eBay

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2022

Okay so this is a long one but I think it will be helpful to alleviate the frustration for many sellers.

I had an account with ebay for decades. Due to online bullying on a forum, I felt forced to delete the account and open a new one. Of course though, it's human nature to not open an ebay account until you have to sell or buy anything but ebay automated systems do not like this one bit.

I had an automatic permanent suspension added to my account after I already confirmed my identity and posted a selling ad on the same day. The help information provided by ebay on suspensions, it said that suspensions could be removed if you pay your balance, so even though I had just placed the ad not a few hours before the suspension, I paid for the ad. This was a mistake due to the help solutions ebay provides.

It was difficult to find help from ebay on the issue.

I spoke to the ebay help employees though the chats and emails with no help or resolution whatsoever. The people in the chat said "it's being reviewed" claiming it may take multiple days which is ridiculous. Through email they stated: "

Thank you for contacting eBay with regard to the suspension on your account.

Upon checking, your account was suspended because it exhibits a risk to eBay and to its community. As eBay is an internet-based business, and its members are our customers, we have to carefully weigh the risks involved in allowing users on our site.

I understand that you wished to know the exact reason why your account was suspended, but in order to protect our guidelines from being circumvented or manipulated, we are unable to provide the specific reason to our members.

I am afraid to inform you that this suspension is permanent. You will not be able to participate in any buying and/or selling activities on eBay. In addition, any other accounts you own, or that are associated with this account, will also be suspended."

This was extremely frustrating and unhelpful because I didn't do anything wrong and if you open a new seller's account with ebay, it too will also be automatically suspended.

SO I finally found a contact us number and called it (1-866-540-3229) and finally got the help I needed when I spoke to a person. Contrary to the email I received, the people on the phone were able to immediately see that the permanent suspension was an automated error after I confirmed my identity with them yet again. They then removed the permanent suspension so that my account was reinstated and they were also able to reverse the ad fee I paid since the permanent suspension also ended that ad and the ad was not posted for more than 12 hours before it was ended.

There is a huge problem with ebay tech if a normal human cannot just confirm their identity online and buy/sell without their help desk stepping in.

AND THEN I had this tech issue:

I received an email the next day with the subject: "A potential buyer sent you a message about your" [listing name] with the subject that said [username] "wants to chat with you in the eBay Motors app" WITHOUT the message itself appearing in my email OR ebay message inbox. This is a problem because I don't want to install the ebay Motors app just to answer spam "chats".

Ebay should really allow you to respond to ebay motors app "chats" via your ebay messages on the website.

Of course, all of my messages and chats within 24 hours of posting my ad were from users with broken English asking me to email or text them outside of ebay. These are phishing and/or scams. Do not contact potential buyers outside of ebay unless they confirmed though ebay they bought your item. It's especially suspicious when it's not even 24 hours after you posted your ad. Do not accept the "I am sending the certified check in the mail now" scam when they didn't make the offer official though the "Make Offer" or "Buy it Now" or bidding buttons.

The messages and chats all are in a similar format to this: "Hello,please I'm interested do you still have it available for sale shoot me a text on my email @gmail.com for fast response." with an email address or phone number. Some of them even have better English grammar. Sellers beware as ebay doesn't seem to be warning us about these scams as much as they should. Keep all communications though ebay until the sale is confirmed. Good luck and be careful!

I hope ebay will fix or update these technical issues so that humans trying to honestly sell/buy can more easily use ebay without all that extra frustration. I understand there is a lot of spam and scams, but if a human has to go though this crazy process, ebay will (and is) loosing a ton of potential honest buyers and sellers because of this.