Account suspension threats from eBay over message from a buyer who wishes to inspect before buying.

[allied_pacific_01]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has had any similar experiences recently, to be honest I am a little disappointed with eBay as I believe someone has been reading my "my messages" with the intent of catching me out as a fee avoider (ironic since eBay collect around $10k in eBay fees from me annually and have done so over the past 15 years).

I received a message stating that I had been caught trying to avoid fees and must change my behaviour within 3 days or face discliplinary action.

May 24th buyer sends me a message wanting to make a time to inspect a very expesive item before bidding on it.  I respond with the times our warehouse is open for inspections,

eBay must be trawling my inbox (perhaps flagged that the buyer sent their phone number in the message)  - pulls 2 lines from a 10 line email to me and claims I have breached policies.

Here is the extract eBay sent me,

BUYER: My number is 0458 022 XXX
SELLER: I could either make it late Saturday afternoon or perhaps Sunday afternoon, which would suit you? Jason

I did not include my address, email or phone number in my reply to the buyer, I did not offer to sell outside the platform, the buyer obviously already knows who we are and just wants to attend our warehouse to inspect the item.

So on May 24th the above happens and on 31st May eBay sends me a threatening email and tells me to change my behaviour within 3 days... are they serious?

So my question is - If someone contacts me via mymessages wishing to inspect something before buying - What is the correct protocol when a buyer wishes to make a time to inspect an item (which is a pretty common occurance for us over the past 15 years) ??  Are we supposed to ignore them or tell them no..... has eBay come to this??

[go-tazz]

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@mbselections00 wrote:

Very clever the way he has it in Item Location, but I'm amazed he can get away with so much detail in his description - but good on him 

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It's a J peg so it can't be detected by the bots.

It's quite simple to just print it out from a word doc,take a photo and put it in the listing as part of the template.

Scammers use it to insert their Email address so it can't be picked up by bots.

[egglesdtp]

Permission to use the blue text in my listings where I have specified pickup only?

[egglesdtp]

The address details under postage isn't an image though, is it? I wonder how he has got away with that? I can see that the contact details in his description is an image.

[countessalmirena]

Use freely, egglesdtp; I hope it does the job!

[egglesdtp]

Thanks!

[go-tazz]

The whole thing after Package dimensions is a J peg.

To check simply try and copy any of that and you'll find you can't as it isn't written text,(as in copy and paste).

Or right click on it and the Save Image As.. will come up.

That's how you check for images in description titles.

[digital*ghost]

Not to put a downer on things, but you actually need to be careful about the wording used in listings - especially if it contains the word(s) 'contact' and / or 'me / us'. 

eBay will often decide that sellers inviting buyers to contact them is soliciting off-eBay sales, even if you say to use eBay messages and make it obvious what the purpose of the contact is. I got pinged a few years ago for something like that, so it was well before the madness we have now. 😞 

[egglesdtp]

OK thanks.

[go-tazz]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

Not to put a downer on things, but you actually need to be careful about the wording used in listings - especially if it contains the word(s) 'contact' and / or 'me / us'. 

eBay will often decide that sellers inviting buyers to contact them is soliciting off-eBay sales, even if you say to use eBay messages and make it obvious what the purpose of the contact is. I got pinged a few years ago for something like that, so it was well before the madness we have now. 😞 

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That's why I have this in my pick up listings:

Please wait for an invoice so that I can send pick up details and so that you can

select pay on pick up.

[egglesdtp]

But your suggestion doesn't tell the potential buyer that they first need to click the Buy button - which is the bit that confuses some people. I know by stating 'wait for an invoice' directly implies they have agreed to buy, it still isn't clear enough (in my opinion). I just wish it wasn't all so darn difficult.