posted on December 22, 2000 01:48:08 AM new
I received this email from a seller I have never had dealings with:
"You have shown an interest in xxxx such as what I have for auction. If you would like to receive the link for the xxxx I have up
for auction on eBay, please let me know by replying to this email."
I forwarded the message to Safeharbor, and this was their reply:
"Thank you very much for writing. You received the email you reported because the sender wishes to avoid "spamming" other eBay users with their emailings about their auctions (which is prohibited as per the terms of eBay's Privacy Policy) by requesting your permission before putting you on a mailing list.
Users who would like to contact other eBay users about their auctions may approach users via email and ask them privately if they would like to receive information about their auctions. They must include no item
specifics, prices, or web links in their request email. The email you received from this user is in accordance with these rules of procedure.
Should you receive more email from this user after responding "no" or not at all to their request (no response is considered a "no" answer), please forward the email to [email protected] and we will take action.
Thank you very much for your help in making eBay a fun place to trade."
Now, I probably wouldn't have considered it spam if the email was from a seller whose auctions I had bid on, but I will get pretty ticked off if I start receiving tons of these messages from sellers I've never heard of.
posted on December 22, 2000 05:16:13 AM new
Whatever eBay says ... it's SPAM. They are scavenging potential customers from the listings of other sellers. And those persons have NEVER had any kind of a business relationship with them.
"By entering into our User Agreement, you agree that, with respect to other user's personally identifiable information that you obtain through the Site or through an eBay-related communication or eBay-facilitated transaction, eBay hereby grants to you a license to use such information only for: (a) eBay-related communications that are not unsolicited commercial messages,"
.... They are asking you if you would like to know where you can BUY their stuff: That's COMMERCIAL. You did not ask for the information: that's UNSOLICITED! ergo, it's spam.
If you had BOUGHT from them, and they asked you if you wanted to be put on a list to be notified of similar auctions, that would not be spam.
There are ?? millions of eBay accounts ... how many millions of them can you "just hit delete for" without
posted on December 22, 2000 05:18:15 AM new
Cerulean - I don't equate sending you a URL with a link to the seller's auction with a mailing list, but evidently someone at Ebay does.
In my opinion, this is certainly spam. The only difference is that Ebay is approving because the spam is directed towards an ongoing auction.
posted on December 22, 2000 09:09:17 AM newSo unless my bidder specifically asks me to send them an "End of Auction" notice, then by sending them that notice, it is spam.
eBay says:
So you're a winning bidder, or you've sold an item. Now what do you do?
Your first move is to contact the other person in the transaction. Sellers should try to contact the winning bidders within three business days after the auction ends. Winning bidders should also contact the sellers, especially if they haven't heard back from the seller within three business days. Sellers will not be offended if you show enthusiasm for the item that you bought. It is the responsibility of the seller and the buyer to contact one another.
It doesn't appear that eBay thinks an EOA notice is spam.
posted on December 22, 2000 03:51:52 PM new
I'd say yes, that is spam. Unsolicited commercial email.
However, an EOA is not unsolicited, because the bidder initiated a transaction, in the form of making a bid, that if accepted (it ends up being a high bid), brings some expected "paperwork" (EOA in this case) and other expectations of what is needed to complete the transaction at hand. Being added to mailing lists is and should not necessary to complete a sale. Completing a transaction and being added to mailing lists are two very different things, even if they unfortunately tend to be connected.
The spam that's subject of this thread is not an EOA. It is straight out of the blue, someone who collected email addresses from eBay. I'll give the spammer a bit of credit for not laying on a multi-kilobyte spiel (he didn't even include the link), for following some eBay procedure -- though I wasn't aware of that built-in loophole. So I'd lay more of the blame on eBay and its apparent definitions.
So take you pick. Either the spammer was following some sort of "official," eBay-sanctioned procedure , and thus "legitimized" (to some extent I think most of us would call "very limited" at best), or they're yet another run-of-the-muck spammer. Either way, I see it as part of the problem. If even a small fraction of the millions of eBay sellers decided to do the same thing, the amount of unwanted junk would rise considerably. I know how to look for things, when I want to.
This, BTW, is an example of why I wonder about the bills in Congress, because while some are strong and would ban all UCE, only allowing verified opt-in marketing (similar to the anti-junk fax law), most of the bills are weak: opt-out would be the name of the game; while they'd have to obey opt-out requests (better than most spam does now), this would also open the floodgates to thousands of companies and direct marketers (worse than before) currently waiting to see how this war ends. Most people would never be able to keep up; opt-out is only good if you're receiving a small amount of junk.
----
What's being done in the name of direct marketing nowadays is crazy.
The above are all just my opinions, except where I cite facts as such.
Oh, I am not dc9a320 anywhere except AW. Any others are not me.
Is eBay is changing from a world bazaar into a bizarre world?
[ Edited to get the "right" kind of "smiley" ]
[ edited by dc9a320 on Dec 22, 2000 03:55 PM ]
, and thus "legitimized" (to some extent I think most of us would call "very limited" at best), or they're yet another run-of-the-muck spammer. Either way, I see it as part of the problem. If even a small fraction of the millions of eBay sellers decided to do the same thing, the amount of unwanted junk would rise considerably. I know how to look for things, when I want to.