| Lee Black | 11-27-2013 08:20 PM |
Greetings
Hello All,
Trust you are all well.
I'm Lee and I suspect like many of you here, I joined off the back of being wrongfully suspended by eBay/PayPal for reasons which they still haven't or wont disclose till this very day.
I ran quite a successful account and was deemed a PowerSeller which came with all the bells and whistles like accreditation's and telephone number support etc etc (back in 2004 there was no telephone numbers just e-mails - how monotonous!)
I was selling OFFICIAL Music CD's, Records, Singles & Albums. The same items you would get from the likes of HMV, Zaavi etc. My feedback was testament to the fact that there were no signs of foul play and no disputes via PayPal.
After endlessly losing with them on each occasion they suspended me they made a final decision and I was shut down. This was a real blow as I became dependent on this source of income and was desperate to get back to what I was doing as I genuinely enjoyed it.
Anyhow; fast forward a few years and several dead-end jobs later, I returned with a new account and NEW venture! The first 48 hours were amazing and generated sales in excess of £2K until... BANG suspension & request for more information. I gladly obliged and was understanding in this regard as I could see alarm bells were ringing especially as it was a new account and the volume of sales were aggressive. Everything was supplied and the account was never reinstated. A real blow! PayPal would not refund any of my clients and I began to play hard ball and said I would not refund out of my own money because a) Principal & B) what if that money never gets returned to me and I get told to jog on - per say!
To add insult to injury, all my family members accounts and their pets were suspended to. It was like anyone who knew me was doomed. I became very embarrassed and was a laughing stock and I wanted to get to the bottom of this. So I complained to the Financial Ombudsman against PayPal, which was going favourable i.e they were willing to listen and act until they then advised me they cannot do anything as I "AGREED" to PayPal's terms. I requested to know why they feel the need to hold me or worst still others to ransom like this and the Financial Ombudsman stated she could not disclose the reason why. I was flabbergasted and heavily annoyed. Just to clarify this new venture was to do with FMCG's i.e electronics.
I can only assume they connected the dots and ultimately was the demise of my eBay career.
On the positive side, having learned to turn negatives into positives, I made a promise to myself to build an e-commerce business which is completely non-dependent on eBay or PayPal which I have done so and is going well.
On the contrary; I actually have an eBay account, believe it or not, which I use to buy things but I'm not brave enough to sell albeit tempted! In addition I also have access to another eBay account which is working well but admittedly ran by a close friend who runs his own business. These accounts are in a completely different geographical location and whilst the dots haven't been connected I don't want to do anything to jeopardize it.
Why am I REALLY on here... eBay is still a great place to sell albeit the fees are horrendous but for someone wanting to test the waters and sell some products to see if there is a viable market this is where it fits the bill for me personally and with that said I want to do just that so I will need to go into stealth mode and hopefully do so!
I look forward to learning and speaking with anyone in a like-minded situation. Apologies if my story doesnt offer any real substantial advice but I never had pockets deep enough (still dont!) or practicesd law to take them on back then.
Its true what they say; if you cant beat them... join them! :heh:
PS. If you have any tips to share or can point me in the right direction, I'll grab my glasses and get reading!
Regards
Lee | 
