Anybody Ever Suspended from eBay?

[SteveN]

I had an interesting experience today. After opening up an eBay account to sell off some of my jackets, my account was suspended for 'suspicious' activity. After ring them up, the rather rude customer service agent wouldn't tell me what this suspicious activity was, nor how I could correct it, and says I can't open another account!

All very curious since I was able to open up a bank account, get a credit card as well as an investment account using the same information.

Very odd indeed. Anyone else had problems with them?

Cheers,
- Steve Nunez

 

[a2jacketpatches]

They're right on top of things and it's quite possible your account has been compromised. It has happened to me a couple of times in about 11 years or so. Most recently a few months back when someone listed cases of Iphones on my account and by the end of the day my Paypal account had thousands of dollars in it. I thought that it made no sense because PP was not accessed, but the Ebay security team assured me this was an attempt to get into my personal info even deeper and they probably got as far as they did through my email. I had a guy in Russia bugging me for a week to refund his money after Ebay notified him of the scam. A bit frustrating but they got it sorted out quickly.

 

[SteveN]

Normally, I might think that the account compromised, like when the credit card company calls when I make out of the norm purchases, but in this case the eBay account was only a week old and I'd only listed a single jacket. No funny PayPal activity either.

 

[Jason]

Yes, I have. All stemmed from a listing to sell a car radio... eBay claimed I was "engaging in & promoting illegal activity". WTF?
After several sessions of banging my head against the wall, including one conversation that went something like 'so if someone were to list a vehicle without a disclaimer that the vehicle must not be driven over the speed limit, not be used in a manner likely to receive a parking ticket or used for any illegal activity - you'd also suspend their account?' - to which they answered "yes, we would immediately do so".
I just shook my head and took the month's suspension; they're a law unto themselves. I've never listed anything on ebay ever since...

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Well at this point I have absolutely no clue what the issue is. Suspicious of you? someone else? the infraction? Can't really comment or help until I have an idea. I've had listings removed for policy violation concerning gun parts and weapons, Sounds like your local laws are coming into play here.

 

[SteveN]

Well, there wasn't much interaction. Last weekend I decided to list some of my jackets, so opened the eBay account. First up was my ELC Cable, which got zero bids after a week. I got a notification from eBay and thought: "Hmm. Perhaps I listed it in the wrong area." (it was in Collectibles), so I changed it to Men's Clothing.

Later in the evening, I got a call from an unknown number. Since my hands were full of Pecards at that moment, I let it ring out to voice mail. A few minutes later I received the suspension notification.

The 'helpful' customer support agent wouldn't tell me exactly what the problem was. Only vague assertions about 'We checked you out and tried to confirm your information but the Almightily eBay computer said you were suspicious." and "Our decision is final" (about 12 times). I doubt it's against the law to sell a leather jacket in Illinois.

So, near as I can gather, I'm fine to open a bank account, credit card, insurance, get a car title and drivers license, but I'm too suspicious to list my jacket on eBay. Apparently this is a common occurrence. A quick search on the net shows that this happens so often that people even publish books on how to get around eBay's rules. Anyone really intent on running a scam on eBay would have little trouble avoiding whatever mistake it is I made (apparently changing the category of your listing is a major cause for concern!)

The irony, for me, is that I work developing systems to segment populations (the technical term). You do this for many reasons, such as catching fraud, determining who to sell what to, what customers might buy your product, etc. This is what we call a 'false positive', and most companies treat that as a very serious problem, for obvious reasons. What's surprising is that a company the size of eBay has a model so far out of sync that it would flag someone like me as a false positive, and that they haven't corrected it after all these years. I suppose that they're big enough that they can afford to turn customers away.

Which leaves me with deciding what to do about it. I'm not inclined to put a great deal of effort into fixing their problem; like Perry, if that's the way they want to be, I'll take my business elsewhere.

So, where are the other good places to list a jacket? Fedora Lounge and here are the obvious choices? Any other suggestions? Alternatives to eBay?

Regards,
- SteveN

Well at this point I have absolutely no clue what the issue is. Suspicious of you? someone else? the infraction? Can't really comment or help until I have an idea. I've had listings removed for policy violation concerning gun parts and weapons, Sounds like your local laws are coming into play here.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

No idea, I never experience issues like this, sounds like a mistake considering many items are appropriate for more than one category. They are pretty strict with new accounts these days. I opened one under my wife about a year ago and there were limitations on it regardless of our other account that's a decade old with a flawless record. They held the money until the item was received and for some time after in case of a problem. Had to build up 25 transactions or something, reach a certain dollar amount, a real PIA but got through it.

Etsy may be a good outlet, it's fixed price but the regulations are easier to deal with. Guys are going there for collectibles, I find good patches all the time and there's a lot of things listed improperly so you can find some treasures if you look hard enough. Won't be as quick as Ebay or as much exposure so there's really no Ebay alternative in my opinion. They can afford to be picky so they are, at least until you've built a good reputation. On my older account, they don't freeze my money on the rare occasion that someone files a complaint because I've always remedied these situations without Ebay being involved, they made a point to email me saying so. But new accounts are scrutinized like crazy.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Just noticed in another thread that you're moving back to Singapore, I swear that at the beginning of this thread I saw Singapore and that's why I mentioned local laws. Then you said "I doubt it's against the law to sell a leather jacket in Illinois" and your profile said Illinois, so I thought to be my mistake. But again, I swear I saw Singapore under your username right here just the night before. Did you switch it? If so, I'm sure something like this would raise a red flag with Ebay as well. It sure had me checking twice before i continued to post on this thread. Don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing you of funny business, but Ebay will pick up on conflicting information or changes to a profile in a heartbeat.

 

[SteveN]

My profile did say Singapore (and Tasmania, Victoria and Hong Kong) in the past. I did change just change in here on the forum. It may very well be that with PayPal accounts across three countries they thought something was amiss, but that's surely not a very good reason. Do they think people really don't move or travel?

- Steve

 

[a2jacketpatches]

My profile did say Singapore (and Tasmania, Victoria and Hong Kong) in the past. I did change just change in here on the forum. It may very well be that with PayPal accounts across three countries they thought something was amiss, but that's surely not a very good reason. Do they think people really don't move or travel?

- Steve

Just that you changed your profile location within this thread overnight, in between posts that has me wondering. If done that way while configuring an Ebay account and listings, it may show as as suspicious. But again, I don't really know all the details. I'm just pretty sure that there is a valid reason behind it.