Simple Delivery with Click & Collect is revealing private seller's postcode

[porte2425]

eBay’s system seems to be confusing Evri Click & Collect with a local collection under the contact page, and thus revealing their postcode to anyone looking.

If you look at a private seller’s listing, where they are using Simple Delivery and have allowed Click & Collect, but have not enabled local collection, then everything seems okay (i.e. you can only see the item’s general location).

However, when you click "Contact seller", it is incorrectly stating "Postage and collection in person"; and thus revealing the postcode to anyone looking (obfuscated in the image).

When the seller has enabled Click & Collect but it is not SD postage, then it doesn’t appear to happen. Nor when it is SD postage but Click & Collect is disabled.

[style_wise]

I also noticed this. eBay has been auto-filling Collection + Postage into new listings & relistings about half of the time. This slipped by my proof reading until I was horrified to see my postcode on listings. My postcode is address specific, so giving it out is the same as giving out my address publicly!

[porte2425]

Yes, it is a bit of a privacy nightmare. Just knowing that any random person can locate you down to your street is bad enough.

I didn’t even realise postcodes were visible to people on the contact page if you specify collection as an option (and I will remove the collection option from my listing when the bug that is preventing the Delivery section from being changed is fixed).

I guess I will also have to disable Click & Collect as an option until someone at eBay have confirmed this is a bug that will be fixed soon.

[porte2425]

So I opted out of Click & Collect (and the status is now showing as not enrolled / opt in), and I changed the delivery on my listing to postage only, yet Click & Collect is still showing as an option (and so my postcode still visible).

So how actually do you disable Click & Collect on a Simple Delivery listing?

[xyz307xyz]

Opt out of Evri potentially delivering your SD item.

[porte2425]

Thanks, that worked.

I guess higher postage prices is going to have be the cost for a bit of privacy.
Or maybe eBay will actually fix this bug sometime soon!

[wellingnorth]

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@porte2425 wrote:

I didn’t even realise postcodes were visible to people on the contact page if you specify collection as an option

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I always just thought it gave out a general location within x miles, do you think that's a bug as well? - the fact that there is a 'null' in there suggests something's going wrong

[porte2425]

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@wellingnorth wrote:
I always just thought it gave out a general location within x miles, do you think that's a bug as well? - the fact that there is a 'null' in there suggests something's going wrong

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I think it may be intentional (and the 'null' just poor coding) when collection is offered. Personally, I think it should be a seller’s choice whether to reveal their postcode pre-sale.

But this issue where the postcode is being shown for any private seller using Simple Delivery (and Evri is enabled) must be a bug.

There is zero need to reveal the postcode in this scenario.

I just wonder whether they are actually breaking data protection laws as a result. I'm sure that requires there be a valid reason for disclosing confidential information, and I can't see this qualifying.

[marco@ebay]

Hi porte2425, thanks for your post.

I will report this issue for you now, to see if the team can provide more information and get it resolved. Once I get more information around this, I will post back here to let you know.

Thanks for flagging this one, @wellingnorth 

[marco@ebay]

Hi porte2425, we are working on this at moment, and we cannot replicate the issue with your listing at the moment.

Do you, or anyone in this thread have an item number where you can see the issue right now, so we can use it as an example? Please note that it has to be an item from your account, as we cannot report issues from other accounts. 

Thank you,

Marco

[wellingnorth]

Thanks for posting back Marco

It's literally doing this for all listings with click and collect enabled or that have collection in person as an option. 

It definitely seems wrong that it's there for click & collect listings as in that case the seller postcode is irrelevant.

But also for collection in person ones is it not a privacy or even security issue if for example you're selling a car and any buyer can see the full postcode where it's located. On the listing page itself location is limited to town only, ie 'Collection in person only from *Town* United Kingdom' where a click then just takes you to a google maps page for *Town*. So it does seem odd and unexpected that clicking contact seller provides the full postcode.

To reproduce this here are a couple of searches for you:

"dog ornament" + private seller + click & collect
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_fsrp=1&rt=nc&_from=R40&_nkw=dog+ornament&_sacat=0&LH_BOPIS=1&LH_S...

"chair" + private seller + collection in person
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_fsrp=1&rt=nc&LH_LPickup=1&_nkw=chair&LH_SellerType=1

In both cases click a listing, click contact seller and you'll end up on a url with this format:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/cnt/FindAnswers?ShowSellerFAQ=&item_id=123456789

That's where it shows the full postcode as in the screenshot in the first post in the thread.

(FYI also a more minor issue, but filtering by private seller in the search does seem to include some business sellers also, so obviously double check that you have clicked through to a private seller's listing)

[wellingnorth]

Actually, apologies, I realised I was wrong there where I said all listings with Click & Collect - as porte2425 pointed out in the first post it's actually only Simple Delivery / Evri Click & Collect listings that are affected.

I realised also that with the dog search above what confuses matters is that a lot of the dog listings have collection in person enabled as well as click & collect. A better search may be this one

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_fsrp=1&LH_Auction=1&rt=nc&_from=R40&_nkw=model+car&_sacat=0&LH_Se...

If you look for items with £2.94 (evri simple delivery) postage you'll see that on the item page many of them show Click & Collect but not Collection in Person, but the contact seller page will show the full postcode and state 'Postage: Postage and Collection in Person' (as in the first post above)

And to confirm for the collection ones I double checked and on the chairs search above all of the first 20 listings I looked at showed the full postcode on the contact seller page.

[porte2425]

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marco@ebay wrote:

Hi porte2425, we are working on this at moment, and we cannot replicate the issue with your listing at the moment.

I found a (temporary) solution thanks to @xyz307xyz (post #5), and so removed Evri as a courier.

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marco@ebay wrote:

Do you, or anyone in this thread have an item number where you can see the issue right now, so we can use it as an example? Please note that it has to be an item from your account, as we cannot report issues from other accounts. 

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I  have opted back in to Evri as a postage provider, so the problem has come back on my listing. So you can use that as an example now.

[xyz307xyz]

Windows 10, PC, Edge or Firefox

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267390069056

Click  Contact Seller near the price.

Or this takes you straight there:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/cnt/FindAnswers?ShowSellerFAQ=&item_id=267390069056

Item is postage only; no collection in person. Evri Simple Delivery enabled (so Evri Click and Collect available).

Note listing page shows "Postcode not visible on listing", so quite a serious issue (IMO):

[marco@ebay]

Hi porte2425 & @xyz307xyz , thanks for replying and sharing those examples.

I was able to replicate the issue this time, so that's all been flagged/reported to the tech team, so they can look into it. As soon as I get an update from there, I will post back here to let you know.

Thank you,

Marco