posted on May 13, 2001 07:38:50 PM
After two emails from Ebay Support...I was told that email links are ok in the descriptions. I think...isn't that what he was saying? Sorry in advance for the long post! - Kristi
My First Email:
I have read on several message boards that clickable email address links
will be included in the policy change regarding a website link on the
View Item page. This was stated by Katy on the DNF message board
supposedly (it has scrolled off so I could not verify it). Is this
true? Why can I not have a clickable email address? I should be allowed
to have as many ways as possible for my buyer or potential buyer to
contact me with questions. The Ask a seller a question feature is often
overlooked up there in all the top details especially by new users of
Ebay. I do NOT sell off eBay and do NOT plan to in the future. I can
send you emails to back this up where I have told buyers that I would
relist the item so that they could do it through eBay. If it is true
about removing clickable email addresses...I am very upset and would
like an explanation other than a form letter. TIA.
Thanks for your email! I will be happy to answer your question.
I understand you concern regarding the new listing and link policy. I
would explain this policy in detail to you and why we have made the
decision to make these changes, but I believe that the pages on the site
do a far better job of this than I can. You can see this new policy in
detail by going to the following link:
Any time there are changes to the site, we post those problems to our
Announcement Board. To get to that board or for any other information
about current issues affecting the site, please use this link:
http://pages.ebay.com/community/index.html
Then, just click on the link for 'View all Announcements'.
We appreciate your membership in our community, Kristi. Thanks for
using eBay!
Regards,
XXXX X.
eBay Customer Support
MY Response
Hi! That didn't answer my question at all. The links on the site do not
say
that email links are banned. Did you even read my email? I have no
problem
with not linking to a website but I DO want my email address. I asked
that I
not get a form letter and look there...IT IS...because if you had read
my
question you would have known I was asking for clarification on the
Announcement Board posting and you would NOT have referred me to it.
PLEASE
answer directly my question on email links.
Kristi
Final Email from Ebay:
Hello Kristi,
Thanks for writing again.
Please be assured that I did read your email and that I was simply
trying to give you the most detailed information available to me. I
apologize that this was not clear. To clarify, you can place a link to
your email address in your description. The bottom line of the new
email policy is this:
"The View Item page is designed for the description of a specific item,
not for general business advertisements. Allowing links to sites off
eBay is detrimental to sellers that are listing only on eBay and
counting on that traffic. The purpose of the change is to focus on the
intent of our View Item page policy, which is to describe an individual
item, not a seller's business or other items." -- (from the FAQ about
the new links policy, which can be found at this link:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-adsfaq2.html )
What this means is that, with the new policy, we are trying to encourage
our members to complete their transactions ON the eBay site and to not
go off the site, where they would not be protected by eBay insurance or
be able to leave feedback, etc.
posted on May 13, 2001 07:52:16 PM
Thanks reddeer...I'll try that. I thought it sounded too good to be true. I'm on vacation and haven't been able to keep up with the boards here. I knew someone would be able to set me straight again after some false hope from Ebay!
posted on May 13, 2001 09:07:41 PMcopperqueen, I was able to use my email address for my user ID as of three days ago. I had to first use an ID that didn't include the @ symbol and then wait 30 days to change it to my email address.
Blanche
[ edited by bhearsch on May 13, 2001 09:08 PM ]
What "word from the top" is being referred to in these posts regarding banning email links? The posted policy doesn't mention anything about email links at all. Is it the contention of those pushing this notion that eBay is going to be enforcing "rules" that can only be found on obscure boards that most users don't read or thru email contact with them? At least if it were actually in the policy they could insist it had to be followed.
The policy only seems to address links to other "pages", if you consider an email link a "page" (I don't) I would think it would still fall under the category of allowed links providing further description of the item for sale. An email link by itself doesn't provide any of the types of prohibited content described in the policy.
It seems to me that not specifically mentioning email links in the policy is an oversight on eBay's part. Hmmm, may its an intentional oversight to get the lemmings running for the cliff again? One might also ask why if this is actually the case AW hasn't done a News story on the reaction to this "policy."
I believe it was your post in another thread where I read about that. Thanks. Just changed my ID today, so I'll give that a try in another month. Did you get the shades both times?
I went several rounds for 2 days over this issue, and the word from the top [as in the PTB], was that email links would only be allowed on the ME pages, and not on the auction pages themselves.
posted on May 13, 2001 10:41:10 PM
Hi copperqueen. Yes, I received the shades both times. I'm not sure if I'll ever need to use this new ID but I thought it would be a good idea to have it in reserve and the shades will be gone in another 30 days.
