Expert: Marvinator - 1/13/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hi,

I read an old answer from you on multiple screen names. You seem to imply that using multiple names for a single person is not allowed. Can you clarify if this is still the case? I only ask because I've had problems with a specific buyer, banned them only to have the same person win an auction using a different ID. When I contacted ebay using the contact us chat page, they didn't seem to see a problem with this. I've tried emailing ebay as well, but am not sure if they really mind this practice. Any suggestions on how this should be handled, especially around how to handle the issue of the person using multiple IDs?

Thanks,
Jerry

ANSWER: Over the years, Ebay has changed many policies, and this is one of them.  The rule now is that you can have more than one User ID.  I have copied this policy direct from the Customer Support pages:

"Each user ID must have a unique email address. You can have multiple accounts as long as each has its own user ID and email address."

Please forgive the delay in responding to this question.  I did not receive the notice in time and only discovered this a few days late by accident.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the answer. It does explain it, but results in a further question. Allowing multiple IDs seems to effectively eliminate the ability to ban specific users that are causing trouble. They can just create new user IDs at will to get around it. Is there an effective way to deal with this?

Answer
This is not the first policy change which has caused problems.  I'm afraid there is nothing to keep someone causing problems by getting a new ID.  

What you can do is to become proactive about your bidders.  Check them out before the end of an auction.  New id's become suspect, especially if they are only bidding on one auction. Though this is nor a hard and fast rule, it can be a good guideline in finding suspect accounts.  

In the end, any problematic person should be reported.  It's the only way to keep Ebay involved.