US Tariffs - Royal Mail online service now requesting email & phone number of buyer

[robdeb2861]

I have held 3 items for the US until now and all 3 customers were understanding. I decided to check out the new procedure on the RM website to compare with the post office counter as they had no idea about the new system!

I've noticed that they are now asking for the email & phone number of the buyer. Ebay does show both in the order details but the email address is encrypted so how will that work whether online or at the counter?

I doubt the buyer will be allowed to send me it through the messaging system.

Confused.com

[style_wise]

It is in your Order Details, but hidden.

Orders > Show Order Details > under the buyer name is a dropdown arrow Show Order Details

[kangamoose_shop]

---

@style_wise wrote:

It is in your Order Details, but hidden.

Orders > Show Order Details > under the buyer name is a dropdown arrow Show Order Details

Orders> Awaiting dispatch>(the order number you want info on)>Show contact info 

That will show the buyers telephone number, but still only give a "gibberish" @ members.ebay.com  email adress.  I believe the OP is calling that encrypted. style_wise, are you seeing some email adress that is something other than members.ebay.com?  That's all I see . Same system for ebay com, ebay.co.uk, ebay.de,ebay.atlantis 😋  But maybe it's a browser issue, I use Firefox. 

The gibberish bit  was put into place by Ebay years ago to help prevent off-ebay sales. A very very long time ago, it was permissible to use your full email adress as your Ebay user name instead of a pseudonym as it is now.

I personally simply write in my own email adress in fields where the EBay buyers gibberish version should be. I have never received an Ebay message stating my purchased package has arrived. Has anyone else? 

---

[robdeb2861]

Apologies for the late reply but I'm experiencing exactly what Kangamoose_shop has described.

[robdeb2861]

It's so frustrating - I'm trying to contact Ebay, which I've managed to in the past but I'm just going round in circles at the moment!

I'll try your suggestion and put my email address in instead - it's being sent tracked so I should see it's been delivered via Royal Mail tracking. I don't receive an Ebay message but I do see 'delivered' in my order if I check the details.

Thanks for your time 🙂

[tressygirl · Accepted solution]

If you wish to contact eBay I'll provide the link below,  but wait until 9 a.m. when the lines open for ' live agents' today,  contact them now and you'll get an automated bot.  At 9 a.m. or 8 a.m. tomorrow morning,  there's more chance of Dublin answering ,  only speak to them!

This is the easiest and quickest way to contact eBay Customer Services, for a Call Back option.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

Lines open for ' live agents' 8 a.m. - 10 p.m. on weekdays

9 a.m. - 6 p.m. on weekends.

Automated agents will be available on chat outside of the above hours.

As said, I recommend contacting CS first thing in the morning as there's more chance of Dublin answering.

@robdeb2861 

[a45heaven]

@robdeb2861 

@tressygirl 

Not wanting to be negative - But i think Royal mail want the receivers email address to add it to the delivery info, so the receiver can be contacted to pay fees prior to the item being delivered.

Giving your email address will just make more work for you in relaying info to the buyer.

Maybe ebay could contact the buyer with the questions from the shipping agent?

ebay used to show email address' of the buyer and seller to each other, but that was pre paranoid days.

[wellingnorth]

As it's a DDP service there shouldn't be any fees to pay on arrival, but probably safer to give the buyer's email. 

Any email sent to the abcdefg@members.ebay.com address in the order details should be forwarded to the  buyers real email address so it's fine to use that - if you use Click & Drop with its ebay integration that is the email address that it uses for each order. 

[*vyolla*]

@robdeb2861 

I can see absolutely no point in contacting eBay CS about this, I very much doubt they're even aware of this tariff scenario.

Presumably when you buy the postage from Royal Mail online you're paying the tariff and RM's admin fee up front (can't work out if that is 50p or £1.50 at the moment), so everything is done and dusted and it will be okay to add your own email addy. 

I'd try it, though you may find that RM's system is set up to spot repeat use of the same email. 

Just to add, if you nip to your local PO and send the items out from there they don't require a recipient phone number or email address. 

[vinylscot]

Once the transaction has been completed, will eBay not allow you to exchange email addresses?

When I have had situations where additional payment has to be made, e.g. when a previously "lost" item shows up, eBay's CS has always advised me to use Paypal, which obviously means providing email addresses.

I think they're OK with it, but maybe someone could ask on the Wednesday chat.

[kangamoose_shop]

---

@*vyolla* wrote:

... so everything is done and dusted and it will be okay to add your own email addy. 

I'd try it, though you may find that RM's system is set up to spot repeat use of the same email.

Been a while, but I've received messages before where an international buyer asks "Can you send this as a gift?"  The answer is no, but since you pointed out "spot repeat use of the same email", I could think that marking as a gift and also using a "gibberish@members.ebay.com " addy might result in not only seizure of the package but could lead to criminal prosecution.  People with a member.ebay.com  email adress are NOT receiving gifts.  

Ebay CS has, in the past, given me "the OK" to ask the buyer for his email adress, but waiting for the buyer to answer is just  begging  for a late shipment defect.  There are thankfully still people out there who don't check their email and social media status on a daily basis. Also people who don't count the minutes it took for a package to arrive. 

Does anyone know if an " member.ebay.com" email adress is always the same for that member, or is it some sort of temporary and  random prefix ?  I have no recent repeat buyers I can use to check this  myself.  Thanks

---

[robdeb2861]

Thank you - when I went on 'contact Ebay' - it told me to email them but I don't want to wait any longer as I need to send them today as they're already showing as overdue.

I've tried entering all the information on RM online and it works quite well so as soon as I can get the postcode the better! 

[cabrio4]

I did a test with the Royal Mail customs form yesterday, as I had sold a print to someone in the USA for £30.  It will go at the 'large letter' rate. The charge of 50p came up regardless of what permutations I put in. I put it in as a 'gift', a 'sold item' and I upped the price to £120 (so outside the $100 limit for gifts). The amount remained steadily at 50p throughout. I  think it is worth doing a few dummy runs with the form, putting in the right tariff for whatever you are sending, and whether it's a letter, parcel, as the quickest way to see what the current prices are.

I have now paid for the whole thing on the Royal Mail website and took it to my PO with the QR code. They printed out the address label  and the customs form to stick on the back.  So far , so easy, but it still has to arrive, of course!

[arthurpilbeam]

I've just sold an autographed letter to the USA.

The autograph was only £5.99.

I post Royal Mail International Tracked & Signed through eBay, but that service is unavailable at the moment.

I posted using the Royal Mail website.

I added the buyers phone number & the gibberish eBay email address which it accepted.

I had to pay a 60p import fee & a 50p handling charge as well as the postage cost.

The big problem was having to add the Tariff code. It was impossible to find one for autographs so I used the letter one which was readily available.

I'm wondering whether you'd have to add the Tariff code if you filled out the details at the Post Office? 

I won't be posting to the USA in future.

[*vyolla*]

---

@arthurpilbeam wrote:

I'm wondering whether you'd have to add the Tariff code if you filled out the details at the Post Office? 

---

The PO adds that.

[jonbarnett]

Probably obvious....

I have this issue, and my "view order details" don't contain any email details.  I have ebay messaged to ask for email address but I guess that may get flagged as inappropriate.  However as I have the phone number I can message/Whatsapp the buyer directly to try and get their email address.

[4_bathrooms]

---

@jonbarnett wrote:

Probably obvious....

I have this issue, and my "view order details" don't contain any email details.

---

When viewing the order details in a web browser there a box at the top-right labelled "Order". In that box you'll see a 2Show contact info" link with a downward-pointing arrow next to it. If you click on that link the buyer's telephone number and eBay-aliased email address will be shown.

[4_bathrooms]

---

@vinylscot wrote:

Once the transaction has been completed, will eBay not allow you to exchange email addresses?

When I have had situations where additional payment has to be made, e.g. when a previously "lost" item shows up, eBay's CS has always advised me to use Paypal, which obviously means providing email addresses.

I think they're OK with it, but maybe someone could ask on the Wednesday chat.

---

eBay's own policies contradict each other. The member-to-member contact policy used to state that contact details could not be shared prior to completing a transaction but it now states/implies that no contact details - including names - can be exchanged at all via eBay messages. However, the offering to buy or sell outside of eBay policy states details can't be shared prior to completing a transaction mirroring what the member-to-member contact policy used to state.

Where sellers are concerned telephone numbers, email addresses etc. are automatically blocked if attempted to be sent to another user without a transaction in place. As they can be sent with a transaction in place I suspect it is fine to do so when it is required to complete the sale. Otherwise a buyer would never be able to collect a collection in person item (for example).

[kangamoose_shop]

---

@cabrio4 wrote:

I have now paid for the whole thing on the Royal Mail website and took it to my PO with the QR code. They printed out the address label  and the customs form to stick on the back.  So far , so easy, but it still has to arrive, of course!

If I'm not mistaken, the print which you sold for £30 means you had to pay 10% tariff and a 50p handling fee in addition to the postage itself. So, £3.50 additional out of YOUR pocket on a £30 sale.

Out of curiousity, did you raise your shipping accordingly to cover that loss? 

Sometimes a 10% profit is the best I can hope for, considering Ebay fees, and  there is often another seller  with an identical item and willing to accept 2% profit, just to compete and convince other sellers to stop selling that particular item. Rather like a bidding war between sellers.

FOR CERTAIN CATEGORIES, EBay also has a maximum postage cost policy, you have to at least OFFER a shipping method that doesn't cost over a certain amount, so baking the shipping cost into the item price can only go so far. 

"The maximum postage and packaging costs apply for all items listed on eBay.co.uk, even if you're not a UK seller. 

If your eBay account is registered in the UK and you're listing directly on eBay.com, you're required to specify a postage cost within the specified limit for the category."

---

[arthurpilbeam]

Forgot to mention on my previous post that eBay also charged me a transaction fee, presumably because I was posting abroad.

So the cost to me of posting to the USA includes: postage cost, eBay transaction fee, import charge (10%) & a handling fee.