No-Reply email from Ebay telling me I may have committed fraud

[phillyforreally_1]

Warning - Offers to sell outside of eBay

Hello XXXXXXXXXX

We’re writing to let you know that activity on your account may not be following an important eBay Policy that requires all transactions and payments to be completed on eBay. Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay aren't allowed. This includes displaying contact information or links in a listing except as allowed in the policy or required by law. We understand that you might not have known about these policies. We're sending you this notification to ensure that you can follow the policy going forward.

Below are the details of where the activity occurred:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

My username and Item number redacted for this posting.

I called CS, after 20 minutes, nothing but "this is just a standard email reminding you of our policies" was stated by the CS rep.

I decided against selling my item.  I ended the auction with the option of this item is no longer available.  I had no pending offers, I had no pending activities on this auction, and this is the email I get.  Can anyone tell me what is going on here?

I still have the laptop, so any insinuation that I tried to sell it outside of the eBay process, is plain slanderous.

[goodluckselling]

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@phillyforreally_1 wrote:

I don't see any listing charges on that.

But that doesn't mean they won't "oh by the way" me any time they like, meaning I have to monitor this like a hawk now, for nothing wrong that I did.  Because if eBay charges me, I'll have to pay, and I have all my payments on auto-pilot.  So all this nonsense just created work for me which I don't deserve. What a sad state of events.

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It seems to me that if you just spent some time and called eBay and speak to a supervisor, they could get you to a person who can explain what they think you are doing against eBay policy.

Good Luck Selling!

[a_c_green]

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@phillyforreally_1 wrote:

Long story short, I took my item off eBay after all this described took place.  And that's not even completely why I took it off.  I just got tired off the scams.

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Right, that's what triggered the message. A high-value (and high-scam) target like a laptop that was taken off the market after some messaging with the seller would set off alarm bells.  You're better off selling that kind of item locally for cash. Here you'll just get a never-ending parade of pre- or post-sale scam attempts. 

Incidentally, slander is verbal; libel is written...

[phillyforreally_1]

Ha!  Thanks, I did not know that slander vs libel detail.  Good to know, I may be on a trivia show some day, and it may come in handy.  But seriously though, thanks, I didn't know that differentiation.

Reason why I'm reluctant to sell such things on the street is because I'm afraid of 3 people rolling in telling me the laptop or my life.  Hence, eBay was the answer to that.  

In fact, I recently purchased a high-end tech item for $750 from a seller. I paid immediately, no stories or nonsense.

But unfortunately, people like me are dying by the dozen; pretty soon, the honesty to scam ratio will be close to zero.

[phillyforreally_1]

And I did speak to CS at eBay.  After 20 minutes of prodding, I got the "don't worry about it" response.

[selmon_97]

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@phillyforreally_1 wrote:

Yeah, some scammer from Malaysia, who I reported to Ebay.

But this was before I took the item off.  

This is the thanks I got from eBay, for making eBay a better place.

Then there was another scammer who won my item with a Buy-It-Now who cried that her account was stolen and used illegally.  So I wound up having to spend 2 hours playing with CS to refund my listing fees.

This was before the Malaysia scammer situation.

Long story short, I took my item off eBay after all this described took place.  And that's not even completely why I took it off.  I just got tired off the scams.

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that's what triggered the message. eBay saw that you had received messages about the item, and then pullEd the item down

[mam98031]

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@phillyforreally_1 wrote:

Can I copy/paste my listing contents here into the forums, maybe someone can tell me what the problem is?

I deliberately did not paste the content of the listing here because that too could be a violation.  As you can see, this is not my first rodeo, I know more about PII and compliance than the average bear.

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It may not have been your listing.  Did you email any other member answering questions or anything?

[mam98031]

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@phillyforreally_1 wrote:

Yeah, some scammer from Malaysia, who I reported to Ebay.

But this was before I took the item off.  

This is the thanks I got from eBay, for making eBay a better place.

Then there was another scammer who won my item with a Buy-It-Now who cried that her account was stolen and used illegally.  So I wound up having to spend 2 hours playing with CS to refund my listing fees.

This was before the Malaysia scammer situation.

Long story short, I took my item off eBay after all this described took place.  And that's not even completely why I took it off.  I just got tired off the scams.

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The Ebay bots most likely thought there was something in the emails they didn't like coupled with you closing the listing.

[renner_renner]

Just a warning; I had a similar incident recently. We had a canoe for sale. Someone contacted us about it and in the conversation, my husband mentioned we had it on Craigslist because it's obviously not something you can ship. He had no intention of selling it to this guy, but we had more photos there. His bad, but not intentional. We got one of those warning emails. 

Now, we've been selling on eBay for almost 20 years, with no incidents. We've given these people a heck of a lot of money over the years. This is a first time, one-time thing.

Weeks went by, canoe had not sold. Last week, we had a storm go through here that blew a huge branch out of a tree. The branch landed on the canoe, and broke it in two places, rendering it unsellable. I have photos of the damage. So I pulled it off both eBay and Craigslist, of course.

eBay has now charged us a $60 seller's fee. They assume you are guilty, and do not give you a chance to prove you are innocent. I spent an hour on the phone with several heavily-accented "customer service" people, all of whom refused to vary from the scripts they had in front of them that said they had the right to charge us a fee because of one - ONE -  "warning."

They refuse to listen to us, and are assuming that because we pulled it off, they are somehow missing out on their cut. So not only do I no longer have an item to sell, I now have to pay eBay a fee for it. I am livid.

So just be aware, that for eBay, a warning is not a message that says hey, you did something wrong, don't do it again. It's their way of ensuring they get your money, no matter what. **bleep**s.