This is probably the most used and most important communication feature in the software. There is little use for a site that can't put two clients together. This feature only appears in the listing's details page. By default it can appear as a link to the feature or you can even include the contact seller form within the listing's details page if you like. On this page we'll try to explain the intricacies of this feature and have outlined below all that the feature does when a client sends a communication to the seller through it. This is what happens when a message is sent to the seller:
It sends an email to the seller's email account
It saves a copy of that message within the sellers "my messages" section of the client side admin tool
If the seller's communication configuration is set to private AND the one sending the message is logged into the site when sending the "contact seller" message a link is included in the message details so that the seller can click the link and respond to the message through the messaging system built into the software. This is one of the very few instances where the "communication privacy" configuration has an effect
Within the emails sent to the seller the "from" header of the email is set to the email entered into the contact seller form email field. The "reply-to" header value is not set within the email header.
If the "Send all outbound mail as "From:" this address" admin tool configuration is set to a value (an email) that email is set as the "from" header in the email being sent AND the original "from" header value (from the email field of the contact seller form) is moved to the "reply-to" email header value. This helps with the delivery of the email to it's destination. The email address of the one using the contact seller feature most definitely does not match your domain name of your installation. And many smtp servers (and delivery servers on the other end) will see the "from" header does not match the "original senders domain" and raise it's spam score or remove it altogether. Never to reach it's destination. The "Send all outbound mail as "From:" this address" setting allows you to set that "from" header to your site and still allow the recipient of the email the ability to click the "reply" button and that email will go to the email set within the "reply-to" header. To make matters better you can set the "Send all outbound mail as "From:" this address" value to a "noreply@" email so the one responding isn't confused if they notice the header difference. There is a side effect of using this admin tool setting within the contact seller feature. When force from is used local copies of "contact seller" communications are not saved within the internal messaging system
Within the email sent to the seller is a valuable bit of information included at the bottom. The ip address of the original sender (the one to use the contact seller form) is included. This
support wiki faq can explain how useful that information can be in spotting a scam.
Within the sellers "my messages" admin tool is a list of all email communications sent to the seller through the contact seller form. The seller can always refer to that list if they think they didn't get a communication through that form or accidentally deleted their email locally.
Within those messages in the "my messages" list will be the email address of the sender as well as the message.
Within the "my messages" tool the seller can even respond to those messages if they like and the system will send their response.
There is no way the one using the contact seller form can keep their email address private. That is a requirement of completing the contact seller form.
If the one using the contact seller form to send a message to the seller is logged into the site when sending the message can be responded to through the messaging system by the seller. If you want to force all communications this way or at least the option you will need to use turn the following setting to "yes":
SITE SETUP > BROWSING SETTINGS > REQUIRE LOGIN TO USE THE CONTACT SELLER FEATURE
If a sender was logged in when sending their message to the seller and the seller responds through the system (and not their local email) the original sender receives an email (that they can reply to locally in their email account) or they can return to the system and respond.