Ebay posts my home address on every listing as public knowledge. Any way to stop this?

[pokemonbooster]

As I'm technically a business seller but not an actual business so the only address I have is my home address. As a business seller I have to legally have my business address as public knowledge on every listing to anyone who views any of my listings. 
Is there any way to change this or remove this or even just have it as my town/city?
I tried contacting ebay customer services but they just kept saying if I want to sell with ebay I have to have it listed as public knowledge

[4_bathrooms]

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@crg_music wrote:

Again buyers will see it if they buy from you but would seem a more sensible approach for sole traders working from home.

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The odd thing about Vinted's (and apparently eBay's) approach is the regulation states the "geographical address at which the trader is established" must be disclosed prior to the sale; it does not state the "geographical location at which the trader is established". 

I'm wondering if there is some confusion on eBay's part here. Some EU countries and the US allow sole traders operating from their home address to keep certain elements of their personal information - including their exact address - private if the seller's sales are below a certain threshold (the INFORM Consumers Act where the US is concerned).

[modelrealm]

Hi all,

I have a simlar issue not down to address but in connection of details ebay are publicly displaying.

Yesterday, I received 10 unsolicited phone calls, which immediately raised concern — as we have never made our business phone number public, nor do we use it as a customer contact method. Upon investigation, I discovered that my number is now visible in the public domain via Google, and the source appears to be eBay from the about me page on the shop.

While I understand that businesses must provide certain contact details under UK consumer law, such as a geographical address and a means of communication, it is not mandatory to publicly display a telephone number. Email or eBay’s internal messaging service fully satisfies this requirement.

(c)the geographical address at which the trader is established and, where available, the trader's telephone number, fax number and e-mail address, to enable the consumer to contact the trader quickly and communicate efficiently"

When we set up our account, we selected email as our preferred method of contact . At no point did we consent to this number being publicly visible on our eBay shop or About Me page and it was not but it is now?

Whilst this may be a platform requirement, such information should be available only to buyers involved in a transaction — not the general public — and it should not be crawlable by search engines like Google.  I contacted eBays customer sevice and was passed to about 8 reps there information ranged from they did not provide it, to i have to contact google, Then one rep said HMRC gave out the information of which none of this is corrrect. If every business had to provide a telephone number by law then ebay should be providing one too, but they dont? The only way to contact ebay is through the forum or chat or request a call back. I have no problem with address being shown nor an email address but i do not want a phone number displayed to everyone when they have not made a purchase. I cannot find a way to change this information that is being displayed. Any advice please as ebay have not helped

Many thanks for your help and assistance

[vinylscot]

Apart from the fact that it is a legal requirement, and not down to your own personal choice, a large part of the point of having your contact details available is so that potential customers can see these details before deciding to enter into a transaction with that seller.

And I don't know why you decided to quote that clause, and highlight a couple of words in red. Your phone number IS available, and therefore should be shown.

[modelrealm]

Thank you for your reply.

I appreciate your perspective, but I would like to clarify that while certain business information must be made available to consumers, such as the trader's identity, geographical address, and a means of contact, UK and EU consumer law does not specifically mandate that a telephone number must be publicly displayed. The law requires a means of communication that enables the consumer to contact the seller quickly and efficiently — this can be fulfilled via email or platform messaging, both of which are available on eBay.

The key issue I raised is not whether buyers should have access to contact details during or after a transaction — I agree that transparency is important — but whether the phone number , should be automatically published without explicit consent and then made publicly visible through search engines.

Just raising a concern 

[4_bathrooms]

If the telephone number is such a concern you could just buy a cheap ~£15 4G phone, put a PAYG SIM in it, then record the following as the voicemail greeting:

"Thank you for calling <business name>. If you are enquiring about an eBay listing or an item you have purchased from ourselves via eBay please contact us by using the eBay messaging system. Contacting us via the eBay messaging system will enable us to easily correlate your enquiry with the item or purchase concerned. If you are calling us for any other reason please note we are registered with the Corporate Telephone Preference Service and any unsolicited sales or marketing calls will be reported."

And then just switch the phone off. You will need to periodically charge and switch the phone on and once every six months you'll need to do something chargeable (like make a call or send an SMS) to keep the PAYG SIM active. 

For what it's worth I receive hardly any calls on the number publicly displayed on eBay. Where eBay is concerned 99.99% of users make contact via eBay. The few calls I do receive are mostly SEO/marketing companies who are swiftly told we are registered with the CTPS and therefore they should not be calling us. And I really do mean it's only a few, i.e. less than 10 calls per year. 

[modelrealm]

Many thanks for your reply and thank you for the suggestion, i think that is what we will do.  Good to know that the calls you receive are very few.

Thank you again

[450-262541]

I don't think I'd be allowed to post an actual link to this here, but if you do a google search for ukpostbox virtual address sole trader you mind find something that would work for you.

I'm not connected to them in any way, I've just been doing some research along those lines myself recently as I'm wondering whether to pack in the day job and go the sole trader route myself

[insidethe93]

The wording of the suggested message is likely to put off potential buyers and lose possible sales - if that's the intention, it's perfect. As a buyer I find it polite yes, but too impersonal, too formal ("you have", no "you've" contraction, for instance), overly businesslike, sounds like you're writing a letter. If a seller sounds like that on the phone, would I want to persevere with my query? unless I really really really had to have your item rather than buy elsewhere.

For me as a buyer how about this? "If you've a query about an item for sale, please get in touch by clicking the "Contact Seller" link below my name/[business name] on the page of the item you're interested in." (Maybe add "thank you"?) Buyers not yet totally familiar with eBay would probably find that specific advice more helpful than just "please use the eBay messaging feature". I myself, an experienced buyer, am still not totally used to the eBay messaging, ever since they changed it.

Is there a way you can put a message in writing next to your publicly displayed phone number? - "[phone number] or ideally please click "Contact Seller"..."

[footballprogrammesforsale]

I find it odd why people don't want their return address on the label of the parcel.

If for any reason the parcel can't be delivered it can be returned to you.

Or am I missing something?

[therenewalworkshopltd]

The return address is not necessarily the home address.

Aside from which, the return address is only viewable on the label itself, whereas your business address is publicly viewable on every single listing.

And this thread was not about the return address at all, but about how a business must display it's information!

[nutrafituk]

If you have an accountant you can ask them to register your business at their address - that is a very common practice.

[papso22]

There are different 'registered addresses', I think you might mean for tax or Companies House purposes.  

The address on the ebay listing needs to be one that accords with computer law requirements.

[insidethe93]

It's not mandatory but Royal Mail and the Post Office recommend senders put a return address on the parcel and, if done, a return would be free of charge. The Post Office recommends the sender's address for clarity be on the back or on the opposite side from the 'to' address.

But it depends who's serving behind the post office counter as some staff insist on it, others don't, some don't check at all.

In the run up to Christmas when the queue extends into the street, you can sense that some people feel annoyed when customers hold up the queue by having to stop and add a return address to umpteen packages. In one of the post offices I use fortunately there's a large shelf space next to the counter and staff have put a chair there for customers; there people add their address to their parcels while the assistant deals with the next customer, or move their things there to put away so as not to hold up the queue.

Royal Mail goes as far as to specify in close detail: a downloadable Royal Mail .pdf says a return address should comply with their formatting standards, including being left-justified, with "premise, thoroughfare, locality, and postcode". But many eBay parcels I receive have only property number and postcode in handwriting.

[insidethe93]

nutrafituk wrote: If you have an accountant you can ask them to register your business at their address - that is a very common practice.

If you decide to do that, be aware there's usually a charge for it, a recurring one e.g. annual.

Beware that firms might move premises (they might move town!) and not tell you (forgetful or deliberate), yet still collect a standing order payment (possibly by inertia). It probably happens a lot but given how many businesses there are it's proportionally insignificant. Amazingly there's no statutory requirement in UK company law which requires a firm acting as a registered office provider to directly notify its clients that it's moving premises.

(At an extreme there's undertakers: if you've paid up-front for a funeral plan and they move town don't expect them to tell you; the onus seems to fall on you to check. You or your bereaved might not find out for years/decades, and such plans limit how far they'll convey you [e.g. 10 miles] without large extra charge. Spoken from experience.)