Latest Ebay annoyance "Your browser is being checked" goes into round two!!!
Summary: charlie-braun expresses frustration about a new inconvenience on eBay related to browser verification, describing it as another hassle from the platform.
Hey folks,
it was only half a year ago that eBay had the nerve to check the browser being used before displaying a listing, even though free browser choice is the law in the EU and especially in Germany. eBay has no business checking anything here, and when this was eagerly discussed last July and the case was reported to the Federal Network Agency, the whole thing was quickly over. 💥
But today eBay started up again with the same trick and, before an item is displayed, carries out this check, and because I only open the item at the very last second, the bargain was gone. That’s how eBay deprives its sellers of a higher bid and itself of a higher commission, and once again uses the illegal browser check.
Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough for a current screenshot, which, however, was no different from the old one from last year. Next time I bid, I’ll try to snag another screenshot.
I hope eBay sticks to the law and stops this unlawful check, which also hurts eBay itself, because if the higher bid does not become effective due to the browser check because the auction has already ended in the meantime, eBay also receives a lower commission.
Since browser freedom exists, there is also nothing for eBay to check here, because nobody has to use eBay’s favorite browser, even if that means lower profits for eBay due to missing advertising, etc.
Am I the only one being annoyed by eBay again, or have you had similar experiences?
Greetings from snow-covered Lüneburger Heide
Hans.
esr-auktion
·1 month agoThe browser check always kicks in for me because all cookies are automatically deleted after I close Firefox. So I constantly have to accept the browser or click "not now". In my account, it then looks like I'm constantly using new browsers. Typical eBay craziness.
elfis_6418
·4 months agoI’ve been getting this annoying message for 3 days now. I’m going to find out whether this is even legally allowed, or whether it counts as “spying”. As the “last-minute bidder,” I bid in the last 5–10 seconds and have already messed up quite a few purchases because of it.
I don’t know what eBay is trying to achieve with this. I certainly won’t be changing my browser, especially since it gets “checked” after a switch anyway. Does eBay want to make buying and selling as unpleasant as possible with this annoying behavior? I could offer some tips; you can ask/check even more.
Since my short-notice, last-second bidding has been made impossible, I’ve already changed my buying habits. eBay isn’t the only option, they should keep that in mind.
elke@ebay
·7 months agoHello @charlie-braun ,
thank you very much for your post.
The message “Your browser is being checked” is a security measure (often from Cloudflare) to ward off bots and ensure that real users are accessing a website. Usually the page loads automatically after a few seconds. If not, please check your internet connection, disable VPNs/ad blockers, and delete the cookies in your browser. The message usually disappears on its own once the security check has been successfully completed.
To avoid missing out on a bargain on eBay, please log in to eBay in good time so that there is still enough time to place your final bid for the item you want.
Best regards
Elke
charlie-braun
OP7 months agoHello Elke,
that doesn't help, because bidding gets stopped and the bargain is gone, since I always bid at the very last second to place the highest bid.
Because I'm logged in around the clock, Ebay knows that there are no bots on my side and could set a cookie showing that I'm clean. Or they could do the check not immediately after a bid is placed, because I already open all the auctions I want to bid on during the day in the morning.
Right now it's annoying again and I've missed two bargains because of it.
As I already posted, Ebay is hurting itself by doing this, because my higher bid doesn't reach the seller and so Ebay's commission is lower too. Other providers handle this more cleverly and check when an item is opened, not only when a bid is placed. On top of that, I'm annoyed by these unnecessary interruptions and am bidding on less and less on Ebay, because Ebay isn't fun like this.
I'd be happy if it could be managed to move the check with the unnecessary interruption so that no disruptions occur while bidding. Maybe you have the possibility to pass this on
Thank you very much and greetings from the Lüneburg Heath
Hans.
be242
·7 months agoSome things just never change.
The biggest part of the problems comes from eBay's "watchdog" Cloudflare, which they use to secure their access. Cloudflare is admittedly a pretty big outfit, but that doesn't mean everything runs smoothly there. Quite the opposite. There are constantly those notorious Cloudflare hiccups, which mean that a large number of websites are suddenly only usable in a limited way or not at all.
On top of that, eBay keeps digging itself in more and more aggressively. By now, with old browsers that not so long ago could still at least be used to browse item listings, you can't do anything anymore. Everywhere it says "Your browser is being checked". Only the homepage is still allowed, where you can admire the advertising garbage there. How nice when the straw man "page security" can be elegantly used to completely lock out old and unwanted browsers.
Last week I had another annoying problem too, but I very deliberately refrained from writing anything about it here in the community. During the login process, the progress spinner kept spinning endlessly, but nothing else happened. Every time I then canceled the login process and tried again, a red message appeared telling me that my account was temporarily blocked for security reasons and that I should reset my password. But since I know these characters all too well by now, of course I didn't reset anything, I just tested eBay's favorite browser, Chrome. Result: No lockout, immediate login without any problems. The whole circus lasted just under 2 days, then it suddenly worked again with all browsers.
I keep wondering why eBay thinks it can keep harassing users with some [......] all the time without consequences. Has the internet user really become so conditioned by now that they accept everything without criticism??
charlie-braun
OP7 months agoMoin,
that’s the thing: not all browsers have to meet the same conditions, and some are preferred. And that’s actually not permissible, because it restricts browser freedom. But we can’t really compete with market leaders. It would just be nice if such checks happened in the background, so that proper operation is ensured and only changes are responded to, so that with a permanent login nothing gets blocked at the moment a bid is placed.
That’s right, I can’t shake the feeling that the market leaders are trying to force their will on customers, like Win11 and the taskbar with Quick Launch, which has had to sit on the left side for me for over 20 years, because that’s where they are closest to my eyes and easiest to see. And especially with widescreen and word processing, a whole page is no longer readable and visible for editing, only the heading or the rest of an A4 page. That’s why the bars should be arranged on the side. My Win2000 computer still has the old 4:3 display format, and apart from the closing formula the whole A4 page is simply readable even on 14/15-inch screens, because the text is shown filling the display.
I believe that developers are not developing for the customer, but for themselves. In the past I could design my Ebay pages myself, for example show the distances in the overview so I could decide whether the item was even relevant for local pickup. Today it only says whether the item is under or over 100 km away, and you’re forced to open the listing. It all costs unnecessary effort and time. Or the information about how many days, hours, and minutes an auction runs. Nobody needs that info, but the date, day of the week, and time are important to decide whether I even want to save an item, because, for example, I’m on the road. Because the highest bidder gets the item, and that’s why you have to bid on bargains at the last second. At least that’s my experience. If I place a bid hours or days in advance, the item is gone. And I couldn’t care less about what other people have also bought. So these days Ebay’s search engine is no longer really a search engine, but a sales machine, because it shows items I didn’t search for at all, since the search terms are broken down into syllables and if one syllable matches, the item is listed too. And Ebay keeps assuming I’m making typos because it shows similar words with more results instead of the word I searched for. For example, if you search for a perlon cord, you only get thousands of results for "pearls", but those have nothing to do with perlon. To avoid that, you then put "perlonschnur -perlen" into the search, and that almost always helps.
I hope that Ebay will in future develop more for its customers and not for itself, then there will be happy Ebay users again.
I’m curious to see whether anything changes in this area.
Have a nice Sunday and greetings from the Lüneburg Heath
Hans.
be242
·7 months agoYesterday evening, the "great" security mechanisms went haywire again. I found that I can sometimes trigger the browser check if I jump quickly from section to section a few times. Apparently that then puts me under suspicion of being a bot. The redirect to the articles I clicked worked in
some sections immediately, sometimes it took a good 5 seconds, and sometimes it didn’t work at all.
All in all, no new insights have emerged - it’s exactly the same crap as a year ago. On ebay.com and ebay co.uk, no problems could be detected yesterday. But that’s nothing new either.
charlie-braun
OP7 months agoHi,
this shows that Ebay & Co are resistant to advice and do not respond to customers' wishes.
I have found that the bot catcher strikes first in the later morning until about late afternoon, so during typical working hours, and I assume that no people are influencing this, but at most turning it on and off. Yesterday afternoon Ebay was unusable for about an hour. What I only find surprising is that Ebay is afraid of bots, because it is at least the only connection that disrupts and sometimes blocks bidding and browsing.
Since I still have IE11 enabled, as it is still fully available on Win 10 and 11. If I am on Ebay with it, it is completely disrupted, meaning the verification never ends. As soon as this is no longer disrupted, I know that I can browse and bid on Ebay again in peace with Firefox or Edge.
Apparently the verification is still carried out randomly and sporadically, as it was last year.
I am curious how much longer we will be annoyed, and I hope that Elke from the Ebay team will pass this constructive criticism on and that Ebay will take care of a solution so that Ebayers are no longer annoyed.
Best, Hans.
be242
·7 months agoA few years ago there was a similar problem on ebay.com that had users at the end of their tether. But ebay.com, unlike ebay.de, reacted relatively quickly and noticeably lowered the thresholds for triggering these intrusive "security mechanisms" = at least significantly eased the problem.
And here in Germany? Just switching back and forth between categories several times or using multiple devices at the same time (laptop, tablet, phone) on ebay, or even simply browsing on ebay for a bit longer (more than 30 minutes), is enough to come under suspicion of being a bot and trigger this [.....] browser check and/or suddenly ubiquitous captchas.
Sometimes I get the feeling that ebay.de doesn't want to or simply can't. I don't know which would be worse......
be242
·7 months agoAddendum (of course the editing time for the post above had expired):
Just now I apparently again exceeded the presumed 30-minute limit, so that I had to solve a captcha to log out (!!). Of course that didn’t work at all either - after 3 x endless captcha loop I simply closed the browser. What is that supposed to mean????
charlie-braun
OP6 months agoHi folks,
on other sites too, you do get checked, but sensibly only on the first visit. Ebay could do that too instead of blocking “bidding”:
And the real reason is given instead of some vague text. I could accept something like that when starting Ebay, and if everything is okay, then every browser - not just the preferred ones - should get the OK.
I’m curious to see whether at all, and how long it takes, until sensible practice is established.
Happy Easter holidays, Hans
katzenjogi
·8 months agoHello @charlie-braun
the right to choose your browser freely only means that you can choose for yourself which browser you use to surf the internet, and that operating system manufacturers may no longer force you to use only their own browser. It does not mean that every website you visit has to be optimized for every browser ever available.
Certain browsers can definitely pose a risk to websites and their programming. And to avoid problems like yours, I always log out and back in before an important bid. That’s a procedure I’ve been using from the very beginning, because back then with my Telekom DSL connection it was perfectly normal to be logged out automatically every 24 hours because the IP had changed. More than 20 years ago I had the same issue as you do now; the browser wasn’t checked, but if you wanted to bid you were taken back to the login screen, which led to the same result: the auction was over.
Usually no one is really harmed if, instead of 20 seconds before the auction ends, you open the item two or three minutes earlier. Then you also have enough time buffer for a normal browser check. I use Edge and Firefox on Windows 10 (ESU) and Windows 11, and it feels like I haven’t had a browser check in the last two years.
But I’m also someone who, at least on Edge, doesn’t use browser extensions, and is also too lazy to delete cookies regularly...
I also use different PCs for entertainment and online banking....
charlie-braun
OP8 months agoMorning folks,
all of this is already known and was discussed in detail last year. The only thing is that the message "Your browser is being checked..." is a false alarm, because the browser is known and Ebay apologizes for it in the header "Please excuse the disruption..." and the bargain is gone.
On the Ebay machine I also watch TV, and in the morning I load the auctions I may end up bidding on; that can be after midnight too. My timer lets me know, and I switch to Ebay shortly before the auction ends and place my bid in the last second. And հենց then, when I confirm the bid, the false message blocks the screen and the bargain is gone.
This morning I got this message when scrolling back through yesterday's auctions:
Apparently I am the only one on the blacklist, even though I am permanently logged in and can be checked for bots, this check only happens when the bid is placed in the last second. And this practice makes no sense if the auction has already been open for 12 hours or more before it ends.
I always use Edge and Firefox in the current version without add-ons, so there is nothing to find here; it has been unchanged for many years. In the past I used Internet Explorer instead of Edge, and there were never any such problems; they only started appearing at Ebay last year.
Ebay can get into my computer around the clock, so why exactly at the second when I place my bid? And placing a bid earlier is not sensible if you want to snag a bargain. That's exactly what Ebay should change so that none of the parties involved are harmed. Unfortunately, Ebay is resistant to advice, so I have little hope that the "check" is not triggered exactly when the bid is placed. I'm curious to see whether anything changes.
Greetings from the snowed-in Lüneburg Heath
Hans.
charlie-braun
OP8 months agoHello folks,
It would be nice if Ebay, like the others, did not carry out the search for bots exactly at the moment of bidding and interrupt the bidding, but instead did the check in the background so that bidding is not disrupted. In addition, the error message "Your browser is being checked before you can access Ebay" is false, because I am permanently logged in and a check could take place in the background at any time. But in reality my browsers are always perfectly fine and Ebay knows that, but ignores this knowledge because Ebay is searching for bots. That is exactly what should be stated in the error message, not that Edge or Firefox is being checked, but that my computer is being searched for bots. But Ebay does not want to admit that and shifts the check onto the browsers, which are known and Ebay apologizes for this in the header "Please excuse the interruption..." and the bargain is gone.
It would be nice if someone from Ebay would correct and confirm this so that this topic can be considered resolved, and the search for bots takes place in the background. Then Ebayers no longer need to fear being able to bid on an item, or that at the moment of bidding this process is canceled and the possible bargain is gone.
Regards, Hans.
occassion2002
·8 months agoMaybe because companies in Germany experience 1300 attacks on network infrastructure per week, because there are 22 known hacker groups in this country that carry them out and in the process millions in damage are caused. Trend increasing. Because Ebay is subject to European network/data protection laws and any damage is extremely harmful to business? Also, bots can bring down platforms on their own through mass queries, and then bidding is over for the moment. And that hurts buyers and Ebay more than a missed purchase.
But as I said, something causes the system to occasionally classify your computer as dangerous. Maybe then use Ebay without security after all?
charlie-braun
OP8 months agoThat’s why I asked in the first thread whether I was the only one. In July 2025, many people were affected and I just joined in, and suddenly everything was okay again, probably now too.
Best regards, Hans.
occassion2002
·8 months agoMany problems also stem from various browser extensions. With my Firefox with fingerprint, cookie and other security features (also for work use), I also can't get into eBay or other shops, and with others only a little wheel spins for hours during verification. As soon as I disable the extensions, it always works. For eBay, I only use a blank Chromium or the very simple web browser. So take a look at what's running in the background. Otherwise eBay just thinks they're being spied on 😉😂
charlie-braun
OP8 months agoHello everyone,
nothing like that, fresh Win11 on HP Probook and old HP laptop CQ61 with Win10, where the message had already appeared pretty much unchanged in July 2025 (see roughly same title in the archive).
It only happened 2 times today. But it was the same last year, too, that the message only came up sporadically when bidding, until bidding no longer worked. After proper posts in the community and a report to the Bundesnetzagentur, it worked again from one day to the next up to today.
But the point is that we have browser freedom and no browser may be preferred or excluded, so a check is not permitted. I stay logged in permanently and Ebay therefore knows devices and browsers and does not have to check them again before bidding, that is what the Coockies do!!!
Regards, Hans.
occassion2002
·8 months agoBut the very new browsers already come from the factory equipped with all security features that can also get in the way (Firefox is also very heavily loaded up). You should read the settings very carefully and maybe turn off the security features if that even works with MS.
And browser freedom has its limits where the other side suspects a possible attack because of strange redirects, alias addresses and other "fake" programs that the user tries to use to protect themselves with the best intentions. But Ebay doesn't know that. And an entry point for possible attacks, especially on the sensitive data areas where money and lots of data are involved, has to be protected. If not, everyone complains anyway.
charlie-braun
OP8 months agoMy Win10 computer has been known to Ebay for over 10 years unchanged, and the new Win11 computer since the end of the year. Why do the unchanged computers suddenly have to be checked for bots, making bidding impossible? That can also be done without preventing the buyer from bidding, because bots, for example, are checked constantly and do not have to block the buyer right when bidding. This is pure arbitrariness and does not create more security, harms both sellers and buyers and even Ebay itself.
Regards, Hans.
oskar_der_wikinger
·8 months agoHello @charlie-braun
Which browser are you using?
charlie-braun
OP8 months agoHi Oskar,
I use Edge, Firefox and IE11 internally. So far I’ve only tried Edge.
Here is the old message from July 2025:
...."Please wait"... and the bargain is gone!
Regards, Hans.
oskar_der_wikinger
·8 months ago@charlie-braun
No problems with FF 147.0.2, nor with Edge.
I’ve also logged out and back in a few times now, all without any problems.
charlie-braun
OP3 months agoAnother new annoyance from eBay: