Providing Phone Number to Buyers

[digital*ghost]

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.  (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:

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

[lyndal1838]

Top right hand corner under Seller information.....Contact Seller.   It is just as easy to miss as it was when you had to scroll to the end of the listing.

[curraone]

thank you Lyndal:   I wish to goodness they would leave things alone.

[padi*0409]

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@curraonewrote:

thank you Lyndal:   I wish to goodness they would leave things alone.

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"It wasn't broken, so it needed fixing"..............................Sound faminliar????

[imastawka]

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@clubesquirewrote:

Stawks - TLDNR??

thanks 🙂

Melina

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Too Long Did Not Read

Maybe I should have said TLDR

[digital*ghost]

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@tennis_sweetspotwrote:

if certain sellers are able to break the rules or they do not apply to them i would

like to know why.

it does not seem right that sellers are suspended for say mentioning a phone call but no contact

details provided and then others are clear as day breaking the rules and nothing happens.

ebay sure will not say but someone knows.

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Wanting to know why is one thing, but advising others to breach the policy is something else - I realise you may have been facetious or sarcastic in your previous post, but it wouldn't read that way to a lot of people so I wanted to clarify that it is a breach of policy that can have very real consequences. 

Re: buyers being shown the phone number as described by eBay, I didn't see any while going through the motions of asking questions last night, so I might just ask eBay directly and see what they say. 

[brerrabbit585]

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@digital*ghostwrote:

According to ebay it is supposed to show up via the ask a question function ("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."), but it doesn't say whether or not they have to already have purchased - maybe kopes asks you a question he can confirm (apologies if I'm being presumptuous, but he mentioned on the boards having made a purchase from you, so that would test whether non-store sellers can use it and if it shows if the buyer has already purchased). 

I'll try asking a question from several large retailers with a store and see what happens, too (I'll try a few I've purchased from, and a few I haven't, to try and see if I can determine the circumstances under which it's shown but won't get a chance until later tonight so if anyone else wants to experiement in the meantime.. 😄 ). 

(And in case it needs to be said for anyone else, contact details - or links to them - are not allowed in listing descriptions etc, at all. If some people get away with it, then that sucks or whatever, but I know of other sellers who had all of their thousands of listings ended because they didn't catch a couple that still had them in. I just wanted to mention a safe, ebay-approved way that will hopefully help some sellers). 

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Technically speaking, to be a customer they'd have to have already bought from you, or that's the way I'd see it, but I realise some of ebay's wording can be open to interpretation.  They may have just decided this is easier than the old way of requesting contact details.

[melbourneclearance]

I'm not sure if ebay still gives out seller's contact details when requested by the buyer anymore. I had a buyer (who has bought) ask me for my phone number a couple of weeks ago because she wanted to chat to me about her setting up a similar shop. Telling her how to become my competitor was obviously the furthest thing in the world I wanted to do, so I gave the excuse that I may be banned by ebay for giving out my phone number. She said she was gonna ring ebay and request it off them. I haven't heard anything back since, and no phone call! Maybe ebay is finally honouring user confidentiality out of their paranoia.

[stickerswa]

Hey tennis. You could always be proactive and report them yourself when you see them. Yes ebay do act on them as I have reported a few and they are dealt with pretty quick.

Dont sit back and wait for others to act ...do it yourself. Its not hard. There is a 'report listing' link on every listing

[brerrabbit585 · Accepted solution]

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@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.  (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:

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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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:

Can I update my eBay Store to include contact information to resolve customer issues?

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.

[digital*ghost]

Good to know it's definitely post transaction - I asked ebay and they just sent me the link to the main help page.