Cassidy INFORM Amendment

[drusalina]

The US Senate is looking at new legislation that would require eBay and all other online seller sites to verify and display seller contact info on listing pages.   Including name, address, phone number and email address.   Your privacy will be gone.  

Another reason why I quit selling.  

Big Brother is here! 

[evry1nositswindy]

"Looking at" doesn't mean it will happen, especially any time soon.    

[wahlstreetmkt]

For some reason I thought this was already required. Amazon started doing this sometime last year I think.

[redmodelt]

There is another string talking about this. From the quick read thru I did when first posted, this would not be applied to small casual sellers.

[animal-house-8]

I'm a business my name address and contact info is supposed to be there that's how we get customer trust and sell things. It's worked well for me.

[pikabo-icu]

Well I can't predict any issues with buyers urging sellers to sell outside of eBay or unscrupulous sellers encouraging outside sales with that.. /sarcasm

I dutifully signed the petition sent by eBay Main Street- /shrugs.. For all the good that will do.. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@drusalina wrote:

The US Senate is looking at new legislation that would require eBay and all other online seller sites to verify and display seller contact info on listing pages.   Including name, address, phone number and email address.   Your privacy will be gone.  

Another reason why I quit selling.  

Big Brother is here! 

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@drusalina  before panicking, I'd recommend reading the text of the bill to be accurately informed (pun fully intended), rather than just reading emails from eBay and Etsy or online news sources.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3431/text

Here are a few excerpts:

The term “high-volume third party seller” means a user of an online marketplace who is a third party seller and who, in any continuous 12-month period during the previous 24 months, has entered into 200 or more discrete sales or transactions of new or unused consumer products resulting in the accumulation of an aggregate total of $5,000 or more in gross revenues.

If the high-volume third party seller demonstrates to the online marketplace that the seller does not have a business address and only has a personal street address, the online marketplace may direct the high-volume third-party seller to disclose only the country and, if applicable, the State in which the high-volume third-party seller resides on the product listing, and may inform consumers that there is no business address available for the seller and that consumer inquiries should be submitted to the seller’s email address.

If a high-volume third party seller demonstrates to the online marketplace that the seller does not have a phone number other than a personal phone number, the online marketplace may inform consumers that there is no phone number available for the seller and that consumer inquiries should be submitted to the seller’s email address.

I'm not saying there aren't possibly things in this bill to be concerned about - but anyone who says it would mean every small/consumer seller on eBay will be forced to publicly post their home address and personal phone number has either not read the proposed bill or is intentionally leaving out part of the story.

[wahlstreetmkt]

It's also funny looking at the address for some on Amazon (from what I believe to be Chinese sellers). More than a few just use public buildings, like the VA in Georgia or something.

I think to counteract stuff like this, they started sending out postcards to people to verify the address.

A PO Box is an option. But some have gotten some sort of online mailbox where the mail gets sent to some address and gets scanned. And you can just view it that way. Isn't too expensive of a service from what I recall.

[drusalina]

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@redmodelt wrote:

There is another string talking about this. From the quick read thru I did when first posted, this would not be applied to small casual sellers.

Do you really think that eBay is going to keep track of who is just a small casual seller?  If it becomes law eBay will do a blanket requirement like they always do.  

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[drusalina]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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Big Brother is here! 

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@drusalina  before panicking, I'd recommend reading the text of the bill to be accurately informed (pun fully intended), rather than just reading emails from eBay and Etsy or online news sources.


Your assumption is wrong, I don't Panic.  I stay informed and I read the proposed bill.  It will affect many sellers here and thought they should be informed!   

Snarky responses are not necessary on a seller's HELP board.  Demeaning people who are trying to help and or need help is not what this board is for.  

[katzrul15]

We are required to do it for Amazon.

We opened a mailing box for the 1st time thru a UPS mailing hub.  The address is theirs and our box number and we have a VOIP VM that takes no live calls and any VMs go there.  The only VMs are from Amazon wanting to promote something or other.  We have never had a customer call it as Amazon tells all their customers (because they are not ours for sure) to call them.  Returns go to that address, we get an email and a text telling us we have a parcel.  We pay $68/year for a larger type mailbox and we ship our UPS thru them at a discount.  

They do not see "my" name - they see my Business name/TIN and address as outlined above.  

Amazon conveniently never seems to make my Buyers there send a darn thing back.  They get to "keep" it and I get a nice deduct for that sale.  Yay, rah.  (to be fair, I have no idea how many get a courtesy replacement on Amazon as that info is never shared)

[lowcostsales2014]

Not everybody is an incorporated business. Some people are just selling items left around the house. Big difference between the IRS getting seller info & EVERYBODY knowing what you have in your home. 

List an old coin & someone out there may think you have Fort Knox in your basement & do an Armed Robbery!

[lowcostsales2014]

"I'm not saying there aren't possibly things in this bill to be concerned about - but anyone who says it would mean every small/consumer seller on eBay will be forced to publicly post their home address and personal phone number has either not read the proposed bill or is intentionally leaving out part of the story."

Remember this is the United States Gov you are talking about.

I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them!

Remember at first Sales Tax wouldn't Apply to Small Sellers Either!

With the Gov better to be PROACTIVE rather than REACTIVE when its too late!

[wahlstreetmkt]

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@lowcostsales2014 wrote:

List an old coin & someone out there may think you have Fort Knox in your basement & do an Armed Robbery!

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And I can buy the cheapest thing you are selling and see where the return shipping goes and do the same.

Is it a concern that what used to be private will potentially be public? Sure. But if you were worried about this already, you have hopefully thought of this and gotten a throwaway phone number (Google Voice or Pay By Minute number). And gotten some sort of alternate address. Some did it just for labels so they don't see their home address. But in general, a PO Box comes in handy. Such as not having to deal with a ton of junk mail if you sign up for something for your business.

And fortunately/unfortunately, even if this bill doesn't pass. I am sure another one will happen at some point or eBay will just do it to get ahead of the game because of international laws. As mentioned, Amazon started doing this already. I think because of some EU ruling.

[yuzuha]

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@lowcostsales2014 wrote:

Not everybody is an incorporated business. Some people are just selling items left around the house. Big difference between the IRS getting seller info & EVERYBODY knowing what you have in your home. 

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This doesn't apply to those people. It specifically states "new or unused" goods.