Accounts getting restricted for failing irrelevant questions?

[sframe-collects]

I've bought figurines from Ebay before, and sold 1 at $460 in March, with no dispute.

This month (end of April), I tried listing a collectable scroll for $50. A few minutes after posting, the listing got pulled down, and my account is restricted while I was trying list a figure for $380.

I contacted live chat support, provided proof of purchase for the two items (photos of the physical invoices with tracking numbers), and then proceeded to answer security questions that asked if I've ever been associated to the addresses they've listed. I replied accordingly per their prompts - i.e., "I have never been associated with any of these addresses".

And then I'm told that my account's restriction is now permanent.

Seriously. What the hell. I'm in San Francisco, and I've only ever had my name associated with Bay Area addresses, yet the addresses provided had nothing to do with me.

I can't conceive of any valid reason why my account would be suspicious - Ebay's $500 monthly limit is pretty restrictive, but my sales are still priced within that margin. I've a flawless newborn account that has yet to get any sort of negative feedback. I'm at a complete loss; can somebody tell me what went wrong?

[lepke1979]

You may want to try eBay For Business on Facebook and plead your case via messaging. It might be a waste of time at this point. But at the same time, you don't have anything to lose trying.

[lepke1979]

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@sframe-collects wrote:

Well... no surprise, google's having no issues finding people with the exact same name as me (curse my Asian lineage).

If that's the level Ebay's going by for their identification process, anybody with similarly common last names like "Smith", "Lee", "Chang", "Lopez", etc paired with overused first names are going to be screwed too.

Is it my fault my parents decided to name me Austin and I decided to go with it? Dx

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It's probably based on the social you provided them and maybe current address as a baseline. Have normally only seen address questions like these pop up when doing something online requiring identity verification and the like. The address questions here seem a bit more convoluted though. But they're somehow gathered through whom you banked with and whatnot. Probably via whatever credit monitoring services (Experian, TransUnion, etc.) use.

[sframe-collects]

Uhh... Yeah, that's what an ID is for; I'd happily provide scans of its front and back over some nonsense questions aggregated on the premise that google search alone is an actually reliable engine for tracking individuals down.

And I highly doubt they actually use a legitimate credit monitoring or history tracking service, because I've never had any such issue with banks and creditors. I know I'm not that difficult to find via legitimate services because I've been tracked down to my old addresses before.

[m60driver]

Honestly, those typed conversations read like you are interacting with a chatbox.

[luckythewinner]

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@sframe-collects wrote:

If that's the level Ebay's going by for their identification process, anybody with similarly common last names like "Smith", "Lee", "Chang", "Lopez", etc paired with overused first names are going to be screwed too.

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I thought eBay already told you what they are going by: 

"I will ask you 3 to 4 random questions based from the information available in public database. Once you have provided the answers, the system will automatically tell us that the verification was successful."

[richards*collection]

They must have their reasons.

[buyselljack2016]

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@richards*collection wrote:

They must have their reasons.

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They likely do, and it is likely a flawed program that is associating the OP with someone else as a result of the flawed process.

[lepke1979]

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@sframe-collects wrote:

Uhh... Yeah, that's what an ID is for; I'd happily provide scans of its front and back over some nonsense questions aggregated on the premise that google search alone is an actually reliable engine for tracking individuals down.

And I highly doubt they actually use a legitimate credit monitoring or history tracking service, because I've never had any such issue with banks and creditors. I know I'm not that difficult to find via legitimate services because I've been tracked down to my old addresses before.

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It should be good enough, but IDs can be faked. I am just saying the questions you were asked in regards to prior addresses sound like some sort of ID verification I've seen when going to sites needing to verify who I am. Not to mention filling out loan paperwork online.

It seems weird doing it via chat though. Particularly when it is possible for the CS lady to click the wrong bubble. Would think they'd have you do it via somewhere else (id.me for instance) and come back when you're done.

[sframe-collects]

Not a problem if they phrased their questions to have a correct answer that wouldn't require incorrect information.

Those questions have answers most people with the same name legitimately wouldn't have answers to. At such a point, it's not a process of verification, but more likely a culling of the seller population to a more manageable level...

[sframe-collects]

After about two hours following my initial message there, an agent by the name of Lindsey replied with an authentication link, which I assume was just to link my Facebook and Ebay accounts.

So far that's proceeded perfectly; just awaiting a reply for my next steps. Here's to hoping!

[dbfolks166mt]

     Given eBay's infamous "glitch" history it would not surprise me in the least if this is not another one of those programming errors. It seems to be happening quite often these days. It's a shame they don't expend the same amount of effort on screening out the bad buyer account population. 

[katzrul15]

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@sframe-collects wrote:

After about two hours following my initial message there, an agent by the name of Lindsey replied with an authentication link, which I assume was just to link my Facebook and Ebay accounts.

So far that's proceeded perfectly; just awaiting a reply for my next steps. Here's to hoping!

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That is awesome news!  Hope you get this resolved quickly!  Woot!

[sframe-collects]

Indeed, for as far as I've read into Ebay's recent history.

I do like that they're taking a more active stance to protect users from bad actors, but I do wish they'd also take care of sellers to the same extent; sellers have just as much to lose as buyers do, if not more for the time they put into setting things up for the sake of maintaining a working business.

[lepke1979]

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@sframe-collects wrote:

Indeed, for as far as I've read into Ebay's recent history.

I do like that they're taking a more active stance to protect users from bad actors, but I do wish they'd also take care of sellers to the same extent; sellers have just as much to lose as buyers do, if not more for the time they put into setting things up for the sake of maintaining a working business.

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They aren't perfect, but I find eBay to be better than Amazon in this regard. I got suspended there a couple years ago because they have me associated with 6 accounts. The number might be higher now. Seemed like everytime I talked to Account Health that number increased. Originally it was just 2 or 3.

They wouldn't give me the names of whom I am associated with outside of the first 3 characters. Or how they are associated with me. Only thing I can think of is that I would connect to my selling account at my work on their wifi, so maybe there were some bad seller's there too. So I basically need to prove a negative.

Come to find out later it's recommended to only use one computer to get to your account with a VPN because of stuff like this. Heck, looking at their board, there are apparently seller's that have agreements with other sellers to sell their stuff if they get suspended until they get back in Amazon's good graces. Or if. It's insane.

Had no luck with my appeals. I could pay a company a few thousand to write one for me that may be more successful than I have been. But for now I'm just not going to bother. Someday maybe.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@sframe-collects wrote:

After about two hours following my initial message there, an agent by the name of Lindsey replied with an authentication link, which I assume was just to link my Facebook and Ebay accounts.

So far that's proceeded perfectly; just awaiting a reply for my next steps. Here's to hoping!

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I hope this works out for you. 

It's scary because if you have a common name and/or live in a geographical area that has a high population of your ethnicity, it's very possible that those types of "verification" questions might be targeting someone else!

BTW, I was very impressed with how you kept your cool throughout the online chats. I would have lost it and wouldn't have had any chance of reinstatement!