MC011 TWICE over the festive period! Are we toast?

[Placebo]

Hi to all!

We've been trading on eBay for a good number of years now worldwide from the UK with a positive feedback score in the late 3000's and have merrily been happy as larry selling away with no issues.
Come Christmas just finished and we have had massive issues - culminating in the MC011 which from quick glance on here, isn't great we hear :D

The problems that we seem to have hit are:
a) we use holiday settings every year to illustrate we are away until mid January (this years was 20th December 2019 - January 13th 2020) and we have used the same method foe each year we've been on eBay with no issue.
b) we have kept the listings running AND have allowed people to buy from us while we away on holiday which has caused a backlog of 40+ items of mail to go over the 'deadline' apparently
c) eBay MC011'd us - and after speaking with them.. we have had to drag six people back off their holiday (quite miffed as you can imagine) because eBay told us squarely, to send the mail out.
d) also have had a number of cases open against us over the Christmas period where people who barely can read that we are on holiday, asking where there items were. While being away, we've not responded.

eBay suspended us, killed our listings (1000+ as we use WebInterpret to manage overseas listings in 10 countries) and asked us to 1. ship the items with tracking and 2. close any claims down - we complied with both and the MC011 was lifted....<for a grand total of THREE DAYS>

Then it came back to bite us on the arse and they have asked for 1. photo ID, 2. bank statement and 3. invoices for everything on the shop we have.

One and two weren't a problem and we supplied them - the third is the problem as we source our stock offline from people who don't want them (ie: gifts etc), freebies or anything we see around on our travels that is brand new and we think might sell for a few quid. All of which means, we don't have any paperwork to help us.

In short-
Are we knackered? :D
It's been a labour of love for a good few years and while it's financially worth going back on eBay - am looking at multiple accounts, with the extra kicker of Amazon selling and 'other' rolled into one.

Any help - would be gratefully received.
Cheers all!

[Placebo]

Any help would be great everyone?
Just had the message from ebay:

"eBay is built on trust, and we want our marketplace to be safe for both buyers and sellers. We reviewed your account because of concerns with your selling activity. Based on our review, we've taken the following actions on your account:
- Indefinitely removed your ability to sell. You can't use other accounts or register new accounts to sell on eBay. If you do, your accounts could be limited, restricted, or suspended.
- Removed any of your listings. A list of any removed items will be listed further down in this email.
We have credited all associated fees except for payments processing fees and the final value fee for your listing(s)" which we knew was coming really given the faff we've had.
-so- already prepping for a stealth future with you all :D

Called them up and got told that even though, they have stated all our listings are dead that we can CONTINUE to keep selling on the listings we have?? But that we cant do anything else?

[agent006140]

we use holiday settings every year to illustrate we are away until mid January (this years was 20th December 2019 - January 13th 2020) and we have used the same method foe each year we've been on eBay with no issue.
---------------------------------------------------------
so finally it caught up with you,how many retailers have the luxury of taking off on Dec 20th?

[SaiJin]

This type of suspension usually is hard to get around.
MC011 is like a death touch from what I have seen.

When you gave them everything but the invoices, did they accept it?
Have you spoken to them about this?

[agent006140]

One and two weren't a problem and we supplied them - the third is the problem as we source our stock offline from people who don't want them (ie: gifts etc), freebies or anything we see around on our travels that is brand new and we think might sell for a few quid. All of which means, we don't have any paperwork to help us.

In short-
Are we knackered? :D
It's been a labour of love for a good few years and while it's financially worth going back on eBay - am looking at multiple accounts, with the extra kicker of Amazon selling and 'other' rolled into one.
---------------------------
it would be hard to convince Ebay that 1000 items have no receipts?
As for AMZN,if you have no receipts or vendor receipts,stay away from AMZN.
Here is an idea which works with IRS,OUR TAX agent -
A guy usually goes to ATM and get $50-$100 cash on Saturday to hunt for ebay items-garage sales,auctions,when the auditor comes,he wants to see receipts of the goods he has sold on EBay,of course he has no receipt,but he showed the ATM receipts and bank statements every Saturday ,and the agent accepted them as proof .

[Placebo]

Originally Posted by agent006140

we use holiday settings every year to illustrate we are away until mid January (this years was 20th December 2019 - January 13th 2020) and we have used the same method foe each year we've been on eBay with no issue.
---------------------------------------------------------
so finally it caught up with you,how many retailers have the luxury of taking off on Dec 20th?

Surely that's the point of the holiday settings though?
Argued this point with eBay Customer Services in the UK and they couldn't see the problem with it either. I definitely think for future accounts we will be closing all the listings down until we return.

[Placebo]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

This type of suspension usually is hard to get around.
MC011 is like a death touch from what I have seen.

When you gave them everything but the invoices, did they accept it?
Have you spoken to them about this?

Yep - everything but the invoices were legit and accepted by them but it seems that the lack of invoices have killed us. Weirdly.. they have only started asking since we accidentally clicked change to 'business' from an Individual account.

[Placebo]

Originally Posted by agent006140

---------------------------
it would be hard to convince Ebay that 1000 items have no receipts?
As for AMZN,if you have no receipts or vendor receipts,stay away from AMZN.
Here is an idea which works with IRS,OUR TAX agent -
A guy usually goes to ATM and get $50-$100 cash on Saturday to hunt for ebay items-garage sales,auctions,when the auditor comes,he wants to see receipts of the goods he has sold on EBay,of course he has no receipt,but he showed the ATM receipts and bank statements every Saturday ,and the agent accepted them as proof .

It's been fine for a good number of years now and that's with high risk items as well and they have never asked us at all for them, mind you, everything on the account was verified I guess.

Will keep that in mind for Amazon :D Thanks for letting me know

[james_112233]

You've been rolling dice for the past few years it appears. So did I with my legit accounts that got banned. I took small things for granted but it was those small things that in the end bit me back and ended my 2004 ebay accounts.

Fear not, get back on their stealth mode. Worrying about your suspension will only deteriorate your health. Start learning stealth now.

[james_112233]

In regards to saving the account, you can try. Just be honest and tell them how you source your items. Somebody else on here bought their goods second hand from gumtree / facebook marketplace etc and simply showed screenshots of any conversations they had with the seller etc and paypal were fine with that.

Not sure whether ebay would accept that, but if paypal did ...

[Placebo]

Originally Posted by james_112233

You've been rolling dice for the past few years it appears. So did I with my legit accounts that got banned. I took small things for granted but it was those small things that in the end bit me back and ended my 2004 ebay accounts.

Fear not, get back on their stealth mode. Worrying about your suspension will only deteriorate your health. Start learning stealth now.

The eBay account is deaded :D
Got the 'indefinite' blockage now so it's time to go ninja shortly.

Also going the Ltd Companies route as well to get extra accounts to be on the safe side as well as a couple of stealths.

[Placebo]

Originally Posted by james_112233

In regards to saving the account, you can try. Just be honest and tell them how you source your items. Somebody else on here bought their goods second hand from gumtree / facebook marketplace etc and simply showed screenshots of any conversations they had with the seller etc and paypal were fine with that.

Not sure whether ebay would accept that, but if paypal did ...

Tried that with eBay but they were having none of it. PayPal don't seem to care (touchwood) and that account is still live.

Best of it was a) eBay CS telling me that the nice killed seller account - I could still use to buy something and the reminder that b) I need to cough up £350 for this months fees...

Politely told them to take me through court for it.