Closing down my eBay store after 24 years :/

[maddocks]

Long story made short...

I had a major heart attack in July and nearly died and spent a month in the hospital.  As a result about a months worth of sales were shipped late or canceled.  In 100% of the cases, I emailed each of the buyers and apologized, and everyone was understanding - except for eBay Customer Service.

My selling account was deemed Below Standard and my selling amount crippled to 10% of what I'd had listed.  Sales went from 10+ a week to maybe 2 per month.  I used to have the largest sized store and I had to forcibly downsize to the smallest, to fit my then revised selling limit.  Now six months later (about) it's been reduced yet again.

Starting in late September I repeatedly contacted CS (4 times via chat and 3+ times by phone) and I have each time been told a different story.  First they said they would 'fix' my account, as of the 20th of the month - but it would never be done.  Nothing changed.  Since then I've been told there is no manual means of overriding the eBay computer after 30 days.  I spent 30+ years in IT - I know that's nonsense!  The low level CS drones in India might not have any supervisory editing ability but someone higher up the chain of command must, somewhere.

For six months, I've been trying to find someone at CS with a ounce of common sense - and failing.  No One can override the almighty computer and my selling account is effectively disabled until late this summer.  I've been selling on eBay since 1998 and had a 100% Postive FB score... but while they thank 'my loyalty' in every conversation, no one can 'adjust' the computer system or raise my selling limit to anything practical (until the old defects automatically expire in a year or so).

I've had to remove about a thousand sale items off of eBay initially, and even now today I'm 'disallowed' from editing old existing items - forget adding any new ones!  I've had NONE of these problems with Etsy and I'm moving everything there. 

I regret that it has come to this, but I expected some minimal small amount of flexibility from a company I have been paying fees to for 24 years.   I'm still recovering fairly slowly and I just don't need or want this kind of stress and frustration in my life now.  I'm disabled now and need this sort of income - but I'll try and get it exclusively from Etsy now.

Am I being in the least bit unreasonable???

Regards, Alex

Enough.

[luckythewinner]

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I had a major heart attack in July and nearly died and spent a month in the hospital.  As a result about a months worth of sales were shipped late or canceled.

It's unfortunate that after 24 years, you did not have a contingency plan.

In 100% of the cases, I emailed each of the buyers and apologized, and everyone was understanding - except for eBay Customer Service.

The eBay Seller Rating criteria do not have a waiver for either illness or apologies.

[evelyb30]

eBay has a long history of throwing sellers under the bus, unfortunately.  I'd say take the penalty and close down early, but eBay will neither notice nor care and if you leave it up you may at least cover the fees.  

[luckythewinner]

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@evelyb30 wrote:

eBay has a long history of throwing sellers under the bus, unfortunately.

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This seller threw himself under the bus by not having a contingency plan in place. I do not think eBay needs to be in the business of treating sellers like elementary school students and verifying doctor's notes. 

[evelyb30]

Unfortunately, this is one of those things you don't know until after you needed to know it.  This should be mentioned in seller onboarding, and there darned well should be help on eBay's end for sellers with provable medical emergencies.  Removing dings at the very least.  

[meme6253]

Your Health Is First & Foremost!!, The Best To You!!, It Is A Shame Because Everyone Can Have A Health Issue At Anytime, I'm Currently Going Through Some Health Issues, But I Can Handle Things!

[mam98031]

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@evelyb30 wrote:

Unfortunately, this is one of those things you don't know until after you needed to know it.  This should be mentioned in seller onboarding, and there darned well should be help on eBay's end for sellers with provable medical emergencies.  Removing dings at the very least.  

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No it isn't.  You don't know about your Seller Dashboard or the areas in which Ebay will put a Defect on your account?  You should.  All sellers should.  The Seller Dashboard shows you the health of your Selling account and if you have an area or areas in which you are approaching a danger level.

And all sellers should have a plan B as I talked about earlier in this thread.  Sometimes life gets in the way and we should be prepared for that potentially happening.  It isn't Ebay's responsibility to do that for us.

[luckythewinner]

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@evelyb30 wrote:

Unfortunately, this is one of those things you don't know until after you needed to know it.

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I reject the idea that no business has ever planned for the unexpected. It's business 101.

[mike_jayroe]

First of all hope you get a speedy recovery. 

If I were to suffer a emergency, no one would be able to cancel any sales as my only housemates are my two Golden Retrievers and they can't type or read. On August 15th of last year I slipped on a wet floor and spent 15 hours in the hospital trauma unit. Six hours after getting up from a long nap I took time off to recover. If I were not released after a similar incident and held for some time, same thing could happen.

E-bay needs to adjust for this.

And sorry to say, the crack about elementary students is kinda cold.  

[mam98031]

BTW Make sure you know the Etsy rules for sellers too.  You will likely find they aren't so different from Ebay's.

We pay for a store subscription each month.  We don't pay in advance.  Your post made it sound like you pay in advance, so I just wanted to make this clear.  In your Seller Hub, in the box for Selling Tools and then click on Subscriptions.  There you can find the exact date regarding your store subscriptions.  If you choose to close it early there are early termination fees as you are aware of.  They are as follows.

Early Termination Fee
Calendar months remaining in your subscription	Starter	Basic	Premium	Anchor	Enterprise
1	$1.65	$7.32	$19.98	$99.98	$999.98
2	$3.30	$14.63	$39.97	$199.97	$1,999.97
3	$4.95	$21.95	$59.95	$299.95	$2,999.95
4	$6.60	$29.27	$79.93	$399.93	$3,999.93
5	$8.25	$36.58	$99.92	$499.92	$4,999.92
6	$9.90	$43.90	$119.90	$599.90	$5,999.90
7	$11.55	$51.22	$139.88	$699.88	$6,999.88
8	$13.20	$58.53	$159.87	$799.87	$7,999.87
9	$14.85	$65.85	$179.85	$899.85	$8,999.85
10	$16.50	$73.17	$199.83	$999.83	$9,999.83
11	$18.15	$80.48	$219.82	$1,099.82	$10,999.82

https://pages.ebay.com/stores/subscriptionterms.html

[mam98031]

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@mike_jayroe wrote:

First of all hope you get a speedy recovery. 

If I were to suffer a emergency, no one would be able to cancel any sales as my only housemates are my two Golden Retrievers and they can't type or read. On August 15th of last year I slipped on a wet floor and spent 15 hours in the hospital trauma unit. Six hours after getting up from a long nap I took time off to recover. If I were not released after a similar incident and held for some time, same thing could happen.

E-bay needs to adjust for this.

And sorry to say, the crack about elementary students is kinda cold.  

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@mike_jayroe 

How do you think Ebay should adjust for this?  What steps should Ebay take?  Should they just believe a seller that tells them they had been sick, even fighting for their very life.  That isn't directed at the OP of this thread.  I firmly believe they are telling the truth, but unfortunately not everyone does.  

So how is Ebay to know?  What process do you think would work?  Ebay can't require medical info from the seller, that is illegal [HIPPA].  So how could or would Ebay be able to verify anything?

[mike_jayroe]

I would be very happy to show a copy of the Ambulance transfer paperwork and a copy of the hospital paperwork shwing admittance and discharge forms. That should be enough to prove I told the truth. 

[mam98031]

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@mike_jayroe wrote:

I would be very happy to show a copy of the Ambulance transfer paperwork and a copy of the hospital paperwork shwing admittance and discharge forms. That should be enough to prove I told the truth. 

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Maybe you would.  But they can't require it.

I understand the deep concern over this topic.  Sadly it could happen to any of us at any time.  That is why a Plan B is so important and every seller should have one in place.  If one is in place, then the seller that falls ill will only need to concentrate on getting better and not worry about their customers at all.  Just do what is important and that is the heal.

Then there are even worse matters and something happens to a seller that is more permanent.  I have unfortunately known a couple of sellers this happened to and they had no plan B.  So their account stayed active until there were so many buyer complaints, refunds and negative FB that Ebay closed the account down.  Most of those buyers would likely never know what happened other than they had a miserable experience on Ebay.

[mike_jayroe]

Hopefully that will change one day. Sellers need some protection when disaster strikes. 

Where this was a health matter, there are natural disasters that can happen. One minor one I had a decade ago, southern Harford county, Md. suffered a blackout that lasted three days due to a derecho.

I am sure others on here have had tornado's, blizzards, or other things shut them down also. 

Hopefully things will work out in the long run.

[mam98031]

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@mike_jayroe wrote:

Hopefully that will change one day. Sellers need some protection when disaster strikes. 

Where this was a health matter, there are natural disasters that can happen. One minor one I had a decade ago, southern Harford county, Md. suffered a blackout that lasted three days due to a derecho.

I am sure others on here have had tornado's, blizzards, or other things shut them down also. 

Hopefully things will work out in the long run.

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The point is they CAN.  But it is the seller that needs to take the steps to protect themselves.  It is an easy thing to do.  It isn't the site's fault.  

Ebay does and has for years protected sellers regarding Natural Disasters.  They announce these as needed.

Here are just a few recent examples.  But you can find them going back for years.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Seller-Protections-for-the-South-and-Central-US/ba-p/335...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Seller-Protections-for-shipping-delays-due-to-winter-sto...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Seller-Protections-are-in-place-for-sellers-impacted-by-...

[chapeau-noir]

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@mike_jayroe wrote:

First of all hope you get a speedy recovery. 

If I were to suffer a emergency, no one would be able to cancel any sales as my only housemates are my two Golden Retrievers and they can't type or read. On August 15th of last year I slipped on a wet floor and spent 15 hours in the hospital trauma unit. Six hours after getting up from a long nap I took time off to recover. If I were not released after a similar incident and held for some time, same thing could happen.

E-bay needs to adjust for this.

And sorry to say, the crack about elementary students is kinda cold.  

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OK, just as an example (not trying to poke) - who do you have as a fall-back to take care of your dogs if something happens to you?  Or step up and assist with PoA or any other issues?  All they need to do is have your password and know how to pause things for you - a trusted relative, friend or neighbour.  Yes, it means you have to give your password to someone, but anyone I would trust to take care of my pets I would trust with that information.

This is kind of basic, really.  I know things happen - I was racked up in bed for over a week after a mountainbiking accident and could barely function for about two days (smacked my head along with everything else) - I could poke some buttons and pause things, but I had to be actually levered out of bed to even get up and use the facilities.  But for a devastating incident like the OP where there's just no way, whomever takes care of business in your (collective) absence could take care of this.

I engaged in risky sports for years and am a "no brain no pain" type of person - so understand, but I *knew* I'd have to have someone to look after things (and I would do the same for them).  I can't depend on some multinational company to take care of me, it's not really even feasible as there is no direct relationship - we're just another account.