that they want sellers to be able to compete with Amazon Prime by default, which is problematic considering that's a bit of a different beast due to Amazon being the flagship for that with their own products and shipping infrastructure (at least overseas, not sure how they'll be handling delivery here yet), and particpation in Prime requiring voluntary actions on both the buyer and seller's part (particularly the part where it's optional, and buyers pay an annual fee to have access to Prime benefits). 

[clarry100]

I'm now a member of the Facebook Amazon sellers group, more as a lurker so I can learn more about the selling environment over there.
FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) is thought to be at least 12 months away in Au.
When they launch initially here (which is thought to be very soon) it will only be as FBM (Fulfillment By Manufacturer).
It's also very difficult to get a selling account in AU at the moment as they are apparently being very selective about who they allow on board for the initial launch. It will get easier later.
Also the launch will be with a limited range of categories it seems.
That's as I understand it at the moment.

[clarry100]

Correction to my above post. Edit time ran out. Sorry.

FBM = Fulfillment By Merchant

[bigbrickshop]

I received a warning about sales outside of eBay. I was the buyer and I had sent a message to a seller to confirm whether I could do a same day pickup 😄

[rapadaan]

Have a look at all the adds posted by several sellers relating to Category " Parts & Accessories " wrecking  holden falcon toyota  etc.  there a photos of complete cars with buy now prices of $10 upwards but when you read the add description you are told that you are buying "1x  wheel nut " !  The description carries  contact numbers sometimes address and prices of related parts  .Well if that dosent break all the rules what the hell is going on....items  263194596023  262419436799

[springyzone]

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@eezipeezi888 wrote:

I don't really get it because most listing that I look at have a section where I can put my postcode in and it then gives me the shipping price so I don't need to ask for or give my postcode personally to a seller.

Surely if sellers have this on their listings then why haven't you got it on yours?

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There are a couple of scenarios that I (as a buyer) have struck where it isn't enough information.

Yes, most listings do include the suburb where the seller is located although some just say a generic Melbourne or whatever.

In cases like that, I as a buyer might want to know where in Melbourne if it is a pick up item. It might be 10 minutes away or it might be 2 hours away. So yes, sellers do need to pay attention to adding their exact postcode or suburb.

Even when a seller adds his exact location, this isn't necessarily enough for pick up items.

-there are a lot of sellers listing things for family & friends. The seller may be in one place but the item certainly isn't, it may be in another suburb altogether & that needs to be clearly started in the listing.

-although a seller may have a suburb automatically listed next to details in the ad, sometimes with pick up that isn't enough because a seller may in fact be able to offer pick up in a few different locations.

This is especially the case if the item isn't too big & you have a seller who may live in an outer suburb but work in eg the city or other side of town. Knowing you have a choice of pick up location can swing a sale. I say this as a buyer where I was enquiring about a large sort of item. It was about 45 minutes from here but the seller messaged me he could arrange pick up at a location only 5 minutes away.

That made the ad move up from a 'maybe' to top of my shortlist.

[ozstockman]

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@eezipeezi888 wrote:

I don't really get it because most listing that I look at have a section where I can put my postcode in and it then gives me the shipping price so I don't need to ask for or give my postcode personally to a seller.

Surely if sellers have this on their listings then why haven't you got it on yours?

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I do a lot of customized orders where a weight of products can be anywhere from 10s of grams to 10s of kilos.  It is not a regular item that my buyers can buy and pay straight away. It is a special item created and listed so my customers can place an order for their custom made products after they receive my quote for doing it. 

Also there is a lot of buyers who really do not know where to see such things as postage to their postcodes. They will ignore a Postage cost section and they will ask for a shipping quote no matter what.

Anyway it just to explain why a seller may need to know a postcode. It is not against any policy to ask for it, it is just a badly written logic that is trying to catch phone numbers and catching postcodes instead. I would say you need to be quite experienced in programming to write such a bad regular expression and/or be completely careless in testing it before releasing it to a live website.

[collect247]

We've noticed that BIG TIME sellers are permitted to display their details.

[ozstockman]

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@ozstockman wrote:

I would say you need to be quite experienced in programming to write such a bad regular expression and/or be completely careless in testing it before releasing it to a live website.

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Sorry, there is a mistake in my sentence above. I mean to say "I would say you need to be quite unexperienced in programming to write such a bad regular expression and/or be completely careless in testing it before releasing it to a live website."

[northern_4x4]

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@lm-entertainment wrote:

this place has gotten beyond a joke. i honestly don't know why they have automated systems for this. they're penalising people who are doing the right thing, meanwhile others are getting away with murder and nothing is done about them.

you only have to look a few threads back at the buyers that have left 80+ negatives in order to get things for free. they still run rampant, meanwhile others can't even give a quote for freight / postage. 

there was a time years ago when i would have encouraged anyone i knew to get into selling on ebay - now, i'd actively tell them to steer clear of it. 

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Look at my one and only NEG and then look at their feedback they leave for others. De Ja Vu? I showed this to eBay and nothing was done. They wouldn't even remove the NEG.

I also complained about illegal selling practices against a competitor, who are 200 times the size of me. They made chinese copies of my product and wer eselling off at the real deal. I gave them the proof, links to about 30 lisitngs from their multiple accounts they run. You think eBay done anytihng? Nope, as per their usual incompetent selves. Just left it.

I am scaling down my store to selling only about 15 items, and selling all my stock off cheap.

I've had an absolute gutful of eBay...