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Ebay Account Suspended - False Accusation
 

Hi all,

I have an eBay account for my business. It's in my real name, with real details. Had the account since 2013, have 1701 feedback score, average about £4,000 per month in sales.

We sell personalised printed products, so part of this is we need to receive photos, logos, etc, from ebay customers to enable us to fulfil orders.

A while ago we had a telling off from eBay because I'd offered someone a discount for buying outside of ebay. I was banned from messaging anyone via eBay for 7 days, and I vowed to never do something so stupid again.

Fast forward a couple of months, a customer contacts us wanting to order some items, and asks where to send the photos. Aware that you can't send an email address in an ebay message, I take a screenprint of our listing description and send it as an attachment via eBay message along with 'wondered whether you could send them to the email address in the listing description Ebay don't allow us to send an email address so I've attached a screenprint of our description showing which email address to send your pictures and text to.'

The customer then emailed us the photos and once we verified that they were ok, proceeded to place an order via eBay for 54 printed mugs.

That was a week ago, but tonight, ebay have suspended our account and stated the reason as 'We’ve reviewed your eBay account and determined that you’re still not following our offers to buy or sell outside of eBay policy. As a result, your account has been suspended. You won't be able to use eBay in any way. This includes using another existing account or registering a new account.' and quoted the message mentioned above.

I have tried to phone eBay but their automated system says our eBay account has been suspended indefinitely.

Now, my question is, in my opinion, eBay have automatically detected this message and viewed it as buying/selling outside of eBay which is clearly not the case, especially seeing as the customer then proceeded to place an order via eBay. So, do you think I have any chance of having the account reinstated?

What's the best way to approach this?

I could really use whatever advice you can offer as eBay is about 80% of my businesses monthly income.

Re: Ebay Account Suspended - False Accusation
 

I would stop stressing and open a stealth account, in fact open 10 stealth accounts. You will never look back.

I did once buy the stealth guide and opened a couple of accounts but found it difficult to maintain so have stuck with a genuine account upto now, in fact I have two genuine accounts.

Anyway, on a positive note, I spoke to eBay this morning, and explained my view (was very apologetic), and that I didn't know it wasn't allowed to share contact info in a message, and vowed to never do it again. The eBay representative explained that the suspension is usually indefinite but on this occasion they lifted the suspension and warned me that I would not be able to have a suspension lifted in the future.

Relieved isn't the word, but so thankful.

Re: Ebay Account Suspended - False Accusation
 

You found it difficult? I bet if your genuine accounts go down you won't find it difficult at all to run Stealth accounts.

Re: Ebay Account Suspended - False Accusation
 

What's difficult about operating a stealth account?

If you could tell us, maybe we can give you an eye opener. Because in this day and age, having those stealth accounts and learning how to operate them are very valuable.

Re: Ebay Account Suspended - False Accusation
 

Excellent. Well done and congratulations

Re: Ebay Account Suspended - False Accusation
 

I agree with you. My account got suspended 2 years ago and I’ve been using stealth ones since then. About 6 months ago my genuine account got reinstated and I’ve just not bothered to use it as I’m doing well with the stealth ones. I bought them from ebayorbust 2 years ago which is when I stumbled across this amazing forum.

Re: Ebay Account Suspended - False Accusation
 

How did you get reinstated ?? And what got you suspended ??

Re: Ebay Account Suspended - False Accusation
 

YAY!!! You got soooo lucky. You're the one in a million success story.

BUT,

The handwriting is on the wall, once you've got EB stirred up, they're like a hornet's nest, they'll watch you for years and at the slightest indication of trouble WHAM!!! You're done forever.

Better start a stealth or two or ten now, because your days are probably numbered.

Re: Ebay Account Suspended - False Accusation
 

Welcome to the forums - all the best as you master stealth :thumb:

I got suspended due to several policy violations. Then out of nowhere I recieved an email saying according to seller standards you meet the minimum requirement to sell. I then logged in and found my feedback percentage at 0% and only able to sell 50 items a month. I sold a few items on it and managed to get feedback percentage to 100% instantly, but then didn’t bother to sell on it properly, so the selling limit has not increased and is still stuck in 50 items a month. It’s a dormant account that I do really need to get working again.

Re: Ebay Account Suspended - False Accusation
 

They're reactivating old accounts lately and wiping the slate clean for some people.

I had a few I botched up with when I started stealth many years back, and a few suddenly came back on line about 3 months ago.

I haven't lost any in several years, and I've got a whole crop of backups I've hardly used at all, so it was a nice bonus, but not really all that essential.