@JBK said:
I'm not sure that it is necessarily unethical. Just because you did business with them on ebay, dues that mean you have to go through ebay forever?
eBay's "Offering to buy or sell outside of eBay policy", FWIW...
Buyers and sellers can't:
-Engage in any action with a user on the site designed to complete or facilitate a transaction outside of eBay
-Share or request direct contact information prior to completing a sale
Exception: Sellers may opt to provide their phone number as part of the Ask a Seller a Question (ASQ) or any other eBay endorsed functionality
-In any communications with another eBay member, refer to or promote external websites that facilitate sales outside of eBay
-Use contact information obtained through an eBay transaction to offer to buy or sell an item outside of eBay
-List an item and then mention or link to additional identical or related items for sale outside of eBay
-Offer catalogs or other items that are used to order items directly outside of eBay
This is all true but I interpret it to apply to a listed ebay item. Once you make a connection through an eBay purchase I don't see any way ebay can enforce future transactions. They can try to tell you not to do it, but it really is unenforceable.
For example, the USPS sells stamps on ebay. If you buy stamps that way once are you prohibited from buying stamps at a post office for the rest of your life? 🤔
Extremely flawed metaphor. There is no USPS policy that forbids using the PO if you used the website. And, unlike ebay, the PO owns both venues.
Huh? It's wasn't meant as a metaphor.
Under ebay's rules, if you buy something on ebay from a seller you learned about there, you aren't supposed to buy later directly from the seller.
The post office is probably not a good example since most people are aware that it exists even before doing an eBay transaction with them.
But, learning about an item's existence on ebay and then locating the source outside of eBay seems pretty unprohibitable.
The policy is, as I said in another comment, unenforceable. However, the postal example/metaphor doesn't apply because there is no postal policy forbidding you from using both venues. eBay does have a policy, even if it is largely unenforceable.
USPS doesn’t need the policy. That would be like saying a coin store has the policy. Ebay is the one saying you can’t find stuff off of eBay and buy direct. And since usps is on eBay, it’s like eBay is saying you have to buy stamps in eBay only now, not from a post office location. It has everything to do with eBay policy, nothing to do with usps policy.
I'm not the one that put USPS into the discussion.
But you were the one who said usps does not have that policy. My point was ebay has the policy, not usps. He was just saying usps is another ebay seller who you can do business with off ebay. I think his point was valid.
USPS doesn't sell stamps on ebay. EBay contracts shipping services through USPS. You cannot get the same price at USPS.
The ebay policy doesn't say you can't ever shop off ebay. It basically says you can't use ebay to generate leads. USPS doesn't fall into that category for numerous reasons.
But the eBay policy doesn’t say you can’t use the USPS off eBay. It says the USPS can’t tell you, the eBay customer, about how to buy off eBay. No reason you, the customer, can’t think how great your experience with stamps was and then search for the USPS and find their website or that you can buy stamps at a local post office.
Relevant eBay policy:
-Use contact information obtained through an eBay transaction to offer to buy or sell an item outside of eBay
I guess it's a matter of interpretation.
I see or buy a pretty stamp on ebay and use the seller's details to identify the seller and go to the physical or online USPS "store" for future purchases.
I had worried about my banknote transaction at an ebay seller's physical store after seeing the item on ebay might be skirting the rules, but it is exactly the same as seeing stamps being sold by the USPS on ebay but going to a physical post office to buy them.
And I expect that the invoice the USPS sends with ebay sales includes mention of it's own website.
You're conflating two situations. In the example that was presented for the USPS (as far as I understand it) you buy some stamps from the USPS on eBay, and at some point in the future realize you need more stamps. So instead of going to eBay, you search for "USPS" and discover the Post Office or USPS.com exists, and buy stamps there. You've completed a transaction on eBay, and now, in the future, have searched for the seller without using eBay at all. Theoretically, if the stamps you bought on eBay came with a card saying "visit us at usps.com for cheaper stamps in the future" then that would violated the rules.
Similarly, if you see an item listed on eBay, and then contact the seller (through eBay messaging or based on info you got from a previous sale) that would be violating the rules. How that gets enforced would be difficult. What if you see an item listed and then start searching for a way to contact the seller? That contact information isn't technically obtained through an eBay transaction. Or as has happened to me, I see an item listed on eBay, but it's from a seller whose website I also check routinely, so I see the coin on their website, as well, without even trying. Am I beholden to eBay because I saw it there first?
As far as ethics goes, I think the intent of eBay's policy is clear, even if enforcement is murky. In the course of an eBay-based transaction, their policy prohibits the exchange of information being passed along with the intent of conducting future business off eBay.
Comments
USPS doesn't sell stamps on ebay. EBay contracts shipping services through USPS. You cannot get the same price at USPS.
The ebay policy doesn't say you can't ever shop off ebay. It basically says you can't use ebay to generate leads. USPS doesn't fall into that category for numerous reasons.
Good for you buddy. I wish that kinda stuff would happen to me but I don’t have the good luck you do.
You're conflating two situations. In the example that was presented for the USPS (as far as I understand it) you buy some stamps from the USPS on eBay, and at some point in the future realize you need more stamps. So instead of going to eBay, you search for "USPS" and discover the Post Office or USPS.com exists, and buy stamps there. You've completed a transaction on eBay, and now, in the future, have searched for the seller without using eBay at all. Theoretically, if the stamps you bought on eBay came with a card saying "visit us at usps.com for cheaper stamps in the future" then that would violated the rules.
Similarly, if you see an item listed on eBay, and then contact the seller (through eBay messaging or based on info you got from a previous sale) that would be violating the rules. How that gets enforced would be difficult. What if you see an item listed and then start searching for a way to contact the seller? That contact information isn't technically obtained through an eBay transaction. Or as has happened to me, I see an item listed on eBay, but it's from a seller whose website I also check routinely, so I see the coin on their website, as well, without even trying. Am I beholden to eBay because I saw it there first?
As far as ethics goes, I think the intent of eBay's policy is clear, even if enforcement is murky. In the course of an eBay-based transaction, their policy prohibits the exchange of information being passed along with the intent of conducting future business off eBay.
This is not correct. The USPS does sell stamps on ebay (or at least they did), and I am not referring to sellers printing shipping labels.
I guess this assumption explains the earlier disconnect.
Yes, that may be it.