eBay

samurai-pizza-punk · ‎02-26-2021

So I've been around on eBay for nearly 20 years as both a casual buyer and a seller.

Recently they said I have to move to their new payment system so I figured I'd check it out.

I saw that I'd have to give eBay my SSN which I have no intention of doing. The same happened with PayPal but with them all that happened was that I could not use PayPal as a "bank" if I didn't do it (which I didn't) and now I have to use it only as a sort of a funnel. Fine by me. I thought eBay would probably be the same?

To set up a probe on how this is going to work I put up something rather cheap for sale so if I end up not liking it no big deal.

I put up a book for sale. 2 days ago it was sold.

I go in and I see that I have a payment pending. At this point I'm thinking ok... they would have told me by now that I couldn't accept the payment because they didn't have my SSN, right?

WRONG!

They let me put an item for sale, then showed me that I have money coming and that I should send the item. Then let me get the shipping label and send the item. All that without saying a word.

But when the time comes to withdraw the payment? Of course this is where they stop me.

I called eBay support and asked what now? The representative suggested that I put my SSN in. When I made it clear that this was not going to happen and started going on about how it was not ok that they let me go through the entire process without a word about not being able to withdraw she just hung up on me!

In any case I'm scratching this as a lost cause and just had the urge to vent my anger on how poorly I feel that eBay are handling this.

I'm sure eBay won't shed a tear for losing my business but they lost one more seller.

iart · ‎02-26-2021

I agree that if you want to sell on ebay you should accept their terms. Nowadays, that requires a SSN. But the way the OP describes this as going down seems unfair. Allow the sale. Allow the shipping. But don't allow the seller to collect payment?

If you don't surrender your SSN you cannot sell here. Fine. But then, they shouldn't be able to list and sell!

kekl-5282 · ‎02-26-2021

I have been holding off on selling again now because of this. Now it asks for the last four of the SSN instead of the whole one. Anyone have any insight on that? Thank you.

tdrake · ‎02-26-2021

@kekl-5282 wrote:
I have been holding off on selling again now because of this. Now it asks for the last four of the SSN instead of the whole one. Anyone have any insight on that? Thank you.

Yeah... never heard of it.

herway · ‎02-27-2021

Ebay will force all sellers into managed payments in July. I got a message from Ebay telling me that. So if you want to stay around you have to give up your SSN. I don't really understand what is the big deal is, millions of sellers have given it up. People that don't change with the times will be left behind.

writingblog341 · ‎03-01-2021

They overreact on SSNs...they say I have to provide it to "avoid issues with payouts", but I just ignore the message. Doesn't affect my sales, payouts, or anything else.