The Messages tab in My eBay is where you receive and respond to secure, relevant messages from eBay and other eBay members.
Viewing messages
When you have new messages or alerts, you'll see reminders throughout eBay. You can click these reminders to view your messages, or go to My eBay and click the Messages tab.
To view your messages:Click My eBay at the top of most eBay pages.
If you have unread messages, you'll see a number in parentheses on the Messages tab.
Click the Messages tab to read your messages.
We recommend that you check your messages frequently for emails that affect your buying and selling activity.
Types of messages you’ll receive
The Messages tab displays messages you’ve received from eBay or other eBay members.
If you receive a message from eBay at your regular email address, you’ll also find a copy of it in your Messages in My eBay. This duplicate message in My eBay verifies that the email is authentic and not a spoof (phishing, or fake) email.
You can receive two types of messages:
Alerts: Only eBay can send you alerts. Alerts appear with the yellow exclamation point in front of them and contain information that requires your immediate attention.
Messages: Messages from eBay or other eBay members.
You can delete messages whenever you want.
General eBay Announcements: We may also send you general eBay news and announcements.
Sending messages
When you send a message to an eBay member, we deliver a copy of the message to the member’s registered email address and to the member’s Messages in My eBay.
To send a new message:Click the Messages tab in My eBay.
Click the Find & Contact a Member link on the left side of the page.
Enter the member’s user ID or email address.
Tip: You can also contact a member by clicking his or her user ID anywhere on the site. On the member's Feedback Profile, click the Contact Member link.
To respond to a message you received:Click the Messages tab in My eBay.
Click the subject of the email.
Type your reply and send the email.
Limits on sending messages
To keep eBay safe, we limit certain kinds of email. Emails that contain a virus, are especially large, have a blank subject line, or provide an incorrect item number will be returned to the sender. There are some other reasons email may not go through, so if you're having problems, we recommend you see Problems sending or receiving messages in My eBay
Saving messages
Alerts and messages expire after one year if they don't have a shorter expiration date. Once they expire, they're removed and no longer available to view. However, you can save messages to your computer desktop.
To save messages:Select the check boxes next to the messages you want to save, and click the Save button at the top or bottom of the list of messages.
Select either EML or HTML as your file format.
Click the Continue button.
Click the Download Saved Messages button to download a .ZIP file that contains your messages.
Deleting messages
You can delete most messages at any time. You can delete alerts just as you would any other email in the system, but we recommend that you take the necessary action the alert requests before deleting it. Deleted messages remain in the Trash folder for one year.
To delete a message:Select the check box next to the message you want to delete.
Organising messages into folders
You can organise your messages into folders. You get the following 4 folders automatically, and can add up to 10 more folders:
Inbox |
Where you get all new alerts and messages. We automatically sort messages by time received, with the most recent at the top. |
Sent |
Contains copies of all the messages you've sent to Customer Support and to other eBay members. You can't delete messages in the Sent folder, but you can copy messages in the Sent folder to another My Messages folder you've created, or forward them to another email address. |
Trash |
Contains the messages you deleted for one year. |
Folders |
Here you can create your own personalized folders, like "Holidayshopping" or "Antiques." To create a new folder, click the Add folder button and enter a name for the folder. |
Sharing messages with eBay
For privacy reasons, we aren't able to read your messages. Occasionally, you may want eBay to be able to view specific messages—usually so we're able to help you solve a problem.
To share specific messages with eBay:Click the folder that the messages are in.
Select the tick boxes next to the messages you want to share.
In the Mark as … drop-down menu, select Viewable by eBay.
You'll see a box on the screen that says Granting permission.
Select the Let eBay read the selected messages tick box.
Click the Grant permission button.
Must use Buy It Now and PayPal.
