posted on May 17, 2006 03:24:47 PM new
A customer from Germany bid on an auction last night our time. thats fine. i was checking to see what they like to buy, and i came across this user name. I thought they were not legal on ebay.? www.ramlow-online.de That is their user name.
posted on May 17, 2006 04:14:23 PM new
If you are asking if they can use a Web site as their user name - yes, if they were in place using that name before (some date) in 2001. Any before that date were grandfathered-in and allowed to continue.
Since we can't take a look at them through the usual way of searching for a bidder because they are in Germany (I think) - you'll have to determine when they began using that name.
posted on May 18, 2006 08:31:02 AM new
For the USA site, the answer is NO. All id's were to change or be changed. If you find any USA registered id's that are using a website or e-mail address or anything that implies either, you can turn them into ebay and they will force them to change it. The grandfather period has come & gone.
However, I do not know about Ebay Germany. The rules might be different there.
posted on May 18, 2006 09:41:47 AM new
First off, you can certainly check any user worldwide from the US site, regardless of where they are registered, and find previous IDs, etc. You don't have to be on the Germany site to check a German user. After all, each eBay ID HAS to be different from any other (you can't have two eBay users with the same ID in other words -- regardless of where they live).
Secondly, unless I'm mistaken, there are still some US .com user IDs out there. I just happened to see one -- registered in 1998. A power seller too. I believe that the mandatory change was for email addresses used as IDs which is how we all started out, if I remember.
If it's a grandfather clause, it remains, and does not expire unless the affected party makes a change in which case it would become null and void.
posted on May 18, 2006 09:58:45 AM new
A User ID is the unique name you use to identify yourself on eBay. For example, you might use your favorite collecting area, your business, or occupation.
If you're a teacher and like to collect toys, your User ID might be:
school_teacher_trains
teddybear4kids
EducationToys2000
Tip: Because spaces are not allowed, use a hyphen to represent a space in your User ID.
Remember that User IDs:
May contain letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and/or some symbols.
Must be at least two characters long.
Can't contain spaces.
Can't be obscene, profane, or violate eBay's guidelines.
Can't be an email address or Web address.
Can't be the same as another sellers' eBay Store name.
posted on May 18, 2006 10:06:34 AM new
Dear Stone:
Not to be argumentative, but I just did a search on bidder IDs using a wildcard, ie. *.com. (( didn't know you could use wildcards here, so that was something I learned today!) I got three US users, one French user. All have been registered longer than 5 years and 4 months. You try it.
posted on May 18, 2006 01:22:08 PM new
You can still use a .com in your User ID if you had it registered before the middle of 2001. If you registered near the end of 2001 (like us), you have to change it if someone reports you (like they did me).
eBay gives the reported user 24 hours to make the change or they will change it for them to something like member2142453.
And, for birgittaw, I stand corrected. I was able to locate info about them from th "Community" page. Since they are a German member, you can't view their history of purchases that you can find on a US-based user ID.
Based on what I saw about this user, they started using this ID in 2000 - before the requirement that restricted URL use.
Wayne
Never explain -- Your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
~ Elbert Hubbard
posted on May 18, 2006 02:03:46 PM new
About bidding history on non-US bidders -- I guess I never had occasion to pull up a German buyer's current and past bids. Apparently that's a country that has stringent privacy laws. Learned yet another thing today!
I generally always check my overseas buyers' bidding history, and knew I had done so for France, Norway, UK, and Greece within the last week or two, without going to ebay.fr etc. and had their completed list as well. Any other countries than Germany that won't pull up?
posted on May 18, 2006 03:38:24 PM new
I actually clicked onto the user name whilst on ebay. And it actually bought up all the persons f/b. Even though it is in Germany. I also put the username into the address bar. And it actually bought up his webpage which is also in Germany.
Thank you everyone for your imput. I did learn some things today, all very interesting.
I posted the policy. That doesn't mean ebay actually acts upon it on their own. It does require someone to turn them in. So if you feel a little bit on the devilish side, turn them in and see what happens.
posted on May 19, 2006 05:09:54 PM new
You posted part of the policy. There is no reason to report the user in question as they are in complete compliance with the rule.
November 30, 2001 is the actual cut off date.
"Information for members whose current User ID is – or represents -- an email address or URL: eBay is constantly working to provide a safer and easier trading experience for our members. As a result, we have decided to no longer allow User IDs that are an email address, a URL, or a ‘look alike’ for either. If you have a current eBay User ID registered after November 2001 (when eBay’s User ID policy was instituted) that is also an email address, a URL, or is a ‘look alike’ for either, you must change your User ID to comply with this policy. eBay may take a range of actions with regard to User IDs not in compliance, including suspension of the associated account."
posted on May 19, 2006 09:57:30 PM new
Most of us were here when Ebay implemented the rule to prohibit URL's and email addresses as usernames, and are well acquainted with the rule. The question is, has anyone found the same prohibition on the Ebay.de site? Probably not, and it's likely anyone registering on that site can do the same thing. Ebay has a different TOS for each of its international sites. The best example is charging a surcharge to buyers who pay with Paypal. The Brits can do it on Ebay.UK, but don't try it on the U.S. site. The host government of each of Ebay's international site, and their laws, plays a very large part in what Ebay can and cannot put in their TOS.
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
posted on May 20, 2006 12:01:34 AM newThe question is, has anyone found the same prohibition on the Ebay.de site? Probably not, and it's likely anyone registering on that site can do the same thing.
Again, without being argumentative, you cannot register on the Germany site with an e-mail or internet addess either. As per ebay.de:
"Für Mitgliedsnamen gilt:
....
* Der Name darf keine E-Mail- oder Internet-Adresse enthalten."
You may have noticed that no eBay names registered on foreign sites contain any alphabetical characters other than those between a-z -- ie. you cannot register with the name "Fürsparkz" but you can be "fursparkz" for example. Or why your Korean buyer has a printable user ID and not some odd characters.
In the case of charging a fee for PayPal credit card transactions, you're kinda mixing up eBay's policies and terms of use with local laws which would naturally supercede those eBay terms. The privacy laws mentioned above are another, selling certain prohibited items would fall into the same area.
Any site will mandate certain criteria (their own) for a user name -- ie length of name, must contain numeral etc. Seems to me that's the same thing.
As you know, British laws in fact gives sellers a legal right to pass onto the buyer the charges incurred for a credit or debit card transaction.
Some US states (at least California where eBay is based) prohibit merchants from assessing a fee for using credit cards. MC and Visa themselves specifically forbid a consumer fee levied for payment with their cards, be it credit or debit.
posted on May 20, 2006 12:31:24 PM new
"Ebay has a different TOS for each of its international sites. The best example is charging a surcharge to buyers who pay with Paypal. The Brits can do it on Ebay.UK.."
Not true. I hope you haven't been paying surcharges for using PP on eBay UK because it's 'illegal' there as well.
If they have their own merchant account it's a different story.
