Treated like a criminal.....Paypal account closure

[desperatelyneedinghelp]

I suppose this is an age old dilema but it's a new one for me...

Last Thursday paypal limited my account without warning and ebay pulled all of my listings. Boom my 10 year old Ebay business down the drain!

Their reasons, although they act as though they don't need any, are that I had 8 buyer protection cases open over 10 days and I sell golf clubs so I am therefore a "High risk customer"

Now I tried to argue that over 10 years and 25,000 positive feedback, never a negative feedback regarding authenticity, never even a message questioning authenticity, all cases were "Item not received" and all cases closed within 48hrs. At what point had I become high risk??

They do not care. Ebay do not care. To them I am nothing more than an annoyance.

Can someone please help as to what action I can take.

I am being treated like a criminal and the only thing I am guilty of is not uploading to Ebay customers tracking numbers immediately after posting.

[rsot]

This is a sad story - few stories like this around as well - what you should do now is first understand stealth and begin building new accounts.

While doing that, begin preparing all paperwork for eB - it may or may not work - but might as well keep pushing.

Did you speak to a live agent or e-mail or....what have you done exactly to begin the appeal?

[danshan]

Good luck learn stealth spread your business and you will be alright

[Ebayorbust]

Sorry to hear this.

You have fallen foul of the new policies on item not received. When a buyer tries to message you asking where there item is, a case automatically gets opened.

In my businesses I have seen a big increase in cases being opened. From about 1 every month or so to about 1 per week. Based on current sales levels this is about 1 in 250 sales.

I would imagine if you are selling golf equipment this %age was a fair bit higher.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by rsot

While doing that, begin preparing all paperwork for eB - it may or may not work - but might as well keep pushing.

Might help a newbie to explain your definition of 'pushing', rsot.

Is it pushing a golf buggy?

New terms, new ways. Bit difficult to grasp

just suggesting

[100HRWEEK]

Doesn't eBay want to make money. When they close these accounts, don't they look at how much per month that user is generating for them and their history. So if this poor soul has been a member for 10 years, I presume, he has paid well above 100K in fees if he is a regular seller. This is nuts.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by 100HRWEEK

Doesn't eBay want to make money. When they close these accounts, don't they look at how much per month that user is generating for them and their history. So if this poor soul has been a member for 10 years, I presume, he has paid well above 100K in fees if he is a regular seller. This is nuts.

This is EBAY.

Their decisions to terminate are so vague that even their own staff can say they do not understand them.

My conclusion is to work around their pettiness, and make plenty of stealth accounts.

[slapped]

Originally Posted by desperatelyneedinghelp

I suppose this is an age old dilema but it's a new one for me...

Last Thursday paypal limited my account without warning and ebay pulled all of my listings. Boom my 10 year old Ebay business down the drain!

Their reasons, although they act as though they don't need any, are that I had 8 buyer protection cases open over 10 days and I sell golf clubs so I am therefore a "High risk customer"

Now I tried to argue that over 10 years and 25,000 positive feedback, never a negative feedback regarding authenticity, never even a message questioning authenticity, all cases were "Item not received" and all cases closed within 48hrs. At what point had I become high risk??

They do not care. Ebay do not care. To them I am nothing more than an annoyance.

Can someone please help as to what action I can take.

I am being treated like a criminal and the only thing I am guilty of is not uploading to Ebay customers tracking numbers immediately after posting.

Well, this is nothing New, Put yourself in Ebay's Shoes,,You sell Golf Equipment,,,25000 Feedback Means that you KNOW that there is PLENTY of Counterfeit Equipment comming out of China,,From Balls to Clubs and EVERYTHING In between. Ebay also KNOWS this, it is NO Secret, that automatically classifys you as HIGH Risk,,,EVERYDAY No matter how many feeback you have.

Now you get 8 Cases opened in 10 Days, and the Authencity of your items is being questioned,,,What do you Expect Ebay to Think???

They do not want THEIR Customers to purchase counterfeit items,,,and YES Ebay considers ALL Buyers as THEIR customers NOT yours, they just allow you to sell to them, or in this case NOT to sell to them

that past Feedback is just that,,,PAST, they are NOT interested in it,,,for all they know, you might have started doing business with a new supplier who is selling you counterfeit goods,,

If I were you that is how I would base an appeal, that you got a new supplier, who turned out to be a Bad supplier, who you will no longer do business with, and that you will return to your orignal supplier, the one who helped you get those 25000 feedback. Hopefully you will find someone who will give you another chance, as opposed to someone who feels that since you are unable to tell the difference between a Counterfeit and an Authentic product that allowing you to sell on Ebay is too risky

[desperatelyneedinghelp]

Thanks for your support guys.

Well after 11 days of constant pushing I finally got my account restored.

It took me 3 appeals and god knows how many phone calls, emails and scanned in documents but I finally got there.

The whole counterfeit thing was based on paypal putting 2 and 2 together to get 5. They seen a spike in buyer protection cases linked to an account that sells golf equipment and assumed I was selling counterfeit goods.

My problem was that I was not uploading onto ebay the tracking details and did not know about the March 12th procedure change regarding buyer protection cases.

I have learned a hard lesson through all of this but from now on will be looking to spread the risk of operating an honest account through at least two stealth ones... Crazy!!

[Ebayorbust]

Good to hear that on this occasion the appeal process has been successful. Do not delay. Get working on creating several back up accounts so that if / when this happens again you are not left high and dry.

Even although your account is restored, you will still be deemed as high risk. It will not take very much to be hit with another suspension.

Good luck to you.

[danshan]

Do not put all your eggs in that account or get the idea you can restore it if it gets hit again create backups it is like getting business insurance

[jjohnson777]

PayPal will hit at worse time. Second day of two month hospital stay due to stroke my first paypal account closed by time left all were. Took me 3 years to get back to income before my stroke.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by desperatelyneedinghelp

Thanks for your support guys.

Well after 11 days of constant pushing I finally got my account restored.


My problem was that I was not uploading onto ebay the tracking details and did not know about the March 12th procedure change regarding buyer protection cases.

I have learned a hard lesson through all of this but from now on will be looking to spread the risk of operating an honest account through at least two stealth ones... Crazy!!

Belonging to this forum now will help you down the track.

There are many things ebay/paypal do that sellers simply MUST know to operate in an expected way.
Here on the forum we are pretty much on the ball with knowing new policies.

Start your stealth journey. Be prepared for hard work.
Good Luck.