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10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

Hello Everyone,
I find myself on this forum I guess like everyone alarmed at being indefinitely suspended.
I own an IT asset recovery company, which is now entering its 11th year, I sell mainly to the trade but ebay makes a not insignificant 30% towards my turnover.
I have a 100% feedback and excellent referrals, I made the mistake earlier this year in replying to a customer query via email from my mobile phone, not using the app, it had embedded contact details, I was suspended for 7 days.

Last week using my laptop email I responded to a technical question to someone who was interested in some servers, the sale completed, so thought nothing off it.

Some replies however were via the app, but a couple including the tracking number for the completed sale were from my laptop which had embedded signature.

I realise it was my mistake, however a 10 year history and 100% feedback have resulted now in indefinite suspension, which seems draconian.

What is the best option?

I am a newbie, so be kind please..

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

I was in a very similar position to you. Would recommend buying the stealth book on here. Read it and go from there. Warning though there is no quick fix here. It will take months, possibly years to get an account back to the level it was. I am about 3 months into that journey - others here have been at it much longer.

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

You need to call in. Unless you've left out details, there wasn't much of a reason for this suspension. Explain to an eBay rep that eBay allows you to respond to customers from your email account which you frequently do. Tell them you're running a business so you've got an email signature with your contact details. You were trying to provide customer service, not drive business off of eBay.

I think you've got a good chance. Nothing to lose by at least giving it a try.

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

Welcome to the forums - just to clarify, you said you were suspended for 7 days? But your 2nd letter says indefinitely....which is it? Did you repeat the same error?

Might as well learn stealth and get backups going.

Like phaz indicated, you have nothing to lose but contact eb and try to reason with them - trying a few agents might be in order depending on how the conversation goes

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

Just to clarify, I contacted ebay by phone when i was aware of my second account suspension, the rep was telling me it was a "pattern" responding to customers and providing contact information, but this was due to email signatures, not driving business outside ebay.

I appealed to a manager who spent two minutes looking at the issue, and just repeated the same thing " a pattern" it seems very unfair that ebay sends messages to a business phone or business email which mostly have signatures, its too easy to quickly reply to a customer which is good customer service, rather than switch between ebay messaging systems.

Has any one successfully appealed against indefinite suspension with grounds similar to mine?

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

You need to call them. If your side can be well explained then I think they may listen and allow you back on, despite saying "indefinitely suspended"

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

I agree with others.
Call. And do so more than once cause you get different responses from different reps. You dont really have anything to lose.

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

I had almost the exact same situation. I got an initial warning due to an email where I had accepted an offer from a buyer to pay via bank transfer.

I was trying to be careful after that, then one day I woke up to my eBay account terminated. A 100% feedback account of over 6 years doing strong 6 figures yearly. Turns out I had sent an email to a buyer with my name and phone number on it ( no kidding).

Called in and begged and pleaded and cried for close to an hour and my account was finally restored. I couldn't believe they were willing to throw my business away over such a simple issue of having my name on an email.

They are being really really strict about this now. The seller update sent out today goes on and on about it.

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

Do everything in your power to try and get the account restored.

In the meantime, the forum can help you gain the knowledge to run multiple accounts.

The stealth guide show you how to create and keep accounts link free.

The forum + the guide = Successfull selling on ebay.

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

If you're telling the truth and the only issue was an email signature, this will be easily overturned once you get the right rep on the phone.

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

I tried again on the phone for 1 hour, still suspended, yes it was an email signature, I also do mainly B2B so need signature, unfortunately it was the second time , I asked if they could stop forwarding their messages to my business email or if I could have it forwarded to a non business email that wouldnt have a signature, again they were not interested.

Very harsh..

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

Buy the Stealth book and read it. We see a lot of similar stories on here. I myself had a 7-year-old account and thousand in sales every month when I was suspended. It was half my income. Learning the tricks will get you back on eBay and help to protect you in and your company in the future.

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

I have done the same thing with new ebay acount (0 feedback) and I wasn't suspended. So if you have a good old account then looks like ebay is more harsh. Of course new account with 0 feedback isn't worth almost anything also.

Re: 10 years on ebay, 100% feedback, suspended
 

Ring them again or contact them over chat system it's all down to rep I know many of my friends had same situation like you and they manage to get it back,
It's all down to you how you convince eBay rep they have authority to restore your account with one click

Keep trying and all the best