Gunbroker asking for personal information

[Freischütz]

Gunbroker's terms of service spell all this out.

 

[Freischütz]

You might find this little exchange on the Gunbroker forums interesting for its brevity.

GunBroker.com Message Forums - ACCOUNT FLAGGED????

 

[fftjr]

I have had similar experiences. You cannot talk to anyone. This guy should be out of business. I thought Directtv customer service was bad, GB customer service should be poster child for what customer service should NOT be!

 

[old bear]

grumpy when I refuse Zip Code, telephone and email. If they are dumb enough to ask twice I give them " Do you want to make a sale or not?" with my special evil eye.
Reply With Quote

AS for zip code I don't have a problem giving that out, but if they ask for the rest of the information I nicely, the first time, tell them they don't need that information. If they ask a second time I walk.

 

[RightArm]

Remember when you used to go places to buy things with cash or maybe a check? It seems like there's no places to go to find what you want, other than the net. Maybe we used to do without if we couldn't find it. I am still following the advice from another post and driving to my LGS for everything. I usually have to order through them, but they seem happy to have the business even if they don't like what I'm buying. They better be nice, I pay cash.

 

[PA Guns & Ammo]

Smith-Wesson forum best place to buy Smith's!

This is the reason why I have never done any online auction gun sites. I have enough gun forums that I go to with members' with either high seller ratings or high post count to make a decision of who to trust and who not to trust. I already bought two Smith's here and most likely from now on, the only place to buy Smith's. Who needs GunBroker anyway?

James

 

[627 city hunter]

Eye opening.

Any similar problems with budsgunshop?

 

[Steve in Vermont]

I was a member of the FFA back when and raised first calf heifers to sell. I learned a lot from cattle dealers (who have this down to an art form) that applies to gun sales. Cash talks. Show the $ as you're asking for the best price. It shows the seller (1) you have the cash, and (2) you're serious about making a deal. There's something psychological about a person thumbing through a wad of bills that triggers the sellers impulse to deal. No checks, no credit cards, no waiting for his money, cash in hand now.

 

[S&WOkie]

Are they doing this to buyers as well as sellers?

Andy

They asked for my DL and utility bills when I first tried to open an account, about six months ago.

I was wanting to see ended auction sell prices, and had to create an account first.

I never bowed to their wishes.

 

[stantheman86]

I would not give this information just to be able to buy and sell on GunBroker............

They SHOULD NOT be asking for this info, just to use an online gun listing site? No way, the transactions are between the buyer and seller, and all GunBroker needs is a credit card on file to charge you IF you have a "seller's account". If you just want to buy, you shouldn't have to provide anything. GunBroker is only a "middleman" to connect sellers and buyers, they have no active hand in the transaction. I don't see why they need to verify financial information.

It may be an effort to stop "shill bidding" or ripoff artists, but still, there's got to be another way.

If it came down to it, I would just stop using GB, I probably should anyway..........

 

[vytoland]

been dealing with gunbroker for years and never had a problem with them.

this sounds like something outside of the GB world...beware.

 

[sophie]

Machete, thanks for the eye opening information about GB. I don't think I need their services anymore.

_________
James

 

[carbuncle]

I just came a cross this thread from way back while running a google search to see if anyone had the same problem: I moved cross-country, went to update my address and had my account flagged with the requirement to send in this information. For the privilege of using their site. No more GB for me, but somehow I think my life will go on...

 

[Joewisc]

l wouldn't trust any on-line seller that doesn't have a phone number with a live, intelligent human being at the other end.

 

[4011]

Gun Broker

Just purchased another SW thru gunbroker. I have moved and have a new email address. Thought I should show GB those changes. They flagged my account and ask for DL and utility bill. Last buy from them. Contacted customer service thru email and got the old do as we say is the only way. bye bye Gb

 

[ric426]

Boy, am I glad I found this thread. I wanted to list some parts for sale on GB and encountered the whole verification mess. After dealing with the nightmare of my wife's identity being hijacked, I was hesitant to send copies of things like my drivers license. Apparently I was right to be suspicious. I'll be darned if I'll give them any more info than they already have and won't be using them for anything more than anonymous price comparisons.

 

[handejector]

GunBroker asks for data to protect your account.
When a long dormant account becomes active, or the mail or email address is changed, they want to verify the account so that they are sure your account was not hacked.

How many of you would be screaming "Gunbroker should do more checking!" if you sent funds to a fraudulent seller using a hacked account?

A fraudulent buyer using your account could also cause you a lot of grief if he managed to change the shipping address for non-gun items, which can quickly add up to thousands.

You SHOULD be cautious.
But giving GB your data is no worse than giving it to anyone else you deal with online, like banks, insurance companies, or retailers.

Bottom line-
If you want to deal online, some people will want to know who you are. If you can't handle that, order catalogs and mail your orders with a check, or get in the car.

 

[REM 3200]

I was wondering whey they asked me where my underwear was made...

So, did you tell them?

 

[Luuv2sail]

If GunBroker.com had a decent customer service department it might be a good company, but it doesn't. I wanted to bid on a Springfield M1A, so I registered. It was approved, and then it was disapproved. My contact information was "invalid." I rechecked what I had entered and it was correct, so I sent a note to customer service asking for assistance. Nine hours later they replied that my contact information was "invalid." With only three hours left for the auction I replied again that my info was correct and provided address and phone number. 24 hours later I sent another note. Three days later they replied that "General Delivery" was not a valid address. I notified customer service that "General Delivery" was the only mail service available for my area. There is no delivery to houses for thousands of people here and the wait list for PO Boxes is more than a year. My driver's license shows General Delivery, my credit cards are registered here, and my eBay and PayPal are registered here. Their next reply was that they can't verify my address and Hawaii is not a gun friendly state. And if I can get a gun dealer to vouch for me and provide their license number, then GunBroker won't report me to BATFE to investigate. All the other companies I deal with verified my address, including GunsAmerica, so I'm keeping my business there. Now I'm not surprised that GunBroker.com is rated "F" by BBB.

 

[CALREB]

Yea, If only they were that diligent about fake sellers and bad returns or other issues. People( sellers) differ there but the business end stinks as far as Im concerned. They want their money and then sorry its your problem. My .02 . Good luck Bob

 

[tderosa]

something's wrong with this guy

This guy who runs gunbroker.com wants you to register with a private isp or he charges $1/month. So I did that originally. Then I came back later and was confused as to why I had used my private email address so I changed it. As soon as I did that, I got a message telling me I was going to be billed $1 per month, so I immediately changed back to my private email address but then he billed me for $1. I wrote back and explained to him that I had misunderstood and the guy refused to do anything about it. He was actually very nasty and told me that I would not be able to work with gunbroker.com untill I paid my one dollar bill. I again explained to him how I had been confused. He didn't care. He sends me a bill every month telling me I have to pay the bill or I'm going to be cancelled. The guy is doing it simply to be nasty. There's something wrong with him. I am very suspicious of this website. I caution you to avoid this website. The guy is very, very strange!

 

[finesse_r]

What about Gunsamerica? I tried to register and received a notification that since I had a "free" email address (Yahoo) I needed to send a dollar. On my credit card, of course.

Nah, I'll pass.

Does anyone actually pay for an email addy anymore?

A lot of places will not do business with you if the only email you have is a free public one like yahoo. Every IP that I know of provides free email address so all you have to do is use that. Most IP s will provide several free email addresses.

The reason is the auction site needs to do all they can to verify you are who you claim to be and that they have some way to track you if you take the money and run.

You cannot even register for this site using only a Yahoo address if memory severs me correctly.

 

[SgtLumpy]

I've never quite understood why some feel it's a measure of security for an online company to have a phone presence. Evil dooers can have phones just as easily as good guys. And thinking that I have some kind of magical sense of knowing that they're honest or not just by talking on the phone with them is silly. That's followed only in silliness by the mistaken belief that "If I could just talk to those guys, I'd DEMAND how I wanted it done". And next on the silly index is "The requirements are in the terms of service that I didn't bother to read but now that they're applying them I feel cheated".

There are absolutely zero companies that I'd rather do business with over than the phone than I would via email. Calmly composed, written record communications beats "I talked on the phone to someone with a first name that told me..." any time.


Call me...

Sgt Lumpy

 

[shouldazagged]

Call me a sentimental old fool, but I can't imagine buying a gun I couldn't handle and carefully examine. From someone I could look at face to face. Even if I had money to buy guns now that I'm retired, this thread would steer me away from GB.

 

[Hack]

Never had an issue with GB. I've been a 'verified' user for several years, and registered with my hotmail address.

 

[blujax01]

A lot of places will not do business with you if the only email you have is a free public one like yahoo. Every IP that I know of provides free email address so all you have to do is use that. Most IP s will provide several free email addresses.

The reason is the auction site needs to do all they can to verify you are who you claim to be and that they have some way to track you if you take the money and run.

You cannot even register for this site using only a Yahoo address if memory severs me correctly.

I had an MSN address and when it got hacked, MicroSoft was no help trying to get it fixed. Dropped them like a hot potato. Gunbroker is the only site that has ever questioned my Yahoo address and I have used it to conduct thousands of dollars in Internet transactions for a few years now. As far as tracking the money, that info will come up with the Credit Card registration. It's simply a way to generate revenue. His site, his rules. No hard feelings but I choose not to play.

 

[handejector]

This guy who runs gunbroker.com wants you to register with a private isp or he charges $1/month. So I did that originally. Then I came back later and was confused as to why I had used my private email address so I changed it. As soon as I did that, I got a message telling me I was going to be billed $1 per month, so I immediately changed back to my private email address but then he billed me for $1. I wrote back and explained to him that I had misunderstood and the guy refused to do anything about it. He was actually very nasty and told me that I would not be able to work with gunbroker.com untill I paid my one dollar bill. I again explained to him how I had been confused. He didn't care. He sends me a bill every month telling me I have to pay the bill or I'm going to be cancelled. The guy is doing it simply to be nasty. There's something wrong with him. I am very suspicious of this website. I caution you to avoid this website. The guy is very, very strange!

This guy registered here last night at 9:46 pm.
27 minutes later he has found a 7 month old thread bashing GunBroker and made a lengthy post, and is gone.
Hmmmmmm.......... I wonder if he has an agenda?
We're done here.