eBay Says Some Customers Can’t Sign in Due to Captcha Issue

eBay is experiencing a technical issue that leaves some customers unable to sign in to the marketplace because they are unable to complete Captcha verification. Technical issues that hamper buyers should be of grave concern not only to eBay, but to sellers who rely on income generated on eBay.

eBay did not provide a reason behind the Captcha glitch, nor did it provide an estimated time of resolution. eBay reported the problem on its Technical Issues board on December 2nd. Nearly a week later, a customer of 22 years was so frustrated with the issue that they posted a thread indicating they were considering stopping their shopping on eBay (“If you keep using that stupid “verification” feature, you will lose a customer of 22 years,” was the subject line of the post).

At the end of November, a buyer turned to Reddit to vent about the problem. “So whenever I need to get something that is not available locally or for fair price, I usually check on eBay. However for a while now to log in I get captcha that even if I solve several times correctly, still won’t let me in. After loooong time trying maybe I succeed and get in but by that time I forgot what I wanted and give up.”

The shopper said they have tried to communicate with eBay, “but all I get is robots answering and auto prepared answers or some jibe about being nice or we end your call.” The buyer then went on to ask for advice on an alternative to eBay:

“So since I don’t want to use amazon, I need to find something to replace the old default shopping platform. I’m thinking aliexpress or temu, what do you use as replacement and is it any good?”

Captchas aren’t the only problem buyers are experiencing on eBay. In another thread, a customer of 8 years reported that their account was suspended because they began using a VPN. “It turns out eBay has a policy of blocking users who are use VPN,” the buyer wrote. However, another customer said they had never been blocked by eBay when using a VPN.

eBay whittled its Tech Issues thread down to only two issues on December 2, the shortest we ever recall seeing it – the Captcha issue, and another issue that is impacting sellers: “Sellers are seeing the variants are automatically selected for the items in the “View item page,”” according to the post. eBay used to include past issues with the resolution date, but over the past few months, limits its report to active issues only.

With sellers dealing with their own technical issues, it’s surely frustrating for them to hear technical issues are hampering buyers, especially during the holiday shopping season.