Some sellers said they received an early morning phone call on Tuesday from eBay informing them of a special 1-day promotion on auction listings. The "robo calls," as they were dubbed, came in the form of an automated message that some identified as the voice of Jim "Uncle Griff" Griffith, a long time eBay employee and host of eBay Radio.

While some didn't mind the concept of an automated call from eBay, there were many complaints about the calls being made so early in the morning. Some users received text messages in addition to phone callers, and a few sellers chimed in to report they had not been contacted by eBay at all.

Some recipients of the call posted on a website called 800Notes.com, a reverse phone number lookup database.

Update 3/3/10: eBay spokesperson Johnna Hoff said sellers often tell eBay they would like more notice of limited-time pricing promotions such as Tuesday's 50% off one-day auction promo. She confirmed that Tuesday's initiative was the first time eBay ran an automated voice messaging campaign, and said sellers who received a text message from eBay will not be charged. "In all cases, eBay pays for the text messages and automated voice messaging; the seller receives the service free of charge." For more on Ms. Hoff's statement, see the AuctionBytes Blog.