Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2012 19:11:20 -0400 From: "Fred Koschara" <wfredk@wfredk.com> To: freebsd-acpi@freebsd.org Subject: eBay rule changes that affect *YOU* - important information - PLEASE READ!! Message-ID: <201210022311.q92NBKqx030043@centos5.fkeinternet.com>
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NOTE: THIS IS TIME CRITICAL INFORMATION - PLEASE READ THIS NOW!
On August 22, 2012, I received a message from eBay entitled "Updates to the
eBay User Agreement and Privacy Policy" which had several paragraphs
summarizing changes in place for new users and that will be going into effect
for existing users on October 10. Two of those paragraphs, in particular,
caught my attention as being questionably acceptable:
"Pursuant to the eBay User Agreement, you agree that eBay, its
affiliates, agents, and independent contractors may contact you at any
telephone number you provide to us or from which you place a call to us,
or any telephone number at which we reasonably believe we may reach you,
using any means of communication, including calls or text messages using
an automatic telephone dialing system and/or prerecorded messages, even
if you incur charges for receiving such communications."
and
"The User Agreement contains an Agreement to Arbitrate, which will, with
limited exception, require you and eBay to submit claims to binding and
final arbitration, unless you opt-out of the Agreement to Arbitrate by
November 9, 2012. Unless you opt-out: (1) you will only be permitted to
pursue claims against eBay on an individual basis, not as part of any
class or representative action or proceeding and (2) you will only be
permitted to seek relief (including monetary, injunctive, and declaratory
relief) on an individual basis."
Have you thought about these eBay rule changes set to go into effect on Oct.
10? In particular, consider this clause: "you agree that eBay, its
affiliates, agents, and independent contractors may contact you at any
telephone number you provide to us or from which you place a call to us, or
any telephone number at which we reasonably believe we may reach you, using
any means of communication, including calls or text messages using an
automatic telephone dialing system and/or prerecorded messages, even if you
incur charges for receiving such communications" What this means is that if
you call from someone else's phone, eBay or anybody who gets their user list
("affiliates, agents, and independent contractors") can run up that person's
phone bill using automated systems - and you gave them permission to do it -
not to mention they can do the same to you.
Let's say you've gone to visit your elderly grandmother, who lives on a fixed
income. She has a cell phone with limited minutes to use to talk to family
members, and for emergency calls. You check one of your eBay listings using
your laptop and find it's not being properly displayed, but your cell phone
is out in the car. Grandma says she still has lots of minutes on her phone,
and you call eBay to discuss the problem. It turns out to be a quick call,
so you think there's no problem. About a month later, Grandma starts getting
pre-recorded marketing phone calls from an "eBay affiliate." She waits (using
up additional minutes) until they stop talking so she can leave a message to
tell them to stop calling you on her phone, but her request is ignored.
Halfway through the fifth call, she runs out of minutes for the month. That
evening, she falls down and breaks her hip. Now what happens to Grandma -
because eBay had permission to use up her minutes because you called from her
phone?
This rule change has to be stopped before it goes into effect! If you are an
eBay user, send them a message saying that clause *MUST* be struck from the
user agreement before October 10 or you will close your account. (I've
included the text of the message *I* am sending at the end of this email.) If
you know anybody in the press, tell them about the proposed rule change
(forward this email message, if you wish). If you know a lawyer interested
in pursuing a class action suit to stop it, tell them about it, too. Call
your Congressman and Senator - do anything you think of that can be used as
reasonable leverage to apply pressure against eBay to insure they remove this
destruction of civil rights from their user agreement. ...and forward this
message to everybody you have an email address for!
The clause prohibiting you from participating in a class action lawsuit
against eBay is probably not as dangerous, and it also gives you a choice in
the matter: If you follow the link in the original message, it takes you to
the page at http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html#arbitrate
where you find this information:
"Opt-Out Procedure
You can choose to reject this Agreement to Arbitrate ("opt-out") by
mailing us a written opt-out notice ("Opt-Out Notice"). For new eBay
users, the Opt-Out Notice must be postmarked no later than 30 days after
the date you accept the User Agreement for the first time. If you are
already a current eBay user and previously accepted the User Agreement
prior to the introduction of this Agreement to Arbitrate, the Opt-Out
Notice must be postmarked no later than November 9, 2012 . You must mail
the Opt-Out Notice to eBay Inc., c/o National Registered Agents, Inc.,
2778 W. Shady Bend Lane, Lehi, UT 84043.
The Opt-Out Notice must state that you do not agree to this Agreement to
Arbitrate and must include your name, address, and the user ID(s) and
email address(es) associated with the eBay account(s) to which the
opt-out applies. You must sign the Opt-Out Notice for it to be
effective. This procedure is the only way you can opt-out of the
Agreement to Arbitrate. If you opt-out of the Agreement to Arbitrate,
all other parts of the User Agreement and its Legal Disputes Section will
continue to apply to you. Opting out of this Agreement to Arbitrate has
no effect on any previous, other, or future arbitration agreements that
you may have with us."
I suspect the timing of this "no class action participation" clause may be
because eBay expects that when people realize what the "you can run up my
phone bill" clause means, there will be calls for class action against them.
In any case, giving up your right to seek restitution for damages is not a
good idea, so I would *STRONGLY* suggest you follow the opt-out procedure
they have specified.
There are two deadlines here: On October 10, if eBay does not change their
rules, "they" can start calling you, sending text messages, etc., even if it
costs you money. On November 10, unless you opt out of eBay's Agreement to
Arbitrate, you will lose your right to participate in class action suits
against eBay.
TIME IS SHORT, SO YOU NEED TO ACT *NOW* IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR RIGHTS! Put
eBay on notice, demand changes, and opt out of their Agreement to Arbitrate -
Do it *TODAY*! Forward this message to everyone you have an email address for
so that we have the largest group possible protesting this atrocity.
-- Fred Koschara
============================================================================
Dear eBay:
Please be advised that I find the proposed User Agreement changes due to go
into effect on October 10, 2012 unacceptable. In particular, I find the
clause stating "you agree that eBay, its affiliates, agents, and independent
contractors may contact you at any telephone number you provide to us or from
which you place a call to us, or any telephone number at which we reasonably
believe we may reach you, using any means of communication, including calls
or text messages using an automatic telephone dialing system and/or
prerecorded messages, even if you incur charges for receiving such
communications" to be a gross offense against myself and the public in
general, and I demand it be removed *IMMEDIATELY* from the User Agreement.
If you do not remove said clause from the User Agreement before it is set to
go into effect on October 10, and have not advised me of the change in a
timely manner, I will be terminating my membership in eBay effective 11:59PM
on October 9, 2012, and I am advising everyone I know to do the same.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
-- Fred Koschara (trancetor)
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