ejstubbs Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 (edited) A couple of times recently I have received e-mails from eBay encouraging me to bid on items that I have briefly looked at, but not bid on or added to my watch list. I've checked the communications settings on my eBay account and there doesn't seem to be any way to stop these. I can ask eBay not to tell me if the auction for a watched item is coming to an end, or if I've been outbid, but for something I've neither watched nor bid on, nothing! Anyone else experienced this? I'm currently embroiled in a chat session with eBay customer support trying to get them to understand that I am getting watch alerts for items I haven't watchlisted. It is hard work... ...and I've given up. The support agent kept going on about my watch alerts, seemingly unable to grasp that I was not watching the item! eBay are basically breaking the law by sending me e-mails I don't want, and with no way to stop them. Even if it's a system glitch (which I actually believe it is) they are obliged to stop it happening ie fix it! Edited June 1, 2018 by ejstubbs Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted June 1, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 1, 2018 I get these every day seemingly based on my saved searches rather than watch list. Like 9 out of 10 emails I get they are ignored if I have seen the item before. If anylne knows how to get rid of them it will save me time in deleting them Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ba14eagle Posted June 1, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 1, 2018 I get these too. Also, the email that shoves something under your nose that might be the same scale as something you've looked at, but have absolutely no interest in! I get notifications telling me when something in my watch list is shortly ending - about 10 minutes after it has!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Hayter Posted June 1, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 1, 2018 I get them too. I have no saved searches so it must be based on things I have briefly looked at. More often than no it will be for an item that the seller does not ship to France - so EBay's intelligent system is less than fully intelligent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Jonboy Posted June 1, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 1, 2018 My wife gets them for things I have been looking at..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted June 1, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 1, 2018 My wife gets them for things I have been looking at..... That's bad. Takes all the mystery out of a marriage. Mike. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quarryscapes Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 Scroll to the bottom of the email, in the small print will be a link to opt out of these messages. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brigo Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 Scroll to the bottom of the email, in the small print will be a link to opt out of these messages. The only problem is the wording implies it's tied up with promotions, offers and events. So if you unsubscribe you won't get offers like final value fees of 1p, like my last offer was. My daughter was seeing things I had been looking at, only thing is she lives a 100 miles away.... and I'm not on any social media sites. Brian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejstubbs Posted June 1, 2018 Author Share Posted June 1, 2018 (edited) Scroll to the bottom of the email, in the small print will be a link to opt out of these messages. You'd think so, wouldn't you? Certainly the eBay support agent thought so. All that the unsubscribe link on the e-mail did was to set the "Watch alerts" option to "none". As I pointed out to the agent - again - I was not watching the item. And I do want to get alerts about items that I am watching. So the unsubscribe link is not a blind bit of use, and in fact actually does something that I actively don't want to happen. After a long career in IT I actually find it quite annoying that people still seem to have few qualms about foisting rubbish, broken functionality like this on their customers. I still suspect that their system is somehow convincing itself that I do want to watch certain random items that I peruse. I have noticed that the function for toggling watching off and on can be extremely flaky at times - sometimes appearing not to register when I click the "Add to watch list" link on the item listing page (because it doesn't change to "Watching"), but when I look at my actual my watch list the item is there. Or vice versa. At least I'm not getting any e-mails about saved searches unless I've subscribed to get e-mails for a particular one. So at least that seems to be working for me. (I have noted that, every time you save a search, you do get subscribed by default - but it is very easy to opt out using a checkbox on the pop-up dialogue box that confirms the saved search.) Edited June 1, 2018 by ejstubbs Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejstubbs Posted June 1, 2018 Author Share Posted June 1, 2018 My wife gets them for things I have been looking at..... If you and your wife use separate eBay accounts, that's a personal data breach. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 If you and your wife use separate eBay accounts, that's a personal data breach. ...which eBay will presumably do absolutely nothing about. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crosland Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 eBay are basically breaking the law by sending me e-mails I don't want, There's a difference between not wanting and agreeing to receive, which I suspect we have all done as part of accepting eBay's Ts&Cs. ...which eBay will presumably do absolutely nothing about. It should be reported to the ICO, regardless. If everyone just presumes then, certainly, nothing will be done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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