?? Threatening E-Mail from "eBay Global Collections" - Confirmed it is from eBay!

[freedom-4000]

Has anyone else received this type of communication?

Today I received a threat from eBay. Perhaps they might call it a promise.

They have threatened to send my information to a debt collector for an item that I listed ONLY 2 DAYS AGO with no prior balance.

THE E-MAIL I RECEIVED FROM eBay:

A SECOND MESSAGE WAS ALSO SENT TO eBay 'Messages' ..THIS IS THE AUTO-REPLY E-MAIL I RECEIVED AFTER REPORTING THE INITIAL E-MAIL AS A 'SPOOF' OR HARMFUL ATTEMPT, BUT I LATER DETERMINED WAS ACTUALLY FROM EBAY.

A couple of points:

1. My payment due date is 29 days away since I just listed my item.

2. I had a neutral balance of $0.00 before listing this single item just 2 days ago!

There are still 28 days remaining on my listing yet they're threatening me with "eBay Global Collections". 

Is this now the common theme among companies largely funded by private equity?

An internet search suggests eBay has more than 160 subsidiaries, a trademark of a ponzi scheme but what do I know, I am just a dumb customer.

This type of behavior and communication with consumers is absolutely mistrustful, twisted and totally inappropriate. It is not a mistake when it continues to happen, I think many people are stuck in an abusive relationship with an entity that we call eBay.

The actions taken by eBay themselves calls into question the integrity of the company, the people who make up the company, and what their actions and words are really communicating to American citizens, paying customers, who pay to use their services.

Upon further search, it seems eBay has a pattern of doing this as a matter of routine.

There are many, many web results. I actually forward the E-Mail to eBay before seeing a message in the 'Messages' area of my account also. 

Many people seem confused when it happens, and are unsure if it was actually from eBay, but this is absolutely no glitch or mistake. There is an unmistakable pattern of abuse here.

Who are the head corporate people in charge at eBay, are they aware of these methods and do they need to be personally contacted by writing?

If they are aware and this is the best they can do, there are about twenty different ways that I can inform people about this if for some reason this message gets deleted or censored.

Perhaps issues like this need to be discussed with people who have large audiences on YouTube, to gain a better understanding and a consensus about what people think about this.
I have had enough of troglodyte behavior, it seems their treatment of customers has gotten worse.

This is wholly unprofessional and companies must expect an equal or opposite reaction among consumers at a minimum. 

I have attached three screenshots.

1. Showing the E-Mail I received. At first, I was unsure if it was legitimate or not, but the links check out and go to the eBay login system.

2. They sent the same correspondence via eBay messages. This also confirms it is business as usual for eBay.

3. The auto-reply from eBay suggests "Most likely, the message you received was not sent to you by eBay."

But, it in fact was and they also sent a similar one to my eBay message folder.

eBay did not contact me, not even once, before sending this threatening letter for a two-day-old 'debt' as they call it. A two-day-old debt they're already threatening to leverage 'eBay Global Collections' to collect.

Who are these people, isn't that an offensive.. brash.. disrespectful.. unprofessional.. totally despicable way to operate a multi-Billion dollar enterprise?

They are so demanding of payment before it is even due, they will threaten you!

Well, that is not acceptable and there are consequences for every action, good or bad. They'll be wholly owned by private equity soon, that is if someone in Congress doesn't take a closer look.

Perhaps the shift away from American sellers and allowing unfair practices by international sellers from Asia is also indicative of eBay's moral compass or the lack thereof. 

eBay moderators, modying or censoring this will constitute abuse, modifying or tampering with my account will be documented and sent up the chain to people in Corporate supervisory and executive roles. I will contact each of them personally.  Not to mention media influencers to disseminate this information and other complaints of questionable practicess if suppressed or hidden from view, or if I am punished for bringing this to light.

Absolutely shameful conduct, eBay should not behave like organized crime enforcers while communicating with customers. Over $49 from two days ago, new limits of cringe.

In eBay's very own policy it states: "Payouts are simple and streamlined. eBay deducts selling costs and fees related to your sales from your funds prior to payout." This company should change its name to CringeBay. It appears eBay Global Collections is actually a debt collection agency, the enforcement wing!

This is facist behavioral pattern and not one that any self-respecting business owner would ever emulate!

Reference: https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/payments-and-fees/payments-and-earnings#:~:text=Payouts%20are%20si....

[krazzykats]

Check your charges and balances here:

Seller Hub | All transactions | eBay

Fees for selling a vehicle on eBay Motors

"Fees are charged at the time of listing."  So, you may indeed have a current balance, but only pay on eBay and not through an email link.

[dbfolks166mt]

     I have not received any message to this effect but this has phishing scam written all over it. I am assuming you have a checking account linked to your eBay account and that would be the first place eBay would go to recover fees or charges. Unless that checking account has a $0 balance they would have taken the fees from there. 

[wastingtime101]

The situation you described is very odd @freedom-4000 . Since this is verified legit found in your eBay messages, and you said there was no account balance prior to listing an item 2 days ago, I would contact eBay's social CS team and ask what's going on. Is there something old tied to the account causing this, perhaps? Was it sent in error and if so, how do you get the red flag removed from your account?

Send a DM to one of eBay's social CS teams: ebay on facebook, ebayforsellers on insta, askebay on X

Leave out all the info from your post above except what's essential.

Hi, hoping you can help me with an account issue. My account had zero balance until I listed an item 2 days ago, but suddenly I received an eBay message saying my account is overdue and being sent to debt collectors. Why is this happening?

They'll send you a link to log in and verify your account and look into it. Go from there.

[toysaver]

"My payment due date is 29 days away since I just listed my item."

That's incorrect.  There is a fee depending on what package you picked charged due when you make the listing.  It is not free to sell on eBay.

Fees for selling a vehicle on eBay Motors

Have you joined managed payments?  It looks like there has never been a sale on the account and you have a 6K motorcycle listed.  EBay has to have your bank account information to deposit any money and your SS# to report sales to the IRS.  You should have method to pay for the listing set up before you list.  Your listing states "Cash or wire transfer, sorry no personal checks."   - How will eBay get their share of the money?

Start getting paid on eBay | eBay

[wastingtime101]

I had a similar thought about maybe the seller not having a payment method on file, toysaver, but the message from eBay says they've reached out several times about the money owed and OP listed their item just 2 days ago. Based on that info alone they should not have received a collections notice. There has to be something else at play here, either from an old transaction or perhaps a system error.

[freedom-4000]

There is only $49.30 owed from a listing submitted 2 DAYS AGO.

Balance prior: $0.00

Toysaver, regardless of whether it is owed NOW or 28 days from now does not excuse the E-Mail and message.

TOTALLY UNPROFESSIONAL.

Not a scam E-Mail.. not a spoof E-Mail.. it is verified from eBay.

Search the internet or read the seller area, there are many examples.

I am wondering if anyone has received this specific type of threat or something close to it.

It almost sounds like some of you wish to make excuses for eBay, or pretend they are justified. Is this the lapdog area?

"That's incorrect"    are you seriously missing the entire point, are you an eBay apologist or what??

Like I said, they did not contact me at all, ever.

The E-Mail itself is from them and not only is it intended to coerce, they claim to have contacted me numerous times which, they did not contact me at all.

I should not need to explain how a business related message should read.

I've read horror stories about eBay for years.

They've done me wrong a time or two, I tried to find an innocent explanation each time.

Now this.

Seems like an abusive relationship.

[freedom-4000]

I posted a screenshot of the pending fees.. $49.30

But now you have witnessed the message I received after just two short days of listing my item.

eBay has all of my information and has for over a decade, there is no excuse for this behavior from a company no less.

[freedom-4000]

I agree, it absolutely looked like a phishing scam, I reported it to eBay!

Then, after checking the specifics I realized was in fact from eBay.

That cruddy, disrespectful, unprofessional communication establishes EVERYTHING I need to know.

No reason to doublt what I say, I've been honest, literally $0.00 two days ago to $49.30 (no additional fees on vehicles, only desposit) and I was going to log in to pay it and saw that message in my E-Mail.

I don't link accounts with eBay, and neither should you.

It is probably very bothersome and financially tough for regular eBay sellers, they do-not seem to value sellers at all.

Not to mention they take about 50% of your profit on regular items.

eBay has largelh become just another place to purchase cheap goods from China.

That is the push. Most North American sellers have left.

[krazzykats]

I agree, it looks like a phishing email. 

You listed a nice motors item that may have attracted the attention of scammers.  They may be waiting for newly listed motors items like yours, to try and bill you for the fees before you realize you aren't really paying eBay using that email link.  

[freedom-4000]

Thank you for your message, it was very thoughtful.

Professional companies don't require customers to seek out an employee to talk to on social media.

I don't use social media.

So where does that leave me, without any customer support?

Social media is not an appropriate venue to provide official support, these companies are run so poorly it's not even funny, it makes people frustrated. Some leave, most tolerate it.

They're only owed $49.30 from 2 days ago and that's the type of abusive trash they send out to customers. 

You long time sellers who sell little knick-knacks must be gluttons for punishment, oh my God.

Why are you not calling the corporate supervisors AND executives to fix the problems you all face???

And if they don't fix it, leave.

Perhaps they don't respect women, most of the sellers are women, and being in business with eBay is like being in an abusive relationship.

It seems eBay has zero seller protection for small items. Sellers MUST accept returns even if they're sold as-is or even damaged by the buyer, and pay for shipping, I wonder if ToySaver actually likes this system?

The point is, it never should have happened.

Not from a company with a Net Worth of over 26 Billion dollars.

Absolutely pathetic, their executives should be ashamed at their day to day operations and customer experience (that means SELLERS too!!!).

[wastingtime101]

If you're not willing to create a social media account then your option is to go through the eBay help pages. Start on this page about billing, scroll to the bottom, and click the automated agent link. You'll get a chatbot and have to type in some keywords like "billing" and "agent" and eventually, keep scrolling down and click "see more options" until you eventually get the ability to either chat with a live agent or get a call back from a live agent. You'll probably be dealing with overseas CS reps. I suggest waiting until Monday business hours for a better chance at a US rep - plus that'll give you the weekend to cool down. I can see you're pretty upset.

I'm not old, I don't sell "little knick-knacks," and I generally use the social CS reps because it's super efficient for me to send a DM then get right back to work. It's also pretty rare that I have a need to contact CS. Most of the time I contact them it's to report a tech issue and with social I can upload a screenshot of the problem.

Most companies have a CS outlet on social media these days for the convenience. You definitely don't have to use it, I just think it's the most efficient option in your situation.

I'll repeat my advice above if you go through either phone or chat reps, to leave out all the non-necessary info and emotions and stick to something short and to the point, like what I wrote above. Stay calm as best you can and keep it professional. Let us know what happens.

------

I'll also add this:

You can make a one time payment to pay the listing fee for the motorcycle. I do realize that's beside the point of receiving the notice in the first place, but it might be an easy way to make the problem go away without wasting a second contacting CS. Just get rid of the stress and make the problem go away.

In looking at your above screenshot of payment due, the listing fee for the motorcycle was $49.00 but it says your balance owed is $49.30 - so where's that 30 cents coming from? Is it perhaps owed from a long ago cancelled transaction? Based on the amount, that's my inclination. It could be that measly $0.30 that caused this issue.

[freedom-4000]

1. eBay has support channels, customers should not have to rely on third-party social media to achieve resolution on simple issues.

There are complaints going back more than six years of eBay doing this to people.

As for being professional, I am professional. The issue we're discussing is eBay lacking in professionalism by sending thousands of people threatening E-Mails.

I am voicing my concerns here to the community to see how many others have experienced this and have an opinion they wish to share, for my own enlightenment and a chance for others to learn.

I would encourage you to look at some of the thousands of reports from people who've been subjected to this nonsense. Threatening to use their own collection agency and account suspension, that is not classy from any perspective.

My account is paid up, I'm not going to waste my time on hold for hours with eBay support, that is by design. In the event of a billing issue, it benefits eBay financially not the consumer. There was an issue with sellers being charge 4% extra, many paid it because they did not want to wait on hold for hours end.

As for the .30 cents, funny you say that, they just added on a bogus .30 cent charge from a previous transaction in Feb. 

Yet my balance was $0.00 before submitting ONE listing for $49.

eBay is a company that has access to some of the best technology and software available, they make a very profitable 2.6 Billion dollars per year, there are just too many examples of any number of issues.

Look at it simply, when an issue occurs who benefits, does the issue benefit eBay or the customer?

It is very doubtful they have any issues at all that benefit the customer by erring in favor of the customer; NO, 99.9% of the time it benefits the company who is having the issues. There is little motivation to fix those sorts of problems, but if the customers were being paid out too much that would be fixed immediately. Understand?

Thousands of examples, look no further.

What's also clear is there are likely paid people assigned to this community forum to perform damage control. I notice it immediately suggested the issue is the fault of the person with the complaint or that person is mistaken.

Inquiring minds wish to know, why are there so many new accounts with 0 feedback responding to eBay customer complaints who seem determined to deflect liability away from eBay?

I've looked at over twenty threads (topics) and it is present in each one.

eBay is now a company that I will minimally support or utilize unless I have no other venue.

They have quite the monopoly going on, so that becomes difficult to navigate.

[freedom-4000]

By the way, speaking of deflection and eBay phone wait times being hours on end..

One of the main marketing points used to sell companies like eBay who use the software that we're chatting on is... you'll never guess..   Call Deflection!

eBay could answer their phones, they could hire a few more foreigners in Manila, Philippines.

They could provide better service, but it costs money to hire people in one of the poorest countries in the world, that would cut into their profits.

That is how much they value their customers even though they take 30-50% of your profits.

I sometimes forget I'm dumb and that people know everything I know and much, much more.

A company making 2.6 Billion dollars a year should have a wait time of less than 15 seconds, not 7 hours.

By not scaling in areas they should be to properly take care of the customer shows a true lack of regard, care, and concern. 

Just the idea of allowing a bunch of people who, for whatever reason, take it on themselves to make excuses and blame the customer for eBay's screw ups, suggests they are purely driven by greed and have many of the wrong people involved in their organization. When I look at eBay, I see a very flimsy company being propped up by private equity firms, overly diversified with over 160 subsidiaries suggesting some financial hot potato laundering ponzi activity, no integrity and no concern for people.

They sit around in focus groups and calculate just how frustrated or angry you can become without leaving.

That's what I call an abusive relationship.. 

[dbfolks166mt]

I agree, it absolutely looked like a phishing scam, I reported it to eBay!

Then, after checking the specifics I realized was in fact from eBay.

That cruddy, disrespectful, unprofessional communication establishes EVERYTHING I need to know.

No reason to doublt what I say, I've been honest, literally $0.00 two days ago to $49.30 (no additional fees on vehicles, only desposit) and I was going to log in to pay it and saw that message in my E-Mail.

I don't link accounts with eBay, and neither should you.

     Never doubted what you said the messages just looked suspicious in nature. EBay should put more effort into dealing with the scam buyers than focusing on honest sellers. 

     I have little choice but to link an account it's the only way eBay can get me the money for the items I sell. However, I do have a separate checking account and I keep the balance in that very low. 

It is probably very bothersome and financially tough for regular eBay sellers, they do-not seem to value sellers at all.

Not to mention they take about 50% of your profit on regular items. 

     I don't use promoted listings and I buy my shipping labels off eBay for about the same discounted rate as eBay has so my eBay fees are never over 15% of my sales. 

eBay has largelh become just another place to purchase cheap goods from China.

That is the push. Most North American sellers have left.

     Sellers come and go all the time as do buyers. EBay no longer holds the quasi monopoly they once had and other venues are starting to eat into eBay's market share but that is the nature of business and competition.