eBay

rbpartout · ‎22-01-2019

Regarding your restriction on the account, after review, I'm afraid we cannot lift the restriction as this is valid. You provided contact information, a pick up address, and completed the transaction outside eBay.

Hi Hannie
Please act on this or forward it to your superiors.
Yes guilty as charged, I have a physical shop, unfortunately some people would rather deal face to face than through ebay.
Lets consider some numbers here, so I sold a $400 part, from which ebay would collect approximately $28 in fees, not to mention paypal fees, say $8 which of course are collected by the parent company ebay again. So ebay has missed out on say $36.
Ok as punishment you have shut down my store for 7 days to teach me a lesson.
Obviously this has a financial impact on my business but also costs ebay revenue as well.
My fees average 5000 a month or 1250 every 7 days. Shut down my store and ebay loses 1250 because they lost 36 in revenue, is this a sensible action???
Secondly I pay about 60000 in fees yearly, more than one employees salary I suspect. Your action clearly demonstrates that ebay does not care about retaining my business and the money I generate for ebay.
This contributes to my ongoing desire to look for an alternative platform to sell my goods through, you can already see I have purchased the domain bikepartout.com . Your current actions further encourage me to continue to develop my own website and 60000 pa certainly pays for a large amount of advertising to direct traffic away from ebay.
I look forward to hearing back from you with a much more considered approach to my failure to comply with ebay's restrictive communication policies or continue to ignore my requests and reinforce my current view of ebay and encourage me to move my business away from ebay

Hello Mike,

Thank you for getting back with us with regards to your account.

We understand how you feel Mike but we need to follow the policy we have. If not what is the sense of imposing it. We are mainly avoiding fraud that is why we restrict accounts selling outside eBay. You would agree to have a smooth sailing business right. You are well aware of the process now we know you can do it.

I trust this information helps and thank you for choosing eBay.

Hi Scarlette E
Gee I wish I could be dealing with the same person regarding this matter, maybe one of you could actually forward my communication to one of your superiors rather than flicking it to another concierge.
Regarding a smooth sailing business surely it makes better sense to accept a $36 loss and keep earning $1250 per week, This kind of attitude indicates to me that ebay has no idea about a smooth sailing business and certainly does not care about mine.
Your right I can do it, I can minimise my business through ebay and pump the savings I make into other sales platforms.
But anyway keep fighting the good fight, detecting $36 fraud, losing $1250 in fees and contributing to ebays falling profit margins.
Your information does not help me at all and I will not be choosing ebay for much longer.
Regards Mike T

imastawka · ‎22-01-2019

Ebay don't read here.

Only other members volunteering help.

All I can say is, you must follow policy - it's their playground after all.

collect247 · ‎22-01-2019

OPs just letting us know what happened to him and it's making him laugh that ebay's logic is beyond comprehension.

digital*ghost · ‎22-01-2019

As harsh as this might sound, it might also explain why ebay acted the way they did - eBay doesn't think about you, the $36 or even the $1250.

They think about the (potential) loss on a grand scale if they did not take such drastic action against those who breach policies, which (even when talking about a minor percetage of total sales lost) would probably make those numbers look a lot smaller.

Your story, while your intention is to say "eBay is illogical", will actually tell most people "don't ever do this" - and that's what ebay wants.

JMHO their policies have certainly over-corrected this kind of thing, what with sellers getting into trouble just for receiving messages from a potential buyer that ask about buying off-ebay, or contain contact info - that is true madness and paranoia in action.

davewil1964 · ‎22-01-2019

Fyi - eBay sold Paypal several years ago. They are already phasing in a replacement payment processor.

Whilst it makes little difference to the thrust of your complaint, it can't help your credibility when lambasting eBay.

k1ooo-slr-sales · ‎22-01-2019

I think you misunderstand the intent of the policy.

eBay want to be known as a safe place for buyers to buy online. It is all about security for their buyers, which they have been working hard to build over these last few years with things like MBG etc. When a buyer finds an item on eBay but then buys that item from that seller in an off-eBay transaction there is no buyer protection in terms of the buyer initially finding the item on eBay. Sure, eBay lose out on fees, but more importantly it can damage the reputation of their brand.

You say they are losing $36 in fees, but if you did that sort of thing on a regular basis, say twice a week for a year, that would be $3,600 not to mention that multiple buyers would be involved. If just one buyer ends up getting burned they will tell others a story about how “I found an item on eBay but the seller ended up selling to me off-eBay and the item didn’t fit and I lost my money”. Now, I’m not saying you would do that, but there are unscrupulous sellers/scammers who have ripped off buyers in the past by talking them into an off-eBay transaction. There has been a thread on these boards from such a buyer and the only advice we could offer was to report the seller to ACORN.

Bottom line it is their playpen, if you want to play in their playpen you have to follow their rules. They are thinking about the long term reputation and not the short term loss of fees.

countessalmirena · ‎23-01-2019

@rbpartout wrote:
Regarding your restriction on the account, after review, I'm afraid we cannot lift the restriction as this is valid. You provided contact information, a pick up address, and completed the transaction outside eBay.
[...]
Yes guilty as charged,

I presume that you knew about eBay's much-spruiked Member-to-member contact policy, and Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay policy.

I can understand eBay not wanting sellers listing on eBay to be avoiding the paying of Final Value Fees. Like digital*ghost, I think eBay's implementation and reaction are out of proportion and that they're using a bomb to eradicate some weeds. But your case isn't an example of one of the many innocent bystanders caught up in these policies, inconvenienced and unable to contact each other just to complete the transaction, or the potential buyers of pick-up items who can't even wander over to the seller's home to have a look at the item prior to clicking the Buy Now button on eBay.

Instead - tough as it may be to swallow - your case is exactly the reason why these policies were implemented. You have said "guilty as charged". You're not denying that you had buyers turn up to your shop after seeing your items on eBay, and you sold to them and did not tell the buyers to buy on the eBay listing. You did, in fact, avoid paying eBay fees for at least one sale (possibly more than one).

Instead of thinking about eBay's fees from you, turn that around and think about what you are gaining from the commercial arrangement with eBay. Presumably you are getting traffic converted into sales through listing on eBay. You're getting (again presumably) value for money, otherwise you wouldn't list on eBay. Was it worth the "say $36" to have your eBay store out of action for 7 days? Judging by what you've said, I doubt it.

You've clearly got a successful and remunerative business on eBay. Use eBay while it's useful to you, and by all means look towards your own website and sales from that website. But in the meantime, why did you risk cutting your own business throat for the sale of a measly $36? If you are going to leave eBay, you'll want to leave it on your own terms rather than being suspended for a little while, and put on eBay's "Oooh, s/he's been naughty" list,, and any hint of a future infraction (even if false) being jumped on immediately.

But... it's pointless threatening eBay with the potential withdrawal of your business. For every 1 business that leaves eBay in a huff, there are hundreds that join eBay with the hope of setting up a successful business. Your presence will not make or break eBay - and from what I've understood from other sellers who have found themselves thrown off eBay for NO GOOD REASON, you don't want to put yourself in the position of being thrown off eBay for a VALID REASON which your eBay correspondent Hannie has clearly told you "is valid". You DID provide contact information and a pick up address, and you did complete the transaction outside eBay.

(You're lucky it was just a 7-day time-out sanction. It could have been worse. I wish you all the best with your plans for your website and the future growth of your business, as well as your business on eBay in the interim or - who knows? - running concurrently with your own website in future.)