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!

[soh.maryl]

Call me whatever you want, but do not have and do not want a cell phone.  Of course, I am not an eBay seller either.  Whenever anyone here speaks up and says what I just said, they are truly attacked.  Why? 

[a_c_green]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

But, once again, there we are, back at, ...............   "text a confirmation code" ...............   to an ................. "unverified cell phone" ....................... to prove that I am me.  I can not, and will never be able to,  climb the mountain of absurdity that this eBay logic presents 😟

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Two-factor authentication means that an attempt to log in via one method is answered by an outbound reply using a second method (the text message in this case). When the code sent out by text is returned via login, that confirms that the holder of the phone is the person logging in to the account.

The phone number does need to be stored as part of the account credentials, so at some point the user needs to add it initially, then immediately have it verified during that session before the number is stored. After that, the number can be used for future authentications.

Yes, it should be possible to sell on Ebay without a cellphone, but as I said before, Ebay does not want to add phone callback capability as a code delivery method, so it's cellphone or nothing. (Another thought: they don't offer to email the code either, do they? All my other routine logins for utility bills and such offer me a full range of authentication options: cellphone text, email or phone call, but not eBay.)

[maxine*j]

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@itsjustasprain wrote:

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At the risk of piling on... if you are already operating a computer and taking digital photos and uploading them for selling on-line and shipping on-line... why is getting a basic cellphone such a hardship? There is way more money being expended already on all those other steps -- cost of the computer - digital camera for photographing - business expenses for packaging & gas for car - monthly fees for Internet - ect. Adding a minimal cellphone for texts seems like a very small part of the much larger process that the seller already has in place. Most of that process involves way more costs than what the cellphone adds - plus these days having a phone on you at all times can add a big safety factor for you.

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Well, as I said, I find the cost of a basic cell phone quite modest and have had one for several years, because the world expects it.

As for selling:  Because of my limited and failing vision, and my limited mobility, someone else did all the photography, listing, and shipping for me for the last several years before I stopped actively selling about six months ago.  In other words, I provided inventory and knowledge about the inventory, and he did all the rest.  It was a profitable arrangement for us both.

I come from the old Unix world, where security is uppermost, so I won't use smart-phones, wi-fi, Microsoft or Apple operating systems or products, "loyalty" cards, or much else of what has become ordinary for most people.  I know that most people are fine with it, but all that stuff still gives me the security willies.

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[itsjustasprain]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Call me whatever you want, but do not have and do not want a cell phone.  Of course, I am not an eBay seller either.  Whenever anyone here speaks up and says what I just said, they are truly attacked.  Why? 

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I thought my reply was pretty clear that I was talking about what is needed for SELLING on Ebay. I was not attacking you.

[buyselljack2016]

And there it is in the last paragraph. Authentication from a myriad of other places without the cell requirement.

And back to the last line of the 1st paragraph. I still am unable to grasp how that proves that it is "me" accessing that account 😂

[maxine*j]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Call me whatever you want, but do not have and do not want a cell phone.  Of course, I am not an eBay seller either.  Whenever anyone here speaks up and says what I just said, they are truly attacked.  Why? 

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I think a lot of people assume that the decision is based on ignorance or fear when, in fact, you simply thought it through and reached the perfectly rational decision to not own a cell-phone, for reasons that make sense in your own circumstances.   

And there are many people like me who, for various reasons, are minimalists when it comes to owning a cell-phone. 

I do think, too, that many people are so totally urbanized that they cannot remember that there are still plenty of areas in this vast country that do not have cell-phone reception at all, or where the reception is spotty and unreliable at best.

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[a_c_green]

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@maxine*j wrote:

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@soh.maryl wrote:

Call me whatever you want, but do not have and do not want a cell phone.  Of course, I am not an eBay seller either.  Whenever anyone here speaks up and says what I just said, they are truly attacked.  Why? 

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I think a lot of people assume that the decision is based on ignorance or fear when, in fact, you simply thought it through and reached the perfectly rational decision to not own a cell-phone, for reasons that make sense in your own circumstances.   

And there are many people like me who, for various reasons, are minimalists when it comes to owning a cell-phone.

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It might not seem that way from my past writings, but I came around to a similar endpoint after a career in tech and (in particular) a participant in early smartphone development. Way back in the early 1990s, we had phones in cars, but portables were analog bricks and not a lot of people used them. I was one of the first in a long-term trial of the very first digital portable phones, in a Chicago test area, and walked around for 18 months with what you might consider a basic flip-phone nowadays, but which back then was a bleeding-edge technological marvel.

So, that was fine, but after we turned in our test phones, I went back to my bolted-in-place car phone because it was all I needed, and that remained as my only mobile number until the carrier finally killed off analog service back in... I dunno, 2012 or so, maybe, long after the rest of the world was using  smartphones. (My rationale back then was that if I needed to make a call and was not either at home or in my car, I could always borrow someone else's phone, because by 2012 everyone else had one.) At that point I finally moved my number to a real, modern smartphone at last, and have been using one ever since. (I use mine until they wear out or die, so I generally get around 4-5 years out of each one.)

I don't marvel at how advanced it is (although yeah, it is), but just treat it as something that is now a basic requirement for me because of what I need to get done each day. As they say, Your Mileage May Vary.

[a_c_green]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

And there it is in the last paragraph. Authentication from a myriad of other places without the cell requirement.

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Ayup. I don't disagree that eBay is shortsighted and/or cheap when it comes to not offering alternative verification methods that are in common use elsewhere, but we can only deal with the options we have and not the ones we would like to have.

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

And back to the last line of the 1st paragraph. I still am unable to grasp how that proves that it is "me" accessing that account 😂

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Someone who's phished your login credentials somehow (e.g. luring you to a fake login page or planting a keylogger virus on your machine) would still not have gained access to the phone in your pocket. Thus when there is a login attempt made to access your eBay account, eBay sends a code to your phone, and you return that code during the login to show that it's you.

Anyone else in the world with your stolen login credentials would still not be able to see what was sent to your phone.

[maxine*j]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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...  just treat it as something that is now a basic requirement for me because of what I need to get done each day ...

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And that's the key:  The phone technology one needs depends upon what one needs to get done each day.  For some, that means the most advanced smart-phone on the market.  For others, it means a flip-phone.  For some, it means a landline.  For many, it means some combination of those.  (In my case, a landline and a flip-phone).   Happily, we live in a world where our choices are so great that we can get just what we need.

I think soh-maryl's legitimate point is that most of us know our own needs quite well and do our best to meet them appropriately (in this case, vis-à-vis technology), and others should keep that in mind when commenting on our choices. 

[ittybitnot]

Aside from that, I would agree that having at least a basic flip-phone to make calls and receive texts is a basic requirement these days. 

@a_c_green 

I have a cell phone.  I just live in an area with NO CELL service.  It does not matter if my phone cost $1000 or $10....THERE IS NO SIGNAL.    The nearest signal is 1/4 mile away on a good day, heaven forbid eBay needs that two step verification in the middle of the night.  

Once in a while I do get a "text".  The fact that the said text was sent last week seems to be lost on those who don't live in RURAL AMERICA. 

I have to have a verification code from Mercari to send my money to myself.  At least they will send me the code via a freaking email.  No, on eBay any old phone will do even if it belongs to someone else?  

Oh, please. 

[maxine*j]

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I have a cell phone.  I just live in an area with NO CELL service.  It does not matter if my phone cost $1000 or $10....THERE IS NO SIGNAL.    The nearest signal is 1/4 mile away on a good day, heaven forbid eBay needs that two step verification in the middle of the night.  

Once in a while I do get a "text".  The fact that the said text was sent last week seems to be lost on those who don't live in RURAL AMERICA....

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Heck, huge swaths of rural Pennsylvania not only have no cell-phone reception, they also do not have broadband internet connection.

The uber-urbanized just do not know life in the hinterlands.  Or, if they do know, they cannot fathom why anyone would choose it. 

👩‍🌾

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[soh.maryl]

No, YOU were not attacking me, nor was my reply intended for you, so please accept my apology.

However, there were several people who came pretty darn close to a personal attack.

My son and I often joke that, if we live long enough, the only people left on earth without a cell phone will be him, me and some tribe deep in the jungles of Africa who haven't been discovered yet.  

[anasazirose]

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@onefootflipper wrote:

Everyone is going to assume everyone else has the ability to receive a text message these days. Those that only have a landline are an incredibly tiny minority that also don't tend to use the internet either.

I suggest getting rid of the landline. I am 45 years old and have never had a landline as an adult. Any reason why you think you still need one will probably fall apart upon actually examining that reason. 

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Hi kiddo.😁😂.  Old lady here.  From back when we only had to dial 4 numbers if we were calling within the same exchange (that's the set of 3 numbers after the area code).

Landlines that come through a phone line (not wifi or cable service) that are not cordless (those require an electrical outlet) work when the power is out, they work when the cell towers are down, they work when cable tv is out, they work when wifi doesn't. 

We had a land line until we rolled our phone service into the internet and tv bundle.  The technician cut the phone line (without reason - except that now if we want to go back, we have to pay for the phone line to reattached). 

My friend is 63 and he has never had a cell phone, nor does he have (or want) a computer, nor does he use internet. 

[anasazirose]

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@hartungcards wrote:

Uh.....aren't you paying for your land line?  Reapply those funds to a cell phone, and you can still buy groceries.  And by the way, owning a cell phone does not require you to be on Twitter or to spend any more time on it than you would on your antique landline.  And if you're worried about your cell phone violating your privacy, you probably shouldn't be on the internet either.

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My mom's landline, with no bells or whistles, no call block, caller ID, call forwarding, voice mail, etc. is $20-25 a month.  Is there even a cell plan for that price?  PLUS because she has no wifi or internet, she needs the landline for her security system. 

[anasazirose]

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@hartungcards wrote:

Boy, you and a lot of others are really gonna be mad when you're forced to get an electric car.

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An electric car that uses a coal fired plant to produce electricity.  LOL, I've even seen an electric charging station that ran on a huge diesel generator.  Oh well, good thing we still have the horses and wagon...