Ebay's New NO SOLICITATION Policy -

[jgrinz]

Well I have to admit I am one of the guys that thay are trying to step on

 

I would go to sell an item and then I would peruse finished auctions and then contact losers of like items and solicit them by using the 'contact' button mentioning that they may be interested in the offering I was selling and provide a link.

 

Last year they were at a LIMIT of ten that I could do to COLD call contacts with no previous dealings

 

Beginning of this year they downed that to ONLY 5 'contacts' communications

 

Now I tried to do one today and THEY DO NOT ALLOW ANY NOW ...

 

I am not sure if they singled me out as a specific situation OR if this is done to everyone now ...

 

Did any one else do this kind of contacting NEW buyers

 

It used to be VERY lucritive for both Myself AND Ebay as it got extra action on the items I was selling ...

 

I am intersted in my friends opinions here on wether they are able to still do it and what they thought of my selling technique..

 

[pendragon1998]

I've got no problem with you doing it, because you are one of the "good guys". In general, though, I would be bothered by some random person investigating my bidding habits and contacting me to buy or bid on something. Unless they had a MS69 britannia I needed.

 

That's just me, though.

[jgrinz]

Here is an intersting update ... I tried to tell a passed buyer of Sacagaweas, that I have one, that he may be interested in - It blocked that also

 

SO you can not even contact PAST buyers of items for sale. Here is there warning note

 

*****************************

 

Attention!

We have determined you are trying to contact an eBay member with whom you are not currently involved in an open transaction. For the protection of the eBay community, we sometimes block these types of communication. To prevent this occurrence from happening in the future, we recommend the following:

 

 

If you are a seller, respond to all bidder questions before the auction ends.

 

If you are trying to contact the seller of an item that has not yet ended go to the item page and click the “Ask seller a question” link.

 

If you are the winning buyer of an item go to your My eBay page under the items I’ve Won section. Click the action drop down menu and choose the “contact seller” action.

 

If you are a seller trying to contact your wining buyer, go to My eBay and under the Items I’ve Sold section, click the action drop down menu. Choose the “contact buyer” action.

 

Reply to seller/bidder through personal email provider (if the sender has not hidden their email address).

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

*******

 

Going slightly overboard I think

[skypinkblu]

I think the problem is, all the phishing emails...I don't contact buyers this way...I only contact them, if I we have corresponded and I have their email address (I ask for them now if I want to talk to them) and they have actually asked me for something (most of which I don't have anyway)...However...I GET a ton of phishing emails from Ebay...and many are from hi jacked accounts and they LOOK real, ...it's only when I see it's about a computer, or a watch, or someone yelling at me for not answering...(I'm fanactical at answering) that I notice immediately it's fake...because the emails actually show up in My Messages...I also have gotten some that have my first and last name and THAT is scary, cause it has to be from someone I've dealt with.

 

So...while I don't like the fact that it makes it a PITA to contacy my friends through the messaging system, and I have to actually save a file of email addresses...I think they DO have to try something to stop all the phishing stuff...I just delete most everything now...and if you had sent me a message about a book I bid on, I'd be deleting that too, cause most times it's phishing...and who can tell?

What I really found annoying, was for a while, they wouldn't let you put your email address in the message, but I think that's fixed now...

 

I DO think they have to do something about that, didn't agree with hiding bidder names...but it's really not their fault that there are scammers out there...and they have to tighten up, the scammers are real...and there have been tons of threads about things they could do, but I'm not sure any are terribly practical...

[Stanley]

Good morning to you Mike

I delete all my direct to inbox correspondence from ebay now myself. At one time I was forwarding it all to spoof@ebay .com. Now if it’s not in my ebay messages, it doesn’t get read.

 

Coincidently, just last week, I received an item dispute notice from ebay. It was in my inbox and I thought I noticed the ebay user’s name who is from Venezuela and this user was past due leaving me feedback. My heart starting racing, I just knew this was going to be bad and here goes my 100% feedback. I didn’t open it. I went to my messages and it wasn’t there. It was spoof mail and it almost fooled me.

 

I think it is like everything else in today’s society where the innocent have to suffer the consequences of the less desirable. Just my opinion

 

Hi Ya skypinkblu

 

I have always thought some of our buyers are resposable for some of this problem

[cpm9ball]

I think it $uck$! eBay is just trying to squeeze every dime they can out of sellers. Granted, scams are a problem, but have you ever given any thought to the possibility that maybe eBay is responsible for it in an attempt to con everyone into believing that their stricter policies are for the good of the public? It wouldn't be the first time that a company intentionally leaked information to make themselves look good.

 

Chris

[skypinkblu]

Hi Stanley

 

Yes, I get those two and I am with you with the heart pounding...but be careful, many times those noitices ARE in your Messages too...just don't click on any links...check the item number in another window, most times you will figure it out that way...

 

What's been happening, is they (the scammers) get a user ID, that's legit, like yours..and they send out thousands of messages that DO go into the messages list before someone catches them..I've been contacting them on these, because offtimes, the person with the hi-jacked ID doesn't realize it's been hi-jacked...

 

People can be so weird sometimes...

[Stanley]

People can be so weird sometimes...