Account Restriction Help

[ruellas]

Hello-

So today, out of the blue, I received an email that my account has been restricted. I’ve been with EBay for about 3 years, have a 98.7% positive feedback rating, have one defect ever due to an item just being out of stock and have always done what’s right for my customers. Sometimes I go way beyond what’s expected even. 

The reason my account was suspended was because of my girlfriends account (now fiancée). She created an account this fall, I helped guide her through the process and she was good to go. She put up a few listings and she was on her way. Well, something was wacky with her phone and she never saw any notifications come through alerting her of any sales being made.  I can honestly say, I have no idea if her phone was doing something weird or not but it is what it is.  In a nutshell, she listed items, made some sales and never shipped anything out for about a month. No one called her or anything and it was kinda of surprising it had gone on as long as it had without her account being closed. But immediately, upon figuring out that she made a big mistake with this, I told her to call EBay immediately and figure out what you need to do to make things right. So she did, they told her to sit tight and someone would review her account and tell her next steps (This never happened). So I told her, any of the orders that you’re able to ship still, ship them. So she did and it closed out any of the orders that were left.  We’re talking about 5-6 orders total on her account that she didn’t ship on time and she shipped maybe 2-3 of those as the other two had filed cases at the same time we found out. She called eBay, I even got on the phone to help talk to the agent Bc I know the process a little better. We were very transparent and very apologetic. It was her fault, she knew it, and wanted to make it right. So she made it right and shipped the orders. This was back in Novemeber/Early December.  

So today, I called customer service. I was told my account was getting closed permanently. When I asked why, they said because of my association with my fiancées account. About a month ago, she came to my warehouse with me and we were sitting on a lot of product so I had her help me create listings. Drafted listings. She never, not once, listed anything, sold anything or bought anything. She created drafts of listings fir me to finish later on my own. She of course logged into my account on her phone. She logged out a few days later. 

So essentially, my account is being closed because my financee in a time of struggle, decided to come to work with me to help me out.  And I’m no idiot but you can’t tell me eBay can’t see EXACTLY what actions are taken when someone logs into their account.  So they would see if she tried selling that day which she didn’t. 

I asked the gentleman on the phone to point me to a place that I could read the rule I had broken. He was unable to do so. 

Is this typical for Ebay to take such an aggressive action on a seller like me? Just looking for guidance or anything that would help.

[ruellas]

I think you’re splitting hairs here. She didn’t manage my account in any way. She took exactly zero actions in the managing of my account. If you wanna try to explain how scanning products and “saving as draft” is a form of managing an account, go for it.  

Not to mention, this was over 30 days ago. I mean, if I were a customer and I found out dangerous people were being allowed to run EBay accounts for over 30 days without anyone catching it, I’d be pretty unhappy. 

Glad we count on Ebay to send emails telling you about account restrictions, or rulings on your account and at the same time the they tell you they’ll be following up with you over the phone. And then you find out they saved you a bunch of your own time but lying to about calling or following up. It’s a super cool ethical strategy. 

[southern*sweet*tea]

If your girlfriend was selling here, she needed to check her account daily and not just depend on emails or notifications. EVERY SELLER needs to do this. Do not depend on emails or notifications as they very often are not received.

Why didn't eBay notify your girlfriend that her account was in trouble? I guess because they assume that sellers will actually check their account from time to time.  Not following through with a sale (for whatever reason) is a fatal seller defect on eBay.  For a seller my size it would take TWO and all of my accounts would be permanently banned with no recourse.

Back years ago - 15 or so, maybe longer - entire college dorms would get banned because of one bad seller.   It's not a new thing.  Is it harsh?  Maybe, maybe not.

[donsdetour]

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@ruellas wrote:

Hello-

So today, out of the blue, I received an email that my account has been restricted. I’ve been with EBay for about 3 years, have a 98.7% positive feedback rating, have one defect ever due to an item just being out of stock and have always done what’s right for my customers. Sometimes I go way beyond what’s expected even. 

The reason my account was suspended was because of my girlfriends account (now fiancée). She created an account this fall, I helped guide her through the process and she was good to go. She put up a few listings and she was on her way. Well, something was wacky with her phone and she never saw any notifications come through alerting her of any sales being made.  I can honestly say, I have no idea if her phone was doing something weird or not but it is what it is.  In a nutshell, she listed items, made some sales and never shipped anything out for about a month. No one called her or anything and it was kinda of surprising it had gone on as long as it had without her account being closed. But immediately, upon figuring out that she made a big mistake with this, I told her to call EBay immediately and figure out what you need to do to make things right. So she did, they told her to sit tight and someone would review her account and tell her next steps (This never happened). So I told her, any of the orders that you’re able to ship still, ship them. So she did and it closed out any of the orders that were left.  We’re talking about 5-6 orders total on her account that she didn’t ship on time and she shipped maybe 2-3 of those as the other two had filed cases at the same time we found out. She called eBay, I even got on the phone to help talk to the agent Bc I know the process a little better. We were very transparent and very apologetic. It was her fault, she knew it, and wanted to make it right. So she made it right and shipped the orders. This was back in Novemeber/Early December.  

So today, I called customer service. I was told my account was getting closed permanently. When I asked why, they said because of my association with my fiancées account. About a month ago, she came to my warehouse with me and we were sitting on a lot of product so I had her help me create listings. Drafted listings. She never, not once, listed anything, sold anything or bought anything. She created drafts of listings fir me to finish later on my own. She of course logged into my account on her phone. She logged out a few days later. 

So essentially, my account is being closed because my financee in a time of struggle, decided to come to work with me to help me out.  And I’m no idiot but you can’t tell me eBay can’t see EXACTLY what actions are taken when someone logs into their account.  So they would see if she tried selling that day which she didn’t. 

I asked the gentleman on the phone to point me to a place that I could read the rule I had broken. He was unable to do so. 

Is this typical for Ebay to take such an aggressive action on a seller like me? Just looking for guidance or anything that would help.

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It is very normal for eBay to do this.

One account suspended they go after all related to it.

[ruellas]

I disagree with you. They’ve been associated for two months so is that really the reason? Logic would tell you it’s something else entirely. It takes them 45 days to figure out accounts are associated? That’s a long time to allow me to screw customers over. Ebay isn’t doing a great job at protecting their customer then are they?

My fiancées 5 order account was resolved in November/Early December.  So keep correcting me, your reasoning is making a lot of sense. 

Thanks for making sure you defended Ebays honor here. I’m sure they need the help. 

[donsdetour]

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@ruellas wrote:

of course you would need to know that the other person has been banned first and she never was told this. Once again. She had 5-6 orders. One defect and fulfilled the other orders and then one other customer got upset and filed another case. We aren’t talking about 500 orders. No one lost money. And she called in, told the truth about what happened immediately and did was she could to resolve the issue. She was to receive a call from someone to talking about resolving things. A call that predictably never came. They also said I’d be receiving a call and never did either, of course. 

So how are you supposed to prevent a banned account from accessing your account if you didn’t know they were banned?  
This is the level of professionalism EBay engages in tho - told me my account was banned forever two days ago and yet I have orders being placed still. So that’s cool. And they are holding my money so over my dead body will I be sending anymore orders to customers. 

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Well You will pay one way or the other on the non shipped items.

As for your account: never give out info so some one else can log in to such: NEVER.

NEVER let anyone else use your devices to log into their account.

It is a method used to link accounts and the result is what has happened to you.

[ruellas]

So you're essentially you're telling me that Ebay collects wrong doings against you to use in the future?  This happened about 60 days ago.

It took 60 days for Ebay to cancel my account.  Why didn't they tell me this was their intention?  You know how many business decisions you make in two months?  Why do they not call you back when they say the "internal team" is going to look at this.  Which sounds like something they made up but if you say you're going to do something you better **bleep** well be a professional and do what you say.  Don't be a coward and lie so you don't have to talk to someone.

=

[ruellas]

It has everything to do with it.  Companies over the last two years have become emboldened to their customers and those they serve.  Often adopting a "we are right and you are wrong no matter what you say".  And we're seeing these types of things on the rise in our society at large.  And its getting worse over time.  You just don't see it depending on how your life has gone post-pandemic. 

This has nothing to do with my GF logging into my account.  They would have known our IP addresses were linked for the better part of the last three years.  We've lived together that entire time and I often used her computer and her phone to do Ebay (She has an andriod and I have an iphone.  Functionality is about 20 times better) Before she created her account.

[ruellas]

She doesn't owe money. 

When she realized the mistake she made, she immediately called customer service to figure out what to do.  I even jumped on that original call with Ebay customer service and told them who I was.  Which is why this is so crazy.   Because it means these bleeps waited almost 90 days to do this.  I had forgotten about this point until now.  This was back in November.  And once again, we're talking about 6 total orders that were placed, 3 of those were fulfilled, 1 was cancelled and 2 filed cases.  No one lost any money. 

Completely bogus.

[ruellas]

Sorry I should have clarified.  She called customer service in November to resolve what happened.  She ended up still being able to fullfill 3/6 orders, 1/6 order cancelled and 2/6 orders filed cases (1 of these was after she emailed all of her customers explaining what had happened). 

The customer service agent said that the "internal team" would be looking at the account and would contact her by email & phone call to update her on the status of the account.  I jumped on the call at one point and explained who I was.  It was a very productive and pleasant phone call.  I encouraged my GF to take care of the account immediately which she did and go over the top with fulfilling the orders and taking care of the customers because it was the right thing to do which she also did.  But its funny, because I'm now realizing they had 90 days to come to this decision after knowing our accounts were linked.  But with that being said, we've lived together for three years, I used all of her devices as if they were my own back then as well.   So all of this is really a mute point knowing that new information.

Is it harsh?  There's no question.  Anytime due process is withheld, it's harsh at the very least. 

[ruellas]

This is the behavior you're defending:

Ebay finds out accounts are "associated".

Ebay waits at a minimum 90 days to suspend seller.

Ebay suspends seller officially over the phone, by email, and thru eBay messages.

Ebay locks payout account and stops depositing money into check account.

Ebay leaves listings active and allows customers to still order from the account.

Seller isn't being paid for the order to be able to ship the order.  I'm not even sure this whole part is legal.  We're going to force you to fulfill the orders that we allowed to be ordered after we told you to get lost.  Oh not going to pay us? Stupid peasant! We will send the owed money to collections.

Good stuff.

[kensgiftshop]

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@ruellas wrote:

So you're essentially you're telling me that Ebay collects wrong doings against you to use in the future?  This happened about 60 days ago.

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Accounts have been suspended for things that happened years ago.