Selling restriction on my account - no related activity to be found

[immortality270]

Wonder if anyone can help me here because this is a real doozy for me.

I’ve been wanting to sell something and eBay since November 2022 as it seems to be the most appropriate platform for it (a signed trading card). I don’t primarily use eBay to sell, I really only use it to buy.

But it turns out that my account has a selling restriction dating back to June 2012 and for the life of me I cannot remember how or why I got that selling restriction.

Not a single agent is willing to tell me what it is I did wrong (due to policy) and it doesn’t appear that I can rectify the problem, no matter how many times I contact support for an appeal or just someone to talk to regarding this problem without just shutting me down immediately after they find out there’s nothing left to do.

The weirdest thing is - I’ve gone through all my feedback (buying/selling history can only go back so far so feedback was my best option to review my activity) AND I sorted through my e-mails during the time period I received the selling restriction. I don’t see ANYTHING indicating I’ve sold anything. All my feedback was for being a buyer during this time, and if assuming I did have a sale (successful or not), I’d have received positive or negative feedback as deemed appropriate by the buyer. I also do not have a single e-mail indicating a successful sale during this time period (I don’t delete my e-mails either and my inbox goes as far as like, 2005).

I’m inclined to create a second account at this point and start a clean slate - it’ll mean goodbye to my previously established feedback points but it’s what it is, I suppose. Is this the best way to go about it since it seems like a moot point to reach out to someone internally and have this fixed?

[krazzykats]

Account restrictions and suspensions | eBay

[immortality270]

My apologies, that doesn’t seem to help

me out much. It just lists reasons an account could be restricted - and none of the reasons seem to line up to anything from my memory or records. Still no e-mail in my inbox indicating a sale, or feedback pertaining to a sale I’ve done on or before June 2012.

Funny though, that article explains to “check my messages” and follow the steps that eBay will send regarding my account.

Every single time I try to submit a new listing under my account, I keep getting the error message “Your account is limited. Check your messages for next steps.” Except every single time I click that submit button for my listing and that error message comes up, nothing appears in my messages for next steps. I basically had to hound customer service for anything I could do to reinstate my account. And the one time I got something back (it was a request for appeal), I submitted relevant documents and the process detailed that it would take around 3-5 business days to turn over. Guess what? I never heard back from eBay after uploading those documents.

[toysaver]

If you haven't sold in years there's a new sheriff in town.  Have you joined managed payments?  

Registering as a seller | eBay

[downunder-61]

The fact that you are a new seller, in  addition to having to sign up for MP as stated above, you will also have restrictions on the qty and dollar value amounts for your first listings, this could be the issue also.

[immortality270]

I believe so - it seems like I’ve completed most of the items on there except for providing my SSN (article says they ask for it once I reach $600 in sales, which I haven’t). My Seller Hub is also readily accessible and doesn’t seem to show any problems or warning signs.

[immortality270]

Apart from registering for MP (see reply above, I actually completed most steps for this already), I’ve actually reached out to eBay customer service to raise the selling limit on my account and they agreed to do so. This was before I figured out my account has a selling restriction. I had assumed the error message when submitting my listing was because I had a low selling limit - that was apparently not the case and raising my selling limit at the time was a moot point since I had the restriction (not sure why the agent didn’t even tell me about the restriction in the first place, they just raised my selling limit).

[toysaver]

Did you try to list and get stopped or can't even get into the listing frame?  If the item is priced at over $600 that may be a trigger they already want your SS#.   You can try to list a cheap throw away item and see if that is allowed.  Also try and add your SS# and see if that fixes the situation.  

[ckimodog · Accepted solution]

@immortality270 

My suggestion would be to reach out on social media via Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/

These are US CS agents who work for Ebay.  The one's here on Ebay.com are outsourced overseas and known for giving false or incorrect info.  

 There have been many positive posts here on the forum with their ability to be helpful.  Hopefully they can give you some help with your situation.  

Wishing you a positive outcome and Good luck. 

[immortality270]

I just wanted to circle back to this post and say THANK YOU! The US agents were able to find a more detailed account of why my account is restricted for selling.

The US agent clarified with me that there was a concern with the activity on the account back in 2018 (why have multiple agents told me it was from some activity back in June 2012?) and that I had to send an e-mail to a specific address to get it rectified.

I did just that and eventually they opened up another account restriction appeal. Apparently it had to due with my account activity location and registered address. (for context, I used to live in the Philippines but moved to the US back in 2017)

So I submitted relevant documents and now I just got a message from eBay saying the restriction will be lifted! So relieved to have this solved. I appreciate your help (and everyone else's help from this thread)!