Changing your EBAY name, address, account details. Safe? What address to give EBAY?

[Jonas]

Funny. eBay mails some certificates if you become power seller with all this praise.

If someone's address is ⊗⊗⊗⊗ then either it comes back or more likely some random person gets the power seller stuff.

[aspkin]

Yep, that's why I try to keep the address real by listing an address a street or two away.

[ihatebay]

why would you want a ebay certificate? as much as I depend on Ebay I hate them so much hehe XD I dont' want to even think about Ebay if I don't have to

[member423]

Hi, I know that once your account is suspended, you would want to create a new account with a different physical address. However, there are some people that don't have any relatives or friends so they can't use their addresses on a new account. But I guess you can open a PO Box with the post office and use that PO Box as your shipping address (you have to pay additional fee for the PO Box though). Now, my question is, if I modify few letters on my current suspended physical addess, will that be able to fool ebay that I live on a completely different location and not get linked with the suspended address ? For example, my suspended address is "12345 Washington St." and I re-register with "12345" Washington Avenue." or even add an apartment number to the end "12345 Washington St. Apt. # A", will I be able to fool ebay into a new address ? or I may still be linked to the suspended account ? thank you for your input.

[ifreewillie]

Hmmm, I think the Apt #A is a great idea, and don't think ebay will catch that. Since it goes directly to your house, and since there aren't different apts, the mailman should just put it in your mailbox without hesitation. And ebay can't possibly know if that address is a multi-complex residence or not. So I like the Apt. #A idea, better than changing St. to Ave.

Maybe Aspkin or Modee have some input on this.

[aspkin]

Member423 that'll work. As with the guide, changing the street address even a little bit will work.

[whome]

Anyone know if there's any danger in changing a pay to email address for a specific ebay account from one paypal account to another paypal account?

[ifreewillie]

ehh... can you reword your question? I didn't get that.

[whome]

Originally Posted by ifreewillie

ehh... can you reword your question? I didn't get that.

Ohhhhkay. Have new (3 weeks old) ebay account currently having payments sent to Paypal account A using "send payment to" email address of AAA@AAA.com. Want to change it by having payments sent to Paypal account B using "send payment to" email address of BBB@BBB.com.

Basically, does paypal keep track of/care if a specific ebay account pays to more than one paypal account over the life of the ebay account?

[plight]

They Shouldn't. I don't see any problem with this.

[koalawash]

Hey first off I want to say thanks to the admin for starting the guide and putting up the forums.. I've really learned a lot in a short amount of time here. Anyway the coast seems clear except for some loose ends I still need to tie up. Some of them I forget, but I'll post them when I remember. :o

Well here's my question for now. Wouldn't having the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ address on file with eBay mess things up as far as people shipping items to you, and also with your customers trying to send money order payments (in the rare cases it comes to that)? Like it would just get to the point where you have to tell your buyer/seller "hey ignore this address eBay has on file, I gave it to them as a ⊗⊗⊗⊗!" It's probably not that big a deal, but with all the jerks and snitch eBayers out there I guess I'm just being paranoid. I don't know.

This especially concerns me now, as I heard that eBay just recently changed their policy to be even more gestapo-ish and now they even snoop through the contents of private messages that users send other users. Geez this seems like walking on eggshells sometimes!

[plight]

Mostly buyers don't mind sending the money order where you tell them because ebay does not give any buyer protection for this form of payment anyway. So, anyone sending a money order should already know there's more risk, so most don't care if you give them a different address.

[aspkin]

This is true. Having a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ address on your account can cause problems if doing money orders or buying items. An option that can solve this would be a P.O. Box. Most members go this route once there new eBay account is established and going strong.

Originally Posted by koalawash

Hey first off I want to say thanks to the admin for starting the guide and putting up the forums.. I've really learned a lot in a short amount of time here. Anyway the coast seems clear except for some loose ends I still need to tie up. Some of them I forget, but I'll post them when I remember. :o

Well here's my question for now. Wouldn't having the ⊗⊗⊗⊗ address on file with eBay mess things up as far as people shipping items to you, and also with your customers trying to send money order payments (in the rare cases it comes to that)? Like it would just get to the point where you have to tell your buyer/seller "hey ignore this address eBay has on file, I gave it to them as a ⊗⊗⊗⊗!" It's probably not that big a deal, but with all the jerks and snitch eBayers out there I guess I'm just being paranoid. I don't know.

This especially concerns me now, as I heard that eBay just recently changed their policy to be even more gestapo-ish and now they even snoop through the contents of private messages that users send other users. Geez this seems like walking on eggshells sometimes!

[koalawash]

Originally Posted by aspkin

This is true. Having a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ address on your account can cause problems if doing money orders or buying items. An option that can solve this would be a P.O. Box. Most members go this route once there new eBay account is established and going strong.

So I take it that PO boxes (I have one w/ the UPS store) normally don't care if your mailbox receives packages under a totally different name?

[aspkin]

Originally Posted by koalawash

So I take it that PO boxes (I have one w/ the UPS store) normally don't care if your mailbox receives packages under a totally different name?

That's probably something you need to ask your friendly UPS lady.

[koalawash]

Originally Posted by aspkin

That's probably something you need to ask your friendly UPS lady.

Okay, I will

..but just out of curiousity has anyone gotten away with doing this with any kind of PO box before?

[Jonas]

The problem is, though, that even with PO Boxes you'll have a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ name and it'll be hard to deposit the money orders. Even if you try to sign it over to someone else, if you do that constantly the bank could get suspicious. What then?

[koalawash]

Originally Posted by Jonas

The problem is, though, that even with PO Boxes you'll have a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ name and it'll be hard to deposit the money orders. Even if you try to sign it over to someone else, if you do that constantly the bank could get suspicious. What then?

I was specifically talking about buying items when I said that, but yeah you have a point.. With money orders I would just tell the customer myself who to make it out to (my real name) I guess?

[aspkin]

You shouldn't have a problem with this. Just remeber not to link your Paypal and eBay account, and you'll be okay.

[Jack]

If you plan to link a paypal account to ebay, can you go into your paypal and change the address before linking (the idea being that former address is from a former suspended ebay user) and be ok after you set up the link? Or does Paypal keep all the data forever no matter how many changes you make?

And since it never was answered, I'll ask again...does anyone know if removing your paypal email from a linked account will save you from that account becoming suspended/limited if that ebay account ever had any problems. OR...once again Paypal keeps all this information forever and the simple act of removing information or email addresses won't save you in the event of a problem?

[aspkin]

If you link your eBay and Paypal accounts together, then all information between accounts will be shared. If your Paypal account has been linked to a suspended eBay account in the past, and you link your new accounts… your eBay account will be suspended... If you're using a new Paypal account, never linked to an eBay account you should be okay to link with your new eBay account as long as your address and email addresses are not associated with a suspended account.

If you remove a suspended email address of your Paypal account, I haven't seen any evidence that Paypal retains this information and shares it later when linked to an eBay account. Then again, I never had to link accounts. Same thing with your address.

[DogFacedBoy]

This is exactly what I have been wondering!!!
Here is my situation:

1)setup EB and PP account using email "A"
2)get a couple of VeRO warnings
3)setup EB account using email "B" just in case
4)add "B" to PP
5)EB account "A" gets shut down for good
6)use EB account "B" for over a year and 100 transaction with 100% positive feedback.
7)List (is this what is meant by linking?) email "B" as payment address for PP
8)pay for many auctions using EB checkout with my "B" address at PP
9)my seller fees on acct "B" become overdue so I use the provided link to sign into PP to pay them...(here is the catch, I might have signed into PP with the old banned "A" address, therefore inadvertantly turning myself in...I am not sure)
10)immeadiately go back to EB to resume business to find out that "B" has been shut down for being associated to "A".
11)go back to PP and drain all but $30 with no problems.
12)remove email "A" from my PP account.

Okay, based on what you are saying can I add address "C" which has already been used to successfully open a new EB account, to PP and the remove "B" from PP and therefore any link to the old offending EB accounts?

If that is the case, then I am home free...just get a CC with number to start selling again on EB.

The only thing that I can think of is I might not want to remove "B" too quickly because it might raise some suspicions at PP.
If it makes any difference I have a verfied,premier PP account.

[Jack]

I've never had issues with Vero (knock on wood). I'm just concerned with whether you can modify your address on paypal and that the old information will be written over, not saved, by paypal. Once I know the answer to this, I'll be golden.

By linking, I mean to link your paypal account to your ebay account. Not just provide an email in your auction. There are some valid reasons for this, but not many, and several here will tell you not to. But it can be done, and for what I'm doing, it's a must.

[Jack]

Has anyone had any problems from ebay regarding changing your user id? Just found out one of my old usernames I thought was doomed has new life but I don't want to push it and I think a name change is in order. But only if it's safe.

[DogFacedBoy]

I got banned the last time within 30 days of changing my ID, but did so immeadiately after entering my login info into a spoof page that popped up. Couldn't figure out why I was being asked to login again so soon and went to hit the back button and none of those bars, url window, etc were there so I knew it was some sort of pop up spyware.
I don't think that it had anything to do with me getting banned though, I think that happened because I sent a fee payment through a previously banned acct's email that was still active on PP.

[aaa1]

Originally Posted by Jack

Has anyone had any problems from ebay regarding changing your user id? Just found out one of my old usernames I thought was doomed has new life but I don't want to push it and I think a name change is in order. But only if it's safe.

i changed my name to one that had nothing to do with my old one and I immediately got slammed! no idea why...

[DogFacedBoy]

I think whether it be with ebay or users, there is a presumption of something clandestine when changing the user ID, which is why they make that fact known for 30 days.

[Jack]

As usual, ebay assumes everyone's guilty before proven innocent. What if you just woke up one day and decided you didn't like your user name anymore or that it doesn't give an accurate description of what you were selling? Oh no, they don't think of that

Well, as long as it doesn't result in a suspension I could give two rats what ebay thinks. I'm not planning on using this id for a good bit yet anyway.

[Jack]

So are you saying the name change likely had nothing to do with it or do you think it had a hand?

[Jack]

Bad day Modee? I missed that last part. Sue me.

Speaking of...whatever happened with the google checkout chargeback? Did they come for the money or pull a paypal and do nothing?

[Jack2007]

hi,

May I ask if is it safe to change the registered name on file with ebay? I made a typo when signing up.

thank you

[tcho]

Originally Posted by Modee

On my first account, opening in early 2000, closed last year with 500 + feedback all positive, I did the following in the weeks before suspension:

1 - change my user ID
2 - jumped my volume from about $500. per week to almost $3000. per day
3 - started listing goods of a category I had not usually sold before. I had sold some, but not so much.

I think the combination of these things led to my suspension, but bottom line they suspended me because they deemed me a "high risk" account whatever that means, not because of anything I actually did.

Just out of curiosity, how would you feel about buying from a seller who's made 500 feedback or so out of trinkets or some low priced items, and then suddenly jumped to selling ipods and plasma tvs?

From reading your description of suspension I thought you'd be suspended for high risk or account take over, since it's very suspicious activity. A high risk suspension isn't hard to get back from -- just prove you have or have access to the bloody items you're selling. ebay isn't out to get you, they want to make money from you, but they also don't want to lose money paying out buyers who've gotten scammed from some guy who built up his feedback selling crap and is now selling really high priced items.

[Jack]

Sounds well and good on paper but not in practice. What does ebay always suggest? Start slow, build up your feedback, learn the ropes, sell "trinkets" and work up to the high dollar items later. I know if I just found a honey of a deal on something and had no practical use for it, I'd be looking to sell it off and we all know the "it" place for that is good 'ol ebay. For ebay to turn a blind eye to that philosophy--not to mention their "other" longterm policy about non-interference--is nothing short of hypocritical. As for returning from a high risk suspension easily...well, there are those on this forum and others who would greatly disagree with that statement, and many stories documented to prove it.

[tcho]

Jack, believe me but there's a big difference from selling keychains to suddenly jumping and selling multiple plasma TVs, then someone who establishes their account selling a few plasma TVs at a time and gradually ramps up their sales. The latter version is expected with a successful business, the former is most probably fraud.

There's also a difference between finding a killer deal on a TV somewhere or getting an ipod as a present and selling that on eBay, than suddenly selling 20 identical TVs using stock information and no pickup allowed. Get where I'm coming from here?

Bottom line is, ebay is out to protect members. If there's something fishy going on, or there's an unacceptable fraud risk to the community, yeah ebay is going to take them out pending some confirmation that the 20 plasma TVs they're selling do exist and can be provided by the seller. Would you honestly expect any less?

[tcho]

Originally Posted by Modee

Stick around and you will understand how ludicrous your statement is.

Matter of fact, if you feel that way, why are you here on this site? Just reactivate your old EBAY account.

Modee, I haven't gotten my ebay account suspended, I'm here as an ebay employee (not in any official way) who's pretty amused by this whole forum.

I also didn't mean to accuse you personally of fraud. I just want to explain that sometimes we have to take measures to protect the site. I've personally suspended numerous accounts, and then reinstated them back when they've shown me that they are in a position to provide the merchandise they're selling. It's not hard to get back if you want to. Most of the time I've found that members just think it's a "god given right" (actual quote from a member) to sell on ebay, and get pissy when we do what we have to to protect other buyers and sellers. If a member refuses to resolve their suspension (because they think they're right) and creates a new account, well now they've just violated a whole other policy, and all their accounts are getting shut down.

[tcho]

Also, I wanted to say, if you were selling for that long with such high monthly sales two things don't add up:

1) You would most probably have an account manager -- someone who basically works for you and would help you get back on.
2) You would never, ever get suspended for as you say "high risk". I'm very familiar with "high risk" accounts, and from your definition you wouldn't be the furthest thing away. What would most probably happen if you were selling 100k+ of goods for some time and your account caught our attention is your account would be limited from selling pending confirmation of goods. There's no way in hell you'd be suspended for high risk if your account was already an established account.

[tcho]

Originally Posted by Modee

In my situation, once suspended, the issue has become - "getting linked with a suspended account." At this point I doubt anyone at EBAY knows or cares why my first account was suspended.

It's just a game, where if they find I am linked to an old account, I get suspended again. If they had half a brain, they might think - ****, he's created all these bogus accounts and yet he STILL hasn't ripped even one person off - maybe he just wants to sell and is legitimate?

I ship goods to people overseas who had paid me with bank wire even after being suspended. If that doesn't make a statement, I don't know what does.

I had several dozen people email the top people at T&S and a couple of them even wrote to me to acknowledge receipt of the emails of support from my buyers, but to now avail.

I'm just saying - the way EBAY works is like an automaton. Once suspended the chances of being reinstated are about zero. I think you must not work in Trust and Safety because reinstatements are very hard to come by when there is no actual offense - just guilty of "didn't like his looks." How does one PROVE that he will not defraud someone, other than through one's track record?

BTW are you with EBAY U.S. or EBAY U.K.?

I do work in TnS. I don't touch the GS side of things as, well, telling people how to leave feedback a hundred times a day is dumb I'd rather not go into any more specifics about where in ebay I work because I'd get in big trouble from my superiors for posting on a forum as an employee -- it's happened before to others!

Anyways, I'll be honest with you about the other accounts thing. If you're caught using or creating a new account after you're suspended with one, you're right, we don't care why you were suspended originally. I'm assuming from your difficulties getting back on you're on the UK site, as it sounds like the new previously suspended guidelines, where you're suspended for 12 months on all accounts, no questions asked.

Here's how it works. You have accounts A, B and C. You're suspended on A. You say whatever and continue to use B or C (maybe even just for buying, it doesn't matter). All three accounts go down for a minimum of 12 months, no questions asked. And the only way you'll get them back after 12 months is if you've resolved the original suspension on A. Same thing applies if you create B or C after A was suspended.

Perhaps people have issues with that, but frankly, we don't care. Maybe some people are suspended unfairly, but we give you a fair chance to resolve your account. You're expressly warned from using or creating new accounts when your account is suspended. If someone (as is very commonly the case) decides not to pay their bill and creates a new account after they're suspended for non payment, then yeah we don't give a **** about them anymore. You violate our policies once and get suspended. Then you do it again by trying to get around the suspension. We don't want you on the site anymore, as simple as that.

Again, this isn't a personal attack on you as I don't know your circumstances, but a general outlook

[Jack]

tcho--I'm curious to get your input on this...what about accounts that have been previously suspended just for nonpayment? Will they be reinstated immediately once payment is made, or once they're suspended are they likely gone for good? There's been some discussion on this point and I'd just like to get your .02 on whether it's true or not.

[tcho]

Jack, a non payment suspension and reinstatement (except for very special, extreme cases) are automatic. If it's your only account and you were suspended and you pay it back, your account will be automatically reinstated (after payment processes and such).

It's a whole other story if you are caught using other accounts after your account was suspended, as I explained in my earlier post.

[tcho]

lol Modee. For someone who sells on ebay so much you seem to have a pretty bad/low understanding of what TnS does. TnS is arguably one of the most important departments in ebay, especially right now.

You question why TnS would take out big/high volume accounts, or why we care about previous suspended users (PSUs). It's as simple as this: We don't care how much you sell or how much money you make. Bad sellers create way more problems and cost us way more money than they bring in. There was a figure that Meg Whitman gave at ebay live, and I don't remember it exactly, but it was something along the lines of 5% of bad sellers create 80% of the problems with buyers. (those aren't the exact numbers, but it's something along those lines.)

Also, and I have to say it again, we don't care how much you've sold previously if you're breaking our rules. So you're telling me that you keep creating new accounts every 3 - 6 months. That's great, you're giving me a job. But believe it or not, your average ebay employee actually cares about trying to keep ebay safe and clean (as long as we get paid too!). If you're constantly violating the policies, it's almost a personal attack on us, and yeah we'll take you down.

Think about it this way: It probably takes us less than 5 - 10 minutes to suspend your account. How much time does it take you to create a new one and resume your activities and rebuild feedback? Why didn't you resolve your original suspension to begin with, without creating a new account? When we suspend members, we almost hope that they _can_ provide whatever it is we need to reinstate them, especially with big volume sellers, because it means more money in our own pockets (stock options). We want to work with members to get back on. But we'll only go as far to help you as you want. If you refuse to cooperate or just spout crap like it's your right to sell, well go to hell If you're genuinely trying to get your account back and aren't violating other policies (PSU), then we'll give you as much information as possible to get back on.

You say it's very hard to get a reinstatement on ebay. It's as hard as you make it. As with any customer service, if you call your mobile provider yelling and screaming at the CSR about a bill error, they probably won't go out of their way to help you. But if you're calm and polite and help them understand the problem, they'll probably do what they can to help.