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MC999 Suspension for Buying - What Now?
 

I had my eBay account since 2002, had 700+ positive feedback, and today my account was suspended. For the past 6 months, I had been buying large quantities of mobile phones through the site for resale through my non-eBay business. Needless to say, a lot of mobile phones are mis-advertised, reported lost/stolen, etc., and in those cases I had to request returns or open Resolution Center cases with the bad actors.

Apparently eBay didn't like this. My account has been suspended.I'm wondering how I should proceed.

Believe it or not ebay is now banning people for filing too many not as described problems.

I think 4 in a certain period will draw flag.

If this is your original account why not call them?

Something you did or someone reported you to get this.

Are you the type of buyer who ask questions before bidding.

I never buy a thing unless I send specific questions as I dont expect sellers to know what I know and I always want to be 100% sure I am buying what they say I am buying.

In return I expect my buyers to do the same.

Good luck.

Buying and selling electronics on ebay is risky business for anyone and everyone.

Yes, unfortunately I was receiving a lot of phones that had been reported lost/stolen when I ran the information with carriers. 95% of the transactions went smoothly, but when you're dealing with someone brazen enough to sell you a stolen phone, it almost always has to end in a Resolution Center case.

I called eBay thinking it would be east to get my account reinstated since I had been with them so long and have an otherwise spotless record, but so far it doesn't look promising.

Has anyone else been in this situation (being suspended for buying)? If so, did you find a way to get your account reinstated? I'm desperately looking for a way to get out of this ridiculous mess and get my account back.

Unfortunately, you chose the wrong time to get flagged for buying. ebay is finally getting around to abusing buyers after spending the last 5 years making it unbearable to be a seller. They suck. You basically have 2 options. Call them and ask if there is an appeal process. Probably isnt but you should at least ask. I would suggest calling 3 different times - their reps are notoriously misinformed and are trained liars - this way you might get lucky and find one of the very few honest, knowledgeable reps.

Second option is go stealth.

No one here has reported success.

15 months back, ebay changed their attitude towards buyers & became less tolerant.

Having a great record with ebay or paypal is not a given restoration of an account will happen.

That is a cold, hard and bitter fact.

:pout:

No offense to your situation. I am glad this is happening! I have been abused too much by people opening cases. When I saw that that person left more negative feedback then usual I reported them. Low and behold twice the buyer feedback got removed and case was removed and once the buyer was even suspended.

You say it does not happen so often then maybe it was best to consider it part of doing business. I personally dont like anything to do with a case no matter which end. :ranger:

I remember when I was selling my iPhone, I ran a report and gave it to anyone who wanted to check if the phone was stolen, had to pay about 3 pounds though. This service should be free, and sellers of used phones must be able to provide the IMEI.

However, I agree that too many buyers recently started abusing the buyer protection programme, and they tend to do it when you send the item without proof of delivery. I sell some items 1st class unrecorded and about 5% claim they have not received the order. I don't think post services lose that much mail..

No offense to you either - but how did you handle these sellers? Did you contact them first to try to resolve or just blatantly open up a case?

If you gave the seller no chance to resolve - never emailed - and either opened a Paypal, or ebay case, then maybe that is the reason you were suspended.

Ebay appears to no longer taking kindly to buyers abusing the system.

If you are one of those buyers who has a habit of opening a case then leaving a negative without contact - then maybe ebay was right to mc999....

If you contacted buyers to work out first, and they screwed you - that's different.....

Zog, I was actually very diligent to contact sellers before the auction to clarify details and afterward if there were any issues. When I did encounter a problem (damage on an item advertised as new, a device reported as lost or stolen), I would always request a return with the clarification that "I'm sure that it was an honest mistake, I'll be glad to cancel the transaction and leave positive feedback once the item is returned", etc. Did about as much as I could to be sensitive to sellers (since I was a seller of 10 years on the site myself) -- eBay didn't give a damn. I'm afraid that both well-behaving sellers and buyers aren't necessarily safe on the site.

You werent suspended for BUYING. You were suspended for ABUSING the buyer protection program. Whether it was intentional or not is beyond the point now. It clearly states everywhere...and YOU SHOULD KNOW being a seller yourself...that the cases are recorded and if they find a buyer is abusing buyer protection then they will be given the hammer. Ebay is NOT the place to be buying large amounts of electronics and then file SNAD...it doesnt matter what you tell ebay, how do you think you look to them? No offense but if I saw that type of activity on someones account I would suspend them as well. All you can do now is say lesson learned and move on.

it's funny because their new 'system' of finding 'bad buyers' is doing the same damage it did for finding 'bad sellers', it now just punishes everyone in a robotic manner. it's very scary actually.

Yeah, they created the system that they now can not manage to repair.


imo, everything is band-aid repair.

Evil cankers need to be fully excised to create repair.

:boink:

that's the best way to say it. band-aid upon band-aid