I'm 53, disabled, no C.C. to verify age and likely wouldn't qualify for one. Had Ebay account 22yrs.

[pleasures_unknown]

Hi all, as per title, I'm 53, I'm disabled and on disability benefits so I likely wouldn't qualify for a credit card even if I wanted one as I'm not working.

I've had an Ebay account since 2003.

I now can't buy any bladed tools due to some new U.K. legislation enforced in recent months.

This is beyond absurd and discriminatory!

Has anyone complained to their local MP about this?

Cheers!

Tom.

[jckl1957]

To buy a bladed item online, you have to prove your age at the point of sale.  How long you have had your account is irrelevant.

The method Ebay has chosen is payment by credit card.  Only over 18s can have a credit card in the UK.

If they asked for, as an example, you to scan both sides of your drivers license, you would be uploading your name, address, DoB, photo and signature so using a credit card seems, to me, safer and simpler.

You could ask a close friend or relative who does have a credit card to pay on your behalf.

[pleasures_unknown]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

This all seems discriminatory to me, as said, I'm disabled and I very likely wouldn't qualify for a credit card.

I have erosive arthritis and I have epilepsy, so no driving license. My only income is disability benefits (PIP/UC).

My bank requires that you be working to get a credit card.

Here's the absurdity of it all, I just purchased some wood planes a few days earlier, that transaction went through just fine, they may not be chisels, but they have a blade in them!

It's ridiculous, ill-thought out legislation.

I don't know anyone who would share their C.C. details with me, so it means Ebay is now useless to me for the forseeable future. I'm not angry at Ebay, they're just following the law as they have to do, but still, there should be other ways to do this.

Can't someone from Ebay just video-call me and check out my long 'gray' beard? It's real, I'll give it a tug! LOL! 🙂

Tom.

[thepillenwerfer]

The problem is that e-Bay have a stricter definition of "Bladed Article" than the Law does.  They will also only accept possession of a credit card as proof you are over eighteen despite other methods being perfectly legal.  As you say having an e-Bay account for twenty years should be proof enough.  It's possible of course that a child could be using your account but one could also be using your credit card, with or without your consent.

The answer is simple: buy elsewhere.  Other companies use alternative methods or simply don't bother, though how long the latter will get away with it for is questionable.

Banks vary.  I'm with NatWest who pretty-well insisted I had a credit card with them despite having no wage coming in.  As things have gone I'm rather pleased I accepted even though it was just to stop their nagging.

[jckl1957]

I am a pensioner so no longer have a wage (as such) coming in but have kept my two credit cards for emergencies and had to use one of them when I purchased the item below earlier this month.

It's an irritating restriction, but if it keeps one knife off the streets, I support it.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

You can still get a credit card if on benefits.

I am retired with just a pension and I have a Visa card.

[london-mac]

Every time you think Ebay is stupid ... they then go and prove that they are even more stupid than you think.

How could someone have an account for 22 years and not be older than 22 years?

Seemingly none of their gee whiz, tech or marketing "experts" thought to automatically "grandfather in" anyone who had had an account for more than 18 years. It would seems obvious to a thicko like me, why can't their genuises work it out? 

In my recent experience, their customer service has gotten way worse in recent years and the agents just look for excuses to cut you off, if you don't fit into their script nicely. It seems impossible to get through to a rational human being any more. All the usual call centre characters do is read off webpages you can read yourself. And I think they lie to us when they say they are passing you to a different team or a supervisors. I think they're just passing you around the office amongst each other having a laugh at your expense, earning their 2 rupees per call, or whatever they are on.

They've DEFINITELY invested time, energy and intelligence and making it even more difficult to speak to someone who is useful because, in essence, any time they have to spend on you, is reducing their profits. Therefore the emphasis is on obstructing or getting rid of you quickly.

I wish I could give you hope or an answer but I can't.

Read up on what's defined as 'ens hit if icat ion' these days.

[london-mac]

Obviously, how long one has had an account is relevant ... or would be in Ebay was half-way intelligent.

One can't have an account for 22 years, without being more then 22 years old.

No one's selling time machines on Ebay ...

[lucy_farmer]

'One can't have an account for 22 years, without being more then 22 years old.'

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Ebay have 'outsourced' their age verification processes to the Credit card companies. 

This is to save them having to beef up their own age verification sytem, because that would cost them money.

It also shows how carp ebay's own systems are if they can't even trust them *themselves*...

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/default/age-restricted-items?id=5596

[jonatjonatjonat]

Defences under the Offensive Weapons Act 2019

If you are charged with an offence of selling a corrosive product to a person under the age of 18, you can use the due diligence defence.

Where a sale is a remote sale, the due diligence defence can only be proved if you meet the following conditions:

• you operated a system for checking that the buyer was not under the age of 18 and that the system was likely to prevent such a sale
  
  

just stating the account was over 18 years old would not cover due diligence. Because the account could be accessed by someone under 18. Hence eBay’s stance. At least requiring a credit card information is inputted does more to prevent someone under 18 getting through to make a purchase.

[goodibags]

But 'borrowing' someone else's credit card is a lot easier than hacking their Ebay account. And then having to keep them off Ebay with the risk of their checking their own purchases, as well as intercepting the knife when it is delivered, with all the various 'item in transit' and 'out for delivery' notifications needing to be deleted from their hacked email too.

If you stopped to think for a second you'd realise how incredibly far-fetched this proposed scenario is. You'd probably need some basic thumbprint checking or iris scanning technology to satisfy the hysterical levels of 'diligence' required? But imagine selling those to Ebay users?

Instead, you just get the impression Ebay is just getting even more anti-sales. Which is a real shame as this used to be a selling platform. 🤔

[papso22]

You must have seen the posts about children accessing the ebay accounts of parents and making purchases. 

That's not really hacking.  If those parents have a credit card on file for their ebay payments then the child could purchase a bladed item, but the parent would be responsible for that.

I don't see a problem with ebay choosing to use a simple solution to the legal requirement and I don't see why they should work a multi faceted system to accommodate those few buyers without credit cards.

[1956glyn]

Absolutely i nor any of my immediate family have any credit cards by choice.     Thats what close friends are for when absolutely necessary 🙂   I would just get one of my friends to buy any bladed item for me through their Ebay account. 

I am sorry but this particular policy is not solely discriminatory against disabled people...there are millions of people out there who cannot get a credit card just due to a bad credit history.      Then there are others like my family.....dont want one.....dont need one so dont have one.

[jonatjonatjonat]

If I stopped to think for a second? I’d read the legal requirements again and go, the  courts wouldnt think the age of the eBay account classes as due diligence 

The board of directors of a company won’t really like the risk of a fine or imprisonment so will do the quickest thing to ensure that isn’t likely to happen.

i accept ebay could allow more ID verification 

I accept ebay are being more risk averse than they should over what constitutes a bladed item

but they absolutely should not accept the age of the eBay account as proof of age of the buyer given the law as it is currently written.

[pleasures_unknown]

Here's the stupid part, I'm actively bidding, without any such issue, on 2 old hand axes, their auction title/heading is "garden tools" !

It would seem that just some words like 'chisel' trigger the age verification.

At least there's no A.I. item recognition going on... yet!

[pleasures_unknown]

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"i accept ebay could allow more ID verification "

 Yup! The nice guy I spoke to at Ebay said only a C.C. or Driving License would do.

I've since read another forum article on here where a moderator says scanning a birth certificate and a utility bill would also work, I've contacted them for more info.

[jckl1957]

That is to prove your identity and not to buy a bladed item.

Ebay sometimes ask members to provide proof of identity - maybe after moving home or changing bank account.

Absolutely the only way to confirm your age (not your identity) when you buy a bladed item is to enter your credit card details when you go to pay.

[goodibags]

"I don't see a problem with ebay choosing to use a simple solution to the legal requirement and I don't see why they should work a multi faceted system to accommodate those few buyers without credit cards."

Yes, it may be the bare minimum but it's NOT due diligence, is it? Unless you can verify that the person buying the item really IS an adult. The assumption here is that a credit card somehow 'proves' it, even though the account itself may have been running 22 years.

I understand it's legal but it's completely arbitrary too. What if the knife was being sold rather than purchased? Would Ebay still require a credit card as 'proof' at the point of listing or sale, or is there an assumption that the user genuinely was an adult by that stage?

[jonatjonatjonat]

What if the knife was being sold rather than purchased?

 there is no legal guidance around how old you as the seller have to be to sell a bladed articles Just that as a business due diligence is carried out to verify age at the point of order and at the point of delivery (as well as rules around not delivering to locker boxes)

eBay fulfil this via enforcing delivery by an age verified method and by checking a credit card detail. Without knowing what check is done (as they do mention a third party) it’s hard to say what eBay do, but it could be they are verifying the age with the credit card company directly