Selling account restricted permanently

[jpamboris]

Hi all,

My selling privileges were restricted yesterday because of the new ebay ratings. My DSR was very good but i had several cancelled transactions because of an item that i ran out of stock.

I know that i should not have something listed that i did not have avaialble however this was only for a short period (7 days). Most of the buyers were happy to wait for this dvd but there were some that wanted it cancelled and refunded. Now i feel like i should not have communicated to these buyers as i would not be in the position i am in right now. But yes, i advised all these buyers that i ran out of this title and i would have it within 7 days but i am happy to refund it if required.

I have never used the ebay inventory manager tool as i have my own system that i pay a subscription for to manage my stock levels and ordering.

I contacted Ebay customer service yesterday and was advised from their call centre in the Phillipines that this decision was final and irreversable. I argued that i was a loyal ebay customer for 10 plus years. Had paid all my fees (approx $500.00 per month) on time without delay, had feedback of >99% and my DSR's were of a high standard. I also mentioned that my rating changed on 20/08/14 and that i had 20 days to try and fix this before my account was suspended. Their response to this was "we understand but the decision is final". I then asked to be transferred to comeone who was based in Australia and who had the authority to do something about this. The response was that they support the Australian opertations and there was no one else i could contact.

I have sent an email via Ebay last night in the hope that it would get escalated somewhere but the call centre i spoke with.

Has anyone else been in this position and if so who did you contact and what was the outome?

Help and assistance needed please?

Regards

John (In2 DVD)

[englishrosegardens]

What the Chinese do is irrelevant. 

Just because a lot of speeding motorists are never caught doesn't make it okay for the rest of us to ignore the speed limit.  Similarly, just because some sellers ignore ebay's rules but aren't caught is no justification for the rest of us ignoring the rules.  If we all thought it's okay to break the rules just because someone else gets away with it, we'd end up with anarchy - and no buyers because they'd all be turned off.

I've read a lot in the forums about sellers being sick of buyers messing them around, but I get the distinct impression that a lot now think it's okay for sellers to mess buyers around by listing items they don't have in stock, or not to bother with an accurate description.

[dylan11235813]

The point I was trying to make is that it is not a level playing field and a chinese seller can easily counteract the effect of the defect system by uploading invalid tracking numbers.

I wasn;t commenting on the fact that the seller didn't actually do the wrong thing, they did, they could have done many things differently and because they where honest about it they got stung.

[cherry*135]

What if you don't break the rules and see other sellers getting away with scamming buyers? Happens far to often..by fraudulent sellers, scammers.. not the  sellers who have  listed an item in the wrong category or cancelled too many transaction is a week/month/whatever, sellers who have sold  on eBay for a very  long time and have 10 000 ( or 10 000's of thousands) or more positive feedback

Sellers who don't send items out to newish buyers and give excuses, been sick, its on its way now and keep delaying the buyer with excuses until its to late for them to lodge a paypal claim. Seems a common trick for some overseas sellers. Result buyer ripped off - no item, no refund.

Compare that to a seller who has listed an item in the wrong category? 

[englishrosegardens]

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@dylan11235813 wrote:

The point I was trying to make is that it is not a level playing field and a chinese seller can easily counteract the effect of the defect system by uploading invalid tracking numbers.

I wasn;t commenting on the fact that the seller didn't actually do the wrong thing, they did, they could have done many things differently and because they where honest about it they got stung.

---

He didn't get stung "because he was honest about it".  He got stung "because he did the wrong thing"!  If he hadn't told people he didn't have it in stock he may have had a lot more defects!  He told them in order to save his own skin.

He still can't see that it was wrong and dishonest to list what he didn't have!  He found it "inconvenient" to relist if a listing ended because it sold out, so he preferred to list more than he had available.  Any inconvenience to buyers was never a consideration.

I sell on two IDs and I make sure my stock available accurately reflects my stock levels - because I care about my customers and I want them to be happy and come back for more.  It's easy enough to keep the stock figures accurate by updating as an item sells.

We all know most of the Chinese have no regard for the rules but if we support Australians who do the same thing then we can hardly complain about the Chinese.  I personally won't buy from anyone who has bad feedback for selling items they don't have in stock.  I would never know whether I'd receive them and it's just not worth the hassle/stress.

If a seller wants sales and good feedback, then it's time to put their buyers first and show them respect.  That means only listing what you have in stock, and making sure it's listed accurately.  It doesn't take much longer to do a good description than what it takes to do a lousy one.

[cherry*135]

Is that worth a permanent ban though. For a seller who has a long history on eBay, account in good standing and 12 000+ feedback? That's a lot of satisifed customers.

Seller and everyone else here already knows what happened to get the restricton/ban.

Why not have an eBay appeal process  for sellers like the OP (not for ones caught deliberately scamming customers or selling fakes).

[i-love-my-sheep]

I'm just waiting for someone to jump in with a phrase I absolutely despise "do the crime, do the time" 😛

[dylan11235813]

I agree with you in the most part but in effect the seller could have lied a little better and ebay would have been non the wiser. I would prefer an honest seller who is out of stock than a dishonest one that will drag a transaction on for a month.

The seller could have lied and still have an account (no sting).

[cherry*135]

Apart from the fact you shouldn't list stock you don't have. What harm did the OP's buyers suffer?Seller contacted them and gave them a choice. Some requested and received a refund, others were OK with waiting until the DVD was back in stock. 

Same punishment for OP -a permanent ban - as other sellers would get, who might have fleeced/scammed several buyers out of $1000's.

[englishrosegardens]

---

@am*3 wrote:

What if you don't break the rules and see other sellers getting away with scamming buyers? Happens far to often..by fraudulent sellers, scammers.. not the  sellers who have  listed an item in the wrong category or cancelled too many transaction is a week/month/whatever, sellers who have sold  on eBay for a very  long time and have 10 000 ( or 10 000's of thousands) or more positive feedback

Sellers who don't send items out to newish buyers and give excuses, been sick, its on its way now and keep delaying the buyer with excuses until its to late for them to lodge a paypal claim. Seems a common trick for some overseas sellers. Result buyer ripped off - no item, no refund.

Compare that to a seller who has listed an item in the wrong category? 

---

The scammers will also end up with lots of defects so they'll be brought to account, but if we didn't have a defect system they'd continue to get away with it.  Is that what you want - do away with the defect system so they can continue on their merry way?

While a lot of listings in the wrong category are genuine mistakes (eg. forgetting to change the category from the last listing done), a lot are deliberate in an attempt to get more exposure for their items and have an advantage over other sellers, and as such it should be stamped out.  I sell an item in a category that's full of things that shouldn't be there, plus lots more that involve listing violations, and it makes searching so much more time-consuming.  It's a real turn-off for buyers so it probably means the genuine sellers get less sales because of it. 

If something is obviously in the wrong category by mistake I'll often contact the seller and let them know, but if it's deliberate I have no hesitation in reporting the listing.  Once a seller has had one policy violation for listing in the wrong category you'd expect them to be more careful in future.  Clothing in collectables just because it has an animal on it is just plain ludicrous and should be a no-brainer for an experienced seller.

[donnashuggy]

The problem now is that there is NO WARNING, you can't even see violations on your dashboard like you used to. I never bothered appealing violations as I thought it was petty but obviously we have to appeal these violations or could end up suspended.

It's completely unfair and utterly stupid how they are treating sellers.