Privacy Of Questions To Sellers

[hollandiacoolpix]

Oh my, sorry to hear, iwiw, if I were you I'd contact the support-team to explain and ask them to remove your details there.

The way I see it, when a potential buyer wants to ask a question, etc., on a running listing, there should be a "Ask Seller A Question" button.....NOT the text box, etc., right there on the front of the listing. Clicking on that button would take you to a new page where, after filling in your question, you have the option of clicking on "Make Public" or "Keep Private"............sounds easy to me....how about it Gazza...please?????

I second that wholeheartedly

Please Gazza, would that be possible?

[Gothicina]

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Making perfect sense! I for one got "caught" in this scenario just the other day. I bought an item and when I realized it was going to ship via USPS I emailed the buyer with my correct mailing address.

AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaack!! Now my home address is sitting there, in all its glory, for all the world to see!!

The way I see it, when a potential buyer wants to ask a question, etc., on a running listing, there should be a "Ask Seller A Question" button.....NOT the text box, etc., right there on the front of the listing. Clicking on that button would take you to a new page where, after filling in your question, you have the option of clicking on "Make Public" or "Keep Private"............sounds easy to me....how about it Gazza...please?????

It shouldn't be if you used the Ask Question function in the After Auction Log, have you tried logging out & then looking at the listing?

[PgsJeweler]

You can't just say that PGS, you have to say why ...

On the other auction site, there have been times when I was lurking about an auction, only to see the seller pull the auction before the ending. Given the items involved (in particular a certain brand of watch), I'm sure someone had made a side deal.

Well, heck, if I had known that it was occurring at the time, I would have thrown my hat into the ring. When I realized this off-site haggling was occurring, I started to do it as well - and on some occasions got it to work in my favor. It works best on a desperate newbie individual seller who understands he/she may not get a good bid (or any bid for that matter) given the low feedback.

Basically, the auction site loses out on revenue, and the auction platform becomes merely an advertising platform. If I saw that going on here, I'd be sure to report it.

[PgsJeweler]

I would also like to add that I feel a public ASQ works to protect the buyer to some extent. While it is true and perhaps unavoidable that certain bidders will post inappropriate comments/questions, it is still helpful to bidders to see what legitimate questions are posed.

If, for example, I were to see a number of questions about a watch go unanswered or answered with evasive comments, then that would warn me about the seller. On a fairly recent auction of a watch, the seller was asked about the serial number and his answers were evasive and ultimately meaningless (non-responsive). If the seller, over the course of a few days, couldn't answer that question about a new watch with certificate/paperwork, then I wouldn't bid.

Unfortunately, some people can't refrain from a deal too good to be true - in this case a $27,000 watch going for $1,000 and somone bid even though none of his questions (or other questions) were truly answered.

[kengillam]

$27,000 for watch !!! I'd want the Timex company for that sort of money

[johnwash1]

I prefer ASQ being public. As a seller I have no problem with it, inappropriate use of the facility can be dealt with. As a buyer it makes it very easy to spot a potential scammer, they rarely bother to answer questions and when they do you can see how evasive they are -- it helps protect you and also others.

I do agree there's also a downside to it -- there are times when you might wish to offer some friendly advice to a seller, but it would be inappropriate to have everyone see it. Perhaps it would be nice to have private ASQ as an addition, not a replacement.

[macantab77]

Definitely agree that sellers should have a choice.

I was expecting this site to have incorporated the best bits of Ebay (is that a banned word on here?), but this doesn't seem to have happened.

The Customer Services guys are brilliant though!

[HannaHolly]

Definitely agree that sellers should have a choice.

I was expecting this site to have incorporated the best bits of Ebay (is that a banned word on here?), but this doesn't seem to have happened.

The Customer Services guys are brilliant though!

i would prefer no bits of ebay were incorporated!

[alm1995]

I would also like to add that I feel a public ASQ works to protect the buyer to some extent. While it is true and perhaps unavoidable that certain bidders will post inappropriate comments/questions, it is still helpful to bidders to see what legitimate questions are posed.

If, for example, I were to see a number of questions about a watch go unanswered or answered with evasive comments, then that would warn me about the seller. On a fairly recent auction of a watch, the seller was asked about the serial number and his answers were evasive and ultimately meaningless (non-responsive). If the seller, over the course of a few days, couldn't answer that question about a new watch with certificate/paperwork, then I wouldn't bid.

Unfortunately, some people can't refrain from a deal too good to be true - in this case a $27,000 watch going for $1,000 and somone bid even though none of his questions (or other questions) were truly answered.

I feel it should be up to the seller whether questions should be public or not as not all questions are relevant to all buyers.
In stead of waiting for somebody else to ask the question and wait for an answer you should ask the question yourself and judge your buying decision on the outcome of that. If the seller gets the same question multiple times then it is up to the seller to spend the time dealing with them and altering his/her descriptions to reflect the information that potential buyers are seeking.

[johnwash1]

Definitely agree that sellers should have a choice.

I was expecting this site to have incorporated the best bits of Ebay (is that a banned word on here?), but this doesn't seem to have happened.

The Customer Services guys are brilliant though!

You're right, but eBay's customer service is world class, you have to admit. Entirely manned by robots, each with a cockroach brain implanted, to guide the cut-and-paste mechanism! Ebid's customer service is so primitive by comparison -- just human beings.

i would prefer no bits of ebay were incorporated!

Now that I do have to disagree with, and strongly. There's a lot that eBid's lateral thinking has got right and is better than eBay. But there's also many aspects where eBid really should be studying other auction sites, especially eBay, and realising that things could be done much better here than they are.

Sorry, I didn't mean much better, I meant even better.