Although this thread is a bit drifting, I wrote it so I will be the guilty one to continue to set it astray. I have to agree with the remarks about eBay becoming a less friendly place to do business in the last several months. Biggest gripe being this new policy of blocking messages among eBayers. Heck; I never bothered to write down any info on any of the people with whom I have traded. All I do is download and save the auction page in Acrobat. I figured that any time I wanted to talk to an eBay friend, I'd just pull up the item from Acrobat and send him/her a "Message From Ebay Member". I thought I was being smart, because people change eMail addresses and phones all the time. But eBay usernames are pretty stable, and they keep continuity in case the user changes usernames. Well, that's no longer any use at all. Now all we can do is search to see if that eBay friend is selling anything. If not, no contact allowed
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And the feedback system is also very flawed. Case in point; My ONLY THREE NEGATIVES are from clowns who joined eBay, committed misconduct, and were promptly expelled. BUT their legacy remains in mine and plenty of others' feedback. eBay should immediately wipe all feedback left by expelled users.
And as Tom Ryan points out, the full name, phone number, and address should be shown on all eBay Winning Bid Notices. I have only been stiffed a couple times on small items, so I guess I'm lucky. At least when I weigh those experiences against the 2000-odd good experiences I have had on eBay.
Charles