Eric Shoup from eBay Product Management talks about using your cell phone for eBay auction alerts:eBay Alerts are designed to make it easy to stay on top of - and win! - the auction listings you're interested in. We're improving our current text messaging options, and adding the ability for you to use instant messaging and actual cell phone calls to receive alerts and bid on items. I've provided more detail about each option below:
- Text Messaging (also known as SMS) - With SMS alerts, you'll be able to receive "Outbid" and "Item Ending Soon" alerts for any item you choose, and you can even re-bid on an item by replying to the SMS. One thing to note: these are considered to be "premium SMS messages" by cell phone carriers, so a $0.25 charge will be applied to your cell phone bill.
- Instant Message Alerts - Similar to SMS, you can receive free "Outbid" and "Item Ending Soon" alerts for any of your items if you're using AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, or MSN Messenger.
- Phone Call Alerts - Through a pilot program with our partner Unwired Buyer, you can receive a phone call in the last 3 minutes of a listing. From there you can check your status, or even place a bid, up until the listing has ended. Just like with the IM alerts, these calls are free (although check your cell phone plan to see if your carrier will charge for incoming calls).
Comment Preview