My seller account permanently suspended no appeal?

[saksthriftave]

Hi all.  I have been an Ebay user for I believe 24 years now.  I have never had a negative feedback.  Over the past two years I have barely used the site to sell and only purchased a few items.

I had listed an item months back and forgot it had listed.  It was purchased the day after Christmas.  I did not log on to notice the sale.  I tried to refund the buyer but Ebay would not allow me.  They wanted me to update my account with more personal info.  They did refund her the other day.  I got an email stating my selling account was permanently restricted with no hope.  It was permanent.  I don't get it?  Has anyone ever forgotten about a sale?  I don't use this site much at all but was this too harsh?  Can't someone make one error?  It does not sound right to me and they would not offer anythign via chat and when I spoke to someone on the phone I could barely understand what they were saying.  This is concerning.

[wastingtime101]

---

@saksthriftave wrote:

They wanted me to update my account with more personal info.  [...]  I got an email stating my selling account was permanently restricted with no hope.  It was permanent.  I don't get it?  Has anyone ever forgotten about a sale?

---

That was an expensive item and it could have been a factor or trigger, but more likely the restriction was about providing ID verification or whatever they asked for.

[inhawaii]

Too harsh of a punishment?

Listing something for sale then forgetting about it and making the buyer wait 3 weeks is a pretty "harsh" mistake. 

[earthdreamer]

The combination of a high value listing, no activity on your account for months, and an unacceptable delay in shipping or refunding the item would be the reason for the suspension.

Three red flags pretty much spells doom for a selling account. 

[monroe67]

Things I don't think I would ever do if I lived to triple or quadruple my current age:  

1.   Forget that I had an eBay listing that would bring me around $600-$700 in "profit."
2.  Forget a baby.  Or even forget a doll that was designed to look like a real baby.  

Concerning, indeed.  

[yuzuha]

---

@monroe67 wrote:

Things I don't think I would ever do if I lived to triple or quadruple my current age:  

1.   Forget that I had an eBay listing that would bring me around $600-$700 in "profit."

---

Agreed. I could see forgetting about an inexpensive listing of something from around the house that you were just trying to get rid of, but if I listed an item for that price, you'd better believe I'd be checking in every day to see whether it had sold!

[ibuyoldstuf]

That's the one!

[inhawaii]

---

@monroe67 wrote:

Things I don't think I would ever do if I lived to triple or quadruple my current age:  

1.   Forget that I had an eBay listing that would bring me around $600-$700 in "profit."
2.  Forget a baby.  Or even forget a doll that was designed to look like a real baby.  

Concerning, indeed.  

---

I agree.

I would also like to add...

3. Skip breakfast.    😉

[lacemaker3 · Accepted solution]

---

@saksthriftave wrote:

...  I tried to refund the buyer but Ebay would not allow me.  They wanted me to update my account with more personal info.  They did refund her the other day.  ...

---

I think the reason you have been suspended indefinitely is hidden between the lines, that are quoted above.

You haven't sold anything for more than a year, possibly several years. You have not enrolled in Managed Payments, and you didn't have a valid payment method registered with eBay, to pay your eBay fees, refunds, or other payments that you might owe to eBay. You agreed to and authorized those payments when you listed something for sale.

If you had enrolled in MP and provided a valid payment method, then you would have been able to refund the buyer without any issues. That's why eBay told you to provide more information; you needed to enroll for managed payments, which is the only way that you could have received the payment.

The issue in this case, is that if you had reacted appropriately to the transaction, and refunded the buyer yourself, then most of the fees for the sale would have been credited back to you. All except for the $0.30 fixed final value fee. You needed to have a valid payment method on file to pay for that fee.

Unfortunately, because you did not cancel the transaction correctly, and refund the buyer yourself, you do not get the credit for the eBay fees. When eBay has to step in and make sure that the buyer is refunded, then the seller is not eligible for the fee credit. So now, you owe eBay the full amount of the fees for the sale of that reborn baby doll.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/fee-credits?id=4128

I don't think this is too strict, it's very understandable. They can't allow you to sell here if you haven't registered correctly to receive payments. There is a chance that if you register for managed payments, and provide the information that eBay is legally required to have for all its sellers, and pay the fees then eBay may rescind the suspension.

I can see in Terapeak that the buyer paid for the item, and how much the shipping was, but I can't see how much sales tax there was (if any). Assuming that the sales tax was 6%, here are the eBay fees for that sale, which you owe to eBay because you're not eligible for a fee credit.

BUYER'S PAYMENT:		amount:	calculated on:  (comments)
purchase price		$    975.00
shipping cost		$        15.81	(from Terapeak)
subtotal		$    990.81
sales tax	6.00%	$      59.45	subtotal  (at buyer's rate)
total payment		$ 1,050.26
FEES & DEDUCTIONS:
variable final value fee	12.9%	$    135.48	total payment
fixed final value fee	$      0.30	$        0.30
total eBay fees		$     135.78

[saksthriftave]

Thank you makes sense.  My sales had dried up here years ago and things had sat for 6 months or longer with no activity.  The item sold elsewhere and I completely forgot it was even active here.  I appreciate the explanation thank you.

[saksthriftave]

I've been a user here for over 20 years.  But I would say over the past 5?  Sales drastically slowed.  I had the item sell on another avenue and since things have sat here in the past for 6+months with no activity I did not even think or remember listing it in the first place.  I don't log onto paypal much at all so that is how it occured.  In the past when I was a long active seller, I checked my account 10 plus times per day.  Mistakes happen.

[tdrake]

If you didn't Log On since 12/24 to notice the sale, didn't log on to notice the received payment or the Ship Now notice, and didn't notice the email that eBay would have sent, you probably didn't log on to see the notices eBay would have sent you. In eBay's eyes you not only didn't ship the item to the customer but you ignored their attempts to call you to action.  Then add in the ID verification stuff. While I am sure you are on the up & up, eBay sees you as having ignored them every step of the way while they tried to prod you to get on the "right path".  Harsh? While I feel your pain, every seller I know wishes they'd deal with sketchy buyers the same way.

Has anyone ever forgotten about a sale? No.  However, been on eBay both selling and buying for 25 years or more. 10 years ago I needed more of my favorite cheap pens, my last one ran out/broke while I was on a 2 hour bus ride with crying babies behind me. I went on eBay and made an offer on a pack of a dozen. 12 hours later I boarded  a plane for the UK and was gone for 2 weeks. The last I looked was on the runway... extremely busy in the UK and using my company cell i was only allowed so much international data so since I had shut down all eBay selling I never logged on and forgot about those **bleep** pens. Turns out the seller let my offer hang until about an hour before it would have expired... you can guess the rest. Nowadays that wouldn't happen because I would have set it to pay if accepted. But anyways, I ended up with a non pay strike.  I have been living with the shame of that for 10 years. 😉

That's the only time I have forgotten anything. re: eBay.

[wastingtime101]

---

@saksthriftave wrote:

I don't log onto paypal much at all so that is how it occured. 

---

PayPal is no longer the payment processor for sellers, so logging in to PayPal would not have made a difference.

eBay shouldn't have allowed you to list the item or kept the listing active if you didn't complete the managed payments enrollment process. But once they asked you for that info to complete registration, if you had any hope of keeping your selling account you would have had to comply and provide that info.

[saksthriftave]

I hear what your saying.  Definitely not a proud moment for me that this happened.  Quite frankly I am totally embarrassed and ashamed to be honest.  I won't make excuses for myself because it would do no good but Covid, Christmas etc.. well.. unfortunately this poor buyer got hurt in the process and for that I feel terrible. 

With that being said I do wonder how the listing was allowed.  I was not aware of the paypal change to be honest and did not understand how the transaction went through since things changed and I was not paying attention in regards to the updates.

I suppose this is a hard lesson to get with the program, update emails etc.  Fortunately any other platform I check 10x's per day.  The other drawback, I did not have the Ebay app on my phone.  Anyhow thanks for your reply.

[saksthriftave]

Yikes apparently I am the first.  Or the dumbest perhaps both.  I am happy though that I am still alive - I guess that's good.