[HELP] We are one of the largest sellers of iPhones on eBay UK

[iphone_seller]

Hi guys new to all this, would appreciate any help. We've been on eBay and PayPal for 11 years. In that time we have used the same eBay and PayPal accounts, until very recently without any issue whatsoever.

As it stands we are in the top 3 hits for best match for iPhone 7 searches on eBay UK. Sales have been great, in particular in the last 6 months.

On the face of it, both our eBay and PayPal accounts are spotless.

My eBay account has a monthly listing allowance of £234,594.00.

We have zero defects.

My PayPal account is equally spotless, we are a top customer of there's and benefit from their merchants discount.

The fact that we have done so well in the past 6 months to gain this level of exposure in best match has been great for business, but it has also meant we have gained a lot of fraud sales. Chargebacks in particular - where somebody's eBay and or PayPal account get hacked in order to make a purchase from us.

We often do not know a sale is fraudulent until several weeks or months after the sale (obviously after their item has been posted), when a chargeback is filed.

Historically PayPal have always covered us for these. PayPal cover sellers for chargebacks if you post to the paypal confirmed address, using tracked post, and you retain the postal receipt.

This week however PayPal informed us that due to the higher than usual number of chargebacks for unauthorised payments we have had, they will suspend our PayPal account for 90 days, unless in the next 45 days we reduce the number of chargebacks we have to less than 1% of our sales. Which I can tell you now we will not do. Apple products have a knack of attracting the fraudsters.

Anyway I am basically accepting that we will lose this PayPal account.

Again the issue is totally with the PayPal account, nothing at all wrong with the eBay one. Ebay are saying PayPal are bonkers for blaming us for these unauthorised transactions, as nobody can prevent them really.

What do you recommend I should do from here? Is it simple enough to just work towards buying a new verified PayPal account (obviously not in my name), disassociating the current one we have from eBay, and then adding the new PayPal account to our eBay account?

Wont they pick up on the link still?

The fact I sell expensive items under that eBay name, will that mean it will be a nightmare building a PayPal account that will be able to accept large-ish regular payments?

Where do I begin?! Totally lost and I read here is the best source for me right now - any advice would be very much appreciated!

[wired]

Hugely drastic, but, you could put your shop on holiday for 45 days, take a break and go the South of France for a holiday, then when you come back, you hopefully wont of had as many charge backs and itll put you on better standing.

PayPal are never quite true to their word, so you never know what there next move is.

They have probably looked at the fee's you bring in, and how much they pay out on chargebacks and see its better off not having you as a customer.

Its been chargeback city for me also in the last twelve months, if PayPal ask, I call it Austerity, seems to work for the Government.

Good luck.

[Play]

If I were in your position, I'd take my foot of the accelerator with this account.

Then consider spreading sales over multiple new accounts. Those new accounts would need to be heavily nurtured before you can consider selling anything Apple related.

That is the best way forward IMO. Let your existing account cool down.

[aspkin]

Agreed, slow down with your current account if you can (you'll still have chargebacks coming in and it will hurt not having those sales) but you WILL lose the PayPal account otherwise and than where will you be?

You can start work towards spreading out your sales with multiple stealth accounts but it will take a lot of accounts and it will take time to build up to your level of sales are today.

The good news is while it will take work and time to get back to where you are today, once you get there you will be in a much better position. If you lose account in the future you still have others to take up the slack. And your potential to bring in more sales overall from all your accounts is good.

It's not the end of the world, you just have a lot of work ahead of you.

GOod luck buddy!

You might also want to pick up eBay Stealth if you haven't already, it will guide you to stealth eBay and PayPal.

[Bunneh]

i also agree with all of the above that has been said.

you also cannot add a new paypal account to your existing ebay account if paypal becomes limited, as the new one will do the same.

So if you lose one of them (ebay or paypal) you effectively loose both.

so do what damage control you can now, before it is to late.

[Pandoras_box]

I suppose you wouldn't do what weird has said. That's a sure route to lose your Paypal account. Paypal cases will likely accumulate seeing that these customers come back 'months' later and you wouldn't have incoming funds to cancel out the claims to keep it below the recommended 1%

I was just wondering if you would be happy to cover the cost of any charge-backs and fees (assuming Paypal would agree but the're too bloated to hear you anyway). I do this in my own way all the time [my items are inexpensive] and it works wonderfully well. I learned to bend over for eBay/Paypal and my customers in ways that would put any stripper to shame. No a thing for everyone.


What Aspkin, Play and Bunneh said is absolutely correct though. You want to start now to spread your sales. You'd probably see significant reduction in sales for the next few months but would you rather go without?
You only need a few hours to go through the Stealth Book over and again then buy x accounts (I wouldn't create one, yet. You really can't afford to waste time now)
I recommend you buy aged accounts. This will make a difference as regards how soon you would be at the top again with minimal problems. The footer on Bunneh's post above is a good place to look for "Aged accounts"


Your niche is a magnet for frenzied scammers so you would need more protection than what's offered by eBay/Paypal to stay in business.
There's a lot of help on this forum. Dare I say everything you'd need.
Good-luck.