eBay Forcing User ID

custardy

your post has no bearing on this thread topic

Flyonthewall

johnmrchips wrote: »

Hi,

Likewise a new member and can't help with your query but just wished to add my own experience in the hope that someone may eventually take notice of us.

This is my recent tale of woe:

Last September I received a number of e:mails that said they were from PayPal but were so dodgyI considered them phishing exercises and ignored them as they were asking for personal information that NO other online trader would think about.

Below is part of the text:

"Please provide one of the following valid Identity documents;

1. Passport

2. Driving Licence

3. Official government documentation including your Date of Birth.

Please provide one of the following valid Proof of address;

1.Recent utility bill (Within last 12 months)

2.Recent FinancialStatement (Within last 12 months)."

I discovered yesterday [Sunday 26 January 2014] that it was not phishing but they would not process any payments from me to their traders until I had supplied the necessary data.

I refuse to supply such information and will no longer deal with PayPal-only traders. Their detriment, not mine. I will continue to deal with Amazon etc instead! Perhaps ebay traders will take this up with ebay/PayPal although I don't hold out much hope.

If they're asking for that there's usually some reason. As far as I know, they don't just randomly ask for that. I've certainly never been asked for that.

What they're asking for is simply confirmation that you are who you say and that addresses match up. If you send a bill/statement I'm sure you could block out all the transactions on it so they can't see everything, just the proof of address.

I don't know why they need it but if you don't either have you asked them?

Just to add, I have known legit sites ask for proof of ID before, although they have been survey sites rather than shopping sites.

Flyonthewall

custardy wrote: »

your post has no bearing on this thread topic

Technically both are about giving/showing personal details you don't want to give/show. I do agree though that it doesn't really have much to do with it at all and should really be posted as a new thread.

custardy

cootuk wrote: »

What if you spent months choosing your username, then found that someone else had that name?

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

soolin

Apologies, I have removed a post to its own thread rather than hijack this one with an unrelated topic.

GabbaGabbaHey

RFW wrote: »

You may very well have a valid point, although I doubt where anyone could get harmed by having their real name as a user id, even if you don't change it. If you're bidding on something your id is masked anyway.

I think that the issue being raised by the OP is that if you have an unusual name AND you are (say) the victim of an abusive relationship or the target of a stalker AND you are selling on eBay, then the automatically generated user name could provide the abuser/stalker with enough information to identify you. They could then use this information to obtain your full contact details.

While this is not an issue for the vast majority of us, it doesn't stop it from being a very real concern to those unfortunate enough to be affected.

greyteam1959

unreal2014 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I am a new member here and could not find anyone else with the same kind of experience I have had.

I'm disgusted at the recent events that have taken place in the last day, causing three hours of pure distress and discomfort. Suffering from illness I have found the eBay response to be lacking any empathy or respect for me, as a valued customer, what-so-ever.

Whilst I don't want to create too long of a post as I know it can get boring, I will try and cut it as short as I can.

I have been a long-term eBay member for several years and before then I had been a member, before you were forced to need a Paypal account or payment card to sign up, or at least to use eBay as it was intended, with simplicity and ease.

A little history. - I had lost all details of my original account from when eBay started (which is not a problem, as it really was that long ago), several years later to create a new account and have made under 1,000 transactions that all took place with ease (and might I add, perfection with all sales and purchases, luckily), this includes selling and buying for a good few years.

Now, after a long time without an eBay account and realizing that I could use one again as there is nowhere else (unfortunately!) with as much traffic, I have found that eBay are forcing "User ID's" onto their new customers. Had I have known I perhaps would not have signed up once again.

Under the Register page you will now find a First Name, Surname, Email Address, Password and Password Confirm box with no such mention anywhere on the page of creating a user ID or username, which leads you to think this process will take place on a possible next page once you click on the submit button.

After much time had passed I had decided on the username (or user ID) I wish to use, this taking several months of thought, and time, and creation of a whole new email account, just for this purpose which I did not want to do in the first place, after all why should you need a new email account just because eBay say so?

I had entered the correct details into these boxes with the pre-understanding that I would simply click Submit and then select a User ID.

I couldn't have been further away from being as far wrong as humanly possible, not only am I shocked, completely unamused and upset by this but the new eBay system has not only selected a user ID for me automatically without my say so, but it has used my real name no less!!

To have your full, real name instantly created as a username (or user ID) is disgusting and a complete breach of what I would have thought most people would consider privacy.

After spending the best part of three hours talking with an online eBay staff member to get the same answers constantly I felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall, also to be lied to several times and then to be told "sorry, my colleagues informed me wrong at the beginning of this conversation", I understand that we're all human and make mistakes, but it appears that eBay staff training may perhaps be lacking as it appears I know more about the eBay system then their own staff, or that they simple do not care.

I simply asked for this ID to be erased completely, of course this simple action cannot be performed so I am told several times, and I know this anyway due to having used eBay since it first started and having been through similar situations in the past.

The problem is that I, like most eBay members, would like to remain anonymous and not have my full, real name, simply automatically issued as my username.

Whilst I am aware I can change User ID this does not stop anyone who is registered with eBay looking at the feedback page and simply clicking on the User ID History page and checking previous usernames, and then to be told that it would be removed/deleted and then simply to be told I had been lied to and that this action is actually impossible (which I believe to be a lie as I generally know how these things work with 20 years of computer/internet knowledge under the belt).

Overall I have never had a problem with eBay until now, having been a valued customer more than just the one time now (not that they would know, not being able to look at deleted accounts), they simply fobbed me off and showed little to no respect in helping with the issue they have caused.

Towards the end of the online conversation I am told a manager is going to call me and resolve my problem, to be called soon after and simply be told the same again several times, and to be over-talked at down the phone that the issue will be passed on to their tech team. I have never felt so patronized and shoved to one side as I had with this situation to be told there is nothing they will do, this had caused me quite the upset as I suffer illness and it had taken such a long time for me to actually create a user ID in the first place with much thought, time and care. Though I understand this may be a simple process for most people, I am not simply able to think of something suitable to my own tastes every day.

Whilst on the phone to the manager I am also told several times that once you click submit you will be able to choose a username and that any username is selected by myself as it is simply a suggested username or to be told that I have had a choice in what username I would be able to choose and that this was performed by myself. I can't explain further how wrong this information is and how wrong they are. I had no choice in user ID and I did not select it myself, if I had it would be the username I had wanted and not my real name!

After being lied to, talked down to and to simply be told on the end of the phone that I will be emailed with pictures of how to sign up when you simply are not able to enter your own user ID in the first place.

Whilst this phone call is taking place, I am obviously not at the computer as I simply cannot do the two things at once, and when the phone call ended I notice that the person in the online help box decided to end the conversation by saying they have not had a response, which was because I was on the phone with a manager, which obviously did not fix the situation.

Has anyone else had the same experience? I have pretty much lost all faith in eBay now and do not wish to create yet another email account simply because they state they will not help with the situation that is created by them in the first place!

Do I sound like a maniac or am I within my rights to find this a completely unfair system forced onto people who clearly are unsuspecting their name will be plastered into eBay the moment they have clicked the submit button?

Why can't they just add a User ID box to start with and make life easier for it's members.

Any response to this post is welcomed as I simply have nothing left to do now and feel mistreated by eBay entirely. I hope that I have been consistent and thorough and believe I have added everything that had happened around this event.

Can't be bothered to read all that !!!!!! !!
Hope somebody else can be.

Flyonthewall

mervyn11 wrote: »

Can't be bothered to read all that !!!!!! !!
Hope somebody else can be.

Well this is on page 4 so if people haven't been reading it that's 4 pages of random unrelated posts...

By the way, thanks for giving us all the joy of scrolling down the whole of that post *rolls eyes*

chancesare_2

I have not read one post in this thread but thought I would bump it to help you all have fun........

appleblossom

Sorry but I think your user name on here just about says it all!!