Forcing me to upload photo ID and bank statements, I've had enough

[2thache93]

I've had the same ebay account for close to 20 years with a stellar track record.  Over the last couple years, ebay has forced changes on me based on their pay-in / pay-out structure.  Fine, I've gone along with it.

Now they are asking for photo ID and a bank statement or they won't allow pay-outs on my account.

I don't know about you all, but I'm not trusting this large an organization (a breach risk) with my private information when it's completely unnecessary.  I'm not taking out a business loan here or refinancing my house.  There is no need for ebay to have this information.

I'm not sending any of this.  I'll just do what I need to do elsewhere.  I can do most of this on Amazon anyway.

Ridiculous.

[archemily2]

Well, I read it being to do with President Biden on another post on this string (Presumed American) otherwise I would have assumed it was the IRS. . . 

[mam98031]

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@archemily2 wrote:

Thanks, I gathered, but President Biden's mandate is affecting more than just the US so, thought some folk other than US citizens, or maybe even US citizens reading this might like the heads up. 

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Nope, still not the Presidents fault.

Yes, people from around the world read this site.  Most are or certainly should be aware it is the US site, therefore unless otherwise noted we are talking about US stuff, rules, regulations, etc.  We have no need to qualify we are talking about US stuff.  We ONLY need to qualify it if we are NOT talking about US stuff.

[mam98031]

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@archemily2 wrote:

Well, I read it being to do with President Biden on another post on this string (Presumed American) otherwise I would have assumed it was the IRS. . . 

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People all around the world often times try to turn or twist something into being a political thing when it is not.

[anasazirose]

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@osfan3 wrote:

Has anyone been asked by PayPal to provide this information yet???

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Short answer: yes

Long answer:

When my PayPal account was hacked,  someone ordered $300 worth of merchandise from GNC'.  I got an email, promptly reported it as fraud, and could NOT get through to them on the phone, they said due to the pandemic, they weren't speaking to people.  I called GNC who refused to stop the rest of the shipment.  GNC told me to contact UPS.  UPS said because I wasn't the sender (GNC), I could not redirect the shipment.  I called GNC back, they refused again.  The $300 had taken my $100 PP balance, as well as placing a $200 charge on my Discover (good thing the credit card is my default after using balance and NOT my checking.)  I was incredulous that GNC didn't re route the package right to the police station, or post office and have the thief go get it.

In a PP chat, PayPal wanted me to upload my driver's license to unfreeze the account.  They have had my social, my address, my bank info, as well as my credit cards on file for 20 years, nothing has changed.  Them having a photo of me proves nothing.  THEY approved merchandise sent to TX when I live in PA.  I told them to just cancel the account and deposit the $100 balance to the same checking account they have had on file for years.  They refused.   Stalemate.  They froze my account for 180 days, then released it with no further checking of ANYTHING. 

I also feared another breach and a hacker having access to my DL.  Picture the hacker getting all that, and another 3rd party wanting the DL....well, they'd have it because PP let the hacker get it.  At this point, though, anyone who has gone for medical care since 2011 has their DL stored electronically.

There is no privacy anywhere anymore. 

I now have secondary sign in enabled on my PP account.  If I sign in, I have to then enter a code that they send to my phone.  I recommend everyone do that.  Perusing the PP Community boards, apparently PP has frozen accounts up to 20K and not released them even after receiving the asked for information.

[g00dies4saleonline]

Considering how atrocious eBay's customer service is, as well as the lack of basic common sense solutions when it comes to policy, I feel the company, as a whole, cannot be trusted. I've been a buyer and seller on this platform for 20 years and have watched it progressively turn into a cesspool of greed. I don't trust that they are a secure place to hold financial information and have made the choice to no longer do business with them.

Do yourself a favor and research this place before trusting your financial information to them. Check the BBB complaints and read these boards. There's an ambiguity of protection on eBay's surface, but you are likely to find out that there's nothing of the sort in the end, and forget about any kind of customer service.

[mam98031]

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@g00dies4saleonline wrote:

Considering how atrocious eBay's customer service is, as well as the lack of basic common sense solutions when it comes to policy, I feel the company, as a whole, cannot be trusted. I've been a buyer and seller on this platform for 20 years and have watched it progressively turn into a cesspool of greed. I don't trust that they are a secure place to hold financial information and have made the choice to no longer do business with them.

Do yourself a favor and research this place before trusting your financial information to them. Check the BBB complaints and read these boards. There's an ambiguity of protection on eBay's surface, but you are likely to find out that there's nothing of the sort in the end, and forget about any kind of customer service.

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While you and I have been around Ebay about the same amount of time, my usage of the site has been on a regular basis and quite a few transactions.  I don't hold your opinion of the site.  I respect your opinion, I just don't agree with it.  As one that has dealt with Ebay almost daily for over 20 years.

[g00dies4saleonline]

I didn't use to feel this way about eBay. It wasn't until they started jacking around with feedback policy and giving you only one way to accept payment that I started losing trust. Just dealing with their customer service representatives alone is enough to not want to trust my banking information to them. It's atrocious.

Then when I realized they were removing negatives for no reason, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I can't do business with a company that willfully removes warranted negative feedback when no rules have been broken. In many cases, feedback is the only warning system an unsuspecting buyer has to make an educated decision. Take that away and it just seems like promotion of fraud.

Best of luck to you in the future...

[mam98031]

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@g00dies4saleonline wrote:

I didn't use to feel this way about eBay. It wasn't until they started jacking around with feedback policy and giving you only one way to accept payment that I started losing trust. Just dealing with their customer service representatives alone is enough to not want to trust my banking information to them. It's atrocious.

Then when I realized they were removing negatives for no reason, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I can't do business with a company that willfully removes warranted negative feedback when no rules have been broken. In many cases, feedback is the only warning system an unsuspecting buyer has to make an educated decision. Take that away and it just seems like promotion of fraud.

Best of luck to you in the future...

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Ebay does make a lot of changes, there is no doubt about that.  Some I know I personally don't agree with or like but most are done for good reasons.  Sometimes we don't understand those reasons right away or we fail to see the big picture and think beyond our own needs.

The change in the FB policy a dozen years ago I personally support.  You need to put on your business hat.  There are NO personal transactions on Ebay and there never has been.  Everything is a business transaction.  and in business it simply is not a good business model to publicly shame your customers.  Simply bad business.  And if you look at similar sites, you will find none of them allow negative FB for buyers either, in fact most don't even allow sellers to leave FB at all.

The old policy wasn't just bad for those buyers that are misbehaving but for those that didn't.  Sometimes sellers take things the wrong way and would reach out to hurt a buyer.  Sometimes it was because the buyer left the seller negative FB, but even though the buyer did nothing wrong, the seller gave them negative FB.  It was an abused system and it drove away good buyers too.  They didn't want to risk the seller having a bad day and hitting their FB, so why risk it as there are other places to shop.

It may be your opinion that they removed FB for no reason, but that doesn't mean that is factual.  You may just not agree with Ebay's reason for removing the FB, which simply isn't required.  If it breaches one of the FB rules, it can be removed.  However I am aware that sometimes it is a real puzzle as to why one gets removed.  I've seen that myself.

You are assuming that all buyers actually review a seller's FB.  While many do, there are many that don't.

I too wish you nothing but the best in the future.

OMG are you talking about payments via snail mail??  In todays world I doubt you would find many buyers that would want to wait a couple weeks for you to ship something simply because you are waiting for their payment to arrive, you get to the bank and deposit it and then waiting for the deposit to clear.  That is at least a couple weeks.  Then you ship it and it takes a few more days or longer to arrive.  This process can easily be 3-4 weeks for a buyer to receive what they ordered.

Electronic payments are a must if a business wants to survive in today's world.  

[buyologist-3]

WHEW!!!

[g00dies4saleonline]

Snail mail? Oh, heck no. lol

I just don't like eBay managed payments being the only option. I don't trust them. Of course, there's the option I took, which is to not do business on their platform.

[mam98031]

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@g00dies4saleonline wrote:

Snail mail? Oh, heck no. lol

I just don't like eBay managed payments being the only option. I don't trust them. Of course, there's the option I took, which is to not do business on their platform.

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Then I misunderstood what you were trying to say.  What you said was "... giving you only one way to accept payment that I started losing trust"  And that was in 2012 when they brought Paypal online as our ONLY option for payment, not MP.  MP is only 4 years old and for most sellers it was in the last year that they started using it.

[lampadephoria]

I am facing a similar issue now. I am not a professional seller, I happened to need to sell an extra GPU which I guess is over that $600 line. They didn't give any warnings while I list the product. Then they hold my payout and told me I can't get my money unless I upload photo ID. I chat with eBay customer service and ask them after verification, do they still keep the photo- they said yes. That is completely unnecessary since once it is verified, they should delete the ID since ID is critical private information.  I asked what is the need for them to keep my photo ID- customer service can't answer my question and said he would pass that feedback to their management. It is very fishy to me. But, how am I supposed to get my payout if I don't upload? Can add watermark to the picture

[lampadephoria]

"Absolutely nothing other than they now need to require full SSNs on every seller because the 1099K threshold is now $600."-- then why I have been asked for photo ID IN ADDITION TO my full SSN?

[lampadephoria]

now my issue is, they hold my 900$ unless I upload ID. What can I do to get my money back? I have a big concern for them to save my ID on their server

[bonjourami]

Because Ebay wants to confirm your identity before they transfer funds to your checking account. its simple really..if you want to get paid, supply it..if you dont, dont provide it. Then your funds will go to your states unclaimed funds,and you can collect them then..takes about a year.