morgantown
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posted on April 22, 2001 12:54:30 AM new
Tried to contact a seller tonight with a question regarding his/her auction, this is what I got.
"Warning: Unable to send your question(s) and forward a copy (Bcc) of your message.
Unfortunately, we were unable to send your question(s) to the eBay user via email nor were we able to forward a copy to you.
You may both be experiencing problems receiving email at this time.
Where can we take you? Item I last looked at My eBay Bidding/Watching page"
Tried over and over, then gave up. 
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seyms
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posted on April 22, 2001 05:05:54 AM new
It's still happening at 8AM on Sunday morning. Meg, if you read this, please, let our people go. Free us from your bondage. Stop acting as the conduit/filter of our emails. Big Brother does not become you.
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JWPC
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posted on April 22, 2001 06:18:16 AM new
YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!
Remember many screamed and cried for "protection from Spam" which they could easily have just deleted and/or blocked. They wanted "Big Brother," to take care of them, so eBay has.
I have read endless threads on AW crying about Spam. Unfortunately, when you don't want to handle things yourselves, or feel someone else is responsible for protecting you from something you could do yourself, you end up with Big Brother. You can't have it both ways.
It is an unfortunate situation, and I hope sellers are realizing the problem and inserting a direct e-mail link to themselves within their auction posts.
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chris30
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posted on April 22, 2001 06:25:05 AM new
Couldn't have said it better!
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reddeer
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posted on April 22, 2001 07:09:48 AM new
Thanks for the heads up Mtown!
JWPC ..... Do you honestly believe eBay implemented that feature for the good of the community?
FYI - eBay's main concern was Offline Transactions ie: eBay initiated trade that is completed outside the venue. In the ebay document I'm holding in my hands, they even mention how "these transactions also deprive eBay of FVF's"
Please don't attempt to blame Spam haters for this new eBay tool. This feature was implemented to control a revenue leak.
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dottie
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posted on April 22, 2001 08:23:12 AM new
reddear: You're Exactly Right.
eBay just put a negative "spin" on SPAM... got community members all beside themselves over the inconvenience of having to DELETE it from their eMail boxes... and then USED those gullible complaining members as the EXCUSE for rolling out the eBay eMail forwarding system which helps to eliminate communications that lead to TRANSACTIONS outside of eBays Venue.
SPAM still occcurs... but the only "spam" eBay is truly interested in eliminating are communications that could potentially lead to deals being made outside of the venue...
The eBay eMail forwarding system is a patch for the leaky revenue stream. It's an inconvenience for buyers and sellers... EVEN if they are attempting to trade within the venue. It is NOT a solution for "real spam".
- Dottie 
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sonsie
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posted on April 22, 2001 08:25:04 AM new
I'm having the same problem, and it is annoying as he**. I never asked for spam protection, and find the new system cumbersome at best...even when it works.
That said, how does one insert a link in one's auction page? I use AWPro to launch auctions, if that makes a difference. Thanks!
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dottie
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posted on April 22, 2001 08:37:07 AM new
It's HTML.
{a href=http://YourEMailAddressHere}CLICK HERE TO EMAIL ME DIRECTLY{/a}
you need to use the "greater than and less than" signs rather than the brackets that I used for this example.
Dottie
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reamond
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posted on April 22, 2001 12:28:06 PM new
Another thing you can do to extract your communication from eBay's servers when a customer sends an email is to simply cut and paste the customers email addy and subject head off the email and send a new message to the customer.
Any email I receive from customers through eBay is not anawered with the reply button. I send a new message to protect my communications.
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gjsi
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posted on April 22, 2001 12:40:41 PM new
reamond, If there is a "real" address in the FROM: line, then you can hit the reply. It will NOT go through eBay's servers unless you have your email client setup to use eBay's SMTP servers.
It works exactly the same as if you cut and paste the address.
Greg
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rubylane
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posted on April 22, 2001 02:43:04 PM new
Dottie's suggestion for an email link is not right.
The correct syntax is like:
Email me at <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>
Jim
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dottie
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posted on April 22, 2001 02:48:17 PM new
Jim: OOPS! *giggle* THANKS!!
- Dottie
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toke
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posted on April 22, 2001 02:52:02 PM new
Are you guys making a major effort to confuse me? Don't bother. It's waaaay easier than this...
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MUSICMAN12533
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posted on April 22, 2001 03:05:16 PM new
instead of a link,cant you just put your email address in the auction?
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reamond
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posted on April 22, 2001 03:26:07 PM new
GISI- You can do it the way your suggest, but eBay's servers will still appear in the headers proving the contact path.
Although I don't think eBay uses emails to entrap for fee avoidance, the path will give away the communication path if the issue ever arises for any reason.
The first thing safeharbor asks for is the path header from suspect or problem emails.
It may be a competitor that sends the email. Without the path header there is nothing ebay can do or say regarding the contact.
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sword013
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posted on April 22, 2001 04:53:15 PM new
MUSICMAN12533
posted on April 22, 2001 03:05:16 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
instead of a link,cant you just put your email address in the auction?
That's why my ebay trader name has always been my email address. I did it at first as a courtesy to bidders, so they wouldn't have to hassle with doing the lookup.
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birdwatcher-07
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posted on April 22, 2001 06:25:15 PM new
I have a direct email link prominently place in TWO places in all my item descriptions. Guess what? 90% of my questions from potential bidders STILL come via eBay! Boy, eBay has got the bidders trained! They either don't notice or are afraid to use my direct email links.
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kyriaki
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posted on April 22, 2001 06:40:56 PM new
Do you think it's OK to add a sentence like, "If you have any questions you can email me at [email protected]" in your writeup somewhere, or would that be against the eBay rules? I am really unclear about this.
Thanks!
k
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Microbes
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posted on April 22, 2001 06:53:07 PM new
kyriaki:
>Do you think it's OK to add a sentence like...
The Pinks in the ebay chat rooms got beat to death with this question, and yes, you can add a sentence like that, and you can make the "[email protected]" a clickable link.
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kyriaki
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posted on April 22, 2001 07:45:38 PM new
Thank you Microbes for your speedy response - I think I will do that. But just curious here, whoever or whatever are the Pinks?????
k
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eventer
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posted on April 22, 2001 07:55:22 PM new
The Pinks are the ebay employees who monitor the boards. Their posts come up w/a pink background, hence "the pinks".
And sometimes their advice makes you want to find that bottle of Pepto Bismal in the medicine cabinet.
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Microbes
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posted on April 22, 2001 07:56:32 PM new
kyriaki:
In the ebay chat rooms (The Soapbox, Town Square, etc.) any posts that are made by a ebay employee have a Pink Header.
(Kinda like the moderator posts here have a green looking background )
Then again, they might have gotten stuck with that handle because of their Pinko Commie Dictatorship Attitude
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Juggheadd
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posted on April 22, 2001 08:08:08 PM new
SPAM is so easy to deal with ... hit the damn delete key. I have received SPAM from two people offering to sell me "similar" items to what I have bid on on ebay so obviously ebay's system doesn't work.
And I have asked a few questions to sellers that have not been answered, probably due to an ebay email screwup.
ebay has done a lot of dumb things, but this has to be the dumbest one so far.
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Empires
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posted on April 22, 2001 09:24:15 PM new
jwpc YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!
Remember many screamed and cried for "protection from Spam" which they could easily have just deleted and/or blocked. They wanted "Big Brother," to take care of them, so eBay has."
Then answer me this, Why do we keep getting more spam by the day?
Maybe the answer is to hit the forward button and send it back to SafeHarbor or Billing Dept, since it takes our time in distractions alone. ....
[ edited by Empires on Apr 22, 2001 09:33 PM ]
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Microbes
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posted on April 22, 2001 09:29:23 PM new
>why do we keep getting more spam by the day?
Because Ebay has been selling our email addresses. How do you think Meg earned her Bonus this Quarter? (What do you think she will do NEXT Quarter? )
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mikeselis
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posted on April 22, 2001 09:30:51 PM new
I think that ebay is starting to get annoyed with the send to friend because every single one I get is somebody either trying to sell me something at their auction or somebody telling me not to bid on that item, and bid on theirs instead. Everybody that does that to me ends up getting a warning, but I still wonder where they get my email address from as I have never done business with them before.
EBAY USER SINCE 1998!
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