eBay mishandled personal information

[foxymamaa]

An adult family member’s account  was restricted and since I am related - for no other reason -mine was restricted as well.

I am an adult living a separate life from my brother. Our finances, homes, account information, history have never been attached to each other and eBay has breached my trust by mishandling my personal information. I was told by support the only way to restore my account is by contacting my brother. I am in no way responsible for contacting another person about their eBay account and I won’t do it. eBay needs restore my account and own the responsibility for mismanaging my personal data I trusted to them. 

[foxymamaa]

I’m not arguing with the policy, I’m arguing with their response. Don’t really care about being disconnected since I already am. My point is that it is a terrible customer experience for people who haven’t done anything wrong, and honestly, my posting can help eBay improve their experience

[foxymamaa]

Thanks for your feedback. I agree with everything you said.

My brother didn’t commit a felony, he sold too much in one day and they flagged it as suspicious. When I say personal data, I do include my IP and network information. It’s information I agreed to share with them and they agreed to provide a service to me. 

What I disagree with is their response. A service rep hung up on my parents and didn’t bother to share any of what you shared above. Probably because they knew we wouldn’t like hearing that they were collecting data from us. 

[popblox]

Ok, gotcha. Yeah, I missed that part - sorry!

If it makes you feel any better, eBay reps over the phone are notoriously unknowledgeable and unhelpful to almost everyone who calls. If your brother has the proper documentation to submit (receipts, etc), send a message to eBay for Business on Facebook instead. They're U.S. reps that are very helpful and much more capable:

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

[coolections]

Even if you logged in "one time", Ebay knows you are related in one way or antoher. Yes, if one is restricted you are too. Blame you family member. It would be too easy for anyone who gets restricted to just keep selling using the other person's account.

[fm2000]

The IP address facing the internet would be the same, even if they are on a "guest account". It is a good idea to just not allow people you don't trust to use your internet connection/wi-fi.

[katzrul15]

If they (e-bay) are holding your Brother's monies, there is a valid reason for doing so.  Typically, accounts are NOT suspended over payout hold(s).

They are suspended for claims, SNADs and especially if there is a large spike in sales and e-Bay asks you to verify the items are legit, your suppliers, your invoices, etc.  The minute you cannot do that, they shut you down.  The window to do so and verify you are a legit business when asked, is narrow.  

Once his account is suspended, all accounts that have used or are tied to that IP address are suspended.  

Sounds to me like if your Brother "could" rectify his situation, he already "would" have done so.

Venting on here is one thing - but blaming e-Bay does not change the stripes on the Zebra.  

[luckythewinner]

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@foxymamaa wrote:

eBay has breached my trust by mishandling my personal information. 

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eBay made a policy decision that you did not like. But I am failing to see how your personal information was "mishandled". 

[stainlessenginecovers]

Their response regarding hanging up on somebody that is not Player A or Player B is fully understandable. You just can't let anyone call in that says 'I'm his parents' and want to talk about 'someone else's account'. 

I would do the exact same thing.. 1000 times out of 1000 times.

There was NO mishandling of information. They did not spread that information anywhere. They used it where they needed to. 

[tdumonde2014]

"Felonies"?

[femmefan1946]

Actually, according to my brother, it’s because eBay owes him thousands of dollars and flagged his increase in sales as suspicious.

My first thought was that your brother had not confirmed his identity with Managed Payments. I spent nearly two months getting that straightened out, but once it was, the Held payments were transferred promptly.

But a suddenly larger than usual sale would also flag an account, which might have been hijacked. In spite of the annoyance (!) this is actually a Seller Protection, as well as protecting the big spending buyer.

Should we assume that your brother is actually cooperating with eBay on confirming the validity of the sale?

Because if he isn't, it sounds as if not only is he not going to see his payment, but he is blocking the accounts of all his family.

A service rep hung up on my parents

One of the few perks of minimum wage poorly trained boiler room phone reps is being allowed to hang up on abusive customers.

[house*of*paws]

Hi @foxymamaa 

As unfair as it may seem ... whenever eBay restricts a member's account, it automatically restricts every account that shares any personal information with the restricted account. 

That could happen to people who merely share a street address in an apartment building with another member ... without even knowing the other member.  It also happens if members have ever signed into their eBay account from the same computer at work ... or at a public library.

Your account will stay restricted until your brother fixes the problem(s) that led to his restriction.  If you are unwilling to contact your brother ... that certainly is your prerogative.  But based on the number of members who have posted about this problem over the years ... eBay will NOT restore your account while his is restricted. 

eBay's concern is to keep members from using another account to bypass their restriction.  I'm sorry.

[I'm afraid I don't understand the part of 'ebay mishandling/mismanaging your personal information' ... so can't comment on that.]

[7794heather]

This happened to my father. He was a Power Seller for 18 years. My brother moves home, decides to sell crap from the DTree store, sold a bunch of stuff, but then decided to take the money but never send the goods. He was on a separate computer but because of the IP address, they shut my father down with no warning.   In one month he ruined my fathers business that took him so long to get a good buyer base. 

It was a mess. My brother never made it right so my dad and I found a way to make it work. 

It sucks. I feel for you. It wasn't YOUR fault, you're just getting dragged behind in the aftermath. I hope your brother can get it straightened out with ebay so you can get back on, if you want. 

[albertabrightalberta]

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@foxymamaa wrote:

What I disagree with is their response. A service rep hung up on my parents and didn’t bother to share any of what you shared above.

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You can argue with ebay till the cows come home but they don't know whether it was you or someone else in the household who was responsible for the questionable behavior. But what they do know is that there's a link and every account associated with the link is restricted.

@foxymamaa wrote:

Probably because they knew we wouldn’t like hearing that they were collecting data from us. 

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Every website you visit collects data from you. Even if you just click a link that you found through Google, there are cookies and they know your IP address. 

And when you have an account on a site such as ebay or Amazon, you have to agree to let them install cookies or you can't log in. 

As a test, block all cookies and try to get into your ebay or Amazon account.

[wastingtime101]

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@foxymamaa wrote:

according to my brother, it’s because eBay owes him thousands of dollars and flagged his increase in sales as suspicious. 

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I've seen a lot of sellers caught unawares over the increase in sales situation. This used to happen with PayPal all the time.

With most payment processors (and eBay is now managing payments), if there is a sudden spike in sales or a drastic switch to a different category of products, it throws up red flags as it can be an indication of fraudulent activity.

I've seen PayPal restrict many sellers without warning. You would have to ask your brother if he was given any warning by eBay. If he was it would have been no more than a couple of days before his suspension.

There's a decent chance he can resolve this if he provides everything eBay asks for which will probably include verifying his identity, confirming he owned the product he was selling, receipts for every single item, photos showing that his remaining inventory is in his possession, etc. As long as your brother wasn't violating policies he should be able to work it out, in turn helping you and your parents to get your accounts restored.

If a seller anticipates a sudden spike instead of a gradual spike, it's good to call beforehand to discuss the change in business plans. That way the docs can be provided upfront and the account will get an approval of sorts to proceed. I know that from experience, not because it's in any policy pages.

Even when you request a listing limit increase, eBay will ask a zillion questions about what kind of increase you're looking for and why, where your inventory came from and whether you have it on hand and ready to ship, etc.

Sorry to hear that CS hung up on your dad. When it comes to account restrictions, eBay is very tight-lipped. They don't want to tell anybody what's going on because people could then use that information to get around the policies and circumvent the bans.

Unfortunately sellers such as yourself can get caught up in a situation like this and eBay is less than helpful in resolving it.

See if your brother can work things out and get back on track. That would be your best bet here.

Curious: what was he selling that triggered this?

[wastingtime101]

This is a link to PayPal's risky business policy you can review as a frame of reference. I know PayPal's not involved here, but it's good info regarding payment processor operations in general.

This is a good section to read from eBay payments terms of use as it relates to your OP:

Section 8 under third-party payment services providers

It's Friday night and that's all my brain can handle looking up right now. I'm completely fried from this week.