eBay

silk-starlight · ‎12-17-2021

From reading some of the other posts here about issues with excessive payment holds and a lengthy process of verifying banking information thought I would write out what I have been experiencing in the last few months. Am also writing this out because some parts I am a bit frustrated.

I have been a member of eBay since 1999. I am an occasional seller, selling things for extra cash when I need to come up with bill money. When eBay emailed me years back stating I needed to update my information and complete a bank verification because they were no longer having Paypal as an option, at the time I didn't need to do it, but was thinking you never know, something might come up and I have to sell something. I remember submitting an upload of my driver's license, and verified my bank account through their Plaid system. Cut to end of September this year and I need to raise money to pay half of a electric bill. I put up ten items for auction, sold three, got the money released just fine. Sold a total of nine items. Got an email October 4th stating my banking information did not match what they had on file, until it is resolved the other six items proceeds are on hold. I asked what happened to my original documents I uploaded and the Plaid verification because all of that was accepted. The rep told me this was a different verification that had to be done. I bank with one of those online app banks, did not realize the name of the bank that is connected to the banking app is not named on my bank statements. Plaid verified that brick and motor bank, not the banking app, this is why eBay says they don't match. Fortunately, I got lucky a customer service rep escalated my issue based on they can match my account using the account number on my statement and what was on file. Told me everything would be released in 48 hours. 24 hours later on a Saturday morning, I am notified by email my account has been suspended because numerous buyers did not receive their items. This begins a back and forth series of calls. Mind you this entire time, I have 100% feedback, no disputes, am rating Above Average. I requested information about which of these nine transactions was the cause of the suspension because on my seller dashboard, there is not one complaint, dispute, message from any of the buyers with any issues, my seller board is blank. I am told they do not see it either on their end, and tell me they can escalate the issue. It gave me pause because this started with a mismatch of banking information and escalating turned into this mess. And as you know, when something is escalated, you have to wait three days for an answer.

I was so frustrated because this electric bill was a couple days away from being due and I have never been late on my utility bills. I qualified for a payment plan, got that going. Then I took some days off to get my head together on this. What upset me was, if all of my buyers reported being happy with their items, and none of them opened a request for a refund or a dispute, why am I being accused of bad seller behavior when it is not true. On November 12, I called up customer service to ask about my payment status and I prefaced the call with it would be really cool of you to hear me out why am frustrated. The rep was very nice about it, he heard me out. He looked at my stuff on his side, and he was nice enough to hear my theory about why this has gone on for so long without being resolved. Way back when the banking issue began, I cancelled 26 auctions I had going. None of them had bids or watchers. After speaking with the second rep, it sounded like this banking issue could take awhile to get resolved. It didn't seem practical to try to sell things when your account is going to be this growing debt of fees, and money on hold for who knows how long. Yes it was a rash decision but at the time am thinking this is going to become a huge debt of fees and postage so let's take all these down, we can put them back up when this is fixed.

When you cancel an auction, you get an email about that item number. I never looked at the emails. One of the conditions to reinstate my account was to go through every message in my inbox. Each of those 26 emails stated my bid had been cancelled on auction #------------. Am like, wait, these are my own auctions, they had no bidder, no watchers. The emails are worded as if I bid on this auction that was now cancelled. I read the email to the rep and he was like, that is weird. He told me he was going to send that to the product development team for review because that email is not worded correctly at all for it's purpose. He also told me he would escalate my issue, he added his own notes, it can take 72 hours. Two hours after that call, I get an email stating my account has been reinstated. Then it proceeded to lecture me as if I was a child being punished the way it described in order to avoid having my account suspended in future...that was annoying because I never violated policy in the first place. I was ready to close a 22 year old account, but I came into these forums, read about what other sellers are experiencing, my mind was a tad clearer. Decided to test myself with one item to put for sale. It sold, that was when I learned that after your seller account is reinstated, your proceeds are held for 30 days to ensure the buyer was satisfied with their item. Thought I was out of the woods. I have sold a few more items, my buyers left great feedback, no-one has had an issue. I used to have fun selling on eBay. There are a lot of wonderful people I have communicated with over the years. I am learning more practical tips from YouTube eBay vloggers, but this entire debacle has just soured me. I am looking into other selling platforms, going over their policies with a fine tooth comb to see if it is worth trying. Was just telling the rep I was refunded yesterday from a seller who had an incredible amount of bad feedback regarding buyers not getting their items, but they are still selling. Am thinking they are a volume seller so the math has not caught up to them. Thanks for listening.