Locked
Discussion interactions are currently paused.
"Upgrade" from Personal to Business Account & Get PUNISHED by eBay
I have been selling on eBay since 1999. I've received several emails from eBay suggesting that I "upgrade" to a business account. I've also received emails about how I could apply for a business loan directly from eBay and I did other research that made it seem like it could be a good idea to "upgrade" my account. I was having a lot of success selling and just received another $300K consignment, so I decided to take the plunge and make this side hobby a business. All that was required was that I change my tax ID from my SSN to an EIN and add a business name and voila! I am a business. Everything else stayed the same (eBay selling name, address, phone, email, contact info, they still wanted my personal SSN, etc.). I also pre-paid for a year for a store subscription since I was getting ready to start bulk-listing again and there were financial benefits to paying for a virtual storefront. Two days ago I received an alert saying that I had reached my selling/listing limit of $25K for the month. I only had 46 items listed. This made NO SENSE to me since my selling/listing limits were nearly $1M and it took me YEARS to achieve such high levels, so I assumed it was a bug. I contacted eBay to see what was happening and learned that by changing my SSN to a business EIN and "upgrading" to a business account, I had to start over at a $25K selling/listing limit per month. I can request a selling limit increase once a month going forward, but it isn't guaranteed that it will be granted. I wasn't told this would happen or I wouldn't have done it. I asked if I could switch back to a personal account and they said that "any switch re-sets the selling limits, so the outcome would be the same." I could understand if I sold my account to someone else and the contact name, email, address, personal SSN, etc., all changed, but it didn't. It is all still me. So, this "upgrade" has destroyed my business entirely. Funny enough, they reset my selling limits, but they're allowing me to keep the feedback I received under my personal selling account. Oh yeah, I also cannot get a pro-rationed refund on the store subscription either (of course)...
I am writing this to hopefully save someone else from making the mistake of reading the eBay marketing emails and believing like me that "upgrading" your account will be a good thing for your burgeoning business.
kh-stanley1
·1 year agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
angeloperme
·1 year agoDid they ask for ID and a buisness bank account too? Thank you
Unavailable member
·1 year ago@angeloperme
You are 3 years too late responding to this thread from December 2022.
reallynicestamps
·3 years agoI contacted eBay to see what was happening and learned...
Did you talk to one of the phone reps who work for a subcontractor in Utah?
Or with the trained eBay employees who cover the social media Chats?
https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.
https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.
rugerskick
·1 year agoYou are implying he did something wrong here w/r/t listening to/trusting ebay phone reps. He did nothing wrong. Even ebay admits customer service phone folks are representatives of ebay, to anyone calling them, and at that moment, they effectively ARE EBAY, the voice of Ebay, to buyers who call, and sellers that call.
By supporting this, you and all like you continue to enable ebay to be able to somehow duck responsibility when people have trouble with the advice EBAY reps give on the phone. Its an Ebay problem, not a seller (or buyer) problem. Ebay needs to train the reps properly, and give a care about the info these people hired to legally represent them provide to ebay buying and selling customers, is accurate and true. Right now ebay seems very happy to have them continue to mislead and often give incorrect info to people really wanting help and an actual solution to their issues. People like you have just grown so complacent to it you basically criticize the buyer/seller for calling ebay for help, because they expect genuine help and correct answers. You all are so numbed that you aren't bothered at all anymore at the fact these people legally represent ebay and disseminate incorrect info, and ebay is perfectly happy to have them keep doing it, never trying to improve customer service phone help.
Get a little critical of the part of the equation that's really behind the problem here. Its not buyers and sellers asking Ebay to call them to help them with their problems, concerns and issues.