Phone number on listings?

[hpwrecking]

it seems to us that there is alot of rivalry going at the moment between spare parts suppliers, a few certin other sellers have got there friends to buy parts of us and leave negative feedback (which we had overturned after we found out).

it leads to me to 2 violations we received last night on a listing, one of which is for having our contact details in our ad for customer service (circumventing ebay fees) which we are not doing.

i've phoned ebay, and a gentlemen instructed me that we must state that the phone number and address is there for ebay customer service but i cant find anywhere that states that on the ebay rules?

i just want to be sure ive been told the right thing as i do not want another violation when we have phoned and been given this information (ive just spent alot of time readjusting our 400 listings which this correct procedure)

[***super_nova***]

Why do you need phone number in your listing?  Buyers can contact you through the messages. 

As far as I know, for obvious reasons, it is not allowed to offer any sort of contact that is not going through eBay.  They even block you if you communicate too much through messages, even if you are not offering anything illegal.

[hpwrecking]

because of the nature of what we sell, being second hand there are many reasons

1. we freight australia wide sometimes $2-3000 worth of goods at a time, so even though customers have tracking number they often ring us throughout the process with issues or to keep us informed

2. they ring us from interstate wanting other parts which we list on ebay for them (ebay is a great way of us keeping track of everything, whether is something sold or just simply to check what stock we have) so we use it fairly often.

3. they want to know condition of parts further

we are a large operation here, and with what we sell often customers need to call us to describe the pieces they are after sometimes small things that are something we wouldnt list unless asked for..

[foxette-in-sox]

I know for a fact that what you've been told by that ebay staff member is rubbish.

There are literally millions of sellers who have their phone number on listings-from little sellers of pickup items to very high volume power sellers.

Ring them back again.

[hpwrecking]

thank you, i will give them a call in the morning again.

im just unsure as to why so many sellers have their phone number on listings but yet ive received a violation for having one on mine?

[carls*world]

I believe this policy is in place, as some sellers do abuse it, by listing a 99c part, then selling the rest of the parts direct outside of ebay via the included phone number.

Not saying you do, just my knowledge of the reason for the policy.

[carls*world]

thank you, i will give them a call in the morning again.

im just unsure as to why so many sellers have their phone number on listings but yet ive received a violation for having one on mine?

My guess is someone (competitor?) has picked your listings out and reported them. Ebay don't scrutinise every listing.

If you want to level the playing field, perhaps spend a few hours tediously reporting those others you find?

[hpwrecking]

yes i can understand that, but if ebay have a correct way that they would like us to set it out then we are happy to follow that i just need a clear indication of what they want us to do.

we sold close to $20,000 worth of parts on ebay in the last 4 weeks so we definately dont stray away from paying fee's infact without having ebay to keep track of all those parts we send off we'd be lost, having a contact number there for customers to get direct contact with us in regards to their parts is essential with helping everyone.

[foxette-in-sox]

Just a suggestion-the high volume sellers put something like

Customer Service Number XXXXX

in their listings.

However,as I said,there are quite literally millions of listings with phone numbers in.

Just take a look at pickup items-people often have their mobile number in them.

[hpwrecking]

unfrotunately yes they do, but there seems to be a few other sellers trying to take us out for unknown reasons, im not one to go about reporting everyone for it but id really like to keep all of our listings within the rules as well.

i have readjusted our phone number on all the ads with "EBAY CUSTOMER SERVICE HOTLINE" as i was told to do over the phone today, but i think even he was unsure if that was correct or not