Providing Phone Number to Buyers

I know there are already multiple threads on this topic, as well as the fallout from eBay's current policies, but it became clear to me today exactly how you can safely provide a phone number to buyers (if you're a store holder) and I thought having a post here might be useful.

 

Apparently it's been available for a few months, too. Smiley Surprised (Apologies if this has been mentioned before and I missed it, of course)

 

If you go to My eBay > Account > Manage communication with buyers, twoards the end will be this:

 

have your phone number.PNG

 

 

 

 

If you edit that to say yes, you can enter a customer contact number.

 

Spoiler
This is a copy / paste of the info shown on the eBay info page for this feature: "From September 2017 you won’t be able to include contact information, i.e. phone numbers, email addresses or social media profiles, in item descriptions, images, eBay Stores or seller profiles.

Buyers and sellers should always use eBay messaging tools, such as My Messages or Best Offer, to communicate with each other. Sharing contact information in listings often leads to transactions being taken off eBay. This is against our policies, and limits our ability to protect you in case something goes wrong.

We know that many sellers offer telephone support as part of providing great customer service. From mid-2017, if you’re an eBay Store subscriber or list in the Motor Vehicles category, you’ll be able to indicate whether or not you’d like us to share your customer service phone number with buyers via the Ask a question link." 

https://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/SR17-1/Contact-Links

 

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Providing Phone Number to Buyers


@digital*ghostwrote:

I know there are already multiple threads on this topic, as well as the fallout from eBay's current policies, but it became clear to me today exactly how you can safely provide a phone number to buyers (if you're a store holder) and I thought having a post here might be useful.

 

Apparently it's been available for a few months, too. Smiley Surprised (Apologies if this has been mentioned before and I missed it, of course)

 

If you go to My eBay > Account > Manage communication with buyers, twoards the end will be this:

 

have your phone number.PNG

 

 

 

 

If you edit that to say yes, you can enter a customer contact number.

 

Spoiler
This is a copy / paste of the info shown on the eBay info page for this feature: "From September 2017 you won’t be able to include contact information, i.e. phone numbers, email addresses or social media profiles, in item descriptions, images, eBay Stores or seller profiles.

Buyers and sellers should always use eBay messaging tools, such as My Messages or Best Offer, to communicate with each other. Sharing contact information in listings often leads to transactions being taken off eBay. This is against our policies, and limits our ability to protect you in case something goes wrong.

We know that many sellers offer telephone support as part of providing great customer service. From mid-2017, if you’re an eBay Store subscriber or list in the Motor Vehicles category, you’ll be able to indicate whether or not you’d like us to share your customer service phone number with buyers via the Ask a question link." 

https://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/SR17-1/Contact-Links

 


Just as a follow up to this, in today's seller release email there's an article that takes you to this page:

 

https://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/SU18-1/eBay-Stores

 

where it says this:

 

As a reminder, business and personal contact information, such as email addresses, phone numbers, and links to sites off-eBay, is not permitted anywhere on eBay including Store pages and other member-created content. If you wish to provide your customer service phone number for post-transaction support, you can use one of eBay's features that make your customer service phone number available when a buyer uses "Contact Seller." You can opt into the feature within "Manage communication with buyers" in your account settings.
 
I've highlighted the most important bits for those who can't be bothered reading the whole thing very carefully.  The way to put your phone number for people who've already bought from you is obviously the same as described by digi.

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Providing Phone Number to Buyers

Hm, very interesting, dg...

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Providing Phone Number to Buyers

I am not a store holder but that option seems to be available to me.

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Providing Phone Number to Buyers


@kopenhagen5wrote:

I am not a store holder but that option seems to be available to me.


It's showing up on this account as well, but I thought maybe it just won't show to buyers unless the seller has a store.

 

I can test it out, though, if someone else has enabled the feature but doesn't have a store 😄 I don't have any listings so I'll need to test it with someone else, by asking a question (or clicking the link to) from the listing. 

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Providing Phone Number to Buyers

I am not a store but have enabled the option

 

 

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Providing Phone Number to Buyers

It appears available to all sellers.

 

I'm not 100% sure now. It's been a few months since we returned, but I think I read that it is only provided at some stage during checkout.

 

Ours has been checked since the beginning, but we've never received a phone call.

 

Melina.

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Providing Phone Number to Buyers

I ckicked ask a question on one of queenslander's listings and it wasn't shown in the FAQs, so I clicked to contact seller and it still wasn't shown. It might only show if the buyer has bought something, maybe, but I can check if someone with a store has it enabled.
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Providing Phone Number to Buyers

Just put your business name and address and phone number in the description.

 

I see it everyday and I presume ebay are not at a point of doing anything about it that will hurt

 

your account other than delete the details if they come across it by pure chance >> they are definitely not looking

 

other than in messages.

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Providing Phone Number to Buyers

Don't be fooled.  The bots are checking.

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Providing Phone Number to Buyers

They may be checking but not finding or it is a human's job to decide if action taken and they do nothing.

 

I also see sellers with links to extra info and it just has the same contact details that they used

 

to have on the description.

 

 

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