posted on February 3, 2001 09:45:20 AM new
CWG, your spin as a former eBay employee doesn't come across as any more persuasive than the spin of the current eBay employees.
As a Voices 1 member, I've been involved in much discussion with eBay about this issue, starting from last April. And no one in my particular group cares for this at all. Of course we empathize with the problem of Spam -- but we don't believe that is the pure unadulterated motivation in eBay's corporate hearts. eBay's proposed solutions are like using a wrecking ball to get rid of a house spider. eBay has gone way too far but because they are squirreled away in their corporate Ivory Towers all day long, not in the thick of buying and selling heavily, they don't see the Big Picture. They are not fooling anyone about their more self-serving motivation, which is to prevent any and all offline trading by all of us suddenly dishonest abusers.
Feh. I do not want or need eBay's "protections" to this degree and it sounds like most others on these boards do not either.
By the way, jwpc, most savvy buyers will BOOKMARK a seller's auctions. I wasn't advocating YOU change your name anyway. I just feel sorry for those who feel they are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. My whole reason for not adopting a nickname in the first place was so that prospective buyers would not have to take ONE EXTRA STEP in order to e-mail me. So my e-mail name is probably among the easiest to harvest, and spam has NOT been a problem.
posted on February 3, 2001 09:47:40 AM new
Personally I really dislike spam. But I can deal with it because I know it is only a matter of time until it will be controlled
via international legislation.
Much of the very limited spam I get on my registered eBay email comes from eBay or some other 3rd party with an eBay relationship. As I remember from postings here, the preferences for many eBay users were somehow changed to allow unsolicited email offers from eBay.
So if eBay is really only concerned with spam (as they say) they should use their efforts to lobby Congress. In the short term I'd rather deal with limited spam than having to communicate with my customers and potential customers through an historically unreliable third party.
As someone else mentioned ebay notifications are often delayed substantially or not received at all. And this not to mention the many many times functionality unavailableis the eBay response to a service request.
EBay .... thank you soooo much for your maternalistic and protective thoughts toward your customers. This is one customer though, that would much prefer to accept limited spam and deal with customers directly (and reliably).
The email still goes to the support team but probably gets a higher priority. I never use these addresses frivolously and only on issues of major concern to me such as this.
posted on February 3, 2001 10:29:48 AM new
My two cents worth.
First ebay is a business and the must protect their interests. It is very common for people to snatch a bidders email address and offer an item for the same or lower price. This is jsut a step in the direction of making sure that if a transaction occurs because of ebay they get their cut. They deserve it I personally have made thousands of dollars I never would have made without them. They advertise and provide a means to get my product sold. Before ebay everything went at a garage sale. I had items go for pennies that I knew there was someone somewhere that wanted it. As for those trying to sell new items on Ebay--look at the cost of brick and mortar. also look at other auction sites that have virtually no bids. I doubt you can find over 5 sites with a total of 1,000 items each bid on.
Second, I prefer not to be solicited via emails. I have had the same address now for almost 5 years and m yspam rate is rising but is still at about 3 or 4 a week. I attribute this to using a different name on ebay.
Finally, the internet is growing and changing daily. Ebay, Paypal, Yahoo etc still have not found all the rules that suit the medium the best. What they have learned in a few years is fantastic compared to what other companies had decades to learn. And the world they are operating in today is rough and fast and you can go down very fast. So that's my two cents!!<A href="http://www.runet.edu/~badams/gifs/twocents.gif">
Prepare for the worst but hope for the best!! Spuddy98
[ edited by spuddy98 on Feb 3, 2001 10:34 AM ]
posted on February 3, 2001 10:50:41 AM new
This time, stupidEbAy has really cut off the nose to spite the face:
Based on their and Ebay User's admonition, one should ALWAYS contact seller prior to placing a bid.
Based on the incredible TOTAL CONTROL eBaY is now imposing (Welcome to the Iron Curtain), many outraged users will opt to NOT contact seller with questions, and will not bid.....so, EbAy will LOSE anyway
And as mentioned by many, due to how unreliable Ebay is, we certainly cannot expect a prompt reply...so, those poor folks who will go ahead and BID without getting replies to their concerns will be making themselves targets for NEGs, since they did not wait for Ebay's response....Man! What a freaking mess....
******** Gosh Shosh!
posted on February 3, 2001 04:41:10 PM new
I've been using my actual email address as my user I.D. at eBay for 4 years and I DON'T have a spam problem.
Think about this:
eBay wants to help protects us. GREAT! Make the email form system OPTIONAL. If I'm having auction interferrence problems, or bottom feeding problems or spam problems, I'll ELECT to use the PROTECTION.
If I'm feeling that my safety or trust is eroding, I'll ELECT to hide my identity.
If I need big brother eBay's protection I'll simply use the OPTIONSprovided.
These features could have been presented as OPTIONAL preferences and turned on or off using My Ebay or perhaps listing options on the list your item page.
Why weren't they? Simple, because this isn't about trust and safety or privacy. It's about fee avoidance and controlling off-auction transactions. eBay needs to FORCE us ALL into using these features because how else do they have any hope of controlling off-auction trades?
Look for email links and links to web pages to disappear next. I'm sure it'll be to PROTECT us somehow. I can't wait to see the eBay spin on these IMPROVEMENTS.
posted on February 3, 2001 04:58:24 PM new
I GOTTA post this... eBay claims this new email policy is to protect us from spam. Lots of people have been suggesting that you can get around this by changing your UserId to your email address, or putting your email addy in your description, or putting it in non-searchable HTML, which as "non-searchable" implies, has its drawbacks. A large number of sellers doing this would directly negate eBay's stated goal, not to mention their ummm primary goal, which is to prevent off-site sales. Ebay surely knows this. ERGO, I'm starting a friendly pool on this thread as to the date that eBay bans email addys as Userids as step II in their policy implementation. I go first.
posted on February 3, 2001 05:05:29 PM new
User ID changes, AW keeps pulling threads about our favorite auction site becoming our elder brother and former "red star within a scickle country" Censorship at work, hmmmm.
posted on February 3, 2001 06:10:32 PM new
The spam excuse IS a valid one for ebay's proposed change. I get a ton of it and hate it. HOWEVER IF that was the ONLY reason for it, ebay would not restrict you from entering a direct link to your email within your item description text. That leaves you making the decision about direct initial contact. Is this the case? Are they going to keep us from adding a link ourselves?
eBay could have left it up to each of us to decide for ourselves whether or not spam was a problem by making the email forms optional. Spam isn't a problem for me, so I would choose not to use the forms. Since spam is a problem for you, you could have chosen to use the forms.
Forcing us ALL to use the forms wasn't necessary, except to control off-auction transactions.
So far, email links and web page links in our auction listings are still allowed.
posted on February 3, 2001 10:09:41 PM new
Yup it's 1984 Big Brother
Meya I agree: This is a control issue, and one that the members should not stand for.
So if they do implement this change and this control over our businesses, how about (at least) a one week boycott? NO ONE sells on Ebay for one week. People must stick together to get anything done. If you think you can't afford to lose a week of sales, you CERTAINLY can't afford to lose the sales you will lose when no one can contact you anymore. When you sell in a B&M store, does it tell you you cannot sell in any other store? Uhhh NO not in my neighborhood. We cannot sit by and let this happen. Let us choose a date and figure out a way to reach enough sellers to make a difference. We have to do something now. Next they will be peeking out at you from your monitor.... ughhhh soundsss toooo familiar....
posted on February 3, 2001 11:41:08 PM new
I get spam, spam and more spam. The only place they can get my email address is ebay
(the one I get the spam on). I've read the new way it works and it is a little more work but not much. I'll take it so that my email address can't be "harvested". The only thing that looks awkward is emailing 2nd
high bidder if first bidder doesn't pay up. That's less than 1% of my sales and there still may be a way to do it that I haven't figured out. You know, this might be an improvement.
[ edited by rrsia on Feb 3, 2001 11:53 PM ]
posted on February 4, 2001 01:16:11 AM new
Interesting.... I just checked out epier.com for the first time, and right on their opening page it says "NO BIG BROTHER". It goes on to say how they don't block email addresses, and how they encourage buyers and sellers to contact each other. They must've added that on the second they heard about EPay's latest scam. EPier is totally free. If only there was some action over there..... hmmmm.... ???
posted on February 4, 2001 11:39:16 AM new
If spam is a problem I should decide, not eBay. They should have better things to do, like keeping their site up, making their network more stable. Let me worry about if I am getting too many spams.
posted on February 4, 2001 06:51:12 PM new
Well in some categories, spam is a true problem. I don't experience it much myself, but I guess if you bid on software, beanie babies & the like, the resulting spam can be horrendous. I don't blame eBay for attempting to thwart the spam-collecting "bots."
What irks me though is that this could have been handled in a much more tactful and diplomatic way. By muddying the waters with the very offensive offline trading policies and seeming to cast the same net over the true spammer/bottomfeeders and the rest of the eBay community, many people do not trust eBay's motives.
posted on February 5, 2001 01:41:27 AM new
my 2 cents.. ARRGGHHHHHH!!
Thank you I feel so much better now.. Sheeshhh... Ya know I just put up a CERTAIN showcase (don't worry AW as soon as AUCTION MANAGER & STOREFRONTS come up..I'll be checking out STOREFRONTS).. listed the link in my auction.. "to CONTACT me or VIEW My other AUCTIONS CLICK HERE).. Well in the 2 days since I put that up.. I've gotten 2 phone calls from 2 different potential bidders.. WOW..
Note: this is my cell phone number.. And right now, besides my Park District work w/ kids.. I am pretty much available to answer my call 24/7/365. CONTACT is VERY VERY Important.
The E-mail FORWARDING COMPUTERS had better be STATE OF THE ART & HAVE THEIR OWN team of 24/7/365 Technicians & have double back up systems etc.. We dont have time to wait on SYSTEM CRASHES when buyers concerns are at stake..
I say this, cuz the one customer bought 1 item, and then came back & bought 2 more, becuase, I told her they would be on Ebay the next day.....Hey I gave Ebay their 60 cents!!! It was worth it...
All that & a Bag of Chips Too!!
[ edited by jhf2662 on Feb 5, 2001 02:10 AM ]
posted on February 5, 2001 03:51:22 AM new
surrrfurtom - ]
"We often send an additional jpeg if requested which will now become more of a hassle and require a workaround and multiple emails."
The email sent via the eBay mail forwarder will have their email address on it ... you can reply with JPGS attached like usual.
posted on February 5, 2001 08:01:01 AM new
abacaxi..
Thank you, I was under the impression that ebay would not be providing the originator's address and headers directly and would require sending additional emails. Guess I'll have to review the FAQ.
Tom
posted on February 5, 2001 01:37:19 PM new
Hi All;
This is Marek from BidPay. I can tell you that we've gotten "LOTS" of email from concerned sellers and buyers about this issue. But here is what I see as the greatest concern.
SCAMMERS! Who will impersonate the buyer and/or seller. I posted this on another board and here how it would work.
I bid on an item the seller is offering for $5 and this makes me the bidder and allows me to obtain the sellers email address.
Then I sit back and wait for the seller to offer something for sale for $1,200 and I write to the buyer.
Dear High Bidder, it's me YOUR SELLER, please send the payment to bla..bla.
The buyer has no way to confirm the sellers email address and assumes the email has come from the rightful seller.
NOT!
Likewise this ruse can be played out in reverse. Offer something for sale, get the bidders email address... now that I have the bidders user name and email address I can track their auctions.
I now write the seller: Hi, I just sent you $500 for that DVD player...when the payment arrives would you send the item to my office address as I will not be at home.
The RIGHTFUL bidder makes the payment using us, PayPal or Billpoint.
The seller says, OK here's my money and now I will ship the item off as per the buyers email instructions.
NOT!
Trust, these scams get played out EVERY SINGLE DAY on eBAY but smart sellers and buyers can always check the email address of their bidder to make sure that the email instructions, directions, etc. are in fact coming from the rightful buyer/seller.
How will JOESMITH as a user name have any relationship to an email address?
Answer, IT DOESN'T!
You will have no way of knowing that the person writing to you is in fact your bidder.
That's my two cents...and remember. We handle tens of thousands of payments every week so we see all this stuff and those concerns are valid and have been expressed to us by a great many customers.
Food for thought...and something we don't happen to think eBAY put much thought into these changes.
posted on February 5, 2001 02:06:37 PM new
Welllll . . . .except, how would the impersonator get the e-mail address of the top bidder in somebody else's auction? Under eBay's new system that should become impossible.
