eBay

ujwr3976 · ‎05-08-2020

My account was suspended due to "price gauging" early today and I had sold and gotten paid for 40 items in the 24 hours prior to the suspension. some of the buyers started to cancel the purchases as I believe they received notice from ebay on my suspension and gotten refund from ebay, and ebay in turn in charged my credit card to get the money back (all without reaching out to me to find out if the items have been shipped already). Now I'm in a bind on if I should ship the orders that have not been canceled. I have no way of communicating with the customers and I'm pretty sure many will (understandably, because they were alerted to my suspension and have no way to communicate with me) try to get refunded even as I ship out as the customers have no way of knowing the orders are on the way.

I don't see a way to contact ebay to resolve the problem. I'm completely locked out of my account and I don't see a customer service email. The cs phone only gets a recorded message. I had to start this new account just to post this message so I can maybe get some input from the community. I want to get the account restored as I didn't price gouge (gotten sold much faster than I expected as I priced too low, lower than other similar items listed.) but the most urgent issue is figuring out what's the best thing to do with the 30+ paid but might be disputed at any moment orders.

Thank you!

ujwr3976 · ‎05-09-2020

no way to contact buyer and no email in paypal. I just want to ask them if they still want their product shipped and hear they say that they won't ask ebay for refund.

"Need to contact the buyer?Log in to your eBay account and go to your selling history."

mtgraves7984 · ‎05-09-2020

"Got into this mask situation by accident - a friend wanted to flip some masks and asked my to use my contact in china to source/import, then he backed out. My account has 100% positive feedback and has only been used sparingly. I just want to unload the masks quickly so I set very reasonable prices."

Experience is something you get just after you need it.

ujwr3976 · ‎05-09-2020

doesn't say how long. forever? as I said, the big issue is 1. this leaves me and buyer in limbo 2. there's not an easy to communicate with ebay. there isn't a super easy way during normal times with an active account. much harder in covid times with a completely blocked account as I can't even reach the contact form in the account - no real email address.

After reviewing your eBay account, we've noted several concerns with your recent activity that pose a unacceptable risk to our community. As a result, we've taken the following action on your account:
- Your eBay account has been suspended.
- Item listings have been removed. A list of removed items is available further down in this email.

We've taken this precaution to protect our members while we make sure that the activity doesn't cause harm -- however unintentionally -- to the eBay community.

While suspended, you won't be able to use eBay. Registering a new account may hinder any option to appeal your account. If you would like to appeal this action, we need to verify your account information and your eBay activity directly with you.

Any outstanding fees owed for selling activity will post to your account as due. Any amounts that you haven't previously disputed will be charged to the billing method currently on file.

darmurr65 · ‎05-09-2020

Refund your buyers and give the masks to healthcare workers

vrie39 · ‎05-09-2020

Rather than keep harping on what everyone else has said I will say this, perhaps first contact ebay through facebook and then sleeping on it has helped me countless times in these situations and similar... I've had it so bad sleep wouldn't come easy but I just go do something else and let the mind clear for several hours and that should help.

luckythewinner · ‎05-09-2020

Masks I imported from China. that's kind of beyond the point.

It is the point because selling a restricted item is almost certain the reason you were sanctioned under the price gouging/covid policy.

ebay let some people sell masks and don't let others sell.

That is pretty much the definition of a restricted item.

I priced below many others and sold out fast.

Nothing in the price gouging/covid policy exempts restricted items based on relative pricing or how fast they sell.

The urgent question is, what to do with the outstanding orders

The ethical thing to do would be to respect eBay rules, not ship the items, and refund the buyers immediately.

eBay took your items down, and rather than researching the pricer gouging policy and seeing that masks were banned, you simply tried to get around the issue by listing then again with "different subjects". You made your bed.

ujwr3976 · ‎05-09-2020

@luckythewinner wrote:
Masks I imported from China. that's kind of beyond the point.
It is the point because selling a restricted item is almost certain the reason you were sanctioned under the price gouging/covid policy.

It is beyond the point because i'm not trying to discuss if I should be suspended or not. Suspension is ok. I'm saying they have a bad suspension process the leaves buyer and seller in limbo.

ebay let some people sell masks and don't let others sell.
That is pretty much the definition of a restricted item.

ebay stated the following in an email:
"In accordance with recent tragedy and to support our community, we have made the decision to prohibit the sale of masks/ sanitisers/ wipes/ toilet paper rolls and other essential items on eBay."

"prohibit" means no sale allowed. and it didn't say prohibit some sellers or allowing any sellers. The fact is that ebay has created a very confusing situation, with no clear standard. What it's saying is different from what it's doing.

I priced below many others and sold out fast.
Nothing in the price gouging/covid policy exempts restricted items based on relative pricing or how fast they sell.

The urgent question is, what to do with the outstanding orders
The ethical thing to do would be to respect eBay rules, not ship the items, and refund the buyers immediately.

I'm fine refunding. just hoping that ebay would refund the fees they charged. or better yet, if that's clearly the best course of action, ebay should have done that automatically as opposed to waiting for me to refund or waiting for buyers to dispute.

eBay took your items down, and rather than researching the pricer gouging policy and seeing that masks were banned, you simply tried to get around the issue by listing then again with "different subjects". You made your bed.

because they left some of my other listings of the same item up. The impression I got was not that i'm not allowed to sell but maybe my subject/description was not conforming to certain standard and changing something may solve the problem.

upgradedendmills · ‎05-09-2020

Honestly and realistically, the fees are the least of your worries.

bar-29368 · ‎05-09-2020

I definitely wouldn't ship as from reading posts from other suspended sellers, it appears that ebay will take it upon themselves to refund all your buyers regardless of whether you have shipped or not.

femmefan1946 · ‎05-09-2020

Just because OTHER people were doing something doesn't mean eBay didn't tell YOU not to do it.

There are many listings for these products on eBay, and we can only assume that most of them are from sellers eBay has authorized to sell them.

And that the others would be pulled if reported.
An earlier poster has said that cloth facemasks are now allowed again, but I would think that it would be useful to have confirmation from eBayFaceBook or an eBay Board admin that the OP as a once restricted seller can now safely sell masks.

Belt and suspenders.

cynthealee2 · ‎05-09-2020

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Just because OTHER people were doing something doesn't mean eBay didn't tell YOU not to do it.

There are many listings for these products on eBay, and we can only assume that most of them are from sellers eBay has authorized to sell them.
And that the others would be pulled if reported.
An earlier poster has said that cloth facemasks are now allowed again, but I would think that it would be useful to have confirmation from eBayFaceBook or an eBay Board admin that the OP as a once restricted seller can now safely sell masks.

Belt and suspenders.

eBay's Trinton came over and stated it... pretty sure they made a post about it too...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/eBay-is-inviting-sellers-to-list-cloth-face-masks/ba-p/3...

I hate photobucket right now... PS Answers given years ago may or may not be current now, please check with current posters to the boards to see if the information is still relevant.

bar-29368 · ‎05-09-2020

But these weren't CLOTH face masks in any case.

luckythewinner · ‎05-09-2020

@ujwr3976 wrote:
"prohibit" means no sale allowed. and it didn't say prohibit some sellers or allowing any sellers. The fact is that ebay has created a very confusing situation, with no clear standard. What it's saying is different from what it's doing.

IMHO "prohibited" is a pretty clear standard.

If you read that the item was "prohibited" and your interpretation of "prohibited" was that you had permission to list it, then I have no sympathy for the mess you created for yourself when you did that.