Anyone else had their selling account restricted?

[Anonymous]

I woke up to an email from eBay saying I could no longer list items in the clothing, shoes and accessory section. I'm not sure why. I'm really only an occasional seller and haven't had much luck selling the couple of BNIN shoes I've had in 2014 due to the fact that a large amount of people have been buying/bidding on items and not paying. 
I'm so confused as to why this would happen, my account is in good standing and I have only ever once had an item removed for the excuse that it was fake, and when I contacted eBay and offered to prove the item was genuine with a receipt no one ever answered, I ended up re-listing the item and it sold to a happy buyer who left glowing feedback. 


"After review and careful consideration, we've taken the following action on your eBay account: 


-       Indefinitely restricted your account from listing in the Clothing, Shoes and Accessories category. You won't be able to list items in this category any longer"

 and a little down in the email:

"We felt it was necessary to take this action to keep eBay safe (haha!).However, you can still list and sell items in other categories.



When we review an account for category restriction, we consider many things, including: 


- How much history the seller has selling in this category - this seems silly are they trying to say that eBay is only for experienced sellers now?

- Positive selling Feedback the seller has received for sales in this category  - I have no negative feedback. MY DRS are not 100% (or 5 out of 5 – whose are?) but using postage as an example - I find it a cop out to accept a sellers postage costs when buying or bidding and then giving the buyer the opportunity to decide if they postage cost was fair!


- Any Feedback that questions the authenticity of the items - don't have any of that?


- Unresolved disputes with buyers for these items - I have only one dispute and this was opened but won becuase I had proof the item was recieved. I have had a fair amount of unpaid item disputes opened against buyers - none against me as a buyer though.


- Whether the seller has followed eBay policies in the past. Yes, except for that isolated incident I talked about previously and that was last year and I was following the policies, they just decided that I wasn’t for themselves wihtout aksing me for proof that the item was authentic befor they pulled it.


- Previous account suspensions - not that I have been aware or notified of.

- The current status of the seller's account - in good standing, unless again there is something they are not telling me.


- Any supplier information that can't be verified" - don't use one.



I'm so confused about this. Could I really be restricted because OF DSR? I do not sell all the time, but it sucks that I can no longer sell in the area that I really need to be able to sell in right now as I'm assuming this decision is for good.

Can someone take a look at my account and see if you notice anything? I'll be honest I'm not very swift, I can't/don't offer postage discounts and etc and I'm really only a recreational seller but I’ve only ever had one case opened agaisnt me (that I won!)  and that was early last year and I actually was planing on using eBay a bit more in the next few months! I also use Clickandsend which ensured I could offer the lowest postage. I have also refunded postage cost if I ever over quoted, as I'm honest and I’m sure if a lot more buyers had left feed back my rating would be higher.

Argh just baffled! Sorry for blabbing. This happen to anyone else? What did your email say?


[Anonymous]

wait! did they really just bleep the word d-a-m-n? I'm crying from laughter, oh come on eBay! shesh! 

[Anonymous]

It sucks!

Ahh! Its funny you mention that... I was bringing that up in my mind, because when I had that item removed (the ray bans) I was trying to Google answers and stumbled upon many forum posts where the OP was saying they had their account suspended for different amounts of time - one was 7 days, 2 weeks, 30, 40, 60, 80 days - its seem so un uniformed and pot-luck drawn. But when my Ray Bans were removed there was nothing like that, they simply advised that my item had been removed and gave the reason that they believed it to be counterfeit but there was no suspensions or anything of the sort because after I sent them in the proof of purchase, I relisted the item (which I know not to do now) and my account was fully active in all areas that I was aware of and to this day I have never formally been told of any serious blocks to my account and it seems like if they had put one in place they would advise me, right? This is so confusing. I should contact them and inquire or see if this was possibly a mistake but I'm guessing ahead of time that I'll get no where.

[haolove13]

welcome to the club.

take a look at paypalsucks.com

[Anonymous]

Just though I would do this quick follow up post for anyone who might be looking for info:

I contacted eBay only to be told that not only have I been restricted from selling in the clothing section, but that this ristrction will apply for the life of my account and any that I choose to recreate, including any made with my IP address or even accounts with people in my house (-_-). Upon asking the customer service lady she told me that it was becuase eBay has aparently been contacted by nurmous people concered about the authenticity of the items I was selling and "other issues" with items I was selling. I find this a bit bizzare, Only thing I can think of that would cause people to question my listing was the shoes - if this was a mass complaint about the shoes mentioned previously, I do not know why it took them so long to act. If its that in conjuction with the sunglasses then thats outright wrong as I did send in proof that they were real and actually still have that orignal recpit and messages in my archive so they cannot deny I supplied proof. I can understand wanting to get someone off ebay for selling "fakes" but I have only ever sold what I now know to be consided a fake item ONCE and it was listed and sold without any issues so it seems silly to partially kick me off without a warning even? You know - 'we have removed your item, if you do this again you will be suspened or bannd'' something along those lines, but I was never iussued with a warning about this. Ah but yes, we have sellers who have items like 'quilted bag' which clearly has the Chanel 'Cs' and sellers with mass amounts of negative feed back about 'fakes' (none of which I have) and they can continue to sell hundereds and not be touched? Okay eBay, you're awesome.

Also while spekaing to the women the way she was dancing around the topic and her choice of words made it seem like 'buyers' were writting into ebay saying I was stuffing drugs into my items and selling them off that way! I'm just baffled, I do not sell enough to have 'buyers' (customer sales women's words) complain about me and if I was that bad I'd at least have some negatives?
I was kindly pushed off the call with a swift note 'not contact us about this issue again as the decision will not change and is final'. Rude. Well! This seems ridiclous... If I didn't know any better that disgruntled buyer who tried to say her item was never recived (and lost) may have been reporting each of my items for whatever reason and this is why? I doubt just one member could bring someone down like this though so I'm confused as to what has been so "offensive" or "wrong" about my items to make "numerous" BUYERS complain (and just to go there again, yes I understand the shoes were a no-no, but that was a swift one off!). Hm. I'll leave this post open to anyone else who wants to add anything but I think I'm done with eBay, I'll sell my goods at market as my DVD's did very well there last month. 

Appriciate everyone who tried to shed light on the issue. I wish you all better luck then I have had haha! Good day! 

[*crikey*mate*]

ring back and ask - INSIST - on speaking to a supervisor

otherwise, PM one of the eBay employees who have been posting on the boards lately (not a mod)

[Anonymous]

Thanks- will do. Doubt I'd get very far again, but its worth a shot.

[*crikey*mate*]

just keep talking until someone talks back

[*crikey*mate*]

Just out of curiosity here cupi, have you happened to sign any petitions in the last few weeks?

[Anonymous]

Hey Diamond no I haven't, not about eBay anyway. I have never seen any against them to sign though.


I actually went through all my emails to check if I had any missed warning and came across two from a sale this year where a buyer emailed me from his account (after he won a game) and pretended it to be an email from eBay asking me to cancel the transaction due to being under investgation for 'shill bidding', he had a lot of feedback and must have took my low feedback as an oportunity to try and trick me becuase directly after his email, I recived an email from eBay stating that that member had actually called eBay himself and asked them to cancel the transaction and they had put in the request after he asked them too and the notification about that came from an actual eBay customer service person with the inbound call reference number. I went and contacted eBay after that to enquire about if they ever send mail on a members behalf and was told, yes they do, but it would never come from that members actual account and to never turst emails of that nature from members. So I figued this guy is trying to pull one over on me, not too sure why, he must had been mad that a few bidders tried to out bid him but wasnt fast enough and esentially he won the item higher then he probably was hoping to get it for. Anyway the item was on the 4th day so I closed it and he gets his strike so this could have made him mad?
But I had to close the case, I didn't see an option to cancel at that point so it might have **bleep** him off to get that strike enough to ask to have it removed if he complained that the reason he didn't pay becuase I was shill bidding. If he did it still would mean eBay would do an investgation and would have seen that there was no such thing going on, so I can see how a compaint may have affected me, but if eBay actually did follow up they would have seen it was an empty complaint. But I'm thinking this may have contributed? I mean I initally thought I only had one person mad at me (the buyer who tried to claim item never arrived) but maybe it was this dude too?  I have a feeling now that if that guy did compain that would equal two in total (even though they are months and months apart) could escentially see me in this mess BUT one item was clothing and the other was a gaming so they aren't in the same category. I'm so confused. I'd of thought that empty complaints would not stack up and eBay would have the decency to actually check the facts of a complaint before putting a flag on an account (and also inform me if there was a flag put on it!). I think I might continue to pester them now. This just doesnt add up evenly to what I've been dealt. Sorry for the essay.

I'll take your advice and insist on speaking until I get someone who will actually listen. I feel really put off from eBay now and doubt I'll want to return, but I really think I need to have this addressed, there is something not right going on!

[nett_nanny]

It isn't hard to spot shill bidding is it  ?