I am looking for some sort of advice or reasoning on why I, a new user who was very optimistic about selling on eBay, was permanently restricted with no explanation and no appeal whatsoever.
I am in an industrial engineering company that specializes in industrial controls and automation, have been since 2014. We are a small group of five guys nothing major and far from a multi million dollar corporation. I have accumulated a warehouse full of automation and electrical equipment over the course of eight years (PLCs, VFDs, soft starters, push buttons, contactors, etc.). Some equipment still new in the box that was just over-purchased for a project in the past, and some equipment used which was removed from a facility when we upgraded the system to a newer platform. I had been sorting through everything and had heard some good things about the eBay platform from friends, so I decided what the heck.
I logged on to eBay and created a new user account around 6/10/22 to get started listing what little I had the time to sort out and take pictures of. I started by listing one item, a CompactLogix PLC processor, which got multiple offers in the course of 48 hours and I sold on the third day. All went smooth, I emailed the buyer to verify that he was a real user and that the shipping address on his user account was the correct ship-to location. I paid and created the shipping label with USPS through my eBay user account and shipped the package out the same day the offer was accepted and buyer was verified. I got notified a couple days later that my payment was received and I could schedule a payout for the following day. At this point I was very hopeful and surprised that everything went as smooth as it did, so I took some more photos of parts I had and spent the entire next day listing 15-20 parts for sale. I had not received any notification that a payout had been processed or seen it show up in my bank account, which was added and verified when I created my user account, so I logged back on and see multiple messages in my inbox and red banners telling me my account had been "restricted and under review pending documentation".
I called the eBay help line and spoke to somebody about the issue and they stated that they had to have a photo copy of my drivers license (front and back), a copy of my recent credit card statement or utility bill and copies of receipts where I purchased the items I had listed on the platform. I explained to them that this equipment had been accumulated over the last eight years and obtaining receipts for the used equipment wasn't possible, although I could probably dig down and locate documents where I purchased the parts that are still "new-in-box". I managed to get ahold of my vendors and get these invoices sent over to me, which I immediately sent back to eBay help center via the link they sent me in the email to submit documentation. I was very prompt with my submission, mind you they were holding almost $1,500 of MY money from selling MY property hostage. The next day I got an email back saying that although I submitted everything they requested to un-restrict my account, I now had to send even more documentation to prove my identity. Extremely frustrated at this point, after calling and speaking to the rudest lady ever at the "help center" who basically would not answer my questions and forcibly responds with "If that's all the questions you have, thanks for calling eBay goodbye", I submitted a truck load of documentation to avoid the back and forth games. I submitted my company W-9 tax form, business details from MS Secretary of State showing all company members and business in good standing, my companies workers comp and insurance coverage documents, copies of my personal W-2, copies of my personal check stubs 30 days back, copies of bill payments direct from company records for all material I had listed for sale and even copies of the bank records from where we paid vendors for the material. I thought surely there is no question as to my validity at this point, this is legal documentation that is irrefutable. I thought wrong.
After receiving the final email from eBay, saying now my account had been "permanently suspended beyond appeal, for undisclosed reasons", I immediately called the "help center". I managed to hold a civilized tone with the rep, even though I was about to explode with anger from the run-around games they had been playing with me. She, of course, was very short and very blunt and had a tone as if she already knew why I was calling to begin with. Basically just recited everything I had already read in the email "permanently suspended, eBay final judgement, for the safety of the community, not up for appeal". When I asked about the near $1,500 of MY money they had locked up in my account that I couldn't transfer, she told me that the money could be paid out in 60-72 days and basically hung up in my face. What???
My first experience with eBay, and by god my LAST. Can anybody explain this? How you can run a B2B platform this large and just ban legitimate people like this? After demanding documentation for a week and receiving everything requested?
ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
