My partner and I purchased Ebay gift cards during following promotion.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/428615
We received an email this morning that our accounts have been suspended. I tried gift cards on another account and they no longer seem to be working.
How could we get our money back?
Yes I do have separate AU eBay account but the gift cards are not working there. Perhaps they also cancelled cards during suspension?
Should I lodge chargeback as no PayPal was used?
Ok, something does not add up. I'm gonna need more information from you. Not sure where to start.
Only reason i highly doubt ebay cancelled your unused gift cards is because they have no authority to do so, especially since you got them from an ebay seller not Ebay themselves.
Are you using the correct 'code' from your digital gift card?
Yes I am simply copying and pasting them. Ringing eBay shortly to get some answers.
@Ash-Say: "Should I lodge chargeback as no PayPal was used"
can you confirm how you paid then? Im pretty sure the only way to order was using paypal?
They are tied to your eBay account after they've been used on that account.
Well yeah, the credit is tied to your account but gift cards can only be redeemed once. OP said they tried gift cards (im assuming that are unused) on a different account, so those should still be working
Yes didn't use them before as I was waiting for AU 10%off promo.
@Ash-Say: Assuming you're 100% sure the cards have not had any portion redeemed (thus locking them to the first eBay account they were used on), you're sure the eBay account you're using them on is set to AU, and you're sure the AU eBay account you're using isn't also suspended in some way, I'd seek a refund. First via the UK eBay account that's been suspended (I don't know exactly what's restricted when they suspend your account, but it's possible you can still make a claim on a previous order). Failing that, make a claim via the PayPal account you used to pay for the purchase. If that fails, then request a chargeback via your credit card.
Make sure your PayPal balance is $0, there's a good chance your account will be restricted/closed, and funds will be held hostage for many months if you have to utilize a credit card chargeback. In fact, I'd keep it at $0 regardless.
They can be redeemed multiple times. If you only ever spent $20 at a time on eBay, you could redeem a $200 gift card a total of ten times. After the first redemption, it's locked to that eBay account (you can't lend out your gift card to a friend or family member to use on their account).
Op didn't make it clear that no portion of the gift cards had been used. Also, someone else may come along with a similar (as stated in the original post) issue; it's possible that THEY are running into the "once any portion of an eBay gift card is used on an eBay account, that eBay gift card is locked to that account" rule.
Following this post with interest.
OP, it sounds as though you created new eBay UK accounts just to purchase the gift cards, assuming you've made no other transactions in those accounts, and you've not used (attached) those gift cards to any eBay worldwide account yet. Now trying to use said gift cards on an eBay AU account and you are receiving an error message. Is this correct? What is the error message?
Also, as josetann mentions above, try eBay first, then PayPal, then chargeback. They can't take your money without delivering the goods so as a last resort a chargeback will work.
You sure you bought ebay au giftcards? What listing did you buy from?
Did you get hacked?
Assuming your new UK and old AU accounts were suspended simultaneously (mine were):
Was your main ever unsuspended?
What was the reason attached to the suspension?
Keen to know as well
They never tell you exactly reason. They said we find your activities are harmful to other eBay community lol
I have spoken with eBay and they confirmed that the cards were cancelled after account suspension.
They have raised refund request which I should receive 3 to 5 business days.
Thanks for letting us know, its annoying when someone resolves the issue but doesn't share the results.
Any idea what triggered the suspension? Seems you are the only one.
This is 4th time I have used UK account to purchase gift cards and the account is about 5 months old.
My account must have been flagged as no other purchase was ever made.
How many accounts did you have and were they all using the same email address?
@FireRunner: I have 3 accounts(AU,USA and UK) and UK account got suspended.
All have different email.
@Ash-Say: Thanks for that. Sounds like an important heads up, I'd purchased twice GC from eBay UK. I'd better be careful as I regularly sell on eBay and wouldn't want to have my account suspended and lose all my feedback.
That's scary, I've bought like 6 batches of gift cards across 2 accounts.
I better stop lol
I have never hread that they cancel ebay gift cards for account suspension
There is always a first time so I will suggest people to be careful when buying gift cards from UK and US accounts.
This is a real eye opener
This has added another level of worry to the already hars to use and manage ebay gift cards.
Lots of £10 bonus codes with £20 spend have arrived in my inbox. Might be a tracking mechanism.
Further Update:
I asked Ebay why they suspended my account and received following response. I was willing to call but can't recall what UK address I used during registration and Ebay account information won't come up as the suspension is in place. No other choice for me but to let it go.
"I reviewed your account and seen the restriction made was part of our verification process since you've just created it and we hope that members such as yourself will ultimately benefit from this safety check. All you have to do now is get back to us through phone so you will undergo our verification process. We need to verify some information on your registration inputs through phone and as this is so, we strongly recommend that you call us right away.
Please call: 1800 322 928. If in the event that you were contacting outside Australia, here's our phone number for all International: 1 (866) 540-3229."
What was the outcome? Get your main account suspension lifted?
Nope just made a new account
Also try calling 1800 427 403 - this is the trust and safety team - hopefully still the same number
Got a £15 voucher today and bought one $25 Wish & one $5 eBay. Transaction went through fine, only paid $2.82 after taking £15 off.
Got Wish eGC in 10 mins.
?
The gift cards aren't tied to your ebay account. Just incase you didn't know, they can only be redeemed on Au ebay accounts.
It'll probably be impossible to get a refund on gift cards