I received an eBay catalog at my home, delivered to a previous owner who moved from the home in 2001. I wanted to do something that should be incredible easy: remove my address from their mailing list.
The catalog had absolutely NO contact information for eBay – no method of removing my address. So I went to eBay.com. They did not have any information about the catalog as its own entity, much less removing yourself from its mailing list. So on 2/19/07, I clicked the “Live Help” link on the eBay homepage, waiting about 8 minutes in the queue, and asked the simple question:
Session ID: xxxxxxx
10:04:00 AM System Initial Question/Comment: Other
10:13:04 AM System Mary D. has joined this session!
10:13:04 AM System Connected with Mary D.
10:13:08 AM Mary D. Hello, thank you for using eBay Live Help! My name is Mary. Sorry for the wait! If you're a registered member, may I have your User ID and email address, so I can look into your account?
10:13:10 AM sdwebguy Hi. this question is not related to my account.
10:13:17 AM sdwebguy I received the eBay catalog snail mailed to my home. It was addresses to someone who no longer owns the home.
10:13:19 AM Mary D. Hello there! Yes, I understand.
10:13:22 AM sdwebguy I would like to have my address removed from the catalog mailing list. How can I remove my address?
10:13:44 AM Mary D. I am sorry about the hassle. I'd be happy to help you with this.
10:14:04 AM Mary D. Let me get you going on this process so this matter can be quickly resolved.
10:14:34 AM Mary D. In this case, it looks like you will want to contact our Trust and Safety team directly to get further details on this matter and help you to get out of this.
10:14:39 AM Mary D. I can provide you a direct link where you could send an email to our Trust and Safety team. Would you like me to give you the direct link?
10:14:51 AM sdwebguy yes please
10:15:05 AM Mary D. Sure! One moment please to get the link.
10:16:21 AM Mary D. Thank you for waiting! I tried to look for the direct link however, I was unable to. I have here an alternate link that will also fall to our Trust and Safety team/
10:17:45 AM Mary D. To contact them, please click on this link: http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/result_5_2_7.html
10:17:50 AM Mary D. On that page, please click on Email Us button under Contact Customer Support heading and you may be asked to sign in.
10:18:22 AM Mary D. I'd like to assure you that our Trust and Safety team will be able to address your issues and concerns directly. Kindly contact them for any further assistance you require at this time.
10:18:58 AM sdwebguy And this will help remove my physical mailing address from a mailing list even though it doesnt have anything to do with my account on eBay?
10:19:10 AM Mary D. Yes, you are right.
10:19:20 AM Mary D. I assure you of that.
10:19:24 AM sdwebguy sounds good. Thank you for your help.
10:19:51 AM Mary D. You're most welcome! I hope everything can be resolved as quickly as possible and to your satisfaction.
10:19:56 AM Mary D. Do you have other eBay concern that I may assist or help with?
10:20:07 AM sdwebguy No that's it right now. Thanks again.
10:20:21 AM Mary D. You're welcome again! Thank you for your time and for using Live Help. Feel welcome to come back to Live Help if you have any questions or concerns.
I went to the link Mary sent me, clicked on the Email Us button, and was directed to a contact form that has the subject prefilled “The problem you're having with unauthorized account activity isn't listed.” I provided my e-mail address and the following message:
Hi. This question is not related to my account with eBay. I was directed to this form with this subject by Mary D in eBay's Live Help system
I received the eBay catalog (Spring 2007) snail mailed to my home. It was addressed to someone who no longer owns the home. I would like to have my address removed from the catalog mailing list. How can I remove my address? I will provide my address if this is indeed the correct place to do so.
Thanks,
Tim
Upon sending, I saw the standard eBay “thank you” page:
Your message has been sent to eBay Customer Support. You should receive a response within 24-48 hours.
Update: 2/20/07 7:31PM. I received the following response from eBay Customer Support:
Dear Tim
Thank you for writing eBay in regard to eBay's Spring Catalogue.
In this situation, the most effective way of removing the name andaddress from the mailing list is to mark through the address, put a notethat the addressee is no longer at that address and put "Return To Sender" on the catalogue. Give the catalogue to the USPS for return.
It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.
Sincerely,
Oliver
eBay Customer Support
So I marked the catalog and placed it back in the mail. I also made a copy of the catalog’s address label and mailed it specifically to the same address with this posting. Money says I continue to get the catalog.
