Huge warning if you sell on eBay

I have been a seller on eBay for many years. Other than their ever-increasing fees, I’m been fairly satisfied with them. That is until now.

I know a lot of people in here sell on eBay, but I haven’t seen this mentioned. I’ve always managed my payments with eBay through PayPal. If you sell on eBay you’ve received notice, or will be receiving notice that you must now sign up for managed payments through eBay. This means that you can no longer receive payments through PayPal, but instead eBay will handle all your payments and deposit your proceeds directly into your checking account. You MUST have a checking account to sign up for managed payments.

I really didn’t like this idea, as my PayPal account kept all my eBay transactions separate, and I had control over when or if I want to transfer funds to my checking account. eBay is now taking that choice away from all of us.

When I looked into the managed payments further, it concerned me that they wanted my social security number and date of birth. That is very personal information, and I didn’t see a need for it, as I sell on another site and have never had to provide that information. So, I contacted eBay to get further information on this.

I tried to see if there was someway I could continue to sell on their platform without having to provide such personal information, and was told that I could not. I then asked them if they would be responsible for any loss resulting in any breach of such personal information that they hold. I’m sure most people feel that this would be automatic.

Following is a copy of the response that I received from eBay:

10:59:43 UTC Baylin

Section 15 of our user agree outlines out limitation of liability

10:59:50 UTC Baylin

agreement*

11:00:06 UTC willow

In a nutshell, what exactly is your liability?

11:01:21 UTC Baylin

we (including our parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates, and our and their officers, directors, agents and employees) are not liable, and you agree not to hold us responsible, for any damages or losses (including, but not limited to, loss of money, goodwill or reputation, profits, other intangible losses, or any special, indirect, or consequential damages) resulting directly or indirectly from: the content you provide (directly or indirectly) using our Services; your use of or your inability to use our Services; pricing, shipping, format, or other guidance provided by eBay; delays or disruptions in our Services; viruses or other malicious software obtained by accessing or linking to our Services; glitches, bugs, errors, or inaccuracies of any kind in our Services; damage to your hardware device from the use of any eBay Service; the content, actions, or inactions of third parties, including items listed using our Services or the destruction of allegedly fake items; a suspension or other action taken with respect to your account or breach of the Abusing eBay Section above; the duration or manner in which your listings appear in search results as set out in the Listing Conditions Section above; or your need to modify practices, content, or behavior, or your loss of or inability to do business, as a result of changes to this User Agreement or our policies.

11:03:19 UTC willow

I'm reading this quickly, but it seems that eBay is denying any responsibility at all if my account is hacked from giving you all this information?

11:04:16 UTC Baylin

Correct

Ebay will now be taking every sellers:

• Full name
• Address
• Social security number
• Date of birth
• Checking account information and access

And they hold no liability if that information is used illegally. Do you realize how many eBay employees are from other countries, and who can have access to that information? Do you know how easy it would be for someone to steal your identity with all that information in one place?

I have sold on eBay for many years, and I’m sure many of you have as well. Unfortunately, what I do make off of eBay sales is not sufficient to cover the enormous risk of loss that I could suffer for their site being hacked, or if one of their employees stole my information, or my identity.

Unfortunately, many people will not read the fine print, and will assume that eBay would take great care of such information, and that eBay would protect their sellers from fraud. This is exactly the opposite of what eBay intends to do.

Please take care of your information.

If someone here has alternate suggestions to eBay, I’d love to hear them.