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Below is my Support ticket thread about the eBay requirement that we no longer have email addresses in our listings

I find the answer less than helpful

edaneff@mfx.net
Customer
Posted Sunday, 9/11/2011 7:40 AM
Sorry to bother you but I have not seen this addressed by anyone in the forums.

Will Auctiva edit for email addresses and reject them so we do no get "punished" by eBay come 10/01

Or will eBay return an error that Auctiva will pass back to us at listing time

I thank you for your time as your team is still the best Support I have ever dealt with even if other parts, that you have no control over, maybe less than perfect
ed

Tammy
Support
Posted Sunday, 9/11/2011 9:31 AM
Hello,

Thank you for contacting Auctiva Support.

I believe you're talking about a recent announcement on eBay i.e. Policy update for email address and links in listings to keep buyers on eBay. Buyers should be able to find everything they need to know to complete a purchase right in the listing—and if necessary, contact a seller right from eBay. Starting October 1, sellers will not be able to submit a new listing or re-listing if an email address or link that doesn’t help buyers transact safely and efficiently on eBay is included in the listing.

1) Regarding Will Auctiva edit for email addresses..
- I believe, all sellers who have used email address or email address link into their listings will be required to remove from their listings through Auctiva or eBay before posting.

2) Or will eBay return an error that Auctiva will pass back to us at listing time.
- Probably, Yes! Although not sure about it as it lies in the future.

If you have any additional questions or concerns pertaining to your Auctiva account, please feel free to let us know, and we’ll be happy to continue assisting you.

Sincerely,
Auctiva Support

edaneff@mfx.net
Customer
Posted Sunday, 9/11/2011 9:49 AM
so the answer is Auctiva will do nothing to assist in being sure we do not violate eBay policy

I find that a shame as a simple edit would save all the folks that use Auctiva's service a lot of problems
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Amazing I have never had email in listings and have scaled back anything that they could want zipped except in profiles, figuring they are easier to fix.

HOWEVER, since all of us have had to go through listings over ad over the last couple of years there does need to be something to help.

Does Tammy not know that October is not that far away? It is not like you are referring to 2012. So yes even tomorrow is the future, but this needs to be planned ahead.

Hopefully someone will be on tomorrow to up date and let everyone know what to expect. I do not like I believe answers, if you do not know write the person and say I do not know but will sure escalate this tomorrow to someone who can help you. . arg!!!
Luckily I don't put my email address into my listings either (except in the payment area for the paypal payments, which only a buyer will see when they have bought something.) This reminds me of when Ebay started the "no checks or money orders" nonsense. What fun that was! I seriously doubt that Auctiva will automatically change people's listings for them. they didn't do it for the "no paper payments" requirement, or when they changed the rules about asking buyers to pay for insurance. Ultimately us sellers are responsible for what info we put into our listings. In fact, I'd be pretty mad if they changed my listings without my knowledge or permission!
Ed,

Currently users can use the "Find & Replace" feature to update their Saved Listings. We've looked at many user accounts that will be deemed in "violation" of eBay's no-email policy come October 1st, and most had the emails in their Seller Details profiles, not in the listing descriptions (for those who aren't familiar with the Seller Details, they are the sections of the listing template that will say "About Us", "Contact US", or "Payment.") Those are much easier to update, since all you'll have to do is remove the email address from the profile(s), and it will be updated automatically in whatever listings use that particular profile.

Starting October 1st, listings launched via Auctiva will be rejected by eBay if they include an email address.

Note that GTC listings will not need to comply until early 2012.

For Active listings, you can use the Bulk Revise option on Auctiva (which is similar to the Find & Replace option we have for Saved Listings) to remove the email addresses.

Finally, there is also a Find & Replace Selling Manager App on eBay (free to use) that you can use to update your Active listings. Read more about that here.

As you can see, we do have many tools available to help users update their listings whenever eBay makes policy changes like these latest ones. Hopefully users will find this info helpful to deal with these changes.
Yes I am intimately aware of all the tools. However there is one glaring weakness and that is in the Closed Listing Folder. It would be nice if all these options were available to the Closed Listings. While on the topic of Closed Listings it would also be nice if when someone tries to use a closed item to ReList and it is older than 90 days that Auctiva give the user the option of just doing a normal listing like it was coming from the Saved Folder. This will make the fourth different way I have tried to get someone to acknowledge the issues with the Closed Folder and the re-listing after 90 days. One day someone will see it and say hey that makes sense and its not that hard as all the logic already exists in other spots in Auctiva

Technically the Find & Replace in Selling Manger in eBay does not really work. What it does do is change the text but the underlying html code (i.e. the actual email address) is still there. However eBay is not savvy enough to know that and is happy with that change. So if you wanted to you could the email address to any wording and the wording will still be underlined and if clicked on it would send an email. I know this to be accurate because I did it and was surprised at what happened. However come October 1st I;m sure that the listing won't even be able to be posted unless they are still not editing properly and than all you need to do is change the text of the email address and leave the underlying HTML code and bingo you still have your email; address. You could try the words "to email me click here" heck it might work fine.
I've seen more questions about this one issue about listing older than 90 days than any other single issue with the exception of course of the "outage":

as the Closed Folder must have similar if not exactly the same type of data as the Saved Folder the logic has to be in pace to easily accomplish the task. All that would be required is for Auctiva to recognize the eBay error that is returned when a listing has no corresponding eBay listing (i.e. older than 90 days) and give the user an option of doing a normal listing (like it came form the Saved Folder)
Rebecca

One more bug in the system I've reported. If you change the Seller Details the only way it will "automatically" be used is if you edit each listing in the Closed folder. That is always guaranteed as I am still finding email addresses in my Checkout Detail and I'd changed that over 2 months ago



".... most had the emails in their Seller Details profiles, not in the listing descriptions (for those who aren't familiar with the Seller Details, they are the sections of the listing template that will say "About Us", "Contact US", or "Payment.") Those are much easier to update, since all you'll have to do is remove the email address from the profile(s), and it will be updated automatically in whatever listings use that particular profile.... "
That's is correct Ed--Closed listings are a totally different animal than a Saved Listing, as it's already been listed on eBay and imported back into your Auctiva account. When that process happens, it's been "ebay-fied" and details get "glued" in place (for lack of a better term.) This includes the Seller Details profiles, which is why there isn't an easy way to manipulate or edit those Closed listings.

When you "relist" something from your Closed Listings, you are actually relisting a carbon copy of what was already on eBay, so if it had a certain Seller Details profile in it, the wording of that profile is what would be "relisted" (because that is what eBay currently has in their system)--unless you use the "Edit & Relist" tool.
Closed Listings are by far the most complicated part of our site to make "user friendly" because there is little we can do to them. That is just the way it is with most 3rd party listing services--less flexibility in that regard. When you relist something directly on eBay it's easy, because the listing is already on their site, and eBay can monitor what you are changing within the listing. It took us a looong time to add the ability to even edit the description in a closed listing before relisting it back to eBay due to the complexity involved. So for Closed listings to be updated, you have to use the "Edit & Relist" tool and re-select the profile for it. Then there's a couple more steps we do on our end and eBay's end, but I won't bore you with any more of those details. It's a process, let's just say that Smile

Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but I figured it might help others understand why Closed listings are a bear to deal with sometimes.
remember my suggestions are based on the EDIT and RELIST not a ReList process. Lets compare apples to apples

I thjink we can all agree that the format of a Closed Listing that is displayed on the screen is almost exactly (if not exactly) like a Saved Listing to the point where you can manually update all the Seller Details and any other field your heart desires

as the Edit and ReList process says it is really not a "carbon copy" of what was on eBay previously. if a system can do the Edit and ReList process and that process bears almost exactly the same format as a Saved Listing. I am sorry to respecfully disagree but the logic is somewhere to facilatate the modifcation I am suggesting. That suggestion is to make Closed Listings more user friendly as are the Saved Listings if anyone wanted to

while I couldn't make the change, as I am not familiar with the language used, I am sure I could analyze and determine what needed to be accomplished with a little background from a senior engineer. So if an outsider can do it a senior engineer can do it. It comes down to a company wanting to make their clients lives easier.

as to the request/suggestion when a listing is more than 90 days old that is even easier to accomplish because eBay has no information stored so there is nothing from an eBay standpoint that needs to be there
Rebbecca are you still out there?

below is a question that perhaps you can answer

Hi

Okay the email issue turned out to be nothing you can do to assist

How about the Return Policy change. I know that it is in the Shipping portion of Sellers Details. However given the limitations of the Closed Listing Folder how will we be able to handle getting this changed in bulk

thank you
well no help for another labor intensive eBay mandated change

below was the support response

edaneff@mfx.net
Customer
Posted Saturday, 9/17/2011 3:59 PM
Hi

Okay the email issue turned out to be nothing you can do to assist

How about the Return Policy change. I know that it is in the Shipping portion of Sellers Details. However given the limitations of the Closed Listing Folder how will we be able to handle getting this changed in bulk

thank you

Operating System: Windows XP
Browser: Firefox 3.x
Kyle
Support
Posted Saturday, 9/17/2011 4:09 PM
Hello,

Thanks for contacting us regarding this matter. Unfortunately, Return Policy cannot be changed in bulk on closed listings page. It can be only changed in on 'Saved Listings' and 'Active listings' page.

I apologize for any inconveniences this issue is causing. In the mean time, if there is anything further I can do to assist you, please don't hesitate to ask!

Sincerely,
Auctiva Support
edaneff@mfx.net
Customer
Posted Sunday, 9/18/2011 8:09 AM
I knew that I had hoped that something was going to be done o assist the folks that use the system
oh well
Hi - I need some help. I work for a company doing eBay listings and we have over 1,100 live listings right now with our email address in the "contact us" area that I need to delete. I can't figure out how to bulk edit and remove our email address from all the live listings. I tried the "search and replace" feature but the email address is not located in the listing description so it's not working. I really don't want to have to sit here and go through and edit 1,100 listings just to delete our email address from the "contact us" area. I removed it from our seller profile templates so it will no longer show up in any new listings created but I need to get rid of it from the current live ones. A "how-to" would be much appreciated. Thanks! Teri
sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Auctiva has nothing that can help you

Rebecca if you're out there here's another poor soul that needed assistance and you folks said "too bad so sad"

if they are a Good Till canceled" listing you have more time

all that written if your email address is in your Contact portion of your Sellers Info than change it there. Auctiva Rebecca mentioned that support might be able to do something once you've changed the email address in the Contact Portion of your Sellers Detail. Perhaps when you ReList from the closed items folder it pulls the current version of your Sellers Detail information as it lists. I am pretty sure if you were to edit/re-list from the closed items folder that would get the current copy of your Sellers Detail. I must admit to being baffled and confused about what does work and what doesn't work when it comes to all the things surrounding changing listings in the Closed Folder

So bottom-line change the info in your Sellers Detail and if in fact that was where your email address was contact Support and see if either they can perform some "magic" or if by simply Relisting/Bulk ReList from the close folder will do it for you

lots of luck
Update - So I wasn't going to give up that easily what with all the technology today, it seems ridiculous that we would have to manually edit stuff one listing at a time. I went to My eBay and clicked on the active listings and then selected "all" and then "edit" - it lets you edit one or like 1-500, then 501 to 999, etc. Then you can do the "search and replace" thing in your descriptions and type the email info as it appears in your listings and in the "replace" box, leave it blank. It will remove your email address for the first 500 listings, even under the "contact us" area because on eBay it is all part of the description page, so it works there. It's a lot quicker than one at a time and I just checked and...it worked! Good luck everyone!
if they are GTC than according to Rebecca you have many months to fix them

Rebecca has disappeared from this thread so you may want to submit a Support ticket

also when some of your listings end try a Bulk ReList and see if the Seller Details are picked up. Part of me wants to say they maybe as the Seller details are handled differently than the Check/Shipping/ etc.. information

as to your Paypal email I would think that also has to go away as eBay isn't that smart to know what type of email address it is

as a test you can go into eBay and edit a lisitng there on the second page on top you'll see a warning if eBay finds an email address
Hi again

below is from Rebbecca earlier


quote:
Currently users can use the "Find & Replace" feature to update their Saved Listings. We've looked at many user accounts that will be deemed in "violation" of eBay's no-email policy come October 1st, and most had the emails in their Seller Details profiles, not in the listing descriptions (for those who aren't familiar with the Seller Details, they are the sections of the listing template that will say "About Us", "Contact US", or "Payment.") Those are much easier to update, since all you'll have to do is remove the email address from the profile(s), and it will be updated automatically in whatever listings use that particular profile.

Starting October 1st, listings launched via Auctiva will be rejected by eBay if they include an email address.

Note that GTC listings will not need to comply until early 2012.

For Active listings, you can use the Bulk Revise option on Auctiva (which is similar to the Find & Replace option we have for Saved Listings) to remove the email addresses.

Finally, there is also a Find & Replace Selling Manager App on eBay (free to use) that you can use to update your Active listings. Read more about that here.

As you can see, we do have many tools available to help users update their listings whenever eBay makes policy changes like these latest ones. Hopefully users will find this info helpful to deal with these changes.
be aware when the listing returns to Auctiva the change will be gone. so hopefully the Seller Detail change works like Rebecca says and you'll be fine.

when I used eBay to change the email it changed the test but left the underlying email address in the HTML code. eBay was happy yet the email addresses still was present just not visible to the human eye but if you clicked on the underlined message (I had changed the email address taylorsdreams@mfx.net to "eBay no longer allows email addresses")
Hi Auctiva anyone

please seriously consider the below. Recently I was told what features Auctiva has for making bulk changes. It was even mentioned that the these features could ease the pain of the latest eBay mandate of no email addresses. This education was as a result of my talking about the limitations of the Closed Folder's tools or lack there of. I was told that the bulk of the email addresses had been found in the Seller Details and Profiles. Well sadly all of the tools do not assist when you are talking about items in the Closed Folder. Please its time to liberate the Closed Folder

if you could allow the Closed Folder to update the various Profiles, as currently can be done with the Saved Folder, and also allow bulk updating of the Sellers Detail information. You would have some happy customers. Heck I'd pay an extra dollar a month if this change were instituted the way I suggest. Having to individually change each listing is tedious at best. Especially when the foundation for the suggestion already exists and is waiting to be gleaned

if those 2 things were done the eBay folk would be a lot happier because most mandated eBay changes seem to come in the above areas

if you're in a real happy mood you could throw in a radio-button/check-box to allow folks to always use the most current Sellers Details and Profiles for ReList; Bulk ReList; Edit and ReList, etc. from the Closed Folder.

Heck if you can add the option to always use the most current Seller Details and Profiles the first 2 suggestions aren't even needed

Does this suggestion live or die Auctiva it is your decision. Heck there's even a suggestion on a new source of income the "so good it's worth extra money" bucket. I was serious I would pay more per month for services that made my life easier (I.e. faster to accomplish tasks).

sincerely yours

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