Question
I just received a question from a confirmed buyer of one of my items that only has the "Respond Now" button on it.
We don't ever ever, will never use those buttons. There are too many spoofs out there that look exactly like those emails.
I have never received an email that actually said
Please do not reply to this email as you will not receive a response. This email was sent by an eBay member via eBay's email forwarding system.
I read the other thread on the spoof and I did fall for that one a few months ago. I posted a thread about it. And I always thought those spoofs would be the one thing that would keep ebay from being the only way we could contact out buyers.
Is this something that ebay is testing or did my buyer do something so that her email address did not show.
Answer
When you ask a seller a question/contact member using ebay's links, it does have a box to tick if you want to hide your email addy. I never tick it so don't know what it does if you do.
Answer
If this "question" is in reference to an item you have currently listed, go to your My eBay page. The item will be listed in the "Items I'm Selling" group, and if a Question has actually been asked, it will be indicated in the "# of Questions" column to the right of the Item Name. You can safely click on that number and be taken to the page where you can answer, or not, as you wish.
Answer
When you ask a seller a question/contact member using eBay's links, it does have a box to tick if you want to hide your email addy. I never tick it so don't know what it does if you do.
I bet that is what they did. But, why on earth would they do that? They are probably the "dingdongs" that ebay gets to refer to when they say "at the request of the ebay community" we will be offering this "improvement" to the save you from unsafe, immoral, unethical, illegal trading that doesn't make us any money.
If this "question" is in reference to an item you have currently listed, go to your My eBay page. The item will be listed in the "Items I'm Selling" group, and if a Question has actually been asked, it will be indicated in the "# of Questions" column to the right of the Item Name. You can safely click on that number and be taken to the page where you can answer, or not, as you wish.
I am sure you mean well and are trying to help, but with 1400-2000 items running at all times, there is absolutely not enough hours in the day for me to go to individual pages to answer questions. We already spend way too much time answering emails. That would multiply the time it takes to respond to questions by a number I can't even fathom. If my buyers have a question they want answered, they need to ask me directly and I will respond directly.
Rereading- this sounds harsh, but we just can't spend more time on emails than we already do. We have been trying to pull further from ebay as our customer base grows. What is amazing to me, is how much easier our other customers are to work with and how much more realistic they are.
I was just trying to figure out whether this was a little "feeler" ebay had put in the works like they did last month or if it was something else. I think it is something the buyer checked.
Answer
Sheila, I just tried an experiment. I sent my seller ID an email from one of my buying IDs and ticked the privacy box. The email that came to my seller ID said "Please do not reply to this email as you will not receive a response. This email was sent by an eBay member via eBay's email forwarding system.", just as yours did.
I didn't realize it when I posted before, but the link from the auction page doesn't give you the ability to hide your email addy, only the "contact member" link on your feedback page does that.
Answer
When I get an "ask a seller a question" about an item, I sometimes click the "Reply" in the email, and sometimes I just hit "reply" in OE and it opens a new email with the address of the person asking the question in the "To" line. I assume it's going directly to that person without going through eBay's system. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to do this. Some people think eBay is going to stop sending the address with the question.
I often run out of space in eBay's reply window and then switch over to OE. If they do start hiding the address I suppose we'll just just have to type till we run out of space and click send.
Anyone know if we're allowed to send our email address in the eBay reply?
Answer
Anyone know if we're allowed to send our email address in the eBay reply?
I don't know if we're allowed to, but I've done it plenty of times.
Answer
I don't consider your response "harsh", in fact, I deleted 2/3 of my post before I hit the submit button because I didn't want to sound callous and indifferent to eBayers with questions.
But if you've got that many items listed at any one time, then my best advice is that you simply ignore any emails that don't fit your expectations. Your hands are full enough as it is.
And your observation about "other" customers customers being easier to work with and less demanding... AMEN to that!
And liveinhope, the answer is YES, but if you do, and the Seller chooses to answer on the Description Page instead of "privately" via the email addy you supplied, then your email addy is there for all to see, so make sure it's a throwaway.
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Thanks SummerHouse. Hadn't thought of that. I always miss the obvious.
Answer
As I mentioned in another thread, my listings have received questions from bidders and then I was never notified of them. No emails. Had the bidder sent a Contact form or use my Feedback form which I use for this, I'd have seen and responded quickly. This is an annoying eBay bug.