Ebay suspended my messaging for 7-days for sending a model number. Refuses to remove, help, etc.

[ducksandmore]

So i've had my share of ebay horror storries, including them deleting my account 5 times in one month because of suspected fraud, causing me to lose thousands in products they let people keep. But this tops the stupidity cake, and I tried to sort it out but I have now hit the bottom of no resolve.

A customer had messaged me asking me for the frquencies a radio I am selling operates on.

The message I responded contained "650.100-680.000" more digits than a phone number and in no way could really be interpreted with personal information. Upon sending I was met with an error, my accounts messaging had been suspended for 7-days for sending a message with personal information. 

No warnings, no anything, just automatic suspension. I have called over 10 times, attempted the ebay twitter, all with the same result. We can't see the message you sent and the system is automated and that I will just have to deal with my suspension. Luckily I took a screenshot when it happened as I was baffled and not sure I was reading it correctly, too bad they don't care nor have a way to receive emails nor a channel to check the message that triggered the system in the first place. 

Ive lost over $2k in the last day in sales ive been unable to answer, I have customers who have requested returns over simple questions that have been unanswered, and I cant even reply to messages in the returns. 

[castlemagicmemories]

Have read on the Boards that they are on Facebook.

[sockmonkeydave]

@castlemagicmemories

Dude... that was just last year

go to send a message, and

"You have exceded your message limit for the day, try again in the morning"

But I just got up, and have not sent any messages...

[castlemagicmemories]

Dave:  Yes, that was the message, you have exceeded your message limit for the day; try again later or tomorrow, I think.  Maybe mine was different from yours, since you say it said try again in the morning.  It wasn't last year for me; it was many years ago.  I had never had a message limit before that and that worked fine for me since I needed it that way, and it really hampered my buying since I couldn't ask questions.  But Ebay CS fixed it fast once I told them I wouldn't be buying as much if I couldn't ask questions in messages.  Thanks for telling me~~I had no idea it was still going on!

[campesinoplastic2014]

The censorship and other forms of micromanagement and commerce strangulation are practically beyond comprehesion. If they would just focus on improving the platform and fixing the stuff that's really broken and let sellers actually sell, it might turn around some day.

[godzilla_goose]

People,

eBay bots are created by human programming, OK. eBay bots are by design.

Back in May, I wrote what I thought of eBay bots (and there was NOT a single word that was profanity or vulgar of offensive, etc.) or replaced by eBay's software. Due to Lithium, I can't repeat that post here.

What I will write today, is that the eBay bots are . . . "inadequate".

For the longest time, I wrote that eBay's Proxy Bidding System was elegantly designed and I am truly grateful that eBay has not "tinkered" with it. Maybe, eBay should get programmers of that calibre who designed the Proxy Bidding System to design eBay bots that are "adequate" for the specific tasks eBay wants to replace that of intelligent human beings to perform.

My honest opinion of eBay's purported "SHILL detection algorithms" are that these are "inadequate". It appear to me, that OUR collective opinion of eBay's bots with respect to member communications is . . . "inadequate" but it is "inadequate" by (faulty) design.

AI could mean "Artificial Intelligence". On eBay, I could take AI to mean "Automated Interdiction" by design. . . .

< Gone for the day. >

[sockmonkeydave]

@castlemagicmemories

lol  it was strange...

Had a few guys who needed plane parts, so we needed to talk.

First day, I was limited to 3 messages

Next day it was 2 messages

Then next day 1

then next day zero

I made the sale, no thanks to ebay

But don't even try to put a part number in a message.

The bots will read it as a phone number, and slap you down.

Duh... the brake pads you need are BR-549...

[castlemagicmemories]

@sockmonkeydave

Oh, DAVE, BR-549...

Or 867-5309?

[lemarcheaupuces]

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@ducksandmore wrote:

Putting the information in listings isn't helpful if I don't know the missing information,  nor can I tell the person to look at the listing again. Honestly after this, I wouldn't post that information or any string of digits ever again in a message or item. What if I went and put that into an item, then instead of my messaging my selling rights were suspended and my listings removed? If my messaging has taken over a day of  "Work" to restore or looked at, how would that go about to be told too bad. Nothing is too far out in the scope of possibilities with ebay. 

After being told that I was lying and "You will just have to deal with it" by 10 different overseas "supervisors", I can't count the time wasted. Thankfully I was able to save this screenshot or else I would have absolutely no recourse. Every time an agent has said something would be fixed and I'd be notified right away, days go by without contact. This doesn't seem to need to be a complicated issue, "oh look it actually wasn't contact info, lets get this block removed", but apparently its extremely difficult. So difficult a block like this shouldn't exsist in the first place if you can't easily fix problems pertaining to it. 

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as per your op you also said that the Reps told u, they were unable to see the messages?

i recently called ebay about a msg i received.

the rep was able to read the msg in question.

seems to me you dealt with Reps that didn't want to help you.

there has been quite a few threads lately about messaging and horror stories.

more than a few posters have posted here about it.

same issue... suspicion of doing off ebay transactions...

1 was about a seller receiving a question (best offer or something) from a buyer.

he had not even replied to the offer that ebay had sent him a msg about it.

this is unbelievable...

[sockmonkeydave]

@castlemagicmemories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5PDrkzuaFQ

[castlemagicmemories]

Yes, reps can read messages.

[sharingtheland]

Good to hear, although I thought this was the area where an eBay rep said that any suspected violation would be reviewed by a human before action would be taken. Is that not correct?

a_cgreen

I seem to recall that.  I believe it was recently and I think Trinton said that.

I can answer that but I would be disrespectful and, well, you know, not being respectful of certain people others is spank could be a punishable frowned upon.

[rolenboy01]

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@godzilla_goose wrote:

People,

eBay bots are created by human programming, OK. eBay bots are by design.

Back in May, I wrote what I thought of eBay bots (and there was NOT a single word that was profanity or vulgar of offensive, etc.) or replaced by eBay's software. Due to Lithium, I can't repeat that post here.

What I will write today, is that the eBay bots are . . . "inadequate".

For the longest time, I wrote that eBay's Proxy Bidding System was elegantly designed and I am truly grateful that eBay has not "tinkered" with it. Maybe, eBay should get programmers of that calibre who designed the Proxy Bidding System to design eBay bots that are "adequate" for the specific tasks eBay wants to replace that of intelligent human beings to perform.

My honest opinion of eBay's purported "SHILL detection algorithms" are that these are "inadequate". It appear to me, that OUR collective opinion of eBay's bots with respect to member communications is . . . "inadequate" but it is "inadequate" by (faulty) design.

AI could mean "Artificial Intelligence". On eBay, I could take AI to mean "Automated Interdiction" by design. . . .

< Gone for the day. >

---

You said it yourself they are by "design" they are designed to be terrible on purpose therefore eBay isn't going to fix them.

[ted_200]

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@bubbleman2010 wrote:

Where would a person locate ebays social channels?

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Beats me... look in singles bars and Internet cafes in San Jose and Draper, Utah?  Or the Philippines?

I don't even know how things like this can happen.  These guys keep thumping their chests that they're the #1 tech gurus in the world, claiming they're a technology company, innovators, and all that... and they can't write a program for a bot that can accurately detect phone numbers?  Some here have suggested it's intentional... to what end?  How does freezing the OP's messaging for a week help anyone (including eBay)? 

Then... to have it issue suspensions... with no human review.  And to suggest the fix can be found on social media?  The people who answer phones in Customer Service need to be able to fix things like this!  You need to go hunting around on Facebook to try to find their social media gadflies?   That's just ridiculous... it's more like how a fraternity house would be run than a Fortune 500 company.

[godzilla_goose]

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@ted_200 wrote:

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@bubbleman2010 wrote:

Where would a person locate ebays social channels?

---

Beats me... look in singles bars and Internet cafes in San Jose and Draper, Utah?  Or the Philippines?

I don't even know how things like this can happen.  These guys keep thumping their chests that they're the #1 tech gurus in the world, claiming they're a technology company, innovators, and all that... and they can't write a program for a bot that can accurately detect phone numbers?  Some here have suggested it's intentional... to what end?  How does freezing the OP's messaging for a week help anyone (including eBay)? 

Then... to have it issue suspensions... with no human review.  And to suggest the fix can be found on social media?  The people who answer phones in Customer Service need to be able to fix things like this!  You need to go hunting around on Facebook to try to find their social media gadflies?   That's just ridiculous... it's more like how a fraternity house would be run than a Fortune 500 company.

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ted_200,

It does not matter to me that eBay is a technology company; I would never trust eBay to look out for my interests.

People,

Please take a few minutes to read this article from March 23, 2003 about eBay's Anti-Fraud Software Questioned:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebays-anti-fraud-software-questioned/

I realize this "stuff" happened more than 14 years ago, but there was greater transparency in the eBay marketplace at that time. It has not been the same since 2006.

[llllady]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@ducksandmore wrote:

This issue has now been resolved. 

An amazing person reached out on another form of social media I had complained on and got the block removed, to whom i'm extremely thankful.

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Good to hear, although I thought this was the area where an eBay rep said that any suspected violation would be reviewed by a human before action would be taken. Is that not correct?

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Enough said...