The new system also will make it harder for users to wrap up their deals outside eBay and lock the company out of its fees. A new warning will pop up about such deals, which are prohibited by the company. Ebay receives hundreds of complaints each week from customers who receive unsolicited e-mail, or spam, after using the online bidding system, spokesman Kevin Pursglove said yesterday. Anyone registered on the site can currently view e-mail addresses by clicking on a seller's or bidder's user name.
Registration is free and takes only a few minutes to complete.
Under the new system, to be deployed over the next few weeks, users who want to contact buyers or sellers will see only the recipient's user name. They will enter their message in a form, rather than send their own e-mail message. Though the company's computers are automatically forwarding the e-mail, eBay will not monitor the content of the messages, he said. And any replies to the original message will contain the sender's address. Kentucky Connect and may not be republished without permission.