Why no phone # allowed in listings??

[BAGHAG999]

Now if I phoned you at 10am I would probably get you out of bed at 3am your time, do you still think having your phone number is a good idea

Ring them back at 5am.

[rokins_toys]

In all fairness, when I traded on GreedBay, I refused to put contact information on the listings, and insisted people contacted me via the "contact seller" system which keeps my contact information safe and secure and out of the hands of phishers and scammers, fraudstars and general nuisances.

Even though I'm registered with various goverment/independentent organisations to have my phone number removed from lists so I'm not getting 10 calls a day asking me if I want to change my mobible phone tariff to one I've never even heard of before etc, and I've registered to have my postal address removed from a similar lists so I get no junk through the door, same with email too so I'm no longer being asked if I want a penis enlargement every 10 minutes lol!

However, when you freely put your contact information on listings, although most would abide by the privacy conditions etc, there are phishers and spammers that will not and will use and abuse your contact information and sell it on to other third parties who might violate the fact you have opted to register to NOT receive phone calls, emails and postal mail about various things.

All contact should be done via the official channels provided by the auction site, as they can keep tabs on things and make sure no one is violating anything and that no one is left vulnerable to abuse etc.

One of the many reasons I left the tyranny and oppression of GreedBay was because they demanded that I had a visible postal address which GreedBay could not guarantee some spammer/phisher etc wouldn't start posting me crap that I do not want let alone asked for. Greedbay have no right to force me to put up sensitive information that can be vulnerable and be taken advantage of regardless of what lists I am on.

Since I registed to have my email, postal address and telephone number taken down off endless lists, I have received no junk mail, no phone calls that waste my time from people trying to sell me something. If I put my contact information on a listing, the very people I have escaped from will think it gives them free reign to use my contact information how they see fit regardless of me being on lists which tell them they can not contact me!

And to be honest, doesn't happen often, but it does happen, people think because you're selling online you're available 24/7 so do you really want someone phoning you outside of official business hours when you're sitting down to tea or tucking your kids in bed!?!?! Lol! And if you're selling internationally, people forget about time differences!! You have to draw a the line somewhere..

[JudesNiceThings]

I actually think that the powers-that-be didn't think about online auction sites AT ALL when they made this particular requirement.

It should be modified to provide for sellers' security - by making it mandatory that the address contact details have to be APPLIED FOR ( kept on file by the site), thereby protecting the seller as well as the buyer.

On a personal note - although it failed abysmally on feebay - I see a good case for separating out the business sellers from the private sellers, and maybe having slightly different rules for each, but the same visibility - Feebay 'Express' really only failed because of visibility issues.