Receiving Seller Offers on items Viewed but NOT in my Watch List!

[dgm1670]

Hello All,

Do you enjoy the casual browse ( Luxury Items - Bentley, Leica etc) whilst then seeking out items to purchase - I do. 

But I'm being 'put off' by receiving Seller Offers simply because I viewed the item - I currently have SEVEN of them in my feed, all waiting many hours before they're removed! I cannot delete them manually! 

If I might choose to pursue a particular item, I put into my Watch List, as simple as that. 

Also 'Ebay' it is a reminder that every keystroke I make, (like the Police Song) - Every move you make I will be watching you! The above Seller Offers are unwarranted. It's your Platform, but Privacy should be a consideration for your Members. 

Perhaps Ebay it is a practice that needs to be stopped - it's hardly subtle is it.

I'm perfectly capable of seeking items out that I'm definitely interested in by placing them in my Watch List. 

What say you - do you agree or find these 'unsolicited Offers useful' ?

[eburtonlab]

eBay allows sellers to make an offer on an item that has been added to a Watch List, added to a cart, or else viewed multiple times.

Sellers do not know why the buyer is eligible, only that an offer can be made.

You can enable or disable all offers, but you cannot pick and choose which kinds of offers you receive unless you use a different eBay account to search for items you do not want to receive offers for.

[douglaspuglas]

I know certain sellers will send me an offer automatically if I put their item in my watchlist.

Plus I don't make offers to sellers anymore because of the automatic payments fiasco.

I wait for them to come to me nowadays which quite a few will.

I'm not so keen of getting offers for items I've just clicked on briefly though.

I end up clicking on more listings searching if I'm using the app just to see the full title because, unlike a browser, it's not all visible otherwise.

[m25jet]

Personally it p*bleep*s me off when I receive offers for items I've chosen to look at but have subsequently decided not to place on my Watch List, as in my opinion it's a bit like an online version of junk mail, offering you something you're not interested in buying.  I seriously think that eBay should address this problem, setting the site up in such a way that it's not possible for sellers to send potential buyers an offer for an item unless the item has been saved onto a person's Watch List.  If eBay were to do that it would ensure that only people who were actually giving consideration to purchasing the item received an offer for it, whereas those who weren't interested in it would not be harassed by unwanted offers, which as you say, cannot be deleted manually until the offers have expired.

Personally I really do feel that eBay need to sit up and listen to the feedback that they are receiving from buyers and sellers alike and take appropriate action to resolve any unpopular practices that they've introduced, but as we all know eBay are way too stubborn to listen to what their users want and will press ahead with any changes made to the site, no matter how badly thought out and/or unpopular they may be.

[myriad*seller]

The seller cannot see who they are sending the offer to

There are no privacy issues, the seller does not get any of your info, they simply send an offer to someone unknown

They will only know who you are if you accept the offer 

[eburtonlab]

in my opinion it's a bit like an online version of junk mail, offering you something you're not interested in buying.

You need to decide which matters to you more: getting offers for items you are watching; or not getting any offers for items you just looked at. Then set your preferences accordingly.

[m25jet]

Personally I'd just prefer it if eBay's site programmers could get off their backsides and make some tweaks to the site so that it resulted in seller offers only being able to get through to a potential buyer if the item was actually saved on their Watch List, rather than having to try and go through the various settings to try and work out how to stop these unwanted offers from coming through in the first place.  Knowing eBay they'd more than likely go and make further "improvements" to the site which would result in any settings being rendered ineffective that buyers had made with the specific intention of stopping unwanted seller offers from being received.  In some ways it actually makes me apprehensive about clicking on a listing to see further details, just in case I decide that the item's not worth bothering with but it subsequently triggers an unwanted offer from a seller that I can't delete off of the My eBay page until the bloody offer has expired!

[sagr2519]

As a seller I can't see who viewed my items, only how many people viewed it. Same with watchlist. Many emails originate from Ebay, not seller. When I send an offer I have no idea whether you're even in the UK.

[field_d]

There isn't a preference you can set for these offers.

All you can do is opt out of email notifications. You still get messages within eBay, a bell notification and they're displayed on your summary page.

[rochetteofthenorth]

Well said. An even more annoying refinement of this obnoxious practice was getting an offer just now for one of my own items! I decided to reduce the price slightly and half an hour later got an offer on this item for less than the reduced price I had just posted. Come on eBay, get one of your web people to sort this out, it's irritating and a waste of our time.  
PS It is possible to get rid of the "offers" but you have to go into each one and decline!

[shehe09]

This is really unnecessary tool. I browse before selling an item to check the price. I put an item for sell, then eBay sent me offers of my own item???

[technthread]

I asked a question about this on last week's eBay live chat. 

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Chat-with-the-eBay-Community/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Community-Tea...

[douglaspuglas]

---

@technthread wrote:

I asked a question about this on last week's eBay live chat. 

---

I'm not sure Marco understood what you were asking.

[technthread]

I should have explained it better. I think the bottom line is eBay see how much money it makes, they won't switch it off because of that and the time it would take their tech team to implement an on off switch. I think I referred to it as research mode. 

[thesmokingrunner]

I saw your question on the Live Chat technthread and, like douglaspuglas, I really don't think Marco understood the issue.

Anyway... I've just had exactly the same thing happen to me. I viewed an item a couple of days ago - just once, didn't put it in my Watch List - and 20 minutes ago I received an offer from the seller.

It may well be that the seller is completely unaware that the offer has even been sent. A seller doesn't even know who is Watching an item, only the number of Watchers, so the only explanation is that eBay is retaining a record of anyone who views an item and is using that list when offers are sent out. Whether the offer was even instigated by the seller is anyone's guess - it may well heve been auto-generated by eBay.

For the CT to suggest it doesn't happen, that the item must have been added to a Watch List or put in a basket, is just plain wrong and there are an increasing number of instances as proof of that. No doubt the official "working as designed" drivel will be trotted out but personally it puts me off from even viewing an item unless I'm really interested just a little bit more.

[thesmokingrunner]

Me again, with a follow-up...

I've been going through some emails I've received from eBay but not yet deleted and there is a small but subtle difference between offers sent on Watched items and offers sent on items which have only been viewed.

I have recently received both types of email, both of which are titled "The seller is now offering [price] for [item]". The difference is in the first line of the email: for an item in a Watch list the email states "Because you showed interest in this item, the seller sent you this private offer", whilst for an item which has only been viewed the first line reads "Because you viewed this item, here's a special offer".

I have attempted but been unable to add edited screenshots to show the above but no doubt if you double-check your emails you will see the same differences. I don't know if it's worth bringing up the subject again but it is evident, contrary to what the Community Team state, that offers can be and are being sent out to users who have only viewed an item.

[technthread]

Now you mention it I remember that distinction in the wording. 

I'm going to leave the subject with the community team alone now for 2 reasons.

I was more irritated by the fact that they didn't know offers get sent on viewed items, surely they use eBay, if only to check listings and accounts as part of their work. I tried to be nice about it but I was back at the question I often ask myself, why bother bringing things like this up.

The other thing is I imagine most people aren't with me on this. A lot of sellers would say just ignore the notification it's not a big deal plus it helps see on an listing whether a seller is desperate to sell, and so for research it can be telling information. I would argue I have teapeak and other data to see things like that so I'd rather not keep receiving offers and have to limit my clicks on an item to 1. 

Buyers on the whole would probably rather get offers than not, I did factor this into the suggestion of a research mode for sellers. I think I could bring that up every week and it will seem like I am having a pop at them for something that they have no incentive to introduce onto the platform.

[thesmokingrunner]

I can see your point about leaving the subject alone now, though to be honest if it was raised again I think you would either be stonewalled with "it doesn't happen" or batted away with the usual "it's working as designed".

The fact is it is happening but, just like the EDD debacle, it is met with outright and demonstrably incorrect denial and there comes a point where you just think "what's the point?" and give up.

Personally I dislike this development on a number of levels, not least the fact that there is now a possibility that I will receive offers on items which I have only viewed once out of a slight interest. If I was genuinely interested I would add the item to my Watch List - why would anyone want receive an offer on something in which they weren't that interested?

I dread to think what the next step could be. Sending offers on Watched items - fine. Sending offers on items which have been viewed once - not so fine. And the next step - sending offers to users whose searches have returned an item but which they haven't viewed, perhaps? I really wouldn't put it beyond the bounds of eBay's thinking.

Whilst I could edit my notification preferences there is no way of filtering out the pointless ones - it's either all or nothing - so as a buyer all I can do is reduce the number of items I actually view, though how eBay thinks that helps sellers really is beyond me. I have yet to see any "improvement" which I've regarded as either a good idea or well-implemented since before MP was introduced.

[technthread]

I have just listed a PS4 game (Madden 21). I forgot that I clicked on a few other listings this afternoon and then did the same again at around 9:25pm when I was listing. 

My item was listed at 9:27pm. I have received 2 seller offers for viewing their items already, one at 9:28pm (looks like a standard 5% the seller set up to happen automatically as it is a very large volume business seller) and one at 9:38pm which is a 33% discount from a private seller which will likely be done manually. 

It is a slow selling item so it isn't a surprise to get a big discount sent out but when I see how near instant those offers were it highlights how much the offer culture has taken hold on here. The business seller is one I may buy from myself in future as their stock numbers are huge so thanks I now know if I want something from you I just need to wait a few minutes for a discount. 

Imagine someone buys mine and then gets 33% off from the private seller after they place the order... there is a good chance of a cancellation request coming isn't there. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.