eBay

ricarmic · ‎04-03-2017

Buyer from China asked about my high shipping costs (I force them to use tracking).

It took me about 20 minutes to craft a response explaining why the shipping costs where high (the bots kept telling me it is against the rules to sell off ebay by outlining my whole message in yellow with a wee warning message in the bottom).

There were no words or any inclination that something was being done off ebay, I really have no idea what wording it was taking exception to. All I was trying to do was say that shipping costs for tracked packages is high in Canada and I require tracked shipping to China because of high loss rates to China.

Today the buyer decided they couldn't find other lots to combine to bring the relative shipping cost low enough so they sent a message asking to cancel.

Again when I went to send them a message advising that it was cancelled and they may have to say yes to the cancellation request I got the yellow outline box and the warning against selling off ebay. Again there was nothing wording wise that I could see that could be interpreted or even hinted at an off ebay transaction.

It seems things are getting more restrictive every day, I do totally understand and support the reasons why they're trying to deter off ebay transactions, but it is getting to the point one can hardly write anything without it being misinterpreted by the bots....

Anyway glad that one's over, every day seems to be a new adventure!!!

sylviebee · ‎04-03-2017

I noticed the same thing this morning.

I don't think it's about bots reacting to part of the message. Seems almost to be rote and included with every communication.

reallynicestamps · ‎04-03-2017

I don't think for most sellers an extensive discussion of Canadian shipping costs is useful.

Their real and unstated question is "Can I get a discount on shipping?"

I have answered these with a link to the Canada Post rates page, but usually say something like "Tracked shipping to China/Thailand/Germany is $XX.00 by Canada Post Air Mail." without apology or further explanation.

I can see why a stamp dealer might want to be more explicit with a Chinese collector of course.

ricarmic · ‎04-03-2017

Hi reallynice!

It would be interesting to see what would happen if you tried to put that wording in, my guess is that you'd have gotten "yellow boxed" too.... (what is in my note above is very close to what it was not allowing)

They were good about it, I didn't give the buyer an option to reduce, only to add other items or cancel (or pay the full amount, which didn't make sense given it was almost the same price as the stamp).

ricarmic · ‎04-03-2017

@sylviebee wrote:
I noticed the same thing this morning.

I don't think it's about bots reacting to part of the message. Seems almost to be rote and included with every communication.

Hmmm I just realized that I didn't actually try to send the message that was being yellow boxed. Were you able to send a message that was yellow boxed ok??

I presumed that it would not send it, that's what's happened in the past when the bots were involved (there was no "pre-yellow" box before, I only found out when I tried to send it....and it said it wasn't allowed and wouldn't send till I fixed it)