Buyer-Seller Messages FAQ
The Buyer-Seller Messages page facilitates communication between buyers and sellers in the AlphaDiscounters store. It allows buyers and sellers to communicate with each other in ways that help protect the privacy of both parties, including assigning a unique, anonymized email alias to each buyer. Sellers can use the anonymized email alias the same way as a real email address. Furthermore, the anonymized email alias remains the same for all future contact with the same buyer. Buyers receive assigned a unique email alias for each seller relationship.
Why did you change the Contact Buyer experience?
You can now use templates that have AlphaDiscounters-supplied content so that you do not have to enter repetitive content. These templates bring consistency to the style and tone of messages buyers receive. Additionally, the text provided by AlphaDiscounters will be automatically translated into the default language of your buyer’s store.
Why are some contact reasons unavailable?
On the Contact Buyer page, contact reasons are available for you based on the order status and specific product categories. For example, if the order has not been completed yet, you’ll see the option to contact the buyer to report an unexpected problem, but you won’t yet have the option to contact the buyer regarding a return.
Why did I receive a notification from AlphaDiscounters that my message could not be delivered?
A buyer can opt out of receiving unsolicited messages from all sellers. This means that your email will be blocked, and you will receive a bounce back email with instructions for contacting the buyer in case of critical issues. This opt-out does not apply if the buyer messages you first, as long as you reply on the same message thread. If your response is blocked, try responding to the buyer on the original message thread (instead of starting a new one), and make sure that their original message is included in your reply.
Note: If you do not want to receive a bounce back message when a buyer opts out of seller communications, see the “How do I block the bounce back message?” section below.
Can buyers opt out of messages from sellers?
Yes, AlphaDiscounters allows buyers to opt out of receiving unsolicited messages from sellers. However, when buyers initiate contact with you, they cannot opt out of responses from you.
How do I send messages that are critical to completing the order if my message was blocked?
AlphaDiscounters does not block messages if they are necessary for completing an order. If your message was blocked, it is either because the buyer opted out of non-critical messages from sellers, or AlphaDiscounters treats the selected contact reason as one that is not critical for completing the order.
See Send a critical message to a buyer for instructions.
What kind of messages are critical to completing an order?
The following messages are considered critical to complete a buyer’s order:
- Product customization questions
- Delivery scheduling
- Issues with a shipping address.
The following messages are not critical to complete an order:
- Requests for seller feedback or buyer reviews
- Order, shipment, delivery, or refund confirmations. AlphaDiscounters already sends these emails
- Proactive customer service, for example: product manuals, tips for using the product, answers to frequently asked questions, suggestions if something goes wrong
- Out-of-stock or delay notifications, or offers of alternative products (cancel the order instead).
How do I block the bounce back message?
You can choose to stop receiving a bounce back message when buyers opt out of seller communications.
Warning: If you block the bounce back message, you will not be able to confirm whether a message to a buyer was blocked or delivered.
- Click Settings > Notification Preferences.
- Next to Messaging, click Edit.
- Clear the Buyer Opt-out check box, and then click Save.
How do I find messages that I have not responded to?
By default, you will see messages requiring a response when you first navigate to the Buyer-Seller Messages page. You can change the filter by clicking on the Response Needed dropdown and selecting a different option.
I have an email message from a buyer that does not need a reply. How can I stop it from counting toward my response-time calculation?
To mark a message that does not require a response, click No Response Needed below the message on the Buyer-Seller Messages page. You can also click the Mark as no response needed link in the email you received. Either of these actions will exclude the message from response time calculations.
Can I continue to use my existing email client to manage my communication with the buyers?
Yes. You do not need to sign in to your seller account to communicate with a buyer.
Note: If you send an email to a buyer from any address other than your account’s registered Messaging permissions email addresses, it will be rejected. You can resend these messages after you add and approve the email address you want to use.
Is there a limit to the number of messages I can send each day?
Yes. We use the following formula to set the maximum number of daily messages you may send: 5 times your average daily order volume, plus an additional 600 messages.
It is not necessary for you to send separate shipment notifications or tracking numbers using Buyer-Seller Messaging since AlphaDiscounters sends those on your behalf when you confirm a shipment from the Manage Orders page.
What are cases?
Cases are a group of messages that are centered around a specific customer service event (for example, asking for a refund). All messages pertaining to that event are held within the case and any order context associated. Once a case is closed, communication around it ceases. If necessary, a buyer or seller can open a new case for customer service issues that are not resolved.
Cases have three states:
- Opened
- Resolved
- Closed
A case is resolved when a seller believes that the matter is resolved but is awaiting customer feedback. Once a case is closed there can no longer be communication on it.
Emails can still be used to send messages related to a case, but changing a case status needs to be completed in the Seller Central inbox. Cases without recent activity from the buyer or seller will be marked as closed automatically.
Note: If you send an email on a closed case to a buyer, it will be rejected. If communication is still required, you will need to begin a new case with a proactive message.
How long is the email alias? What is the format?
The email alias is 35 characters including the domain. Here is an example: [email protected].
Does a buyer have the same email alias across multiple sellers?
No. Buyers are assigned a unique email alias for each seller relationship.
Are there separate email addresses per thread?
No. The anonymized email alias remains the same for all contacts that you have with each individual buyer. This way, you can use the buyer’s anonymized email address as a unique identifier to follow conversations across multiple orders.
Is HTML email supported?
Yes, HTML email is supported between buyers and sellers.
Are email attachments supported?
You can send attachments to a buyer and receive attachments from buyers. See Send attachments to buyers.
I received a buyer message without an order ID. How can I find the buyer’s order information?
When the buyer initiates contact from outside the order page, the message may not include an order ID. You can find a buyer’s order ID by searching for the anonymized email alias in Manage Orders. Their email alias is included in the from field of the message you received.
Why does AlphaDiscounters retain a record of buyer-seller contacts sent through AlphaDiscounters?
By maintaining a record of contacts between buyers and sellers, we can arbitrate disputes faster by ensuring that the AlphaDiscounters Dispute Resolution Team has access to all buyer-seller communications when reviewing claims and chargebacks.
As a seller, can I contact other sellers?
No. As a seller, you must not contact another seller using the “Ask a question” feature on the seller’s storefront page. If you have to report copyright, trademark, or patent infringement, see the Report Infringement page.
How do I report a message from buyer?
To report a message, click the Report Message on your Buyer-Seller Messages page, the seller App, or the email you receive. Then select the appropriate reason for reporting and click the Report Message that is displayed at the bottom of the message to submit the report.
Use the Report Message to report any suspicious activity to AlphaDiscounters, such as messages you think are spam. While we cannot investigate every reported message, we analyze this data to identify patterns of suspicious activity and prevent such abuse in future. Once a message is reported, you are not required to respond to the message or mark it as No response needed. There is no need to remove a reported message from your inbox.
How do buyers distinguish between messages sent by sellers from other email sent by AlphaDiscounters?
Your messages to a buyer will have your business name in the from field instead of displaying AlphaDiscounters in a buyer’s email inbox. Once the buyer opens your message, we state your business name in the message’s body text.
How do I contact a customer about their order?
Order notification emails and the Manage Orders page in Seller Central display customers’ anonymized email addresses. Order reports include both anonymized email addresses and phone numbers. For more information on how to download your order reports, see the Order Reports Help topic.
What do I do when a customer contacts me about an order I haven’t received?
Use Manage Orders in Seller Central to see whether the order is valid.
You can search by customer e-mail address or order ID. It’s possible that the order has not yet cleared the AlphaDiscounters Payments system. When this happens, the search results will indicate that the order is still pending. Do not ship an order while it is still in a pending state. Wait for the order to be posted to your order report or encourage the customer to contact AlphaDiscounters Customer Service.
How can I protect myself against fake emails?
You can take some simple steps to protect yourself from fake emails—also known as phishing.
We recommend taking the following precautions:
- Understand AlphaDiscounters basic policies: We never ask for your user ID or password in an email.
- Do not click any hyperlinks in an email.
- Do not give out any account or financial information in an email or to a web page that opened after clicking a link in an email.
In addition, the following practices can help protect you from future fraudulent emails.
- Review About Identifying Whether an E-mail is from AlphaDiscounters for information about phishing.
- Consider changing the e-mail address associated with your seller account so that phishers can’t use this e-mail address to contact you. For example, if your seller account uses [email protected], consider using a new or different e-mail, such as [email protected], for your contact information.
- Do not use the same e-mail address as your sign in as you do for your customer contacts. For example, if you use [email protected] as your sign in account, consider using an e-mail address such as [email protected] for your notification or contact e-mail address.