Closed my eBay account because they put my payouts on hold for more information.

[srailfonaidraug]

Been buying and selling on there since 2009, 100% positive feedback, top-rated seller etc.

Last night a buyer bid, won and paid £65 + postage for the set of guitar pickups I had listed. I get the "you got paid" email and 10 minutes later, another email stating:

You need to update some details on your account. You may have received this email for a variety of reasons. For example, you may have started to sell more than before or enrolled in a new service.
You won’t receive payouts or be able to use some eBay services until you verify your account information. We understand that this is frustrating, but this process helps us keep our marketplace safe. We appreciate your cooperation.
Please make sure you update your account info by 03 Jul, 2024 to release your held payments and avoid further restriction. Once you’ve made the requested updates, we’ll verify your info, and you’ll be good to go.
Thanks for being part of the eBay community.

Fair enough I thought, sounds a bit like coercion by fake security scaremongering but I'll play, and clicked on the "Update account info" link. This took me to a page requesting my full name as it appears on official government documentation, my date of birth and a choice of either my passport, driver's licence or some other official government ID complete with photograph.

This is that online junk shop eBay remember, not my bank - which incidentally has never asked for any such thing. I mean who do those bottom-feeding, parasitic, money for other people's mould and mildew merchants think they are?

Nope. Account closure initiated, app deleted and good riddance.

Thanks for your input.

I care even less about the cherry-picked "regulations" of a failed government trying to con the public into believing it's getting tough on crime, money laundering and tax evasion - after it has decimated numbers of police officers while turning a blind eye to those whose interests they serve engaging in all manner of tax evasion while organised international criminals make millions while laundering their ill-gotten gains in high-end properties in London and elsewhere - than I do about some jumped-up parasitic online flea market's compliance in the whole circus side-show.

And I care even less than that about the opinions of some triggered internet random who clearly lacks the adequacy to care about/speak out against the state of things themselves and doesn't think anyone else should have the right to either, be that due to a vested interest in the organisation/s involved or just sheer, plain ignorance.

But yeah, other than that, thanks.

What a ridiculous over reaction

EBay are just doing the checks that the government require them to do for anyone selling on Ebay

Not on top of the extortionate fees it isn't.

I couldn't care less. Get that through your head.

I'm finding eBay and PayPal more and more irritating recently.

Interesting thread.

When I had my bricks and mortar shop (which I closed at the beginning of the year) I also had an eBay business account, all set up legit etc. This was about 3? 4? Years ago?

Anyway, it wasn't going great as I wasn't in a position to pay for promotions etc, but as I'd done ok as a private seller in the late 90s / early 200ps I thought I'd just persist as obviously an online platform seemed to be essential.

And then we had the joy of switching to "managed payments" which required a whole load of form filling. Except because Ebay is primarily a US platform it didn't understand UK business partnerships. I and my late DP were partners in the business and it was not a limited company. (Don't go there - yes, I know hindsight is a wonderful thing). Spent hours going round in circles trying to explain we didn't have directors, then trying to put ourselves as directors to be told business owners can't be directors.

I actually ended up having two phone calls with some baffled chap in Utah and getting nowhere. When a third call was scheduled I threw in the towel and stopped selling as until it was all sorted and verified I would not have been able to trade or access any money.

Small businesses are dependent on somewhat consistent cash flow and sudden bureaucratic hurdles can throw a real spanner in the works.

So I hear you and feel your pain OP.

Be entrepreneurial, be self-sufficient, make your own money, hustle till you drop they advise and you too can reap untold rewards - if you can prise that money out of the organisations that handle it that is.

As for Etsy - don't get me started on trying to set up an account with them. And no I will not be touching Vinted with a barge pole.

Useful to get a (former) business seller’s perspective. Thanks for that and hope you find a way to make your business work.

OP I think you have a lot of issues to work on

Ebay haven't asked for any more information than my bank has ever asked for

It's law. Once you have reached a set limit (off top of head, it might be £800) this has to be done for money laundering protection purposes. Ebay have to do it. It's fairly recent legislation, so you might have only just reached the limit.

I run two sports clubs, and when we reach the limit for takings we have had to do this.

Nothing to do with HMRC. Just money laundering prevention (and yes, it is / was a BIG problem on selling sites)

This is a good guide as to why it is important to prevent money laundering.

Again, this isn't Ebay's doing, or anything to do with HMRC or taxation.

https://www.flagright.com/post/understanding-the-uks-money-laundering-and-terrorist-financing-regulations

You’ve been wrong in your assumptions twice before in this thread so, indeed, why not make it a hat trick eh?

Ludicrous to suggest the online flea market that is eBay ought to be able to demand the same ID from private sellers as a bank does from private customers.

You’ve also previously mentioned having to provide similar ID to online gambling site/s. Since I never engage with such businesses, that’ll be one issue I personally don’t have to work on.

@srailfonaidraug

"Ludicrous to suggest the online flea market that is eBay ought to be able to demand the same ID from private sellers as a bank does from private customers."

Are you ignoring every single poster who has pointed out that Ebay aren't choosing to do this, they have to do it to comply with money laundering legislation.

Soooo… the proceeds from people selling their old tat isn’t ending up in supermarket tills or energy company bank accounts or going on newer tat after all, but funding terrorism…

Who knew?

Yet again, no. Are you ignoring the fact I’ve been calling out this feeble legislation throughout the thread?

Closing the eBay account appears to be the only thing I can do to reject compliance with the low-hanging fruit-picking of a failed, corrupt, basket-case state.

Given the increasingly parasitic nature of eBay itself, in addition to this latest bureaucratic sham ,it really isn’t a difficult choice to make.

It's a fact that selling sites have been used for money laundering. It's a fact that money laundering is a problem in the UK.

If you're too ignorant to get your head round this then I would go back to storing your money under your bed.

FFS

They are handling money

You can call it a flea market all you want but they still handle MILLIONS of pounds

They have to ask for documentation

Save the immature false-equivalences for your next motivational pep talk.

This token gesture for which ordinary people are expected to pick up the tab (as per) isn’t going to do anything to combat money-laundering.

If you can’t get your head around that then I suggest you change your reading material.

You're the one throwing your toys, and money, out of your pram and being rude to people pointing out the reason for eBay doing this. ANY company that provides a service which takes your money for you (including the small card machines like Sumup) has to comply with the legislation. It happened to the kids sport clubs I run. I sent them a photo of my driving license and it was all sorted, very easily.

The millions of eBay accounts make the total irrelevant…and I’m pretty sure money launderers won’t have a problem faking IDs on new accounts anyway.

What are the actual security benefits of making longstanding existing accounts jump through stupid ID hoops?

A better question would be how effectively will it con people into believing the government is effectively addressing issues it isn’t?

I thought their thresholds were fairly high ?

How much do you actually sell in items per month and total value ?

There's no point

You're going to insist you're right no matter what

Enjoy sitting on your assumed moral high ground and losing out on whatever money you did make

You keep saying you don't care, but you clearly do as you've created a thread about it.

It's AML regs, like it or not they are becoming stricter and it's not just Ebay, other platforms too. On Vinted for example, you now have to provide ID after selling a certain amount.

Don't like it, don't sell on there.

This is perfectly normal. I had to do eBay years ago, then again when they started on managed payments. And I've had the same thing on vinted. It's something to do with money laundering. Ebay usually take less than 24 hours, so it probably would have all been sorted by now.

eBay, Paypal, etc. grandfathered in their long-term users and are slowly catching up with applying to them the money laundering and tax regulations that now apply to all online transactions. New users get asked for this when they sign up, existing users have to update when either eBay/Paypal get around to it or you jump to the top of the pile after making a new transaction. It's the same as the other thread about the Vinted user unable to access funds in their payment provider account.

It's nothing to get worked up about. It'll catch up withe every user eventually.

It’s all upthread.

Ok.