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Answer Buyer's questions outside of eBay, Possible ?
 

Is this possible ? Answer buyer's questions outside of eBay ?

Yes, as long as they don't hide their email address when sending the question. You go to your email, click the email with the question, click reply, and type your reply, and click send! :cheer:

even if they hide email, thru gmail should be safe to press reply and it goes direct to theri email, I asked that question a while back and aspkin replied

If they hide their email, there's no way to reply thru email oompaloompa.

Hi, never tried that and I did just now, it works .. urgggg , what have I been doing this all time getting into eBay to answer questions ... ????:doh:

I'd still answer your questions from ebay. you'd be surprised how many people never check their email but stay on ebay all day long.

^^^^^^^^^^^ That is very true.

Also, if buyer is hiding email, the return address will say that crap about use the yellow button. Think too, that many people don't have current email addy updated with ebay, so if you send to their email, it might be going someplace that died 8 yrs ago...

In gmail, if you show message details up at the top, you can see whether it will go to a person or the yellow button, before you waste time composing a reply.

If you make contact with buyer through ebay first, ask them if moving communication over to email is acceptable. If necessary, just tell them ebay automatically deletes internal messages, and you'd rather keep records for longer than ebay can permit. Amost all my buyers are willing to go email, when I say that about ebay autodelete...

yeah if the buyer asks me a question I'd rather answer outside of the system I send them a message using ebay to check their email for my reply. Try to keep from getting caught red handed making side deals :D

The excuse about email for keeping communications archived will beat ebay probs and is convincing to buyers that express a concern about the email instead of ebay chain. If ebay snoops the internal message, the request to move over to email does look legit and they won't jump on your butt. If you tell buyer to go over to email so you can give alternate payment instructions, ebay sees it, yer busted. So never say in ebay message that you want anything other than switch to email for recordkeeping.

I give the reason to switch to regular email as --- that the Ebay email system will sometimes block emails . Which I think is true isnt it? There have been many emails over the years that didnt go through. Am I right?

You certainly are right. If it's been working for you, go with that. http://www.mysmiley.net/imgs/smile/animated/anim_32.gif

But it does happen a lot to you guys too? Or maybe im doing something wrong?

I've had internal messages that apparently went AWOL. Nothing new to me.

you know the memberjkdj@ebay.com address or whatever you get if they ask a question, reply to that via gmail, pressing the gmail reply button and it goes straight thru to their email, not to ebay. Theyve just encrypted the address. I would not send seniitive info thru though.

Are you 100% sure of this?

So an email like s01-3t67p5@members.ebay.it will go straight to his email address?

I thought people were saying that it would go to their ebay inbox...

I was worried my accounts would be linked if I just replied indiscriminately of the IP I was on by this method... so I've been changing IP every time which is a right pain in the butt!

^^^ Man, I never risk that. Only send emails to fully NON ebay email addresses. Like if the buyer says my contact email is johnbrown at ebay.co.uk, then I say what vic said.... that the internal message system
may not work & please give me another direct email:peace:

If you'd like to find out, I'm game to test it with you. PM me and we'll trade inmate numbers, er ebay ids.

aspkin replied to my question re this matter, so I took it to be gospel! what i would say is just reply to things like measurements etc, nothing major..the fact is it doesnt end up in the ebay messages when you log in, I know that, Vic- i have emailed myself from differnt accounts, so Ive tested it. whether ebay can see it before it is forwarded no idea...doubt they look at them, I mean why?

I'm not so concerned about whether they look at them, more like when an account goes down, if I've sent messages from 2 accounts on 1 IP (through outlook), whether it will be linked

ok I was wondering that. there are 2 issues

Firstly - with gmail it shouldnt pass your ip on, thats the point of using it, eg so log in to ebay that day, havent changed ip, then use gmail to answer various questions on different accounts, ok I presume - I do it all the time.

Secondly - side deals etc I have done that and nothing happened but i think its risky..
better to get them to give you their email. I never press yellow reply button though, I press gmails reply and it goes to member@ebayblah, there is a chance as Vic says it can go awol - some of you guys have had gmail probs, I havent (the secret i think, keep flash off)

Aspkin , am I correct?

Just press reply from gmail or whatever email provider you are using, and it will reply back to the member's own email address.

If you look at headers from these messages you'll see the reply-to email address with the buyers email address.

Yes, it's a crap shoot if it reaches the person. Some do not answer the email, or skip over it. I get through about 75%-80% of the time.

If that doesn't work, login to eBay and send your message.

The reason I suggested actually DOING it to find out: many things aren't what they were.

It's getting harder and harder to keep track of things based on reports. And not everything about a particular topic is even all in one place. So and so says they did this, so and so says so and so is wrong because they know a so and so who it didn't work for...
I think I'll be more comfortable confirming or disaffirming some things for myself for a while. I keep notes, logs, screenshot, and voice messages in my mp5 player. If I do it myself, I can go back and review what I learned as often as I wish.

What was true 4 hours 11 1/2 minutes ago could be completely out the door, for all we really know. What works for one might not for another. And a noobish mistake on a vcc might have everyone thinking they are dead, when in fact an actual test, monitored and step-by-stepped from a solid checklist might prove the vcc to be fine and it's the noob that doesn't work... Eye Dee Ten Tea Buffer Underflow.


I already covered the gmail thing last month before I started moving. Gmail does have your IP address. It is in every mail you send via gmail. View the full header from the recipient end, there's the IP you were assigned at the time the message sent. Just because most people don't know how or where the IP block is in the header, or the fact that most webmail providers don't give you the option to see the RAW header, doesn't mean it isn't there for everyone else to see. It *IS* THERE FOR EVERYONE ELSE TO SEE.

[edit begin]
seems the IP address is stripped from items handled by main gmail, but secondary and tertiary gmail servers don't strip. thus, if you are sending during peak mail traffic times, probably not get yours out by the main server and will have IP in header. if you send in the wee hours, likely be handled by the main server and IP will be stripped.
Those of you who use POP via mail client - IP is always there when you send.
- I went back and reviewed 1000 inbound emails from other gmail senders to my gmail address. The sample was randomly selected from items less than 2 years old and headers scrutinized. Some items were sent via POP, some IMAP, and some within the webmail itself. Time zone was taken into account, as I get mail from everywhere at all hours.
My summary - unless you are very proactive in how you do your mail, IP stripping is iffy. Don't get comfortable. Always be on the proper IP and Windows Logon for what you are doing.
[edit end]

See why I'm taking the initiative to verify things for myself lately?

No intent to personally affront anyone. Many good brains are working on remaining current. There has been much to digest lately, and some misinformation (unintentional, no doubt) provided as regards certain topics of particular interest.

Cheers.