posted on July 3, 2014 08:21:36 AM new
I received an offer from someone the other day for an item that is strictly fixed price. I sent them a nice email explaining that the item they inquired about was not available for less because the manufacturer has a MAP price set on it that we cannot sell for less, but we do offer free shipping. I also let them know that they were violating eBay policy so that they were aware that some others sellers may report them. In no way was I confrontational, just informational. Most buyers are not aware of that policy.
They replied back that they were not violating the policy, though by their response it was obvious they actually had violated eBay policy repeatedly in the past.
So, I did some investigating and discovered that eBay has changed this policy, likely in the Spring Update.
It used to read:
"If the Make Offer button doesn't appear in the listing, the seller isn't interested in receiving offers and you shouldn't try to contact this seller to negotiate price or terms. Doing so violates our offers to buy or sell outside of eBay policy."
I realize that it isn't an offer to sell outside of eBay, but it was part of the eBay policy.
Now it reads:
"If the Make Offer button doesn't appear in the listing, the seller may not be interested in receiving offers. If you do contact a seller to negotiate price or terms, you shouldn't make offers to buy the item outside of eBay. Doing so violates our offers to buy or sell outside of eBay policy."
posted on July 3, 2014 03:51:30 PM new
Ebay has too many rules,every time they come up with a rule,some one will come up with a way to go around it.
No email address in Ebay email?
well,some seller upload a picture of his email address to ask the buyer to pay direct via Paypal.
Takes too long to ship from China,no worry,registerd as in Illinois,NJ,Nevada.
Someone just bought from a seller who claimed to be in NJ,the item is supposed to arrive in 4 days and now the buyer asked them to reship express mail or priority mail as he needs the item,sorry the seller said cant do that,the item is in China.
No return policy,no problem,just file item significantly not as described.
Restocking fee,no problem,SNAD comes to the rescue.
Want to make some extra money,buy a gold coin and claim the enevlope is empty>
a $600 reward.
posted on July 4, 2014 10:42:07 AM new
Who has time to study all of eBay's rules and policies. I try to know the important ones and the rest will probably change again soon anyway.
posted on July 5, 2014 12:12:53 AM new
The policy hasn't changed, just the blurb attempting to explain it. Making an offer--by negotiating price or terms--without using the auction forum still violates the buying & selling outside eBay policy. Granted, it's not eBay's most masterful explanation of policy.
I'm sure the would-be buyer doesn't care about violating the policy. What seller is going to report someone for making an offer? Hardly anyone, I would think.
posted on July 6, 2014 09:40:31 AM new
Karenmx - do you have any link to where it states that is still against policy? I would be curious to know. The buyer was pretty rude to me. I blocked them, but I would like to know for future reference.
I have no idea if this person is working on behalf of the company I am selling products for. They could be fishing to see if I would sell their item for less. They have worked really hard to make sure nobody sells below MAP... but some companies that buy use a different ID name when selling.
posted on July 6, 2014 10:43:28 PM new
I have nothing other than the blurbs you posted, the last sentence of which attempts to state the eBay policy.
I never realized it was eBay-illegal for the (potential) buyer to make an offer to buy an item outside the eBay system, though for a seller to accept such an offer has long been a no-no. Can't say I'd report someone for it, though "failure of recipient to report an off-eBay offer" may well be an offense buried deep in the eBay fine print. Given how little I list and that I've never had such an offer, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
