eBay

joysteeq · ‎03-08-2024

Hello,
I would try to make this sort but it's not that easy. You see, I couldn't even find a title that can describe the issue accurately.
Anyway here it is:
I am an old ebayer, located in Greece (so no option to use "local" ebay domain).
I am usually a buyer but occasionally I sell some stuff, mostly clothing.
Last summer, after years of inactivity, I come back to sell an item and when I am logged in I realize a few things are changed. eBay asks for new info, payment details, banks etc. I do as I asked and then I list my item. Soon enough, a buyer (located in US) comes in and buys it. He pays immediately and when I am ready to ship, I see pretty much every account page decorated with a big red warning saying eBay needs to verify my account (again) and my funds from the sale are on hold or processing (can't remember which). How hard that could be? I go there assuming I have to upload my national ID or something. But no, I can't; eBay wants my passport or driving license. Guess what, I don't travel abroad and I don't drive. I go to support via email and after a while I am being told that eBay cannot allow me to sell from EU to US unless I verify my account with a passport or driving license or I have to limit my sales to EU only. Bummer but what I can do? They suggest to cancel that order, refund the US buyer and stick to EU sales. Meanwhile they promised to lift that red warning and they did.

Thinking that my account is again clean and ready to go, I relist the item and after many weeks (about 15 days ago) I find a new buyer, this time in EU. He pays the next day, eBay says now it's time to ship and the funds will be on hold until delivery is confirmed, pretty much what I remembered to be standard eBay policy. I wait for a week, delivery is completed and I am expecting a notification saying good news, your funds are now available for a payout. Nope! I go to the order details and the message went back to "processing the buyer's payment" and estimated funds availability is Feb 29. That message is still the same today, 3 days after confirmed delivery and 10 days after the buyer's initial payment. Then I go to my payments page and I see I am deep into negative territory in available funds not only from the latest sale going back to "processing" but the refunded one has the buyer's initial payment also in "processing" (since last August!).

Basically I have 2 sales:
One has the payment as being processed and the refund as "completed". How weird is that?
The other one went back from being "on hold" to "processing". I was under the impression the first thing in the chain of actions after a sale is for eBay to make sure the payment is legit and process it and then funds go on hold if there is a reason for that, not the other way around.
The result is I look like I owe eBay money out of nowhere with my item gone and shipping cost out of my pocket. Everything caused by my attempt to make a sale from EU to US to realize a national ID is not enough for that. Support says this might be a glitch but we are talking about a 6-month period here. Oh yes, they promised to come back to me soon, in 48 or 72h or 3 to 5 business days, depending on the type of support.
I don't feel particularly optimistic but lesson learned.
If you live in a EU country with no local eBay domain and you happen to be as boring as me with no trips overseas and without a car, do not try to sell using the ".com" site. Only trouble awaits you. Stick to your old good EU neighborhood.

***
Update: And just moments ago the big red warning to update my account details and "resume" the verification is back! Of course no national ID option, just passport and driver's license despite the fact eBay support already asked me to not sell overseas and stick to EU since selling overseas triggers that kind of verification requirements. I wanted to comply, I did everything they asked and now it's full circle, a loop, back to square one.

fab_finds4u · ‎03-08-2024

Please don't blame eBay. It's a government thing. A few years ago they passed something called INFORM Consumers Act. eBay is required to confirm your identity with a government issued picture ID. I believe it's to try to drop the hammer on scammers.

joysteeq · ‎03-08-2024

I don't have a problem with the law. I do have a government issued id, my national id. I am wondering if refusing a national id in EU is against EU law and they just get away with it.

My main issue with eBay though is the endless processing resulting in negative funds and I suspect it might be related to the whole verification thing. I don't say it's punitive but I feel red tape all around me.

joysteeq · ‎03-14-2024

The funniest and at the same time the most infuriating thing happened today.
After a week of going back and forth with 3 different agents and back-end/dev teams investigating and escalating, they came back this morning casually asking me to "apply" for a passport or driver license as if it's something easy, you go, you apply and they give you one for free right away.
Well, I don't need either in my life plus they cost, a lot. Basically eBay is asking me to spend something from 150 to 1000 euros, just to pay me back the amount they owe me which is 160 euros. And the thing is we are not talking about putting the (otherwise perfect) account to good standing again, preparing for the right kind of sales. The sale already occurred. The item is in the hands of the buyer. He paid. eBay deducted its fees. Delivery is confirmed. It's done. It can't be undone. I can't ask the buyer to send it back. I can't force him to do it. So, per eBay, my national ID means nothing as an identity document (EU law is a joke for them it seems) and my funds will probably stay locked indefinitely or worse, at some point they will just suspend the account, take the money and everything is good for them.

papermoney · ‎02-26-2025

Same or similar situation with me vs. ebay: "big red warning saying eBay needs to verify my account" after I made a small sale and delivered it to the USA. After 6+ months have passed after the item was delivered to the buyer ebay still did not pay me the money they owe me. When I go to my account I get the message that ebay can not find my account, yet they keep on emailing me my monthly statement summaries for the account that they are unable to find. Ebay is listed at my bank account as being able to do direct deposit or direct debit yet they don't pay me what's owed. Ebay is a scam and a thief and a former stalker, but I suspect they are still allegedly stalking people since they demanded all kinds of documents from me just to verify my bank account and those documents are either expensive and hard to obtain or I don't have some of them. I suspect ebay allegedly does this to millions of sellers and keep their hard earned money. Ebay are thieves and scammers and back in 2000 they were using my trademarked name in their site's headers as well. Do not trust ebay and don't use ebay or earlier or later ebay will hurt you.
As you can see ebay still owes me €6,78 for over 6 months now. That is a small amount and I was testing with a cheap item sale to see whether it is worth to use ebay as a seller big time. It turned out it is not worth it! Ebay simply kept my money.

Here's what ebay support wrote in August 2024:

"Additionally, once the buyer receives their order the funds will be released within 190 days if the account remains suspended."

Later, another ebay "specialist" refuted that statement stating that I will not receive my money unless I provide all the necessary documents they are demanding from me. I believe the situation ebay has caused is illegal behaviour by ebay. They do have a direct debit connection to my bank account and they must send the money owed by direct debit, but for some reason they decided to keep the money. Today 194 days have passed from the date the item was delivered to the buyer and no money was received by me from ebay.

fab_finds4u · ‎02-26-2025

ebay.com/usr/banknotes_1 is not found. That user name is no longer registered on eBay.

papermoney · ‎02-26-2025

That's what ebay did with my account, because I used a different browser to login they found a way to keep my money by suspending my account. I can't even log into my account or review the statements they started sending me starting with December 2024 even that I had that account since 1999 (for 26 years). It's not use, it's just ebay wants to keep our money and they found ways to do that. Ebay has made a lot of enemies and lost a lot of customers, but even back in the year 2000 they were doing things that were illegal, so I always avoided buying or selling on ebay as much as I could and now I don't 100%.