Wrongly restricted after 100% feedback for over 20 years. Please help.
After selling on eBay for over 20 years, eBay sent me a pop-up this past week saying I was "temporarily restricted" when I tried to start listing over 30 items. I finally figured out that when I had my eBay store on a (working out of state) "vacation" for my job, some (friendly) buyers didn't want to wait for me to get back home. So I issued them a full refund right away. But eBay twisted the truth by saying (I'm paraphrasing) "strive2excel, you've had too many items out of stock so you're temporarily restricted from listing & relisting any items." Again, none of my items the buyers purchased were out of stock! I've called eBay Support 4 times now & when I told each rep the complete truth, each rep has said to "just wait it out." But none of the 4 reps knew how long my restriction was going to be! I told each rep, "If I had multiple items out of stock, wouldn't you think some of the buyers would issue me negative feedback?" Not one of them answered me. If you have any suggestions, please, please, let me know. Thanks!
keithsterman
·5 months agoWelcome to the awe-full world of AI! Like another member mentioned here "Some get lifetime restrictions" without the possibility of reinstatement! I am still waiting for an explanation regarding my lifetime ban that occurred ten years ago!
albertabrightalberta
·9 months agoCount your blessings that the restriction is just temporary. A lot of sellers get permanent restrictions.
kibble-net
·9 months agoImagine selling on ebay for *checks notes* 20 YEARS and not knowing that cancelling sales for being out of stock will cause defects on your account.
This is pretty basic stuff.
Time to brush up and watch some ebay seller tips youtube videos while you wait 12 months for those defects to go away.
strive2excel
OP9 months agoWow. You need to brush up on your *reading* skills, kibble-net. Evidently, everyone else knows how to read but you. Because I posted perfectly clear that NONE ON MY ITEMS WERE OUT OF STOCK NOR DID I CLICK THAT THEY WERE OUT OF STOCK. And not one of the buyers that canceled their order was upset. They were very understanding & not upset.
meme6253
·9 months agoI have to agree with 12345jamesstamps, There is nothing more that can be done at this point except wait it out & move on, Lesson learned. Good Luck!
stainlessenginecovers
·9 months agoIn the future, when using 'time away' do 2 things
1.) end all auctions (only use if you have Buy It Now listings)
2.) Check the box that says 'block all views/sales (paraphrasing). This way, people don't see and cannot buy your stuff. Nobody sees the 'time away notice' and all they do notice is you haven't shipped.
strive2excel
OP9 months agoThanks for your help. For all these years (when I've had to go away for my job) I haven't had any problems using eBay seller option to "let buyers purchase items while I'm away for up to two weeks." But you're exactly right, I should be using the other option to just "put a hold on every item" until I get back home.
dhbookds
·9 months agoYou've been here 20 and didn't know ebay won't tolerate failure to fulfill a sale? Items should have been taken off (not shown) if you couldn't deliver ..... If you did (rather than Ebay) the refunds, that's good, but doesn't mitigate the fact you didn't mail the items.
strive2excel
OP9 months agoThanks for your help. I understand what you're saying, and it's my fault for not stopping all sales while I'm away. But honestly, I've been lucky for all this time using eBay's option to "keep selling up to two weeks when you have your store on vacation mode." I should be using the only other option to "stop all sales until the sellet gets back home."
strive2excel
OP9 months agodhbokds: Looks like you don't know that eBay has *two options* when you place your store on vacation mode. Because one of them clearly states that "a seller can keep selling their items for up to two weeks while they're away." The other is to "block any & all sales while away" that I'll be using in the future.
12345jamesstamps
·9 months agoGiving a refund without an eBay claim open from a buyer will signal an 'out of stock' and a 'ding'.
I learned that lesson also a while back.
It's probably done by artificial intelligence.
There is nothing you can do.
Excuses will not help in any way.
It would have been better for a buyer to open a claim as item not received...and then giving a refund.
Customer service reps cannot do anything.
Consider it a lesson learned and just continue selling to overcome this.
Feedbacks don't mean much anymore...sorry to say...other than to potential buyers
strive2excel
OP9 months agoThanks for your help. Everything you said is spot on. The one rep did tell me it's done by artificial intelligence like you mentioned.
fern*wood
·9 months agoWhat reason did you use to cancel those purchases? Did the buyers ask to cancel? What is showing on your dashboard?
strive2excel
OP9 months agoThanks for your help. I used "buyer canceled order," because that's exactly what they did. A couple of them were return buyers & both have purchased from me again. My dashboard says (paraphrasing) "seller is below eBay standards." That hurts, especially when you bust your butt to make each & every buyer happy, only to go through these kinds of erroneous reasons for being temporarily restricted.
fern*wood
·9 months agoIf you had messages asking you to cancel and used that reason, you should not have been given out of stock defects. The dashboard should show you the reason(s) you are being downgraded. Defects is the usual reason and will also show you which transaction(s) were the problem if you pull up the available reports. Click on all the metrics to see where the problem is and then you might explore whether an appeal is possible if you find an error.
iamalwaysright
·5 months agoHm that’s weird. I always understood using the “buyer cancelled order” shouldn’t impact your account negatively, even if done multiple times. I guess if it’s unless the buyers you cancelled on reported you to eBay somehow complaining that they still want the item and that you’re abusing that system. But buyers would have to talk to eBay to do something like that as I don’t think there’s a way to specifically do that online. So that sounds improbable.
Perhaps eBay agents were incorrect in the reason why you were restricted. Or there was some sort of miscommunication.