screwed by ebay suspension--double screwed by domino effect of ebay notifying buyers

krom · #1 02-03-2011

So ebay suspends my 3 year old account with several hundred feedback with a really vague, really unspecific notice about "security concerns", which I know from looking here can mean just about anything. No clue what its about at all, and from what people say here I'd be foolish to even ask them.

What's worse is this--they apparently sent equally vague notices to ANYONE who bought anything of any type from me in the past 30 days about their auction being "canceled" because of (wait for it) unspecific security concerns, and telling them to file a Case for a refund.

Here's my catch 22 (thanks, ebay). I can't login to even defend myself, as per advice here. To paypal, I guess from what I read to get funds out of that account, but not ebay. Now I had a case filed against me years ago (just the one), where someone simply CLAIMED something I sold him was a knockoff (it wasn't), and my recollection is that ebay didn't make him send it back--they just ruled in favor of him and told Paypal to give him back the money.

This is what I'm worried about here. I've already had several people file cases now, just because they're worried in some vague sense apparently, because they got this "canceled for security concern" email. They all claim, of course, that they can't contact me, because I suppose ebay has removed any method for them to do so EXCEPT through filing a case. I'm worried about a domino effect here with my Paypal account, because I can already see that the funds for each of these cases has been "frozen" pending an ebay decision--one I can't participate in, not that it would probably do any good--seems to me like they'd all rule against me anyway and not even make people send anything back. So I lose twice.

And aside from ebay REALLY screwing me in terms of creating a wave of cases which I can't do anything about, I'm at a loss what to do in the short term with Paypal and my bank account. If I transfer whatever funds are left in the Paypal account right now and NOT held--only a few hundred bucks at this point (and unfortunately wait 3+ business days while other potential cases could be filed), then what happens if MORE holds are placed on other transactions from the last 30 days? Will they immediately try and get it from my bank? But if I close the bank account now, then I can't get access to any of the remaining funds in the Paypal account (there are that few hundred left, plus $500 I initiated a transfer on yesterday--so I have to wait at least two more days for THAT no matter what). I mean do I really want them to send me a check and cash it, presuming there's actually somehow funds left after all of these potential cases?

Anyone else ever caught in this kind of trap? I suppose I could go through some months long process to TRY and prove the veracity of my merchandise, but in the meantime that's not going to stop people from filing cases based PURELY on a super-vague email which has panicked them, with them apparently seeing no way to contact me on ebay, and me having to worry about whether its wiser to keep my paypal and bank account open or try and close them. There's a real bank with a real link to me, its not some kind of virtual thing people seem to be talking about on this forum--its me and presumably ebay or paypal can sick collections on me if they arbitrarily decide I'm supposed to refund all of these people for items they haven't even returned!

Advice? This seems worse than hopeless.

Melissa1971 · #2 02-03-2011

You forgot to introduce yourself

Melissa1971 · #3 02-03-2011

Hurry up and login to your Paypal account before it becomes suspended and get your customers email addresses. Let them know what happened so they don't panic

BooMer · #4 02-03-2011

Contact your buyers immediately and tell them that you have already sent their items out and provide them with the tracking # if any. Give your buyers a "believable" excuse that ebay put your account on hold because they were unable to charge your credit card to pay for fees. Tell them that your credit card was stolen and you are in the process to receive a new one in the mail. That should buy you some time to transfer funds.

Don't stiff Ebay and Paypal. If this is your real info they will put you in collections. Even if you manage to transfer and withdraw the money, Paypal will put your account in the negative when buyers open up disputes when there is no money in the account. Then it will lead to emails and then collections until the negative balance is back to Zero.

As for the buyers that have already opened up a claim, tell them to please close the case when they receive their items. Most honest buyers will do that.

Finally, Try to figure out what you did wrong. Is it the DSR's? Products you sell? Your communications and delivery time? It has to be something that you are not telling us.

BooMer

krom · #5 02-09-2011

Quote:

Finally, Try to figure out what you did wrong. Is it the DSR's? Products you sell? Your communications and delivery time? It has to be something that you are not telling us.

I think it was a combination of things, combined with what I'm learning from reading here is an overall pattern of ebay ruthlessly trimming accounts as part of whatever agenda they have.

I operated with a few DSR shipping time hits (the whole "1" or "2" thing being recorded and acted on like its a crime) for most of a year (it sucks they take a whole YEAR to go away) and got one more person give me two more hits (undeserved, in my opinion) near the end. And apparently that's enough to go over their arbitrary limit. From then on the sequence seemed to be a.) knocked out of power sellers b.) emails about "performance levels" and c.) warnings EVERY time I logged in about my "performance levels" with useless links to guides how to "improve" them (useless because if I understand the whole thing about the "1s" and "2s" correctly, improving your total DSR score doesn't make a lick of difference--only time crawling along and making some of those more than a year ago does).

The message I got when the account was zapped didn't seem to say anything about the seller performance levels, but weeks of seeing those messages every time I log in does seem like a sign.

I did also occasionally sell in what reading here some people say are categories ebay seems paranoid about. Some luggage/bags, some coins, some comics, DVDs, memorabilia, etc. I get the sense reading up on ebay more that if someone complains about stuff in any of those categories (the "not as described" cases) ebay assumes the worst. I think the account had maybe three not as described cases over the course of 3 and a half years, but none of those resulted in bad feedback (I had 100%, always) and that was out of hundreds of sales per year (and there'd only been one in the past 18 months or so).

oompaloompa · #6 02-09-2011

welcome to the forum, I always thought in this scenario your buyers would get an automatic refund regardless of tracking, however I did see a thread recently, and it was not quite your situation it was for MC019 takedown and the buyer opened a not received case and the seller added tracking and won. Now a SNAD case may be another matter entirely, you would hope they would compel the buyer to return goods, but somehow I doubt it on a suspended account, i mean as you say there is difficulty in communicating a reasonable defence.