An open letter to eBay

Now, it's easy to bag out eBay for many reasons and many highlight those reasons daily. However, one reason that really both frustrates and nerfs me to no end is their absurd policy on email addresses not being allowed in the message system. eBay says it is to PROTECT buyers, when in fact what it really does is just cause a MAJOR pain in the southern alps!

For example, you buy something, but want to make alternative shipping arrangements because the shipping price quoted isn't all that realistic and you're not in the mood to bend over.

For further example, on international shipping. You ask the seller to invoice you for local shipping, plus the cost of the item of course, because you know someone who you can send to locally and they can then on-send to you at a price that requires no bending whatsoever. Of course the seller agrees, then asks for you PayPal id so they are able to invoice you for the correct amount....... and of course here is where it gets interesting.

eBay, in their infinite wisdom, now make this impossible to do with their moronic policy on not permitting email address's to be transmitted through their system. Well OK eBay, if you are so determined to have such an absurd policy and make trading as difficult as possible, then how about sorting out an option where by a perfectly legitimate PayPal id can be transmitted and a transaction completed with a minimum of fuss, as opposed to this insane situation where a buyer and seller are left trying to find ways to communicate outside of eBay so a bloody PayPal invoice can be sent.

Seriously, of all the counter productive measures eBay has in place, this one drives me completely nuts. I realize that eBay doesn't hire the smartest monkies in the tree, but is there any remote chance they can find some that can at least climb up a few branches and mingle with the smart ones, so they may well stumble on a process that is effective for everyone, not just for themselves!

Hi Marc,

yep totally agree with that, and the crazy part is a buyer can send a message with a email address contained in the message, but not a seller, so find myself doing this to say for example, to let a buyer know a email address Blah blah @Gma*l.com , and i find this one odd, will allow you to mention a website address in your messages, without getting pinged. Go figure !!!!

Cheers

Yep, website messages are absolutely fine, in fact that's what I usually do lol, I send them a link to a contact page on my website and then get their email address through there. Of course sending a phone number also works, but the stupidity of it drives me insane.

Have you tried looking in Paypal to find email addresses? ebay doesn't allow email addresses but the transaction in paypal contains the email addresses in the transaction history.

That's something I hadn't even considered, nice tip!

It does however just highlights how stupid the policy is lol