eBay account suspension - Resolved

Lcook99 on 07/11/2023 - 13:51
Last edited 07/11/2023 - 15:23

Hi team,
Today I woke up to an email from eBay informing my account of 22 years has been permanently suspended. No further details were provided.
I tried to call 2 different agents on the phone, and 1 on chat. All read the script and told me that they
a) won't tell why it is suspended
b) won't allow an appeal
c) won't allow me to escalate or speak to anyone else
d) won't speak to me on the matter again.

Has this happened to anyone else?
Is there an Australian contact number or email I can try, the customer service team has completely cut me off.
Also a paid eBay plus membership they said they won't / don't have to refund.

I've bought and sold for 20 years, have 100% feedback, never had any warnings of not meeting standards etc.

Any help appreciated, feels pretty bad to just be blocked from eBay permanently without cause.

Do I try ACCC?

UPDATE:
I contacted their chat support one last try, and was so lucky to get an agent to actually look at the account. He confirmed my account was flagged for "buying outside my normal pattern", which is true, I recently purchased ~60 items, all individual sales, but from a couple different sellers.

What a ridiculously heavy handed response to have 3 different agents refuse to speak to me for literally making purchases on their platform!

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Comments

  • barge-in hunter on 07/11/2023 - 14:19
    +4

    Unfortunately I don’t think the accc has any jurisdiction here - they’re a private company who can offer to or rescind their services at any time.

    I’ve heard of this happening when the account was compromised and involved in fraudulent listings (unknown to the account holder)

      • Munnday on 07/11/2023 - 14:29

        https://pages.ebay.com.au/buyer_coupons/plustc/

        • 6.5. eBay reserves the right to terminate your eBay Plus membership at any time in its discretion, without refunding your membership fees where:
        • 6.5.1 you fraudulently use the eBay Plus services;
        • 6.5.2 your use of the eBay Plus membership breaches these Terms and Conditions or any applicable law; or
        • 6.5.3 acting reasonably, we consider that your use of eBay Plus services is detrimental to other members’ use of the services and/or detrimental to eBay’s legitimate business interests.
        • eBay will give you prior notice of such termination unless there is a need for eBay to act urgently to prevent loss or damage to eBay or its members, including where your use of your eBay Plus membership has been fraudulent.
        • 6.6. If your eBay membership is terminated for any reason, your eBay Plus membership will also terminate automatically.
        • 6.7 If you believe that your membership has been incorrectly terminated you should contact Customer Service providing your reasons. eBay will consider such requests in good faith.
        • cook99 on 07/11/2023 - 14:34

          6.6 is pretty clear, if only they were willing to tell me what that 'any reason's was. Feeling a bit helpless when they literally refuse to speak with me now.

          • djkelly69 on 07/11/2023 - 14:55

            @cook99: They are entitled to terminate your eBay/eBay Plus membership, but they can't just unilaterally decide they can keep the subscription fee when they do this.

            It is a fee for a service they have decided not to provide you, so they need to refund the fee (pro-rata is fine). If they refuse, I would be looking at a charge back if possible.

          • cook99 on 07/11/2023 - 15:19

            @JackAtDaisy: Yup, this my view too.
            Any company can make up whatever T&C's they like, but none are above consumer law

            • barge-in hunter on 07/11/2023 - 16:24

              @cook99: Yeah sorry, I’ll be honest- I missed the eBay plus part. I believe a pro-rata refund is due, no matter the t&cs.

              Realistically, it probably means you’d have to take them to court to get it, as even the accc doesn’t get involved in individual cases.

              I do wonder if you could put in a formal “freedom of information request” to find out what happened? Of it is to do with a criminal investigation though, you might still get no answer

              • cook99 on 07/11/2023 - 16:26

                @barge-in hunter: Thanks, all good, turns out 4 attempts to find a chat agent to put in 1% effort was the trick.

                Suspended for "over buying" is the cause 🙄
                What a bunch of incompetent thugs eBay are…

  • BoltThrower on 07/11/2023 - 14:32

    Do you dropship? I used to do drop-shipping and have heard of this happening. There's a blacklist of things not to list, for example Dewalt tools.
    You said that the agents won't inform you why it's suspended, but if you do DS, it could be related.

    • cook99 on 07/11/2023 - 14:33
      +1

      Nope, have never done drop shipping.
      Not a massive seller, only excess games etc, and haven't sold much in the last 6 months.

  • Ocker on 07/11/2023 - 14:33
    +1

    eBay will suspend a member if they find out the member has been attempting to divert buyers from transacting outside of eBay.

    • cook99 on 07/11/2023 - 14:37

      Certainly haven't done that!
      Barely selling these days, and I've been approached multiple times by buyers in the past and always said no, buy it on eBay.

  • djsweet on 07/11/2023 - 14:34
    +1

    Did you do anything illegal or in breach of eBay’s ts&cs? If not it’s worth checking if your password has been involved in any data breaches, as it’s possible someone gained access to your account and did some nefarious business with it.

  • cook99 on 07/11/2023 - 14:36
    +1

    Thanks, I've checked my password on the Google breaches and nothing is on there.
    I did recently get a new phone and new laptop and did reset it a few times recently in all the new setups.

  • cook99 on 07/11/2023 - 15:24
    +3

    And I'm reinstated, update in OP.
    /Thread.

  • Gnostikos on 07/11/2023 - 15:24
    +5

    Lol, eBay.

    Proudly making life hell for their loyal sellers and forcing people away from their platform since 1995!

    I really do want to support them as an f**k you to Amazon but its stories like these and many, many others of people being arbitrarily screwed over for no reason along with continually ripping off their sellers with ever-increasing fees that makes eBay less and less likeable (though still not as detestable as Amazon).

    • cook99 on 07/11/2023 - 15:28
      +3

      I find eBay way worse than Amazon for support.

      Meanwhile my eBay plus subscription looks to be cancelled on my end but apparently still okay on theirs, time to wait 24 hours to see if it's reinstated

      • boomramada on 07/11/2023 - 15:55
        +1

        fb support is worst.

        • Protractor on 07/11/2023 - 21:39
          -2

          'support' is another bastardised term. Like 'technician'. It's a hoop jumping exercise. Most of the big players have slaves in offshore centres working for hard tack. ISPs ,banks etc. The govt should outlaw it on moral and security grounds. Scam texts,calls,emails and identity theft all align with offshore support.Unknown, non police checked drones pawing over your life,identity and data.

          • Gervais fanboy on 07/11/2023 - 22:54
            -1

            @Protractor:

            Most of the big players have slaves in offshore centres working for hard tack.

            Shush mate, people ‘willingly’ work in those call centres and they aren’t treated as slaves at all.
            I was working as that ‘slave’ once.
            You can maybe find or two articles somewhere that would indicate something that draconian but 99% cases, it’s not like that.

            Scam texts,calls,emails and identity theft all align with offshore support.

            Not true.
            If you are suggesting how these scammers get our data in the first place?
            The corporate sells it to them (indirectly ofcos).
            Offshore support has got nothing to do with that.

            Unknown, non police checked drones pawing over your life,identity and data.

            I agree
            Though I am sure that with Socialism and an even bigger government, it’ll fix itself. I am sure of it 🙄

    • Ocker on 07/11/2023 - 16:16
      +2

      I am tired of the lack of support offered to store holders and a couple of years ago decided to start my own web site/shop.
      Been a bit hard to wean buyers from eBay but our sales are now running 60/40 in favour of our own web shop.
      Even so we have still paid eBay over $6,000 is fees over the past 12 months and so the incentive is there to migrate more buyers to our own store.

  • Empharand on 07/11/2023 - 16:01
    +3

    Has this happened to anyone else?

    Had it happen to me, opened the account around this time last year (give or take), received the 'Your Account is Under Review' email around March/April and then a few days later I received the 'Your Account has been Suspended' - I only bought about 10 items via that account but their email said that they detected I was a risk to the community….. Go figure.

    Messaged their Live Support, and they sent me a copy/paste script about how they don't take these things lightly (etc etc), I tried to tried to enquire regarding what I did, they then ended the chat abruptly. Tried again about 2-3 times, same thing.

    There's absolutely nothing you can do, it's their platform, their rules etc

    The only advice I can suggest is don't use a VPN when accessing your account, I don't know for a fact but I feel perhaps I was using a Blacklisted IP or an IP that previously used to scam people on their platform (via the VPN) and their system detected that and thought I was that scammer.

    • cook99 on 07/11/2023 - 16:09
      +4

      Mine was the exact same experience, and exactly the same script on how they don't make the decision lightly, and I was a danger to the community, exactly the same abruptly ending chat.

      Good callout on VPN, there is a chance I did login while having VPN open, although it appears buying too much was my undoing. "We are helping both sellers and legitimate buyers avoid unintentional "over buying,""

      • Empharand on 07/11/2023 - 16:11
        +8

        "Over-buying" hahahahahaha
        I'd love to see any other business complain about a customer "Over-buying"

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