Okay, yeah am not that new here.
But this is actually the first time I have had been suspended from eBay
for drop-shipping. Which I just learned after being suspended,
was not allowed?
Anyway, I was doing good on a buyer account, built it's feedback to over 120 in a year or so,
and used that feedback to turn it into a seller's account
and sell some items via drop-shipper who was located in the US.
I come from a small nation in the Pacific, where life is hard,
and the minimum wage is less than $2.00 an hour. That is,
if you are lucky to even have a job....
Anyway, after spending countless hours and sleepless nights,
only motivated by the thought to make a better life for myself and my family,
I stumbled onto what I had learned much later was "drop-shipping".
I researched further into what exactly what was involved in it,
and how one could actually make a decent living off it.
I read the negatives and positives of it, aside from watching some Youtube videos...
I decided to go and pursue it,
but that I would put some rules first, as I wanted to do the business
legitimately and as honest as can be.....
1) Supplier must ship items within 1-3 days (24hrs is best)
2) Supplier must ship via private courier and provide tracking numbers
3) Supplier only ships to specific places (not high risk areas)
4) Supplier only receives payment after items have been delivered
5) Supplier covers all fees (taken/deducted from the sold amount payed)
Found a supplier who met this criteria within a week,
and started posting the items and made a fair decent amount of money.
First month went good, all items were delivered and payment was sent to supplier, kept commissions, paid all fees.
Second month, also good, all items were delivered (except one where the buyer accidentally put the wrong address for delivery),
payment sent to supplier, kept commissions, paid all fees.
Then the third month......started selling more items and then making more money, as was about to sell my 17th item for the month,
eB ay sends me an email (MC195) that my account (which had more than 180 positive feedback, no negatives)
was suspended, because of "recent activity has raised some concerns about the security of your account". Wtf.
Such as me selling and making some money?? Which what eB ay was designed to do for??
Immediately a few days or couple days later,
I get messages from my valued customers that they noticed that
my eB ay account was "no longer registered", and that they were worried
if this was a scam or something or if they would get the items they paid for.
Of course I couldn't message them back on eB ay, so I manually
looked for their email addresses associated to Pa ypal they used to
make payment. I emailed them back about the situation,
and assured them, their items were on their way to being shipped
and would receive tracking numbers shortly, and if they wanted to cancel their order for a full refund, I would do so.
Which for some customers, I did.
I called up eB ay's so called "customer service",
the very moment I was connected to an agent, I knew that I was
just connected to someone working for an overseas Call Center,
most likely in the Philippines. I know their accents....
I told the agent about my account, and he said he would check it
as to why it was. Took 5 minutes, and got back to me asked
if I was drop-shipping. Just for the sake of honesty, I said yes,
and he said that eB ay doesn't allow sellers to sell items that are not
within their possession. And I told him that, that there were no problems
with my transactions and that every item arrived at their destination,
and that we shipped via Private courier, all items were updated with tracking
and customers even left 5 star feedback! He just said something that was
incoherent and said, that they would not allow me to sell on eB ay ever again,
unless I promise to not drop-ship anymore.
I valued the good feedback and reputation of the account more,
so I agreed (knowing that someday I would return to drop-shipping).
He told me that it would take within 48 hours for the account
to be reinstated. So, I thought, okay, problem solved. Account will be back
within 2 days....
2 days passed, no reinstatement yet.
Next day, I get an email from eB ay, looked shady,
couldn't tell if it was actually from eB ay, but it went like this:
----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear XXXX,
Thank you for contacting eBay in regard to your suspension. For us to
further help you, you can send an appeal via email to
proact@ebay.com.
We just need to verify some of your information and business practices
before we can reinstate your account. We thank you for your patience
regarding this and rest assured you can get back to your eBay account.
Thank you for choosing eBay!
Regards,
eBay Trust & Safety
------------------------------------------------------------------
So, basically they lied to me,
and wanted me to get on my knees, beg and plead.
For doing something that was safe, and being high risk,
let alone hurting the community or anyone.
I called up the "customer service", once again.
Spoke to a female agent with an accent, told me that it would
be "prioritized and moved up to the supervisors",
and after 2 months. Nothing. Just a bunch of lying a**holes.
Am pissed as heck at them,
but what can I do?
I barely made $2,000 in sales for the month,
most of it I gave to the supplier, and paid Paypal for.
I also withdrew some money to my ATM, I have $300 left in
the Paypal account. I removed my bank and cancelled the automatic
withdrawal that eB ay would get for the seller fees.
They sent me an email that I owed $271.
Like I said, am pissed as heck at them,
and I could definitely use the money, especially now
since I have alot of bills to pay.
I know I should pay the fees,
as I have read in countless other threads,
but since am not within the mainland USA, I don't think my credit
score would be affected. Also its all bogus names and addresses
on all accounts.
Sorry for the long long post of my eB ay tale,
but I really need some advice....
Do I really have to pay eB ay for the $271 in fees?
$271 goes a long way where I am from and currently at.
I know the amount isn't much for most of you successful entrepreneurs,
but for me......it's alot.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
*PS: I posted here in the paid subscriber forums, to filter and weed out
certain types....if you know what I mean. Could have posted in the Ebay fees forum,
but wanted mainly members of reputation and experience to post here.
Jav's Tale: Need advice.. 
