You can't sell on eBay if you don't own a cell phone!

[paytonrules2003]

On October 26th I got an update from eBay asking me to update my seller information, specifically my email and telephone number. They have not changed in the 17 years that I've sold on this platform so I verified them and the screen said DONE. No problem right? WRONG

The next day I got a nasty ACTION NEEDED message that stated:

We recently asked you to review and update some details on your eBay account. Looks like you haven't made any updates yet. Your payouts will be on hold until you fix this. Please do this by 2023-01-24 to get your account back in good standing.

I called in and was told that I was fine, it just might take time for the system to verify things since they were sending the message out to many sellers.  Each day I had a nasty pink banner telling me to update my information and on November 4th I got the threatening message again. I called in, got routed through 3 people into Europe somewhere and was told that I was fine. This time I made one of them actually send me a message in eBay verifying that fact:

Thank you so much for reaching out to us for the account information inquiry, you needn't worry about any update to the information since it is currently undergoing said verification with no issues at all.
The payouts are active and eligible to be sent to the bank account on file.

Problem solved, right? WRONG!

The daily pink messages kept coming and the threatening ACTION NEEDED message came again this afternoon. Another phone call and another routing to Europe, to the UK this time. A very nice young lady put up with my by this time very angry response to this continued threat to not pay me what I had earned.

We went through everything step by step and I found to my horror that since my phone number was a landline they could not verify it by sending a text message to it. I literally had to change my primary number to my wife's cell phone number in order to get my information verified. And even that was not good enough at first because they sent a verification code to my email address which when I put it in was not enough for the system to verify me. Only when they sent a second verification code to my wife's cell phone was I able to be verified and hopefully off the pink threat list!

Which leads to the following questions:

1. Why did it take 3 weeks and 6 phone calls for someone to tell me that I needed text capability in order to continue to sell on eBay?

2. Is that even legal? Since a larger proportion of older adults in the US may not have text capability like yours truly (maybe I'll change my screen name to Dinosaur1 or something) is that not age discrimination?

3.  Why is this second layer of verification so important? Even the patient lady said that I could request a call back from eBay on my landline if I needed it and that it was more necessary in Europe than in the US to have this type of verification.

4. Why does Ebay continue to make simple things hard? Instead of sending threatening emails couldn't they simply have sent one saying they needed to be able to send me a text in order to verify my account information?

5. Am I the only dinosaur left or is anyone else in this predicament? If you are getting these messages and don't know how to deal with them you simply need to find someone with a cell phone to help you out.

All this angst because I was perfectly happy using the same phone number since 1987 and not thinking that the world has a right to track my every move through a cell phone!

[varebelrose]

"ROFLMAO...Please wake up and smell the coffee.  Internal combustion-engined cars won't even be in production by 2030.  You do realize that there was a time in vast swaths of the country, there was no power grid infrastructure to run electric lights too, right?"

Dream on. Not gonna happen. Huge difference between a 100 amp service to utilize lights and regular household power and a 400 amp service to enable daily charging for most EVs if they are to be charged overnight. Even in most cities, many older homes still have 60 amp services. I say that as a licensed electrician for over 35 years, but what do I know.

[paytonrules2003]

The bottom line for people like me who got the update information message and did what we were told by Merchant Support but were frustrated anyway by incompetent customer service is the following:

Call in and ask for Managed Payments - Seller Verification

They will be able to take you step by step through what they need in order for you to keep your account in good standing.

Also a note to eBay:

Don't send messages threatening holds on accounts and on payouts when the seller has done nothing wrong. Try to be specific about what you want and why.  It saves aggravation for all of us in the long run.

And to the people who hijacked this thread into a debate about electric vehicles and the 21st century:

You missed the point of the discussion. Ebay should be able to be clear about what they want and how we as sellers should satisfy their requirements. This is a repeated pattern of poor communication that has resulted again and again in dissatisfaction from customers (AND SELLERS ARE EBAY CUSTOMERS!)

[maxine*j]

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@1786davycrockett wrote:

... This may come as a surprise to young folks; but millions and millions of people have been taking nice, quiet walks for centuries --  without cell phones (or other phones)...

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I will tell you a story, from several years ago:  A colleague and his mate were great hikers and outdoorsmen.  They had arranged vacations at the same time and were off for two weeks in the wilderness.  We were waiting for others to arrive for a meeting and this colleague was discussing plans for the trip.  Someone said, "You mean you're not taking a cell phone?"  He said, no, no cell phone.  She said, "But what if someone dies!"  He replied, without missing a beat and in mock astonishment, "I did not know you could resurrect the dead with a cell phone!"

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[sakic92710]

This is not true.  Until a few months, I never had a cell phone.  Nothing prevented me from selling here (except buyers' cheapness & eBay interference  LOL).  Email does the trick.

[maxine*j]

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@varebelrose wrote:

"ROFLMAO...Please wake up and smell the coffee.  Internal combustion-engined cars won't even be in production by 2030.  You do realize that there was a time in vast swaths of the country, there was no power grid infrastructure to run electric lights too, right?"

Dream on. Not gonna happen. Huge difference between a 100 amp service to utilize lights and regular household power and a 400 amp service to enable daily charging for most EVs if they are to be charged overnight. Even in most cities, many older homes still have 60 amp services. I say that as a licensed electrician for over 35 years, but what do I know.

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And none of us, no matter which side of the EV debate we fall on, could fail to laugh when a few days after California announced that in future -- and not the distant future, either -- there would be only EVs in the Golden State,  the Govenor put California on a "flex alert" to conserve electricty during certain 5-hour periods by using no applicances, charging no vehicles, etc.  Just running air conditioners during a heat wave was putting that much strain on the power grid.

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[rosemary6525]

WOW    I can understand NOT wanting to have your personal cell on a place like this.  Visible to buyer/sellers on here.   Most places allow email for verification like PayPal     

[maxine*j]

@paytonrules2003 

Yes, it is increasingly frustrating to sell on eBay because no one -- including eBay employees  or eBay contracted CSRs -- understands eBay policies.  When called upon to explain or interpret a policy, these folks can only make up something that sounds good to them at the moment. 

As for the cell phone problem, about 12 years ago I decided to get one just to keep other people happy, and because public pay-phones have disappeared, and because my medical and transportation providers like to communicate by short texts.  So I have a nice flip-phone which I bought refurbished for cheap and my airtime costs me about nine dollars a month.   I use it only to make and receive calls when there's no landline to use, and to send and receive simple texts.  This is something you could think about. 

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[gmartinusa]

I think a lot of posters are missing the point here.  You will eventually have to have a cell phone capable of text messages to verify your account.  I received this info from two different eBay employees.   I have 3 different eBay accounts and only got the message to verify my main account on 11/07/22.  Nothing yet on the two other accounts.  Put in my home phone number and email address on my m in account.  Didn't work.  Called eBay and they told me cell phone with text is required to verify account.  Nowhere to date does it tell me on the page to verify my account to put in a cell phone number for verification.  My account is still not verified today 11/12/22 because I have not changed my phone number, the one they called me on, to a mobile phone.  They need to word their verification notice with this info.

[chapeau-noir]

I've had a cell phone since 1998, but live in a black hole and in many (many) buildings signals don't penetrate.  Live in a hilly area as I do?  Way out in the boonies?  I've hiked through areas with no cell signal for days on long backpacking trips, but people live there.

I don't think forced cell ownership for eBay is necessary.  Several sites that require cell phones were started as mobile sites and I can totally see this necessity for them as it's baked in (though Mercari is perfectly fine with email verification).  eBay is an elderly site with an older demographic so I don't see forced ownership anytime soon (if they're smart...oh, wait...). 

[the_fancy_fox]

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@lakefor94 wrote:

"5. Am I the only dinosaur left or is anyone else in this predicament?"

There are a few of your species still walking the earth.

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And more than a few of us that have figured out life was a lot more simple before cell phones. 

[stephenmorgan]

My financial institution allows three ways of receiving a verification code.

Phone call to me and the code is provided in a message.

Email the code to me

Text the code to me

[buyselljack2016]

Send an account verification code to an unverified cell phone via text to verify the account. Insanity personified.

[policequilts]

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@maxine*j wrote:

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@1786davycrockett wrote:

... This may come as a surprise to young folks; but millions and millions of people have been taking nice, quiet walks for centuries --  without cell phones (or other phones)...

---

I will tell you a story, from several years ago:  A colleague and his mate were great hikers and outdoorsmen.  They had arranged vacations at the same time and were off for two weeks in the wilderness.  We were waiting for others to arrive for a meeting and this colleague was discussing plans for the trip.  Someone said, "You mean you're not taking a cell phone?"  He said, no, no cell phone.  She said, "But what if someone dies!"  He replied, without missing a beat and in mock astonishment, "I did not know you could resurrect the dead with a cell phone!"

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Story : 
I live out in the country and the neighbors kids and 4H kids now have horses at the farm next door.  While gardening, one kid was out riding in the hay field next to the gardens.  She would trot the horse half way around the hay field and then walk the horse and is on the cell phone.

I would die to have a horse again and to enjoy riding, but this "new age riding" with cell phone in hand.  

[vixen_view_treasures]

This was an interesting read from seeing the different perspectives including the troll that just couldn't stop strumming their own harp! ha! But I found this thread because I was trying to see if anyone found a way around eBay's stupidity.  Apparently not. ugh!  I do have a cell phone. It's for EMERGENCIES! It's not for eBay, Facebook, Craig's List, or any other selling platform. It's for FAMILY and EMERGENCIES ONLY!!!  I had a STALKER for 2 years of hell.  Why because I was innocent enough to allow my cell phone to be given out. Yeah, that will NOT ever happen again!  I was a seller for years on and off as I'm not a store front, but occasional clean out some things seller.  I have made purchases with no issue, but when I recently went to sell, I received the red banner.  Phone says VERIFIED, Address the same.  Credit card says it was out of date, but when I tried to update it, received the red banner again and had to contact CS.  That was a joke!  The phone number on file is my Google number which I can both receive calls and text as well as send them.  I have used the same Google number for over 12 years and it's the number that was registered and verified ages ago, but suddenly eBay decides it's not good enough and they want my cell number.  That is WRONG on many levels.  There are numerous people myself included that live in areas that cell connection is spotty or null. I have to use my WIFI to use my cell phone at home, so it's kind of useless, but whatever, it is what it is, never been an issue until the stalker!  Until you have a stalker you have no idea the hell you have to go through, and there is no way in hell I'm giving my cell number to anyone except family.  Like many people have stated there are other ways of verifying that can be employed, as well as the fact that the number I have has been in use for over 12 years that should be more than enough verification for eBay to continue to use what I have been using for ages.  Spam and internet security should not be a factor for using a VoIP phone.  For some that may be all they have.  I do not sell or shop on eBay on my phone, I use my laptop, why on earth would I be required to give my phone number when I gave a valid way of verification.  EBay just wants more information than they are entitled to have... I sympathize with those who say they don't have cell, and respectfully disagree with those who say you MUST have one... some areas just don't support it yet and though I do have one, it's my right to maintain my privacy without being forced to give up my safety. They already have my address, SSN and other identifying information, they really don't need a CELL phone number as long as the phone number they have can receive text and mine can, they're just being ***** to because they can. ugh!

[mistyelectronics]

Its done because they want to keep the site secure and make it difficult to hijack accounts. Two factor authorization includes confirming who you are by sending a text with a code.

Almost every institution advises this, and to do it you most likely need to have a cell phone.  If you think that texting and communicating with ebay is difficult, try working with them if your account gets hijacked.  The ability to text will be the least of your trouble.