Readdressing the address issue

by Sue Bailey

This post was written in February 2008; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Well, never has a post got out of date so quickly! No sooner had I pressed “post” on my previous entry than eBay UK made a new announcment about where sellers will have to display their addresses. A seller’s address will have to be displayed on at least one of the following:

  • On the view item page but the information must be in the Business Seller Information section
  • On the seller’s About Me page
  • On a Shop’s custom page that is no more than one click from their main Shop page.

Yet again, it’s emphasised that this must be a geographic address; PO Boxes are not sufficient.

This is a great testament to the power of complaining ;-) Hats off to eBay for listening to their members.

Tags for this post: , ,
Author: Sue Bailey
Posted at: Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Filed Under News
 

Comments

21 Responses to “Readdressing the address issue”

  1. Chris Dawson on February 4th, 2008 6:21 pm

    Woohoo!!! Superb news!

    Only question now is of course, just how will eBay police it. Would have been easy for them to police business seller information inserts, going to be REALLY hard for them to police about me pages and shop pages :O

  2. Josordoni on February 4th, 2008 6:25 pm

    Excellent news Sue.

    Chris, I guess it will be policed by informers as are most other infringements….

  3. Sue Bailey on February 4th, 2008 6:26 pm

    Yep, I fear Lynne is right there.

  4. Peter King on February 4th, 2008 6:30 pm

    Why on earth can’t you use a PO box

  5. Gill on February 4th, 2008 6:32 pm

    That really is excellent news! Well done to ebay for both listening and acting :grin:

    Peter - a PO box doesn’t meet the requirements of the legislation, it has to be a geographical address.

  6. Sue Bailey on February 4th, 2008 6:33 pm

    @ Peter: Because the OFT says not: 3.1.vi “If payment is required in advance, you must supply your full geographic address.”

    So I think if you wanted to use a POBox, you would have to supply everything cash on delivery; it seems reasonable to me that if I the buyer am trusting you the seller with my money before you’ve delivered the goods, I should know where you are.

  7. northumbrian on February 4th, 2008 8:23 pm

    so what about ltd companies with a registered office that is only a holding and postal address

  8. Chris Dawson on February 4th, 2008 10:20 pm

    Hey North - do you mean like eBay’s address? A holding company in Luxembourg? :twisted:

    I guess if that’s your address that’s your address so long as customers can write to you and you’ll get the mail.

  9. anon on February 5th, 2008 12:06 am

    Why not on the bid/buy page?

  10. northumbrian on February 5th, 2008 7:48 am

    too right chris its ebay UK and not a UK contact to be found not a telephone not even SKYPE

  11. northumbrian on February 5th, 2008 8:08 am

    what is so wrong with the feedback system as it is ,
    its worked well for years

    if a buyer cant buy from me, unless my abilty to leave negative feedback is removed shame on them, its obvious how I do things by my feedback,
    ebays took the easy option for them,

    why could they not put their money where their mouth is
    and simply guarantee all their powersellers. to buyers, buy from a powerseller and your money is safe and guaranteed

  12. northumbrian on February 5th, 2008 8:10 am

    whoops wrong thread :shock:

  13. Kate on February 5th, 2008 1:59 pm

    We are all told to shred all papers containing our personal addresses because of ID theft and fraud, now we are going to be forced to put personal addresses out there on the internet where it’s far easier for fraudsters to harvest them than rooting around in bins. So now we will all be at risk. I have no problem with buyers having my address but I am just not happy with this - all the advice out there is DO NOT put personal info on the internet or you are at risk from ID theft.

  14. Josordoni on February 5th, 2008 2:25 pm

    I think that a difference has to be made between personal information, and business information.

    If we choose to run our business from our homes, then the loss of privacy regarding our address etc., and the potential risk this may offer is the cost we have to pay. If we do not choose to have the public aware of our personal data, then a business can be run from a business location, not from home.

    Basically, you can’t have your cake (cheap location, no business rates) and eat it too (privacy).

  15. Kate on February 5th, 2008 5:44 pm

    For some of us, our “businesses” are so small that it has to be run from home or not at all - no choice at all. This shouldn’t mean that you should have to sacrifice your privacy and leave yourself open to ID theft.

  16. Josordoni on February 5th, 2008 5:51 pm

    OK Kate, but it is not me that is making the rules….

  17. Kate on February 5th, 2008 10:00 pm

    I know that, I’m just trying to show it from the perspective of someone who could go out of business altogether because of something stupidly beaurocratic like this :(

  18. Josordoni on February 5th, 2008 11:25 pm

    It is just part of the choices we make by going into business, I guess, Kate…

    Take this as a different example, we have to pay VAT on our profit as we sell second hand goods, and we can’t reclaim it from customers. Let me tell you the extra tax I pay to the government would be much happier in my pocket. I have asked my MP to raise the question of small businesses suffering because of VAT low threshholds, but I’m not holding my breath.

    However, if I choose to be in business for myself, and not to work for someone else, I have to work with the bureaucracy that I meet and include it in my business strategy. Whether I like it or not, if it is the law I am stuck with it.

    What I am saying is that I reckon eBay may have found themselves stuck with bureaucracy they don’t much like themselves either, but like you and me, if it is the law they are stuck with it.

  19. Mark on February 6th, 2008 1:36 am

    Given that Google et al, all index About Me and Custom pages in the announcement (after all, adding content and your Inventory listings to such is a great way to bolster your natural search visibility), this does raise some potential privacy concerns.

    There’s a quick and simply way to avoid this - simply insert your address as a small text graphic (without an alt-image tag). Your address should still be clear and legible, but shouldn’t be indexed in Google’s results pages (at least, until Google find a way to index non-tagged images as standard).

    Why eBay didn’t mention this in their announcement beats me!

    Mark

  20. LordBevan on February 6th, 2008 10:23 am

    Hi,
    I thought as far as buyers go, when they buy they already got my address. This latest move is an overkill, letting complete strangers get hold of my address too.

    A better solution is to make PO boxes not valid as Ebay address.

  21. Kate on February 7th, 2008 12:06 am

    Mark, good idea - how do you do that?

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