An apparent glitch is causing some users to appear as NARU (Not a Registered User) within the "My eBay" pages on eBay even though their accounts are active. A user posted on auction industry board OTWA about the problem after he purchased an item from a seller, who had been NARU for a few days before being reinstated on the site. But it was after the seller had been reinstated that it appeared as though he was still NARU (http://www.otwa.com/community/showthread.php?p=348023).

A member can become NARU for a variety of reasons, but it is a red flag that the member may not follow through on any pending transactions. In this case, the buyer had sent money to the seller and feared he would not get his items. The seller was able to explain that he had been reinstated (he said he had failed to update his credit card information with eBay), and the buyer ultimately received his goods.

eBay spokesperson Catherine England said eBay is aware of the NARU error, though she said there have only been a tiny number of cases (three) in the past three months.

"Despite the fact that this bug seems to be exceedingly rare, we have taken the same approach to it that we do with all reported technical issues - we try to recreate it and determine the root cause," England said. "We have not been able to recreate it internally, which tells us that it's likely to be related to the user's environment in some way (cached cookies, etc.). We are continuing to investigate and working to get it resolved."

On Thursday, another user reported the glitch on the eBay discussion boards. http://digbig.com/4ghss