Contact customer support quote security code

[desirable-treasures]

Every time I attempt to list a item I'm being asked to contact customer support.

After two phonecalls to customer support and also using ebays live chat the problem persists.

I have loads to list but am unable to do so. 

Cleaned cache and cookies to the best of my knowledge.

Any help will be greatfully received.

[*scyllabub*]

I think it's one for the selling boards rather than here, which is more for PC techie problems.

Nasty problem, hope you get it sorted 😉

[jughudson]

Hi,

I'm having the same problem but not when I am trying to list something, it is just when I am trying to log in.

I have also made calls to the customer support line. They cleared the problem one day only for it to be back the next day.

Live chat passed me to what I assume was a technical support who "suggested" that I clear my cookies and cache or "saved the files ebay uses to my computer"... I have no idea what that means. They also suggested that I "find someone who can tinker with my operating system".

They have suggested that if I logged in from my mobile phone from one location and then logged in from my computer at home the system might think someone else is using my account and put a block on it. They then kindly said they put my computer on the registered devices list...

Throughout all of this process I did nothing different to what I have done for the past 5 years with this computer and various mobile phones (and laptops, and tablets..)

My best guess is that the system randomly picks on a user and if such dual login occurs, it blocks them.

That is fine but there should be a way to add my devices to a "trusted list" and to unblock my account without having to cal lthe Philippines... and it shuold not happen 2 days runnning when their support team clears teh issue the day before.

Eitherway, its an error in their system and I hope they address it.

I also hope you can/have resolved your issue too

[0-anthony-0]

In your answer centre post @norseway53 suggests removing Flash cookies might assist though couldn't advise you on how to do that. There is a guide here http://www.wikihow.com/Delete-Flash-Cookies

I have no idea if it will solve your issue though it is worth a try.

(EDIT) Just noticed the OP is from May though my responce might assist @jughudson anyway.

[0-anthony-0]

Considering this suggestion I wonder if it would not actually be counter productive, I seem to remember @otherego mentioning in a couple of threads that Local shared objects (another name for Flash cookies) are the cause of needing to verify an account when listing.

I will perhaps find out when I do a listing next after disabling "Allow third-party Flash content to store data on my machine" http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager03.html   (not sure why I am having to colour these links in, they have started posting in black rather than blue, perhaps black is teh new blue eh).

[jughudson]

Hi,

I realised that this thread was over a year old but I figured that if people were searching for advice like I was then it might help to continue it..

Thank you @0-anthony-0 for taking the time to write some suggestions... it might push me to investigate my OS in the right direction.

Apparently, after another long chait with tech support, it could be because I initially registered my account in the UK and when I changed my address to Germany (I have a house in both countries) it decided I was logging in from a different country. What I don't understand is why this did not occur when I changed the address (about 3 years ago). Something has triggered their security system to pick up on this in the past 2 days and I've done nothing different.

They now tell me not to clear my cookies and cache as this is what tells the security system that my computer is ok but I clear my search history and website data (one click on my mac os) every day as a security precaution. I guess this clears the cookies also. I ahve always done this so why has only now become a problem... tech support certaily won't tell me.

I guess my goal now is to try to find a way to conveniently keep certain local shared objects/ cookies but to clear the rest every day as usual.

[0-anthony-0]

I know there have been times when using a machine eBay is not familiar with to make listings it wants verification, even after previously allowing me to list with the same machine. I even object to giving my phone number out so have on a number of occasions just saved the listing then used a machine recognised to finish the listing. That done I have then later been able to make listings with the machine it wanted verification for, so what goes on there I have no idea. In such an instance it did say, "we do not recognise the machine you are attempting to list with" (or words to that effect). When I have on occasion verified a machine I have never been asked again for further verification (yet).

I have an add on called Self-Destructing Cookies which removes all cookies on closing the browser and clears the cache if there has been no input from me for 15 seconds and have never had verification requests other than those outlined above. I have only just found the extensive Flash settings page so will report back sometime before the weekends over, after making a listing (famous last words possibly). I use Ghostery as well, I only enabled the Delete Flash and Silverlight Cookies on exit setting after my earlier posting, so have no experience of what effect if any that might have. Firefox writes a serious amount of data onto my Hard Drive, though I haven't yet had the patience to fully investigate the issue with a view to removing all unnecessary files regularly.

Hopefully otherego will share the information they have concerning Flash cookies and this situation with us, it was the reason I have attempted to alert them to this thread with that @otherego device.

[otherego]

I've just come across this - I'm one of those who checks messages rarely and e-mails even more rarely.

There's nothing special about flash cookies and things. eBay offers more information in its "Help" pages:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/account/cookies.html

This bit might or might not be relevant:

Managing Flash cookies

As with browser cookies, we recommend you don’t delete Flash cookies. If you delete Flash cookies, you may need to enter verification information more frequently for security reasons.

Personally, I find this pretty daft. If people regularly clear cache and cookies, they do so for a good reason - probably an unfashionable concern for their privacy.

They now tell me not to clear my cookies and cache as this is what tells the security system that my computer is ok but I clear my search history and website data (one click on my mac os) every day as a security precaution. I guess this clears the cookies also. I ahve always done this so why has only now become a problem... tech support certaily won't tell me.

I guess my goal now is to try to find a way to conveniently keep certain local shared objects/ cookies but to clear the rest every day as usual. 

Again, most unimpressive advice. Do they assume that you only use your computer for eBay, or are they so arrogant/uninformed that they care nothing for other consequences of their suggestions? Really quite alarming.

Perhaps their marketing folk are desperate for users to allow cookies, including third-party cookies...

A couple of guides with respect to flash cookies etc:

https://www.winhelp.us/securing-adobe-flash-player.html

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash

I've always simply blocked all flash local content, but I don't sell. It looks as if you should be able to clear all your flash stuff, then start afresh (after another security check thingy), allowing only eBay to set flash cookies. Whether they play fair and use these strictly for security purposes, or whether they use them for marketing tracking, I know not.

To be honest, the best answer would seem to me to use a separate computer for eBay and nothing else. I'd still use as many of my usual privacy settings as possible, but at least this would allow one to accept, say, eBay flash cookies with no risk of those then being used for third-party purposes. It's not as if you'd need anything expensive or powerful, and a trawl through the second hand machines on offer might be useful.

If you're not reliant on Turbo Lister or anything else Windows-dependent, you could upgrade your second hand machine to some version of Linux for improved security in your trading.

Anecdotally, this site does seem very prone to errors relating to locally stored stuff - cookies and stuff -when you look at how often folk resolve problems by clearing cookies and cache. It's be interesting to know whether the incessant security updates to Flash Player might occasionally introduce changes that upset some computers on eBay, and the extent to which flash cookies and corruption of same might cause various eBay woes.

A bit waffly, as usual - sorry! Hopefully this thread might offer some useful ideas and inspiration.

[otherego]

I forgot Adobe's own link (includes Mac stuff):

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html

[jughudson]

Thank you @otherego for the reasurance that it might be me being daft.

I will certainly read up on the links you have sent and perhaps try to educate myself rather than rely on common sense... lets face it, how many systems and procedures in a large company follow common sense!

I don't sell often, only buy and I only use my iphone and my mac to broswe ebay.. the problem was only when I tried to log in. somthing to do with them thinking I should be in another country. I've used ebay in the UK, Germany, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Saudi Arabia..... and so on either on my mac, phone, tablet or lap top and I've never had this issue.. something happened this week to trigger this so maybe you are right, maybe an update to flash has caused the conflict or maybe ebay upped the "security" level to include a more subtle change in usage patterns.

Whatever the case, I hope they address it and realise that we do not all live and work in one, nor do we only have one medium for accessing ebay.

[otherego]

I don't think you're being daft at all. I just wish I could say the same for the advice you've received from eBay.

How on earth can they expect users to compromise their usual privacy/security settings across their computing just in order to accommodate eBay?

I'm the first to point out that this sort of thing interests me, but that my technical knowledge is horribly limited. That shouldn't stop me seeing attempts to influence me to take actions which suit the influencer (if there's such a thing) rather than me.

In all fairness, there is, I suspect, often a conflict between security and privacy considerations. It would be reassuring to know that eBay and other site owners are able to identify (relatively) safe computers, but it's anything but reassuring for them to compromise my privacy in the process - bang go flash cookies, mobile telephone numbers and all the other things which could make things more secure whilst at the same time giving goodness-knows-what access to information I'd rather keep private.

It might just be a coincidence, but there seem to have been a lot more complaints than normal about slow site performance and other oddities over the past couple of months - during which period, Flash Player has been receiving security updates at a positively startling rate.

If you find anything that helps, do post back. It's bound to be of help to someone.

[0-anthony-0]

Thanks for sharing all that info with us OE, the cookie situation certainly requires more study and your guide will be a good start point.

Even at a glance things appear to be more complicated than the explanations given in the eBay help page. For instance it states "Flash cookies are another kind of cookie we use for security. When you sign in, we create a Flash cookie that gives your computer a unique ID. The next time you sign in, the Flash cookie confirms your computer as a trusted source." yet I recently changed the OS from ubuntu to Mint on this machine and have been able to continue listing items without having to verify my account, though whilst typing I wonder if my short term memory is forgetting I did verify the machine at some point. I will have to assume I did, otherwise it is suggesting that the Flash cookie they say gave my computer a unique ID is not required to continue ID'ing my machine. I'm intending to list some things over the next few days so will see if now after removing Flash cookies I have to verify my machine to do the listings.

Another puzzling thing is I have had the cookie destructing add-on installed before I browsed anywhere on the net and it removes all cookies when closing the tabs (not the browser as I said earlier) yet using the view page info right click function on my account page, in security it says, I have visited the site 49 times before today. Even after supposedly not allowing cookies to remain beyond my browsing experience and removing Flash cookies in the Global Storage Settings Panel yesterday there is still some identifying feature available to eBay or is the page info only a Firefox feature.

Something I discovered recently is if you allow 'Remember search and form history' in Privacy from Preferences, which seems to be the way account names are remembered for log-in pages, then un-tick that box, your account names are no longer available when logging into sites, though if you then re-tick the 'Remember search and form history' box account names are still remembered and your only blocking your own access to the information held on the computer. From which I'm guessing that once the information has been stored on the machine it remains, which suggests it is not cookie driven. Of course if you have never allowed your browser to 'Remember search and form history' it will never store that data.

Much to research.

Thanks again OE.

[sharuja_64]

Nasty site im still waiting my refund back

[dakerr-13]

577737

[harleysteve883]

Can I have the telliphone no for Ebay from you please. as I can not find one anywhere. Cheers Steve