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eBay reading messages?
 

Hi, I was wondering if eBay reads personal messages being sent to other members? Sometimes, I try to deal straight through Paypal to avoid fees and knowing eBay can I get in some sort of trouble for this? Anyways, just wondering

yes they do

Just tell the buyer to contact you through your registered ebay email then they cant :)
and I dont believe your breaking any policies to my knowledge doing this.

Yes I am pretty sure they have their overzealous interns reading ebay emails b/w buyers and sellers. I was suspended last month, and the day before that happened, i sent an email thru ebay and told a buyer that her item had been shipped, and to check out my website after she received it for a bigger selection, and i foolishly put my .com web address in the email to her. Mind you she had already purchased something from ebay so technically i was not poaching her to buy direct, BUT, i think there are things that the snoopy interns look for, or maybe ebay has some sort of technology to detect certain info from emails. Anyway right after I sent that email my account was permanently suspended. I think the best thing is if someone buys from you, you have their email address from paypal and just correspond that way. Ebay is completely fascist.

Hell yeah...they never in their agreement say your messages are PV between you and the customer...

@marmalade:

May I ask how old was the account they suspended and are you certain ebay suspended you just due to sending this email? it just sounds too extreme of a measure... and since I have done the same thing now I am worried..

Try to be a little cryptic when communicating when you have a buyer make a request like that. I don't initiate any "outside of Ebay transaction" but when asked about something special I sometimes make a deal, and I've never had a problem (I do have a ton of feedback though).
I try to be discrete in my message to a certain extent, but I'm not super paranoid about it.
I'd say maybe don't use words like DISCOUNT, DIRECT, SAVINGS or BETTER DEAL or something similar. I also probably wouldn't use the words CHECK or MONEYORDER. I know I've never done that....maybe that's why I never have had a problem. Of course once you get their email address (paypal email address) you are in pretty good shape.

Yes, they do but, unless you were blatantly communicating things against their policy I doubt they care. Millions of messages go through the system everyday I bet, nobody can read them all.

They probably only do if there is a complaint or if it's redflagged by spamming.

They might, if you are already suspicious or being watched. I've done plenty of business through the personal messages, just leave out certain words and don't give any direct links to an outside site.

Is it safe to contact seller by eBay messaging, for delivery to the different banned address ? Because I wanna gain some feedbacks fir my stealth accounts & the address I am using is out of my reach.
Thanks

I'm the same with my stealth acc, i emailed them outside of e bay just incase they did read the message. Better being safe than sorry.

Yes, they do. Called them once about a problem I was having, and all they did was read through my messages. In a way, I'm glad, because I was having trouble with a buyer, and we strictly communicated through Ebay messages. So anything they wrote was used against them. :typing:

they Can but 99% of the messages dont get read only if theres a prob.

they CAN, cos I asked them to numerous times to win disputes, and negs removed etc

do they routinely do it, doubt it.

Why would anyone use the ebay messaging system? As soon as your item sells you get the sellers email address on the invoice along with their name and address. Just email them with any correspondence that was you dont have to worry about what you say or speak in some ridiculous code!

I regularly make deals with buyers, especially if they are local and wanting to collect the item. We arrange to circumvent Paypal altogether and they pay me in cash, also if its and expensive item such as a laptop / PS3 etc that they are paying over £200 for then I'll usually offer them a slight discount as I will be saving over £20 in wretched Paypal fees - try saying that in the ebay messaging system! You wouldnt last 2 minutes! Heh heh heh! You'll find that even buyers, many of whom are also sellers are more than happy to stuff ebay / paypal from making money from us.

Another great fee-dodging scam is to agree with the buyer that you've both backed out of the sale and the auction was cancelled, then just accept cash / cheque / online transfer payment from buyer and BINGO! You've got away without paying ANY FEES! Everyones a winner! Of course you have to check its kosher with the buyer first, you might get a right tell-tale who will go crying to Ebay / Paypal.

Good times!

most of the time they will not read them..you would only really have a problem if the person you are dealing with reports you most often this is not the case,but can happen.:p

I have found that about 50% (if not more) of buyers do not regulary check that email address. They may have several, i try to keep as much out of the eb messaging system as possible, this does however cause me some worry when I feel I am acting a bit shifty

I want to tell you something but can you check your email address as I dont want to communicate with you in eb - this how I feel I come across at times - i dont like it :(

Just tell them via the ebay messaging system you have sent emails to their registered email address.