"Upgrade" from Personal to Business Account & Get PUNISHED by eBay

[affluentsoul]

I have been selling on eBay since 1999. I've received several emails from eBay suggesting that I "upgrade" to a business account. I've also received emails about how I could apply for a business loan directly from eBay and I did other research that made it seem like it could be a good idea to "upgrade" my account. I was having a lot of success selling and just received another $300K consignment, so I decided to take the plunge and make this side hobby a business. All that was required was that I change my tax ID from my SSN to an EIN and add a business name and voila! I am a business. Everything else stayed the same (eBay selling name, address, phone, email, contact info, they still wanted my personal SSN, etc.). I also pre-paid for a year for a store subscription since I was getting ready to start bulk-listing again and there were financial benefits to paying for a virtual storefront. Two days ago I received an alert saying that I had reached my selling/listing limit of $25K for the month. I only had 46 items listed. This made NO SENSE to me since my selling/listing limits were nearly $1M and it took me YEARS to achieve such high levels, so I assumed it was a bug. I contacted eBay to see what was happening and learned that by changing my SSN to a business EIN and "upgrading" to a business account, I had to start over at a $25K selling/listing limit per month. I can request a selling limit increase once a month going forward, but it isn't guaranteed that it will be granted. I wasn't told this would happen or I wouldn't have done it. I asked if I could switch back to a personal account and they said that "any switch re-sets the selling limits, so the outcome would be the same." I could understand if I sold my account to someone else and the contact name, email, address, personal SSN, etc., all changed, but it didn't. It is all still me. So, this "upgrade" has destroyed my business entirely. Funny enough, they reset my selling limits, but they're allowing me to keep the feedback I received under my personal selling account. Oh yeah, I also cannot get a pro-rationed refund on the store subscription either (of course)...

I am writing this to hopefully save someone else from making the mistake of reading the eBay marketing emails and believing like me that "upgrading" your account will be a good thing for your burgeoning business. 

[rfmtm]

Interesting info and doesn't make any sense.  When I upgraded one of my personal accounts to a business, my limits stayed the same, so this may be something new or a glitch.

I would send a private message here and see if you can get further help with this.

www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness

or

www.twitter.com/eBayForBusiness

[fab_finds4u]

You can't sell your account so 'what if' is moot.

Unless it said your loan or grant is pre-approved and you know the rate and payback terms I wouldn't have done that. 

Don't know if you kept your PayPal account for buying and for sending and receiving money to and from friends it will morph into a business PayPal account and you'll have to pay fees if your friends or family send you money at Christmas or for your birthday.  And it's reported as income on PayPal's 1099-k if you reach the level to report.

[laststopgeneralstore]

why ever change from using and ssn to ein? I'm a business and use my SSN with no issues and going on 4 years now. You never had to do any of that. Your selling limits will go up in time so I wouldn't worry about that but you didn't have to change anything in the first place. Remember that any time you change any personal information, it can take a few business days to verify and other things may happen, such as the situation you are in.

[reallynicestamps]

I contacted eBay to see what was happening and learned...

Did you talk to one of the phone reps who work for a subcontractor in Utah?

Or with the trained eBay employees who cover the social media Chats?



https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.
https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.



[affluentsoul]

Paypal is all the same. Nothing is different beyond a new EIN and it is all pass-through income to me anyhow. 

[affluentsoul]

I changed because of eBay's encouragement. After doing so it allowed me to use my DBA name "AffluentSoul" instead of my personal name. In my mind, it looked more professional. Who knew it would ruin my business...not me. 

Also, I am worried about my selling limits now since I was at nearly $1M in allowable limits and I have $300K in consigned inventory I've already taken possession of that I cannot sell because I am now limited to $25K in combined sales & listings totals monthly. I just tried to take one of my items off of a 10% off sale I was running and wasn't allowed to change the price because the extra $15 change put me over the $25K monthly limit. It took me YEARS to get to $1M in selling limits - this is a HUGE DEAL to me. 

[affluentsoul]

I text-chatted with an agent on the website.

[affluentsoul]

Thank you! I have reached out to them. I will let you know what comes of it if anything. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

EIN is for those that 'employ' someone. If you are a Sole Proprietor, you can STILL just use your SSN (and should so it does not start many things 'over again' on this or any other site). 

I am stating this for others that may see this thread.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

Sorry to pile on,  but just a heads up that an EIN may cause you problems with MP.  I have an EIN (even though I have no employees, it's not necessary to have employees), which I got specifically for eBay.   Everything was fine for awhile on MP, then I started getting a red banner of death KYC message.  That message was on there for almost a year & everything was fine, til suddenly they really did stop doing payouts.  

For the year I had the KYC message, I tried 4x calling eBay & getting it fixed, but they could never figure out the problem, though on the 4th call after a ton of digging they said it was a problem with my EIN, even though all the info was correct.  When they actually stopped my payments, I simply changed my EIN (even though it was right) back to my SSN & then everything was fine.   So just a heads up, for some reason eBay didn't seem to like my EIN, so if you ever have MP issues, you may need to go back to SSN.  

[cardxcraft]

FYI:

I just recently switched to Ebay business account and my selling limits remained the same.  

[rfmtm]

Changing to a business account has numerous advantages including, as you pointed out, you get to use your business name.  Also some sites offer additional business discounts and financial report options.

The importance of being able to use an EIN is to clearly keep your business income reporting separate from any personal income reported on your SSN.  Plus you need an EIN for a sales tax exemption certificate, and of course all banks require one for a business account.  So best all business related accounts carry the same business name and tax identification.

[affluentsoul]

As I mentioned, I asked if I could simply revert back to my SSN and they said it would cause their system to notice the change and reset again. There was no avenue to go back to normal or back to what I was before the "upgrade."  

[affluentsoul]

12/26/2022 UPDATE - 

I posted yesterday on 12/25/2022 about the "upgrade" not really being an upgrade and today I received an email stating, "Unfortunately, your account no longer meets one or more of the Top Rated Seller requirements..."

WOW - REALLY?!!? Mind you (to those reading this), I haven't had a feedback issue - NOTHING, NADA. The only thing that happened was that I posted the thread about my issue with upgrading my account. 

I knew that some of the old eBay employees were malicious and went to jail for retaliation against sellers who spoke out about their problems with eBay, but this is CRAZY. This is the first and only time I've written something about eBay online and THIS is what happens....BEWARE, BEWARE, BEWARE...