I have had my ebay account suspended without a reason being given

[robertybob-46]

I am a buyer on ebay. Not having enough experience nor courage to begin selling yet, in my own opinion.

Recently I have had a very bad run of badly described watches. I always politely mention any faults that are not mentioned in the description, to the sellers. More sellers voluntarily offered and then refunded my purchase price than I have ever experienced. I opened no cases.

This decency was apparently enough for ebay to suspend my account. They reversed all negative feedbacks I have given in the past 12 months (not many) and restored all reduced ratings to all my sellers, including the postage gougers and blatant ripoff merchants.

My buyer protection has been withdrawn indefinitely and I am not permitted to bid on anything at all. However I am permitted to sell !

I have tried to get a reason for the suspension by phone and was advised that I would not be informed as I may attempt to circumvent the rules. I was told that the action was 'possibly' due to a having a larger number of refunds proportionate to my purchases than is considered to be normal.

Has anyone any similar experience?

Rob

[thecatspjs]

How many watches and refunds we talking ??

[howie696]

sounds like a serial negger has been removed

good job ebay

[*crikey*mate*]

I buy watches too. I had a bit of a bumpy start, but now avoid those sellers and stick to two or three that have lived up to my expectations.

My first one was working when it arrived, I even waited till close to deadline to make sure it kept on working before I left my Positive feedback. A month later it stopped working - nope - didn't need a new battery - the entire internal mechanism was corroded so badly that it was visible to the naked eye and the watch man said the seller would have seen this when they changed the battery as they claimed to have done, before shipping.

That one cost me $150 to replace the mechanism.

*sigh*

Another two arrived scratched etc - returned at my expense to USA and refunded - positive feedback for one, none for the other.

Another, it was badly described, but I never asked questions, so I took the blame for that one

And some just don't look as good in real life as they do in the pictures, but they do match the descriptions etc, so not the seller's fault.

Doesn't help, I know, and hindsight is a great thing, eh?

Just thought it good you know that it doesn't just happen to you, but eBay clearly only look at the statistics I guess, and a lot of complaints would make it look like you are up to no good or abusing the system.

Are you able to reason with eBay? Appeal?

I am curious though, for what kinds of things did you leave negatives? Did you leave negs where the sellers tried to rectify the situation/s?

How do you gauge a postage gouger, and were you aware of the postage prices before purchase and went ahead with the purchase anyway?

How do you define a blatant rip off merchant?

What sorts of faults did you encounter?

What sort of sellers were you purchasing from?

After the first few, did you start asking questions, aware of some of the usual "pitfalls" to clarify things?

I ask the latter four questions as some sellers trade solely in watches at high volume, so know the kinds of things to list (I'm thinking collector watches here) but I did find that where the seller was selling something from "grandpa's estate or the garage sale find or a watch they no longer wanted" that they really didn't know what to list or how to classify it, but upon asking questions, were happy to provide answers.

[phorum_junkie*]

You have probably had your buying privileges suspended because what may have looked to you like making an honest comment on quality or description claims coupled with less than positive feedback left looks to sellers, and ebay too in this case, as touting for partial refunds with or without the threat of negative feedback.

If an item is not as described then the correct thing to do is to ask for a full refund on return, the fact that you just wanted things at a reduced price would have alarm bells ringing if it happened more than once in a short period of time.

Sellers are always complaining that ebay do nothing about serial complainers and neg leavers, it appears that now they will.

[shipahoys_antique_and_collectable_centre]

I thought I somehow knew this person - a quick check shows this user name on my BBL (another id!!!). Sprung bad!!!

[jensmanchester-australia]

This is part of the new ebay seller protection policy. The aim of the policy is make it a fair and safe trading place for sellers.

http://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/ebay-for-business/seller-protection

[phorum_junkie*]

OP I hope you realise that if you try using other ids to buy with you will end up with all your accounts suspended, possibly for ever.

Why oh why do these numpties try to get one over on experienced members?

[putney32]

--and changing the user ID to a different name won't take the suspension off either !

[robertybob-46]

All the items recently were watches

Problems have included "reconditioned" watches having loose backs, no seals fitted, 1mm play in winding rotor, movement screws missing, winder stem falling out, crystal fell out (wrong size), chiselled back case fouling the winding rotor.

"working" watches in "good condition" have had broken mainsprings, broken crystal, or not working and badly damaged.

Mostly I only mention the problem very politely, but I had a run of 5 or 6 decent sellers that simply refunded without being asked to do anything except reply.

Evidently ebay was simply working with statistics as I received an "award" at the same time !

I left "negatives" only where a seller was obviously lying about quality, attempting to continue and argue the lie and it's just not worth opening a case nor to pay the registered postage to return the items, a bit of a bumpy run for a bit.. about 3 negatives in 4 months I guess.

Postage gouger is charging something like 3X the actual cost or is using another country name other than where they actually post from, so they can charge inflated (usually USA) postage price while posting from next door.

Another posts by self costed post and places just 500gm postage on the item while charging me for a 2kg item using another's user account or name as well.

Blatant ripoff - when seller doesn't send anything and doesn't respond -- caught twice but found out that the "late posters" are  often using the maximum time to their advantage. i.e. using the expiry of time to reply or for me to complain or open a case.

Some take blurry photos and leave the description very small; such as "works great, looks great" "perfect" is another one.

I'm only buying watches where "suitable for parts" or "as is, including all faults" is in the description from now on.

The "first few" happened all at once it seemed, within a very short space of time.

Some were from India or Singapore. Learned that one is not worth doing twice!

I have changed my user name as I'm not trading and didn't really take to the first one at all. I was being "timed out" when I signed up and was refused my other choices.

I only use one I.D.

I just mention this in case it comes up on the page as I have received some pretty nasty replies and accusations when all I wanted was answers, such as..  How do I correct a secret problem? or with-held information?

I have voluntarily and fairly paid for items after being refunded some months before their eventual arrival. Lost for some time in transit.

I do ask questions when I can think of them, and sure, "Grandpa's estate" is quite understandable but it is difficult to think to ask if all the screws are in a reconditioned movement or if the new crystal is going to fall out with the wrapping

Thanks for your input. The suspension is temporary but it has alerted me that feedback is not as it should be either.

I really expected it to be a truthful reflection and left honestly