# Ebay



## Scruffy (Oct 4, 2017)

ebay just saved me a lot of money. Over the last 5 years I have probably spent 30,000 dollars thru eBay, and now I'm blocked from sending any messages or questions to sellers.
I' done with them cancelled my account.
Thanks scruffy ron


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## tweinke (Oct 4, 2017)

This seems to be a reoccurring theme with them. The way there heading I wonder how long people will continue to play along. Sure doesn't make wanting information on an item easier knowing that you may get blocked for asking.


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## Terrywerm (Oct 4, 2017)

Don't feel too bad, Scruffy, half the time people want way too much money for what they are selling anyway. Don't take that as 'sour grapes' either, I firmly believe it! In the past I purchased a fair bit of stuff through eBay, but I haven't purchased anything there in quite some time now. I guess I don't understand why you would be blocked from sending any messages or questions to sellers, but on the other hand all it seems to take is one bad report and you are branded as a criminal. I can't see the whole thing lasting very long that way.


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## darkzero (Oct 5, 2017)

Deals aren't as great as their early days but I still love ebay. Have to have much more patience these days but I still find great deals. And I'm ready to buy everytime they have a flash sale.

What happened? There has to be a reason, they won't just block you for no apparant reason.


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## Eddyde (Oct 5, 2017)

One of the main reasons blocks are imposed is people put contact info in the messages to try to communicate outside of eBay.


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## higgite (Oct 5, 2017)

I can't see them blocking a $6000 per year customer without good reason. But, maybe they did.



Eddyde said:


> One of the main reasons blocks are imposed is people put contact info in the messages to try to communicate outside of eBay.



And now, for the rest of the story.... 

Tom


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## British Steel (Oct 5, 2017)

Eddyde said:


> One of the main reasons blocks are imposed is people put contact info in the messages to try to communicate outside of eBay.



I had exactly that, was shopping for a PID temperature controller with ramp and hold for a heat-treatment furnace, wanted the manual to see whether it would do what I wanted, so gave my email address - blocked for a week, EvilBay totally unhelpful and convinced I was trying to deal outside EvilBay. I suggested that they could set up an anonymous file transfer facility anonymising seller and enquirer email addresses, which isn't hard (I've had to do it for "private" systems at work), it had never (would never) occurred to 'em...

Dave H. (the other one)


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## GA Gyro (Oct 5, 2017)

Is there an alternative site... that covers most of the continental USA...
That works similar to Ebay...
Yet is more customer friendly???

I have a bunch of stuff I want/need to sell... mostly related to the heating and AC business... mostly random parts.
About half of it I could sell on local Craigslist (metro Atlanta)... the rest I probably need national exposure to find someone with a need for the specific part(s).

Any thoughts/suggestions would be welcome!


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## Eddyde (Oct 5, 2017)

GA Gyro said:


> Is there an alternative site... that covers most of the continental USA...
> That works similar to Ebay...
> Yet is more customer friendly???
> 
> ...



None that I know of... I think eBay has to be the way they are in order to provide the services they offer. If they permitted off site communications people would simply use the site to gain national or even global exposure for their item, then make the deal on the side and screw eBay out of their commissions. Also how could eBay offer buyer protection unless they had a record of all correspondence between buyer and seller? I have done many thousands of dollars of transactions on eBay and had several disputes, all were resolved quickly and fairly. To me it's worth the few extra dollars to have peace of mind.


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## Scruffy (Oct 5, 2017)

I had no intention of trying to screw eBay.  I wanted a picture of a steady rest that is 75 miles away. I told the seller he could send it to my email. My bad I guess.
 And if everybody would read the first post ,they would see that I've spent thousands through eBay with a 100 % rating. Wasn't trying anything under the table.
Thanks scruffy ron


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## darkzero (Oct 5, 2017)

Scruffy said:


> I had no intention of trying to screw eBay.  I wanted a picture of a steady rest that is 75 miles away. I told the seller he could send it to my email. My bad I guess.
> And if everybody would read the first post ,they would see that I've spent thousands through eBay with a 100 % rating. Wasn't trying anything under the table.
> Thanks scruffy ron



Wow, that sucks Ron! Good to know that they are so strict with attempts to communicate outside of ebay. I never knew. I did ask someone to continue our conversation through email once because it was getting long & unrelated to ebay but that was a long time ago & luckily nothing ever happened.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say it's your fault but their messaging system has the ability to send pics through it.

If I were in your shoes I'd contact ebay & explain the situation, also quote the message that stated you were just asking for more pictures. Not your fault, you weren't aware, & you weren't try to screw them. I'm sure their system is automated & detects any messages with email addresses. That's a lot of man power to have go screen through every message.


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