Incorrectly identified as buying or selling outside eBay

[ravi.b]

I prefer to buy items that are shipped by a seller's regular postal service (e.g. Royal Mail in the UK) instead of the Global Shipping Program.  When I ask a seller if they would be willing to relist an item with standard shipping instead of the GSP, in most cases they do and I end up buying the item.  This is a win for the buyer, the seller and of course eBay.

A couple of days back, eBay began to flag my message as offering to make a purchase or sale outside eBay, when clearly I wasn't.  I've attached a screenshot of my message in the hope that eBay can correct their detection algorithm to reduce the risk of false positives.

After three attempts of tweaking my message, I gave up and decided not to buy the item on eBay.  This is a loss for me, the seller and of course eBay.

[reallynicestamps]

Off topic but-- Are we allowed to use the eBay logo as our avatars?

[ravi.b]

You should be asking eBay that. That's the default avatar if you don't select one.

[marnotom!]

Strange how it’s the old eBay logo and it doesn’t appear more often. I didn’t choose an avatar, either, and like most users I ended up with the blue blob.

[reallynicestamps]

BTW-- The GSP charges Canadian duty and sales taxes plus a ~$5USD service charge.

Canada Post charges Canadian duty and sales taxes plus a $9.95Cdn service charge.

[marnotom!]

Good catch, although @ravi.b's message  refers to a charge “upon delivery” which shouldn’t happen with a GSP shipment. I wonder if once upon a time they bought from a seller who messed up on the shipping.

[marnotom!]

My guess is that it's something about the use of the "I will ship this item myself" quote that's triggering the algorithm.

[ravi.b]

Possibly. But that seems like it's a regression in the fraud detection algorithm since I've used the same text several times before without incident.

[marnotom!]

Well, you're not the only one sending messages through the eBay system, are you? 😀 Similar language may be being used in negotiating off-eBay sales or sales where the buyer has offered to arrange shipping themselves, possibly through fraudulent means.

[ravi.b]

Yes, similar language may have been used to negotiate off-eBay sales. My point is NLP and ML systems are capable of more accurate behavior and I hope eBay uses my comment (and those of others) to help tune their algorithm so that it generates fewer false positives. False positives hurt eBay's bottom line (in lost sales) by reducing customer retention.

[ravi.b]

Just to be clear, my issue is with eBay's inaccurate identification of messages as violating their policy of buying/selling outside eBay.

[marnotom!]

You also express concern that not being able to make this purchase is a loss for you, the seller and eBay. You shouldn't be getting any additional charges upon delivery of a GSP-forwarded item, so either your email is unintentionally misleading or there are other problems we could address that would help you with your concerns.  Perhaps the "charge upon delivery" part of your message is what's now tripping the "bot".

[ravi.b]

> Perhaps the "charge upon delivery" part of your message is what's now tripping the "bot".

[ravi.b]

Perhaps. Regardless, that's a regression because I've used the identical text in earlier requests.