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Does eBay prefer US account over international accounts?
 

I was wondering if eBay gives higher priority (better customer service, higher rank in best match, account benefits etc) to US accounts more than to international accounts?

There is as far as I am aware no evidence to suggest that

Agree with GrannyT.

No evidence I have ever come across to suggest this.


:juggle:

Ok and if I start an eBay Stealth account in my country but use a US drop shipper to sell items to US only will it put me on the radar? like I am in Israel and the item ships from USA to USA (I am the middleman and I never see the product but just forward orders to my drop shipper)

Israel account and list on .com - cannot see why not.

I have a UK account that lists on .com with no problems though it does state the items are in the UK. Not sure how they will react to an Israel account with items in USA

Um I think I got an idea

Instead of a stealth account with ⊗⊗⊗⊗ info what if I go to the ministry of interior and slightly change my first and last name, then get a legit bank account and credit card with that name, get a new SIM card, and a P.O. Box at the local post office as the address, and instead of buying a VPN with a **** load of banned IP's I'll just call my ISP and ask them for a new IP (I have a static IP that changes every 6 months)

Is it going to work?

And also before I start listing I'll hire a freelance English teacher for 1-2 hours and have her talk to them on the phone and explain that I am sitting on a multi million dollar manufacturer and then they give me a 1000 items limit?

Sounds fine. Try it and see.

I sure will but I'm wondering what if they ask for my government ID after I've changed the name but not the number then will they compare my ID number with their database to see if it finds a match? Because they already have my ID number from the documents I sent them for my suspended account

Now you are going to fantasy land again.

Hiring someone to speak English just to get you a high amount of items is not going to work.


Do not ask this forum to enable impractical ideas.

:juggle:

Doubt it, very unlikely.

I'm afraid that they will barely understand what I say on the phone because of my foreign accent and I don't speak English as well as I write

I can write well but my speaking is very poor

But a native American will be able to explain things I'll never be able to explain at least not on the phone

No, they will NOT LISTEN.

They are like you. ebay will NOT LISTEN.

Calling them like that, with your proposal will not work.

You need much more work on this plan

:juggle:

if you think this plan this work, many others will do it...the only way to increase your selling limit is to give Ebay a strong reason to trust you with higher selling limits.

I think I'm beginning to understand the OP a little bit.

OP we all know what you are trying to achieve. We have all given you the benefit of our experience. The problem is for you, you do not want to hear what we have to say.

The bottom line here is that unless you are prepared to spend the right amount of money to enable you to APPEAR as you want Ebay to see you anything you come up with to get these higher selling limits is doomed to failure.

Here's what you can do that MIGHT get you where you want to be.

1 - Open a substantial Bricks & Mortar Store
2 - Build a website - all bells and whistles
3 - Add Paypal
4 - Add another processor

At that point you can contact Ebay and say "Look at me - I'm substantial - can I play in your playground"

Why do you believe that Ebay will listen to any explanation from you regarding your products and business? Anything you have to say has been said to them before and proved to be as much value as the horse manure we give away at the farm gate

They threw you off - that has to tell you something about your business structure.

You need to rethink your whole business strategy, possibly your product lines as well, because you are not going to get the listings that you want on Ebay without a substantial risky investment.

I told you in your other thread how it could be done but it appears you are incapable of thinking outside the box and that ability is what you need to culture

By Bricks & Mortar store do you mean a Frooition store? It starts at $1000 for an "advanced" store and $2000 for a Top Seller store

Create a website just to impress eBay? Do you know the amount of time and money I will need to put into it? It's not by the hundreds but thousands

i think this 'seller' person is just playing everyone here

Oh, you poor thing.......

There is a saying in English..... you can not have your cake and eat it.

If you want to go big on ebay, you have to work, spend money.

You have to do it the correct way. Not the cheap way.

Are you too arrogant to understand you need to start at the bottom and work up to a better level?:juggle:

I have worked so hard on my store and they suspended

I am already in loss of nearly $200 from eBay and from sales of items that I offered with free shipping

I don't want to find myself in a situation where I only spend money because so far I haven't really seen any profit

Your own arrogance, your own stupidity made ebay suspend you.

Simple fact is you are not capable of using ebay.

99% of the sellers here have worked themselves into the ground to rebuild accounts.

Thank heavens I have never had to listen to them whine like you do.

:doh:

That seems excessive just to go "legitimately" stealth. Why bother going through all of that? It would be far easier to just supply the documents as and when required.

You have to spend money to make money. That is a fact that you will have to accept.

For eBay to allow you to sell in the volumes you want, you will have to convince them that you are not a risk.

And, generally speaking, a seller outside the USA using a drop-shipper inside the USA to make USA sales is VERY risky. Dropshipping is the first problem and the fact that you are outside the USA compounds it.

There is ONE WAY I can see this working. Call eBay's office in Israel and explain to them what you want to do. You mentioned elsewhere that you were working directly with the manufacturer - maybe they will vouch for you. If you can convince eBay that the manufacturer is standing behind you, then there IS A CHANCE - albeit a small one they will allow it. Even then, you can expect a rolling reserve on your PayPal funds.

But you MUST be honest with them from the start! If they suspect ANYTHING is not 100% Kosher, they will not want to do busines with you.

Be prepared to answer the following types of questions:

1) Being in Israel, how will you handle customer service issues? Let's say a package has gone missing... Can you call the carrier, resolve the problem and communicate that to your customer?

2) Do you have any working capital in reserve? You cannot operate this under the plan of getting the money from PayPal to pay the manufacturer BEFORE the customer's items are sent.

3) Please tell us about your previous business experience. Especially relevant would be any previous experience selling or operating in the USA, any e-commerce experience, etc.

Also, when it comes to dealing with eBay, and/or your customers, drop the foul language. Professionalism is necessary. In here, of course, it is more relaxed.

Ebay doesn't have offices in Israel but they are setting up a development center here but it's nothing to do with eBay customer service

I can ask the manufacturer to send me an email confirming I have rights to sell their products and that I have an account with them (I can also ask them to attach my dealer account paperwork) and then fax it to eBay but I'm afraid can't explain them all that on the phone, only by email/fax/chat

1) UPS packages never go missing but if one does I will either refund the money or resend the item. Also everything is coordinated with my supplier. They are the manufacturer as well as the drop shipper

2) I have nearly $10k to back up any issues I may have to resolve with customers (returns etc) and yes I am doing business in my country and I also have a Israeli business certificate

3) I import various type of products to my country that I sell to retailers. I don't stock any product, I do order by order. I have no experience doing business in USA but eBay is a great opportunity to expand my business

If I open a US account and I'm in Israel How can I avoid eBay from calling to verify my SSN?

OK, so there is a start...

I said to contact eBay in Israel since you mentioned you are bad when it comes to speaking English. Someone at eBay development could perhaps help.

Here is the thing... You are going to have to talk to someone from eBay, in my opinion, to make this work. I thought that if you could get an eBay employee in Israel behind you, and explained your business to them, they might be in a better position to approach eBay's offices here in the USA to "go to bat" for you, so to speak.

Whatever you do, I would highlight to eBay the following:

1) Your import business experience.
2) The fact that you are a legal, licensed, real business in Israel.
3) You have working capital and are only using the manufacturer to ship your items as bringing them to Israel to send back to the USA is impractical and prohibitively expensive.

I would ask a couple of the retailers you deal with if you could use them for a reference just in case it is necessary. I would also ask the manufacturer to back you up. This is the most important thing. I don't see eBay calling Israeli retailers, but they will certainly call the manufacturer.

So, you want to convince eBay that you are a real Israeli businessman, who owns a real business, has working capital and experience with importing (not the same as exporting or drop-shipping, but it couldn't hurt since it IS somewhat related) and whom can be trusted. Because if you become argumentative with them, or act unprofessional in any way, they will think you are kid trying to make a buck without anything to back your business up, which can only cause problems for them.

Stealth WOULD work for you as well, but not in the volumes you want to do on one account. The only way that I know of to do what you are proposing is to have eBay's blessing from the get-go, or to buy an older account - which CAN be risky and is VERY expensive.

I wish you the best of luck.

This post tends to suggest you would not need the SSN.

Until you establish a plan, you can not say if an SSN might be needed.

I KNOW that I won't need SSN if I open an account in my country that is why I was asking if they prefer US accounts over international (Israel in my case)

But it will still put me on their radar if I'm in Israel and the items are in USA and sold to USA

If I have a stealth US account then I won't be on the radar cause I'm in USA, items are in USA and I only ship to USA, but then there is the SSN issue

You claimed to NOT want to be stealth.

Have you been suspended on ebay Israel? US & UK accounts you said were suspended.

What active ebay accounts do you have?

:juggle:

I opened my main account on July and my second account 2 weeks later
The newer account got suspended first and because the main account was linked to the new one by financial and personal information they suspended my main account as well

Right now I have no active eBay accounts

I registered them both on ebay.com

Yes I said I don't want to be stealth and I stand behind it

If there is really no other way to go, if it's a dead end, I will go stealth, but it is my last priority

So in the two weeks prior to joining here, you ended two accounts.

I accept you want to do business.

I accept ebay might be a suitable option.

You have to work out the most suitable way.

As a minimum amount of hassles, it may be preferable to operate from Israel.

Have you associates in Israel with any ebay knowledge?

Let me add, I can not respond to your reply until later... thanks

Start a Israel stealth account? But again it immediately raises a red flag if I am in Israel and the items in USA and they ship to USA

There is an Israeli eBay community where I can find a lot of eBay sellers that operate from Israel but how is it going to help?

PLEASE do not edit your posts AFTER you have had a reply.

You added info that affects the reply.

i know i am still considered a newb here but i am not new to business. when people bitch and moan about losing $200 to start running a business it drives me insane. it just proves they should not be in business period. there was actually someone on here that complained because i believe a dongle would cost them $10 a month. $10 a month!!!!! are people really this insane? sorry for my rant but it made me feel better

Ok, here is the deal,,,

First off, I want to commend the OP for a MUCH Improved attitude on this thread,,,Keep this up and a with little more improvement, you will learn a LOT,,,,,Because More Knowledgable Members like Jeffweico and RSOT will respond to your threads


Now, you should open up an account in Israel in my opinion less Headaches. Now the Information that you use to Open that account MUST BE 100% FRESH, otherwise Ebay at some point will Link your new Account to your Old ones,,,This is GUARANTEED, Here take a look at what you are up against:

http://www.palantir.com/

This is who Ebay/Paypal use to create their Cysersecurity software, The American CIA as well as EVERY Major Western goverment (Including Israel) use them as well,,,so trying to get past them with some type of "slight Alteration to YOUR info will NOT happen,,

You NEED Fresh Info, Real or Stealth, you Decide,,,

On the selling limits, these are determined by what Ebay calls a "Trust Score" this is a Score that you will NEVER Know, only Ebay Employees have access to this info,,the higher the score,, the Greater the Trust,,, the Higher the Selling limits, it is really VERY Simple,,,

Now, the trust score is influenced by a LARGE Number of things,,,the MORE Verifiable Information Ebay has, the better, Known Website, Known Brick-n-Mortar Location (an ACTUAL Store on the Street), Photo, Copy of Govnt ID on File, ect, ect, The Length of Time you have been selling, your DSR's, Amount of Sales, Disputes, along with Comments Placed on your "File" by Ebay when they do a Manual review of your account, and Sooooo Much more,,,

As your account goes foward POSITIVELY, your trust score increases, so will your Selling Limits, and at some point you will be Allowed to list 1000+ items,,,,that will NOT Happen in the Begining, not even if Mr. Donahoe HIMSELF (Ebay CEO) opens your account, so get that OUT of your mind, It took me almost 3 Years to build several Stealth accounts Ever so Slowly to that Level, you MAY get there a little sooner, ONLY because you have the benefit of this forums Knowledge, I did NOT at the time,,

Now BELIEVE me there are NO shortcuts,,,,

Oh, and on your "Dropshipping",,,Well, I would make SURE Ebay NEVER gets wind of it in ANY way, shape or Form, which includes the "Item Location" on your Listings when the time comes,,,Ebay does NOT like Dropshipping, they WILL TAKE Points from your Trust score,,,,

Another GOOD thing that you can do is to get the Stealth Guide and go Over the MANY different Issues in creating a FRESH account, It will save you a LOT of time, Effort, and Money,,

Now continue to Behave and Learn

slapped thanks for the good info I learned a lot from it, I never heard about Trust Score and now I know how it affects everything

But even if I go for an account in Israel how can I start FRESH new as you say if I can't provide them an ID? I don't really want to involve family/friends

If they only told me the real reason why they put the indefinite selling restriction on my account I could prove them everything they wanted but because there are so many possible reasons I have no idea what they really want from me, what will satisfy them and what will make them reconsider reinstating my account

I forgot to mention that my first and main account is not suspended but indefinitely restricted from selling so is there still a chance? (the other account is a goner)

I also remember on one of my recent chat sessions with them trying to know more about the suspension of my second account (which led to restricting the main account) they said "due to the severe nature of your policy breaches we will not be reinstating your account" and then the agent closed the window without even waiting for my response (guess he was mad?)

But the problem is every time, on chat, email and on the phone, I get different reasons that contradict each other so I am completely lost about why they suspended my account

FORGET about this indefinitely suspended eb a/c you continually refer to or you are actively continually trying to get back. This won't happen. You need to move on from this eb a/c otherwise nothing will be achieved.

Take on board the advise given above & start afresh.

Ok... I guess I'll need to mind switch and forget about that account but how can I start fresh if I always have the feeling that I'm being hunted

It is all in your mind in this respect.

I'd consolidate all the advise given from various folks on here on several thread posts to date on the circumstances you've outlined & start from that point onwards.