Full Restriction... Just as bad as suspension!

BubbleTea · #1 04-06-2012

I stumbled onto this forum after eBay gave me a full restriction.
This means I cannot list a single thing but I can buy and leave feedback and reply messages... those useless stuff.
As far as I'm concerned, my eBay account is useless if I cannot sell as I am a seller.

The most frustrating thing is that they do not tell me exactly why, they do not tell me for how long, and they do not tell me what I can do to get it removed.
So this may be forever for all I know!!!

Anyway, I am thinking that this may be a blessing in disguise as it led me to a whole new world of eBay Stealth.
Seeing the probles that eBay is doing to sellers these days, I think every serious seller should get a dozen stealth accounts to cover themselves as eBay can give it a good bite any time!!!

Sneakee · #2 04-06-2012

Haha at "those useless stuff".

Best of luck. Are you starting stealth or still trying to save that account? Or both?

Thankful · #3 04-06-2012

Hey at least you have an account were if you did want to buy something it would go to your home!! some people have to pay for addresses due to full suspensions!

But with that said look after that account either way - and get your stealth journey moving - read around the forum - use the search button - feel free to ask questions.

jeffweico · #4 04-06-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by WuffRuff

... Seeing the probles that eBay is doing to sellers these days, I think every serious seller should get a dozen stealth accounts to cover themselves as eBay can give it a good bite any time!!!

Just a dozen? Some of us have a lot more than that!

And cortex is right. Just keep your original account as a BUYING account. Trust me, you may not need it right now, but they **DO** come in handy.

BubbleTea · #5 04-06-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sneakee

Haha at "those useless stuff".

Best of luck. Are you starting stealth or still trying to save that account? Or both?

BOTH.
MUCH preferred choice would be to save that account as I have very good feedback with regards to the items that I want to sell.
I was on a strategy of selling them with auctions starting with £0.99 and those good feedback on those items would most likely play a role is getting me more and higher bids.
I will post more specifics about this account restriction later in case someone here can offer some good advice.

As for stealth... hmm... there are a number of issues that I need to really WORK around.
Thing is, I am in Singapore but I want a US account as there are restrictions for new sellers registered on Singapore site to sell internationally on other eBay sites.
I need to work out how I can put the pieces together from the other side of the world. :>
And then, there's also a tricky issue with the IP thing.

The account that I got restricted was UK registered and I also have a UK Paypal account that is UK debit card and UK bank verified but all these were my legit data and it wasn't a stealth account.

Now I want a US account since I already have a UK account but its more tricky as I don't have a US bank.
Would getting a bank verified account from one of the sellers solve this, and this perhaps may be my only option at the moment?

Still trying to figure out how everything works.
I'm still learning... been reading this forum for the past few days for a good number of hours per day.

All comments and advice is very much appreciated.

BubbleTea · #6 04-06-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by tanxful

Hey at least you have an account were if you did want to buy something it would go to your home!! some people have to pay for addresses due to full suspensions!

But with that said look after that account either way - and get your stealth journey moving - read around the forum - use the search button - feel free to ask questions.

Actually I'm not 100% certain that I can buy since I haven't bought anything after the restriction, but I'm assuming so since I can add items to my watch list and I can practically do everything on a normal account, except sell. Besides, eBay is always against sellers but pro buyers. Buying is always welcome on eBay.

Now my situation is like I ordered a nice steak meal in a restaurant and they serve me my meal except that my nice steak is in a cage and I can only eat all the sides.
It's not enough... I AM STILL VERY HUNGRY!!!

But thanks for your positive words.

BubbleTea · #7 04-06-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffweico

Just a dozen? Some of us have a lot more than that!

And cortex is right. Just keep your original account as a BUYING account. Trust me, you may not need it right now, but they **DO** come in handy.

Sure, I know! I seriously have no idea what you guys do with so many accounts but I do not really want to make my life revolve around eBay accounts!

Of course I will keep the account.
Since it is 'just' restricted and not suspended, it's probably a matter of time where the issue causing the restriction drops off and my account returns to normal state.
That's what I'm crossing my fingers for now and hoping that day comes soon!

BubbleTea · #8 04-06-2012

Alright, seeing that there are some people replying to this thread, I will post the details and my questions here.

On 23 March 2012, I received an email from eBay:
"Dear xxx,

In order to maintain the security of eBay trading platform, we noticed
that your account has generated an excessive amount of dissatisfaction
among buyers who transacted with you. We are regretful to inform you
that your account has been full restricted for the high percentage of
“bad buyer experience”.

A bad buying experience can be reflected from one or more of the factors
highlighted below:

- Feedbacks from buyer:negative/ neutral feedback;

- DSR rating: low detailed seller rating in Item not As Described,
Communication, Shipping time or Shipping and Handling Charges

- Disputes: Item Not Received dispute /Significantly Not As Described
dispute.

Bad Buyer Experience count is based on all global buyers you have had
transactions with. For example, even though you only list on the US site
transactions with a buyer EU that resulted in bad buyer experience will
also count.

Once you have received any of the above-mentioned response from your
buyer(s), your account performance is affected and if the situation is
serious, this can lead to consequences like account suspension.

Our policy not only counts the performance of your eBay account but also
the performance of your PayPal account as well."

There is more useless jibber jabber after this but I'm sure noone here needs to hear their crap so I've truncated the message to save everyone's time.

Well, at this point, I had 98+%, 1 neg, 2 neutral, and 100+ positive feedback. I had a few cases opened against me around 2 weeks up to that date but none of them were recorded against me according to my seller dashboard (means that I resolved them).
Looking at my seller dashboard, I have standard performance.
Then I noticed that there are these different countries with different seller performance on each and I realised that my seller performance was below standard on the global site due to my despatch time exceeding requirements by the count of 1.
My compliance rating was medium, due to one policy violation, which leads me to my next story.

On 22 March 2012 (just the day before the account restriction), I received this from eBay:
"MC019 eBay Listing Removed: Trademark Breach - Unauthorised Item (593331246)"

eb removed 5 of my listings, some were auctions that have already ended, some ended with payment even, some not ended... a mixed bag.
The funny thing was that there were duplicate auctions running at different auction times but not all were removed and some escaped. I let those run till end (they end the next day) and nothing happened to them.

So we can see that there are two possibilities for my restriction:
1) Seller performance below standard on global site.
2) Trademark Breach issue and policy non-compliance.
3) Combination of both?

I talked to live chat and the person told me that my restriction would automatically go away the next month as the restriction is on a monthly basis. I did not believe her totally but I waited to see since it was only a few days. Come 1 April and what she said turned out to be an April Fool's joke. :(

So I called up eBay and I could only speak to a general customer service as I was told Trust and Safety does not have a phone (I suppose they work in a cave in Timbuktu) and that I would have to email them through the website. At the same time, she assured me that she would also email them my case and ask them to make it a priority. And I was full of doubt that she would do anything of this.

But anyway, this not-very-helpful-yet-pretending-to-be-very-helpful girl looked at my account and saw that Trademark Breech email and she said it was probably due to that which caused the restriction. I had suspected this all along too as the restriction came the very next day that I got the Trademark Breech.

So this pisses me off as eBay was purposely being misleading about the real cause of the restriction. I suppose they couldn't say they were restricting me because of one Trademark Breech raised by Vero and so they just come up with a 'general' convenient excuse and make me look like a bad seller that should be stopped from selling.

I told her that this was my first time getting this, this is my only policy breech on the account, and that my compliance rating is at medium and not even low, so this is not sufficient reason to put the full restriction on me. I also told her that I would not sell those same items causing the problem again if my account was unrestricted. I wrote to the T&S and said the same.

So here's the thing.
If the restriction was due to the low DSR that caused me to fall into under performance, then I heard it is a month till that DSR falls off.
When the DSR falls off, I would probably be rated as standard in my next performance review and eb would lift the restriction.
Am I right?

If the restriction was due to the Trademark Breech, this is where I am uncertain if they will ever return my account to normal.
The seller dashboard said that this policy breech will be removed in Sept if I do not violate the same policy again.
So does this mean that my account will become normal in Sept when this is done?
Or would I have to appeal it?

Is there anything I can do to get them to remove the restriction NOW?!?
Also, I don't understand why they don't just say that they have restricted me due to the Trademark Breech. Why do they have to say it is buyer dissatisfaction when buyers are not all that dissatisfied?!?
The timing of events make it quite obvious that its really due to the Trademark Breech.
Do you think the timing could just be a coincidence and that its really due to the below standard seller performance?

Also, I have since asked my buyer to revise feedback and my feedback is now 100% with 2 neutrals and 131 positive. I have gathered around 10 more glowing positive feedback during this time but I'm not sure if they have left me DSRs, and most of them do not fall into the global category anyway.

Sighhhhh....... what can I do to get them to remove this?
I really want them to remove this.
Please help! Please advise!
And a BIG THANK YOU if you have actually read through all this!

BubbleTea · #9 04-06-2012

Btw tanxful, I like the quote in your signature.
How true!!!

And jeff, is that mega-obese cat real?!?
It looks like it can't even move!!!
It needs an emergency lipo, IMO... lol!

BubbleTea · #10 04-06-2012

OK, so my main account is now full restricted.
I've got another 'secondary account' that is more than a year old and I have done some buying and selling on it and have 20+ feedback.

If having the same Paypal, or having the same postal address on both accounts links them, then I think they are most likely linked.
My question is, can I sell on this linked account if one of the accounts is full restricted?

I'm guessing the politically correct answer is no, but what about the practical answer?
What will happen if eBay finds out that I am selling on this other account?
Will they suspend both accounts?
Or will they restrict both accounts?

And I wish to understand this whole linking thingy.
What does it mean to eBay or the accounts if they are linked?
Does it mean that eBay automatically applies the same restrictions to both accounts?
Is there any way to get accounts unlinked?!?

Thanks, everyone!

seanws30 · #11 04-07-2012

you can sell on the other linked account for now, but it will go down eventually. best to just start over stealthy and new.

BubbleTea · #12 04-08-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by seanws30

you can sell on the other linked account for now, but it will go down eventually. best to just start over stealthy and new.

I will start a stealth acc, but that will take time and I will need to go slow and build feedback on a new account, so I can only do most of my selling on this other account for now.

Is there any way to know if the accounts are linked or not?

I think there is a good chance they are linked but also a fairly good chance they are not.

I have left this secondary account untouched for around a year - no selling, no buying, no logging on even.
Then around two weeks ago, I had logged on a few times to look around my account and bid on a few items.
The log-on times were brief (around 15 mins) but was using the same computer as my now restricted main account and so the same IP address.
But since it was brief and only a few times, I think this same IP logging on may be ok.

What's more likely to cause the linkage is that I may have used the same paypal address and same physical addresses on both.
I have changed these addresses a number of times on both accounts... I juggle the paypal addresses about as sometimes I want the funds going into my Singapore account and sometimes I want it in my UK account... and so on. I have 1 Sg and 2 UK Paypals, all bank and debit card verified.

I cannot be sure if I have ever used the same paypal on both accounts but I think maybe not as I opened the 2nd UK Paypal to be used on this account so there's no need for the 1st UK Paypal.

Its the physical addresses that I think I've more likely used the same on both accounts. Does this have a high rate of causing linking?

As I obviously cannot remember at all what Paypal and addresses I had ever put on this secondary account, is there a way to check the history?

All I know is that I had used it semi-heavily for a few months more than a year ago, then I left it alone most of the time during the past year as I went back to using the main account.

What are the chances the two accounts are linked??

Is there any way to unlink accounts? (Sorry if this qn sounds dumb. I'm new)

GreenBean · #13 04-08-2012

Based on all the words your accounts are linked.

Same IP ( for acitvity loger than 5 seconds) linked them

?Possibility of using the same paypal linked them.

Address the same is a definite link.

You can not unlink them despite your fervent wishes to do so. Certainly you can change all the info on your side. It will 'look' like they have become unlinked. But on the ebay/paypal side all that old info is there.
That is the info that will used against you.
This is based on actual facts of trying to unlink accounts & getting caught. Not quite got the formula yet.

For you it's a new start. You MUST start to keep records. No user can risk saying I dot know which paypal I used etc etc. All facts pertinent to using accounts have to be known.

Start the training now. Plan what you want to do. B4 you go anywhere near ebay/paypal in making new accounts post the plan here. It can be tweaked to give you the best chances.
Create a excel sheet.
From now learn the danger of the word LINK. At all time avoid doing anything with your accounts that cause a link.
Link means trouble.
Good Luck

BubbleTea · #14 04-08-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenBean™

Based on all the words your accounts are linked.

Why did they not impose the full restriction on both accounts but only one?
Slipped through the gap?
I heard they suspend all accounts that are linked.
Not the same for restrictions?

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenBean™

For you it's a new start. You MUST start to keep records. No user can risk saying I dot know whic paypal I used etc etc. All facts pertinent to using accounts have to be known.

This was in the days of being in an eBay bubble - not knowing what a**holes they are and not knowing or ever expecting that they could just slap a restriction or suspension on me for no reason. I had these two accounts and I thought I could do anything I liked with them (within legal boundaries and their stupid policies) for as long as I liked. And I had no idea that accounts could become linked.

OK, one fine day I got this stupid restriction and now I see the truth.

I am much the wiser now (i hope) and sure, I will keep records and keep everything separate and unlinked from now on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenBean™

Start the training now. Plan what you want to do. B4 you go anywhere near ebay/paypal in making new accounts post the plan here. It can be tweaked to give you the best chances.
Create a excel sheet.
From now learn the danger of the word LINK. At all time avoid doig anything with your accounts that cause a link.
Link means trouble.
Good Luck

Thanks.
OK, will post plans when I figure it out.

By the way, been trying to figure this out...
Can I use a Paypal verified by VCC but not linked to any bank account?
Will the Paypal have limitations when not bank verified but VCC verified?
I will transfer my funds from this Paypal to another Paypal that is linked to bank to get the funds. Send as gift.
Will this link the two eBay accounts that are linked to these two Paypals?

I'm guessing a few times would be fine since you can send gift money or whatever personal payment to anyone.
But if this happens on a regular basis like weekly or even monthly, will Paypal get suspicious?
Does Paypal monitor such personal funds payments?

rsot · #15 04-09-2012

So many questions in one post - ha I like it =)

You need to read more in the PP section on this forum - quite basic q's =) And/or get the stealth guide - makes things easier.

Omgoozle · #16 04-18-2012

Quote: