Is eBay getting draconian with their messaging policies?

[michael_from_pembroke]

I actually have two issues re ebay messaging,

One is written customer feedback to ebay in the first place via email - other than this process via the community, it seems to be impossible to contact ebay except by phone.

The second issue is about messaging a seller about a product - especially, as I have just found out, before purchase.

My accountant knows I use ebay a lot for small electronic part purchases, and asked me to check into purchasing about 40 small flash memories that he would use with his customers.  If possible he wanted his name and phone number printed on the memory stick on two lines.  A quick search found about 300 possible venders who would print, in the 64 - 128mb range for around $3 Canadian.  None were very specific on how much printing was allowed and if they would do multiple lines, and even how you told them what you wanted printed, so I messaged the vendor, asking if they could print the name and phone number, and I included my accountant name and phone number in the message.  

The message wouldn't send and I tried different changes to the message, attempting to get it to go.  I don't message that often, (and I'm a senior and not as sharp and quick as I used to be) and can never remember, do you hit "ENTER" before you hit "SEND" or just hit send, and I tried it a few different ways and then took out portions of the message trying to make it go through.  What I didn't realize is ebay has recently got very **bleep** about messaging and people attempting to get around paying for ebay services.  (Why someone would want to bypass ebay's customer protection is beyond me - I have had very occasional problems with vendors and ebay has been quick to help me with these problems - I feel well protected when making purchases - especially to foreign countries with other languages and even different money).  At any rate I tried to input the security number once too often, and hit some ebay limit and my messaging privileges have been suspended for a week.  Being suspended is not a problem, as I don't message very often, but I am worried I  now have a "black" mark against my name.  I found out later ebay sends you a caution when you include personal information, ie a phone number but the caution is at the top of the page not down at the bottom where you are entering the security number, so I never saw the warning as I was zoomed in.  I know in retrospect, this all probably sounds very trivial but I woke up at 3am this morning and I am still bothered by all this and my comment here is my attempt to get it off my chest.  Tks for listening.

Mike

[cumos55]

It is one thing to have eBay monitoring the Messaging system

What most people forget is that there are people constantly watching the internet...  looking for personal information.

Also hackers are always looking for ways to enter a website such as eBay.

As the years progress we must be constantly vigilant...  and specifically know what not to do..

We must protect our personal information  and our selling ability on eBay.... and eBay must be protected from a malicious attack.

You would be surprised what you would find on your computer... right now.  There are many things tracking what we do... and some of those may be  the .... bad people....

The messaging system is a back door to eBay...

[ypdc_dennis · Accepted solution]

Yes.

They have tighten up and gotten much stricter on what is detected to be an attempt at diverting a sale away from ebay. 

The eBay computer bots would  have flagged your message for mentioning name and phone number.

What you should of asked was can you print two lines, x characters on first line and y characters on line 2

You know how long the name is, you know how long the phone number is -- keep the question to general details of what is required.

...

Contacting eBay support via phone has been an eBay policy for a long time. There are only a few areas where contact is done via messages (INR sale disputes between buyers and sellers is one).

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[michael_from_pembroke]

Thank you everyone. My lack of knowledge of new rules was my fault. Being zoomed in to verification code and having ebay error caution message off the screen (that I missed completely) was something maybe ebay should address.

[jt-libra]

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@michael_from_pembroke wrote:

I know in retrospect, this all probably sounds very trivial but I woke up at 3am this morning and I am still bothered by all this and my comment here is my attempt to get it off my chest.  Tks for listening.

Mike

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No, this isn't trivial.  You no doubt spent a lot of time trying to get your message through and became very frustrated, as would I.  There are any number of reasons why a person might want to put a name or a phone number in a message, with no malicious or fraudulent intent, but heaven forbid that a sale might be made outside of eBay (when, in fact, there are many ways this can be accomplished outside of the eBay messaging system).  eBay would like us to believe that it is for our protection but all it serves to do is make it extremely difficult for buyers and sellers to communicate.

We shouldn't have to come up with all sorts of creative ways to enter a name or an e-mail address or a telephone number in an attempt to complete a transaction.

For the guilty few, all must be punished!