The eBay Find Contact Information feature from advanced search on eBay has been shut down. We’re not sure how long it’s been gone and although the form still exists, once the User ID and eBay Item number have been entered, the results page simply reads “This feature has been deprecated”. The feature still exists on eBay, but no longer works.
The eBay Find Contact Information feature was a useful feature for a number of reasons. For buyers, it was often the only way to get a seller’s phone number. For sellers, it was a great way to confirm a buyer’s partial address – often useful for fighting Item Not Received cases if a buyer updated their address after the parcel was shipped. Other sellers used it as a way to get a buyer’s phone number if their courier insisted upon it.
eBay have for a number of years clamped down on the ways that member can exchange contact information and the Find Contact Information feature is just one additional way that they have clamped down. For sellers, this means that the remaining tools become even more critical.
In 2017, we spotted that eBay added an option to offer a customer service number in the Manage Your Buyers’ Questions flow. More recently in the Autumn Seller Release, eBay announced that they were added the ability to offer a customer service phone number for pre-sales questions.
It is also possible to set the ‘Require phone number for delivery’ option in your eBay Selling Preferences. This will force buyers to add their phone number when they purchase your items ensuring that it’s available for you to pass to your couriers.
Here at Tamebay we know a lot of sellers detest the phone and the last thing they want is for buyers to be phoning them, especially if they run their business from their personal mobile phone. That’s fine, you don’t have to publish your number. We also know plenty of businesses who happily publish a customer support number on their website and would welcome the opportunity to assist eBay buyers to purchase the correct item and these sellers should ensure that they’ve ticked all the boxes to do so.
One Response
I know that it was mentioned that it’s closure was to do with GDPR or whatever it’s called and data protection, but as you have to enter the user id and item number to ensure you have actually got some dealing with the buyer, then what was the issue with it.
It was a handy tool to double check a buyer’s partial address and phone number.
I am sure they had good reason !