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eBay has new listing rules for renters of timeshares

JudyS

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In the past, before one could list a timeshare for rent on eBay, one had to be "Travel Verified" by Squaretrade, a 3rd party company. Travel verfication was designed to keep non-owned units (such as RCI exchanges) off of eBay, but it never worked well. All an owner had to do was send in a copy of the deed to ONE timeshare, and they could list ANY timeshare for rent. Squaretrade was a hassle, and it also cost $7.50 a month.

Now, eBay has decided to do their own travel verification, at no fee. Listers of timeshares for rent need to send in proof of ownership to verified@ebay.com. It's unclear whether one has to send in proof for every timeshare listed, or just one timeshare, as with Squaretrade. (I may have to go dig out all those deeds!) I'm somewhat concerned about how they will verify reservations from my MROP ownerships, which allow booking at multiple resorts. I also have a couple of Redweek exchanges that I was hoping to rent (Redweek DOES allow rental of their exchanges), and I'm not sure if I'll have problems listing them on eBay or not.

eBay isn't giving much time for this process -- I received my email April 22nd, saying I have to switch to the new system in two weeks.

Has anyone gone through this process yet? How smoothly did it go?

For reference, here is the email eBay sent me:

Dear Judy,

This is a courtesy email informing you that eBay has assumed
responsibilities for approving its members for listing travel items on
the site. SquareTrade travel verification is no longer valid. This
service is provided to you at no charge. Please refer to this change
here:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/travel.html

You have 2 weeks to:

1- Cancel your membership with SquareTrade. To cancel SquareTrade, you
may fax your cancellation notice to 408-969-1135 or email it to
travel@squaretrade.com. Please include your eBay User ID and SquareTrade
Seal ID.

2-Modify your template. You must omit the SquareTrade seal, phrase and
number from all your listings.

3-Renew your eBay travel verification. In order for you to list your
lodging, we require that you provide us with documentation of ownership
or ownership rights (a copy of a reservation confirmation, a utility
bill in your name to the property being listed or maintenance bill will
satisfy this requirement).

Attach the following (SCAN) and email it back to verified@ebay.com along
with the following information:

User ID

Email Address

The type of service you plan to list

Legible scans of ownership or holding rights to the vacation
rental/timeshare.

This verification process can take up to 5 business days.

If you do not comply with the above requirements eBay will have no
recourse but to remove all active listings that show information about
SquareTrade travel or offer travel services.

If you have any questions concerning this courtesy email please email
verified@ebay.com.

Sincerely,

eBay Travel Verification
 

aliikai2

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It was very easy

We switched last year, and I didn't notice but it only lasts 1 year, so when I tried to relist some auctions it said I wasn't certified, I emailed and within a couple of days we were back listing rentals.
I really like not paying the extra for the Square Trade symbol.

Greg
 

JudyS

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We switched last year, and I didn't notice but it only lasts 1 year, so when I tried to relist some auctions it said I wasn't certified, I emailed and within a couple of days we were back listing rentals.
I really like not paying the extra for the Square Trade symbol.

Greg
Thanks, Greg. So, the new certification is for one year, and I will need to re-email them each year -- do I understand correctly? (eBay didn't mention anything about needing to renew annually. Also, I didn't realize this had already been available for a year! I could have been saving on those SquareTrade fees!)

Did you send copies of the deeds, or MF bills, or something else? I really don't know where some of my deeds are, to tell the truth. :eek:
 

Robert D

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I went through this latter part of last year and it wasn't a problem and didn't take very long to get it done. You basically send Ebay the same stuff that you sent Square Trade but it doesn't cost anything. I thought the Square Trade thing was a racket, having to pay them an ongoing fee for basically doing next to nothing. My guess is Ebay was losing business over this fee and decided to do it themself.

Have you noticed that Ebay has really increased their fees last couple years? Seems like it used to cost about 3% of the rental for Ebay plus about the same for Paypal but now the total is close to 10%. I think on my rentals next year I'm going to just place an ad in Ebay and avoid the big fee based on the total rent collected. I rented most of mine this year on Craigslist and they've got the best fee schedule of any of them!
 

aliikai2

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All they need iis one deed, confirmation, etc

They don't need them all, I just gave them one to show we owned a timeshare.

fwiw,

Greg

Thanks, Greg. So, the new certification is for one year, and I will need to re-email them each year -- do I understand correctly? (eBay didn't mention anything about needing to renew annually. Also, I didn't realize this had already been available for a year! I could have been saving on those SquareTrade fees!)

Did you send copies of the deeds, or MF bills, or something else? I really don't know where some of my deeds are, to tell the truth. :eek:
 

zcrider

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:cheer: YEAH. I don't rent my TS on e-bay, but I hope they do a better job of keeping off the II and RCI exchanges! I am sure if you only had to show them one deed this would not be the case, but I think they will probably respond stronger to people who get reported for that. I am hopefully anyway. And for those that rent the free part is great! :clap:
I hate looking thru the ads just to find out one I wanted was an II or RCI exchange once you talk to the person. I will not rent one of those and risk losing my vacation. If it is out on e-bay for all to see and not a ligitimate rental then it is too risky!!
 

sfwilshire

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Maybe I'll give eBay a try on renting a few of my upcoming weeks. I have WAY too many deposited to put any more in the bank this year.

I had considered trying Redweek, but eBay would certainly have a broad audience. Have TUGgers rented there successfully?

Sheila
 

Jennie

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It says: In order for you to list your lodging, we require that you provide us with documentation of ownership or ownership rights (a copy of a reservation confirmation, a utility bill in your name to the property being listed or maintenance bill will satisfy this requirement).
 

Art4th

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Maybe I'll give eBay a try on renting a few of my upcoming weeks. I have WAY too many deposited to put any more in the bank this year.

I had considered trying Redweek, but eBay would certainly have a broad audience. Have TUGgers rented there successfully?

Sheila

I've had great success renting and selling my timeshares on craigslist. The best part is...no fees at all. I just repost them every two weeks or so to keep them "fresh".
 

Robert D

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I've had very good success renting on Craigslist but have also rented quite a few weeks on Ebay and some on Redweek. I always list them on Craigslist, TUG, Vacationtimesharerentals.com, and sometimes on Ebay, Redweek and Myresortnetork. Ebay has a huge audience as does Craigslist and it's very cheap to list on Ebay but they now charge 6% - 9% of the rental price so it can be expensive. In future, I'm going to try doing ad on Ebay which costs a lot more than the auction listing fee but you don't pay anything when it rents. I've seen many comments on here that you tend to get lower prices on Ebay but my experience has been that if you have a high season week at a good resort you can get a good price on Ebay.
 

JudyS

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Thanks for all the info! I've now sent in my verification form to eBay.
 
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In future, I'm going to try doing ad on Ebay which costs a lot more than the auction listing fee but you don't pay anything when it rents.

we have listed our weeks for rent on ebay in the past usuing the usual "auction" listing.
How does an "ad" differ? is it just the cost? how do I go about doing an ad listing on ebay?

(apologies if these are simple questions, but I do find ebay a bit difficult to use at times - too many options and too much info on thier Help pages!)
 

Explorer19

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Ebay Ads

I went through this latter part of last year and it wasn't a problem and didn't take very long to get it done. You basically send Ebay the same stuff that you sent Square Trade but it doesn't cost anything. I thought the Square Trade thing was a racket, having to pay them an ongoing fee for basically doing next to nothing. My guess is Ebay was losing business over this fee and decided to do it themself.

Have you noticed that Ebay has really increased their fees last couple years? Seems like it used to cost about 3% of the rental for Ebay plus about the same for Paypal but now the total is close to 10%. I think on my rentals next year I'm going to just place an ad in Ebay and avoid the big fee based on the total rent collected. I rented most of mine this year on Craigslist and they've got the best fee schedule of any of them!

I have placed items for Ebay auction previously; however, I don't know anything about Ebay Ads. Where do you do that and how does that work?
 

carters4usm

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I am thinking of placing a rental auction on ebay, but until the oil spill in the gulf is put under control, I'm not so sure there is any need. :mad: Anyway, all I sent in to ebay's verification dept. was a copy of my Wyndham reservation confirmation that I had simply printed off my computer. It was really easy and I had an approval the very next day. Can someone give me an approximate cost if I'm able to rent my week for let's say $700 including the cost of Paypal? Bought plenty of stuff on Ebay, but have never sold anything, so not sure how that part of it works. Thanks!
 
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