Address masking has come to North America

[coxengines]

As most of you will have noticed, what has been standard practice for some months from overseas, has now been implemented in North America. Buyer questions and now forwarded as emails with masked addresses such as:

s08-ztdh79o5mr@members.ebay.com

Does anyone know if replying through one's own mail client gets the message delivered (i.e. the coded address is deciphered by eBay and the message delivered to the real email address) or if one is now forced to reply via that dinosaur called the eBay Messaging System.

2 calls to support produced two opposing answers, not surprisingly.

Bernie

[coxengines]

B.T.W I did try this between our own accounts but the addresses are not masked because we did some test transaction to test the shipping calculator.

This is what eBay states:

If you and xenalook haven't bought or sold from each other recently, both of your email addresses may be substituted with an anonymous email address to protect your privacy and online safety.

[pierrelebel]

"to protect your privacy and online safety."

BULL !

The only purpose of the change is to protect eBay's revenues, minimizing the possibilities sellers and buyers could consumate off eBay transactions. Pathetic.

[coxengines]

I'm with ya Pierre!

Would you mind clicking on one of our listing ans asking a question?

Thanks
Bernie

[dipmicro]

The only purpose of the change is to protect eBay's revenues, minimizing the possibilities sellers and buyers could consumate off eBay transactions. Pathetic

You would not want to protect your revenue? eBay brought you the buyer, why is it pathetic they want to have some business out of it?

Of course they cannot write ".. because we want to protect your revenue". It's exactly same as Canadian government saying that gun control is to "protect us" when in fact is to protect them.

I can understand that regular 9-5 folks expect me to work for free, but it's interesting that a businessman expects another business to work for free.

[coxengines]

Pierre,

reply sent. Do let me know if it got through.

Bernie

[pierrelebel]

"Would you mind clicking on one of our listing ans asking a question? "

no email address was shown on the copy sent to me.

"expects another business to work for free"

Nobody expects eBay to work for free. That has never been the question. The problem is with the paranoia about them protecting their revenue at the expenses of convenience taken away from seller.

Once upon a time, it was easy to communicate with our buyers, the email address was available everywhere from feedback to confirmation, etc... Now, eBay is simply making it difficult to communicate, using our email system and forcing us to use theirs.

I do not need two systems.

[pierrelebel]

"Do let me know if it got through"

No. Nothing, Rien. Nada.

[coxengines]

Pierre,
i did get a reply from you but it looks as if it was sent via eBay. Following is what I just sent you:

And the odd part is, your address is still masked in your reply. Did you reply via you email client or via eBay?

I was more interested in finding out if the mail was delivered to your email address or only to your eBay messaging system.

Bernie

[jakeeangel]

I think if you reply through your email program, which I prefer to keep a better record of the conversation than eBay's crap, it'll go to cyberspace nowhere. I doubt very much it'll be direct to the person intended or even to eBay and then to the intended person.

Did anybody catch the little blurb about masking ALL buyers until the end of the listing now? hahaha now we as sellers won't even know who's bidding on our stuff until it's too late.

Nice. 😐

Now we can't proactively block people when checking out their feedback or what if they're a competitor? Not very nice eBay!!

[dipmicro]

Nobody expects eBay to work for free. That has never been the question. The problem is with the paranoia about them protecting their revenue at the expenses of convenience taken away from seller.

Was in the grocery store the other day and seen a lady to weight peaches, print the label and then add two more peaches in the bag. This is true story.

[pierrelebel]

"And the odd part is, your address is still masked in your reply. Did you reply via you email client or via eBay? "

I replied using MS-Outlook

[coxengines]

Pierre,

OK, the messages are flowing then.

However, your address is still masked s10-mz9f3cq0v8@members.ebay.com although MS Outlook should have automatically inserted your proper address into the "from" line.

I wonder how they are able to manipulate the software on your PC and will be looking into this.

Bernie

[recped]

I wonder how they are able to manipulate the software on your PC and will be looking into this.

They are not manipulating anything on your end, when you reply via your email client the message is sent to eBay and then forwarded to the buyer, when the buyer replies the same thing happens in reverse.

This is the same type of system used by Craigslist and a billion dating sites.

[pierrelebel]

"a billion dating sites. "

How could you possibly know that? 😉

[jakeeangel]

But eBay reads your messages too. Check this out. I'm trying to respond to someone & noticed this lovely little ditty:

eBay may block or delay messages that may be fraudulent or violate our policies.

Cute. What else are they going to do? sheesh

[surplusdealdude]

Well, that would have to be done by bots, jakee - they're not very hard to outwit. -------------------------------------------------------------------

It is our similarities that make us all human - it is our differences that make us all interesting

[dipmicro]

How could you possibly know that?

Hmm, recped must have life outside eBay ...

[momoftwingles2]

Hi Bernie,

I've finally opened my store about 10 days ago. After reading this discussion I went and looked in my BT and see that I have everyone's real e-mail addresses. Mind you...they've made purchases.

When I respond through eBay, I just put my e-mail address in my signature. Not sure if that is legal or not.

Another question though...I'm seeing several sellers with their phone numbers splashed on their store fronts and/or in their listings...including their physical store addresses. Is this permitted?

Susan
momoftwingles2

[surplusdealdude]

> How could you possibly know that?
>
> Hmm, recped must have life outside eBay ...


Really - do you think that ebay's going to spend tens of thousands of dollars a week to read emails when they can program bots and let them do it?

They'll just adapt the bots from the discussion forums. -------------------------------------------------------------------

It is our similarities that make us all human - it is our differences that make us all interesting