Sellers Report eBay Billing Glitches, Possibly Related to T&S

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
May 25, 2007

Sellers are reporting problems with eBay's billing system. In an online discussion-board thread called, "Ebay Balance is WAY OFF, YESTERDAY I OWE $200, TODAY $970.00 ????," some sellers report that their account balances are showing mistakes, with some balances showing much higher than the seller actually owes.

Sellers say customer support is telling them it is an intermittent glitch not affecting all sellers, and that sellers are not actually being billed the incorrect amounts. Some sellers say they are upset that eBay's customer service representatives are recommending they give eBay their credit card information to fix the problem (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000370350).

Some say they are being told that eBay has instituting a new policy to fight fraud: sellers must either have a credit card on file, or a balance of $25 or less on their account.

According to one seller, a customer service representative told her eBay made no announcement about this "because we didn't want to alert the fraudsters, we wanted to be able to catch them," and that eBay will start requiring a credit card on file in order to sell on the site.

On another industry discussion board, a seller said that an eBay representative wrote in a Live Chat session, "EBay has recently lowered the limits that you can have on your account balance without making a payment or setting your account up for automatic payments." (http://www.vendio.com/mesg/read.html?num=2&thread=661025)

After an inquiry to eBay on Thursday, an eBay spokesperson told AuctionBytes she would look into the matter - we will update this article when more information is available.

Meanwhile, eBay announced on Thursday it is making changes to its seller invoices. The company said it will begin emailing only a text summary of invoice information to sellers, including the amount due and payment method on file. To see full invoice details, sellers will need to log in to their eBay account. eBay said the change is to help teach sellers to log in to their accounts from a safe URL to help them avoid malicious links and buttons in spoof emails.

In addition, eBay said sellers will now be able to download invoices into an easy-to-view, non-editable, HTML file. Sellers can also download invoice transaction-level details in to a CSV file. eBay is adding additional reports, such as new subtotals by fee or item, to help track fees (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200705241509192.html)



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Glitch? or "creative fundraising"?

when I read things like this:

According to one seller, a customer service representative told her eBay made no announcement about this "because we didn't want to alert the fraudsters, we wanted to be able to catch them," and that eBay will start requiring a credit card on file in order to sell on the site.

That, to me, sounds just like what a con-man might say...

I pity the fool who gives bank account or credit card number to that outfit...
(under that pretext)



-- Edited by budnonymous at 06:30, 2007-05-26