Gumtree craziness

WeAreGhosts

I feel like I'm going mad...

I have an advert on Gumtree which advertises an admin service. In order to receive payment via Paypal I have to ask the customer to send me their personal email address so I can send an invoice.

In the past this has worked out fine, they send the email address though Gumtree mail.

This week I've had a nightmare as a customer could not send their email address in the body of the email through Gumtree mail as it kept changing it to the mail address initiated by Gumtree (i.e buyerxxxxx@mail.gumtree.com)

I tried sending mine. Same thing happened.

I sent a message to Gumtree asking them to explain why this is happening, and asking how I'm supposed to get paid when I can't see a customer's email address.

I've been having a conversation with them all day, 2 different people, and they are totally clueless as to what my problem is - despite me spelling it out. I'm getting everything from instructions on how to reply, to 'speak to Paypal, we don't deal with payment'.

I'm about ready to strangle someone!

Has anyone else had this problem?!

I have paid for an advert that is now totally useless to me.

redped

Can you not just ask the buyer to split the email address up with spaces? Or on separate lines? e.g.

weareghosts AT hotmail . com

or

weareghosts
AT
hotmail
.
com

I can't see Gumtree's software bothering to check for an email address split into separate words.

WeAreGhosts

I could, yes. But it's a pain when you're dealing with people who aren't very internet-savvy anyway. The one customer this week thought I was trying to scam her! We were in a pickle.

My point really is, I've paid for an advert and they've changed they way things work. Surely they can't change things just like that, with no warning.

Second point is why do they think this is a good idea when they have people legitimately offering business services via their site. Isn't everyone going to have the same problem.

The answers from Gumtree have been terrible. I might as well ask the wall.

wealdroam

From the Gumtree website:

The only instance where your e-mail address is visible to the seller, is if you respond to a Business User. Business Users on Gumtree have a more personal relationship with our Sales Team, and we gather more information about them. When you reply to a Business User, your actual e-mail address will be embedded in the body of your reply.

As you are selling a service, perhaps you should register as a Business User.

knightstyle

I have found with Ebay that the simplest way is to photograph a piece of paper with the email address written on it and send that.

jenniewb

best way around it I've found is to try to send a slight encryptic version of your phone number (ie don't just send the phone number, put letters or symbols between each number) and then just trade emails that way. Ebay have the same issue, when buying something to pick up in person I had huge issues trying to contact the seller as I needed the email for directions and arrangements, ebay own gumtree from what I understand.

preable

gumtree is just full of scammers i avoid at all costs

LadyDee

preable wrote: »

gumtree is just full of scammers i avoid at all costs

What nonsense.

I buy and sell on Gumtree regularly. You won't be scammed if you take sensible precautions.

I've never been scammed and have certainly never scammed anybody.

Of course there are scammers on Gumtree, just as there are potentially on any site where goods are bought and sold. The world is full of scammers, but applying a dose of common sense is often all that is necessary to avoid them.