Guest accounts

[jellybirddesigns]

Why do people open guest accounts?

I understand there are some scammers out there, but I generally can't figure out what the point is.

In the last few weeks I have had 3-4 buyers buying under guest accounts. They all pay straight away and everything is fine, but I was just curious as to why not just join Ebay properly and finished?

I will admit that, although I do not generally offer tracking if people only buy 1-2 cushion covers, I do it regardless of the quantity when I see someone buying off a guest account.

[harley_babes_hoard]

Actually someone who has a guest account is not covered by ebay's MBG. Unless they later register that account. They still have paypal protection though.

[kopenhagen5]

Some just want to buy one thing off eBay and not have an account.

I think that's the market guest accounts were available for.

[clarry100]

We find that on our website 90% of our buyers do not register and operate as a guest.

Even when they return they still do the same.

So we never let it bother us really.

As was said above they are not covered by the ebay MBG, but if they pay with PayPal then that covers them even thos they bought as a guest.

We had a buyer just last week bought 4x items, each one in a separate transaction and each one with a different guest account ID.

The only thing that was the same was the postal address in each case.

Since we use large letter, and therefore have no seller protection, we just combined them altogether for postage.

[*tippy*toes*]

Guest accounts can't buy from me because of the buyer requirement blocks. I've seen then try to buy in the activity log but they can't. One person tried 13 times. I assumed it was the same person, even though the names were all different. They were just jumbled letters and numbers and all hitting on the same item.

[jellybirddesigns]

Tippy, which block requirement have you got that stops the guest buyers?

[lyndal1838]

At a guess I would say it would be low feedback buyers who are not phone verified.

[*tippy*toes*]

What Lyndal said. http://offer.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BuyerBlockPreferences

[jellybirddesigns]

I have that requirement in place and the guest buyers can still buy.

[black*poppy]

I have that requirement as well but a doozy got through the other week, has 3 feedbacks. So guest accounts can be phone verified for sure, ebay T&S told me.

So they email me on my personal email they took from paypal, could they please return the dress it's gorgeous but just doesn't fit right.  Sure I say, go through ebay and hit the return button, selecting Doesn't fit. Oh no I can't, I used guest checkout.  I said no, thinking what a hassle it was going to be to get my fees back if she did it outside of ebay (if I can at all?), so I wanted to push her to use the ebay system. 

It turns out guests can use the MBG system if they request an activation code or something and then go back into ebay.  I didn't really understand what the rep meant.  But it is possible.  I don't understand either why they can't leave feedback but can have feedback left for them, but that was a bonus too.

Anyways, she opened a INAD case with paypal and immediately escalated.  I sent a copy of our email exchange, and she lost.