Mariner, you can still PM merchants. What I do is when I'm in the store and want to send a message to a merchant, I open the "Messaging" area in a new window and then copy the merchants name to the "Send PM" area. It's a royal pain, but it works. I use Mozilla so I just open a new tab instead of a new window.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi