Serious Negative Balance w MP... what happens?

[Remii]

First, this is NOT a scam or blow out or whatever people call the sell-and-run things, if it were I wouldn't be here trying to get info and manage the fallout. I used all my correct info, SS#, the only thing that's not exactly right are the addresses, because I kept 3 independent accounts separate so I'd never have to worry about an emergency.

I have been selling for years, many times it's materials or equipment returns, warrantied equipment, and for good measure I'd sell them as lightly used and everything always exceeded the buyer's expectations. The used/open box price is so little difference, and since I have incredible feedback in the category and that seems to be worth more than the price gap, many buy from me and pay 5% more just because of my feedback.

Without getting too much into it, I sold $9-$15K on 3 different accounts (about $42k total) and the supplier has issues. I don't know what exactly, but we've been doing business for 7 years on a weekly basis, I think someone working there ran with some inventory, and he is without the items I need for an entire month. It's all attatched to a huge company, so he's dependable, it's just something happened that caused a delay, I know for sure they aren't a sell-and-run situation) But I already have disputes coming in, each account is severely in the negative, and these people are not going to wait 30 days for their orders even with a discount. They only want refunds.

Now I owe Ebay a huge sum, what happens? To be clear, my accounts and business connections are worth WAY more than the negative balance, and I have sold 15 times this in the last 6 months alone. But since I already paid for the supply, I don't have enough to cover this negative balance and can't get a loan from the bank or anything. I have the coming inventory paid for, but it won't be here soon enough to fix my problem.

I am in the US and use Ebay Managed Payments, that go to my bank. By comparison to our sales this isn't a lot of money, but it is a lot of money, does anyone know what Ebay will do? Will this become a collection issue that I can fix over time, or is it worse than that, and what are the chances once the negative balances are paid (in a month or two, since I have to sell my purchased inventory some other way, once it arrives, and I do know it's coming).

I guess I'm worried about 2 things- what Ebay normally does about negative balances, if they hold them for a certain amount of time, sell them to a third party, or get legal. (I don't want to deal with legal stuff OR having this mess up my credit.)

And once my perfect account that suddenly got a ton of negatives (people assume this was intentional) is paid up, will Ebay let me reinstate all 3 or will that part be an uphill battle because they're all connected and not the same info?

I know this is going to be expensive, just wondering what I should worry about and work on the most at this point. I'm sure I'm worrying about nothing in some areas, and there's some falling sky that I'm not thinking about. Thank you for your input guys, whoever has been through this since MP.

BTW: not only are these all my real info (except addresses and phone numbers, which are nothing, I could say they are just business locations) and my real bank and stuff, but I have 2K of 99% or 100% feedback ratings on each account. I've had these accounts since soon after the start of MP and was growing a nice business increasing my turnaround and product quality each time. Always reported and paid the correct taxes. I never came back here because I never needed to, everything was going smooth and I spend money and inventory to keep it that way. I'm hoping I can recover from this inside of 90 days or so, but I'm sure my selling will be much much slower in the best case scenario. Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions. I'm mainly looking to find out what Ebay is likely to do in this dollar range, when I called in a few times I get foreign people and I'm not going to trust a 3rd party call center with the info or that all 3 accounts are me, I think keeping them separate might help me buy time a little at least. I know the call center person is just going to take info to use against me and make things harder, not help me fix anything. Looking forward to your input.

[agent006140]

first,have you heard from Ebay ?
If you have,it may give you a contact number so you can speak to a person who deals in such cases.
Second,despite all the praises you piled on yourself,it does not sound like your business is too profitable,if you have used up your customer payments to purchase imventory and have nothing left to refund them,which tells me your working capital needs improvement.
How much is involved?A negative balance ,Ebay would first ask you to transfer fund from your bank account to make it zero or positive .
If it still allow you to keep selling,then any future sales payment would be applied to the negative balance,

[murdered_by_ebay]

negative balance means that people have been mass filing disputes against you , in this case you either refund now or you can let the accounts go

ebay will restrict or suspend them anyway if the cases are not closed within a few days through refund

it is unlikely ebay will take any action at all apart from kicking you out for good and blacklisting the personal details

[agent006140]

He has 3 accounts with his SSN,so they are all related,each has serious disputes,total disputes come to $45K.
ebay has already dented his accounts by a negative balance of $45k and expect him to bring them back to neutral.I am surprised he has not received any email asking for such?
If you cant come up with money soon,you may as well kiss all these accounts goodbye even if Ebay lets you keep selling,as you could be paying an extra 5% FVF due to subpar performance.
I dont believe MP can access your bank account,so Ebay buyer protection good for 30 days could kick in and Ebay would be eating $45K loss .
You need to contact Ebay and discuss your situation with them,they dont want to eat $45K loss,so they may as well listen to you.like you said your inventory is already aid for and you could repay EBAY once they are sold.
Go to Ebay seller forum and find an Ebay rep

[murdered_by_ebay]

if there is no way to refund it is better to let the accounts go and keep the money because ebay would not allow you to sell on these accounts anyway and it is unlikely they will allow to open more with the same details

if they file a criminal complaint against you this is where you can defend yourself and explain but ebay would not care less , mass disputes are equal to restriction/suspension for good unless dealt with immediately

[agent006140]

He has no money,the buyer money has been used to buy equipments they ordered and the vendor has problem filling his orders.
EBAY is now on the hook of refunding his buyers .
We have seen this story many times,using customer money to buy what they ordered instead of having the items on hand sometimes does not work out as planned.
He can try to get his $45K back from his vendor,telling him he could lose a good customer if he is banned on Ebay.

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by agent006140

He has no money,the buyer money has been used to buy equipments they ordered and the vendor has problem filling his orders.
EBAY is now on the hook of refunding his buyers .
We have seen this story many times,using customer money to buy what they ordered instead of having the items on hand sometimes does not work out as planned.
He can try to get his $45K back from his vendor,telling him he could lose a good customer if he is banned on Ebay.

no , in this case the ebay accounts are lost but the money does not need to be refunded

if there should be a criminal complaint they could show where the money went to

and I do not believe ebay would file a civil suit , it is easier for them to find some poor suckers whose money they can freeze for good rather than running expensive court proceedings

[yobar]

If you maintain a negative balance on eBay, this can mean that when you start sales again (if you are lucky) each sale will be taken by eBay for the negative balance you accumulate.

[agent006140]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

no , in this case the ebay accounts are lost but the money does not need to be refunded

if there should be a criminal complaint they could show where the money went to

and I do not believe ebay would file a civil suit , it is easier for them to find some poor suckers whose money they can freeze for good rather than running expensive court proceedings

Now we should understand why Ebay wants to hold on to our sales proceeds longer,it should demand to see the tracking number before releasing his sales proceeds.but then he has a good track record from his past dealings.
He does not want to lose his 3 accounts,they have his real SSN on them,Ebay could lie to him and said sure pay us back and your accounts are good,then when the money has changed hands,it will close all his accounts

[Remii]

Originally Posted by agent006140

...Ebay could lie to him and said sure pay us back and your accounts are good,then when the money has changed hands,it will close all his accounts

Yep, you hit the nail on the head. I spoke to 5 people at Ebay since I posted that, there's a loss department and fraud department, the fraud department was actually super helpful once he saw my history, how much I sold and how little this amount mattered to me in the big picture, he told me not to worry and gave me to another department with a woman that went through everything, I showed her that I just went to the bank today, got a line of credit and paid up the negative balances, and refunded the open disputes. She said that if I avoided any new disputes I would be fine, and told me to update the address info on the three accounts to my address, that she was assigned to my case and with me cooperating like this she'd have me back on track in no time, etc. I have 6 customers who bought from me before who wanted to wait for the product and didn't open disputes, but everybody else was either refunded or the dispute was closed by a refund. With her help and all the refunds I felt exhausted but relieved.

I got off the phone, went to update the details on the one account and couldn't log in. I called back the number the lady gave me, after 35 minutes I finally got her again, she said it was out of her hands and that they won't do any business with me again, and I'm permanently banned. All 3 accounts are suspended, and she told me (like she was giving me a consolation prize) that I could open a new account and purchase items, but couldn't promise me that wouldn't get suspended at some point too.

It's one thing if there are rules, but she outright lied to me telling me there was nothing to worry about, this happens and because I was in contact with them with a quick resolution, etc... but when I called her after all 3 accounts were locked, she said "I was afraid that might happen" and a 10+ years business got simply deleted. My balance wasn't even in the negative when I first called them about this, but like someone else said, they don't care, they go by a protocol and the business isn't set up to be run by a human with any discerning powers.

I'll survive, since my incoming stock is paid for, but this was extremely expensive. Stuff happens in business, and I was on the phone with them before the 3rd case was open and before the balance even went into the negative. I just wanted to update you guys, since I remember when things got solved on here many times people didn't return and update how good the info was. I may sell in another way or set up an account with my wife and figure other things out, I'm going to give it a minute and I'm still appealing and writing to Ebay to see if I can get this reviewed. My account history is what made me the top seller of these items. We'll see.

If I make any progress getting it appealed, I'll let you guys know, and keep your numbers active that are on your account, they DID reach out to me but it was after I called in, and the two calls were not even linked on their system, the person who called me didn't know I had already spoke with someone. I think their process is set up to focus on stabbing you in an alley if they have to, to get funds back immediately, they don't even consider a situation, proof, receipts, nothing else as part of their initial reaction.

FWIW, I bought a brand new truck 3 years ago and I paid LESS for it brand new than I pay in Ebay fees PER YEAR. Not shipping, nothing to do with taxes, deductions, excuses... JUST documented Ebay fees. They had no concern or interest in evaluating anything or keeping an obviously dependable seller. Be careful out there in the Ebay swamps, they are absolute gators.

[Remii]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

no , in this case the ebay accounts are lost but the money does not need to be refunded
\

Yeah, I wouldn't even take a chance not paying them back, the debt could be reported and mess up my credit (which gives me more options than I realized until today). I just didn't want it to become a criminal matter and they could immediately see it wasn't, but in the end they really don't care about you, your situation or anything at all. I know there are a lot of sellers just making it from week to week, and an instant underserved ban would be even more devastating than mine is.

[hotadvice]

ur reason is why i cant stand ebay whatsoever, and id have no empathy for them if you said it wasnt your real details.The neg balance will be written off after 6 years.Theyll make back ur negative balance within half a min

[james_112233]

Originally Posted by Remii

Yep, you hit the nail on the head. I spoke to 5 people at Ebay since I posted that, there's a loss department and fraud department, the fraud department was actually super helpful once he saw my history, how much I sold and how little this amount mattered to me in the big picture, he told me not to worry and gave me to another department with a woman that went through everything, I showed her that I just went to the bank today, got a line of credit and paid up the negative balances, and refunded the open disputes. She said that if I avoided any new disputes I would be fine, and told me to update the address info on the three accounts to my address, that she was assigned to my case and with me cooperating like this she'd have me back on track in no time, etc. I have 6 customers who bought from me before who wanted to wait for the product and didn't open disputes, but everybody else was either refunded or the dispute was closed by a refund. With her help and all the refunds I felt exhausted but relieved.

I got off the phone, went to update the details on the one account and couldn't log in. I called back the number the lady gave me, after 35 minutes I finally got her again, she said it was out of her hands and that they won't do any business with me again, and I'm permanently banned. All 3 accounts are suspended, and she told me (like she was giving me a consolation prize) that I could open a new account and purchase items, but couldn't promise me that wouldn't get suspended at some point too.

It's one thing if there are rules, but she outright lied to me telling me there was nothing to worry about, this happens and because I was in contact with them with a quick resolution, etc... but when I called her after all 3 accounts were locked, she said "I was afraid that might happen" and a 10+ years business got simply deleted. My balance wasn't even in the negative when I first called them about this, but like someone else said, they don't care, they go by a protocol and the business isn't set up to be run by a human with any discerning powers.

I'll survive, since my incoming stock is paid for, but this was extremely expensive. Stuff happens in business, and I was on the phone with them before the 3rd case was open and before the balance even went into the negative. I just wanted to update you guys, since I remember when things got solved on here many times people didn't return and update how good the info was. I may sell in another way or set up an account with my wife and figure other things out, I'm going to give it a minute and I'm still appealing and writing to Ebay to see if I can get this reviewed. My account history is what made me the top seller of these items. We'll see.

If I make any progress getting it appealed, I'll let you guys know, and keep your numbers active that are on your account, they DID reach out to me but it was after I called in, and the two calls were not even linked on their system, the person who called me didn't know I had already spoke with someone. I think their process is set up to focus on stabbing you in an alley if they have to, to get funds back immediately, they don't even consider a situation, proof, receipts, nothing else as part of their initial reaction.

FWIW, I bought a brand new truck 3 years ago and I paid LESS for it brand new than I pay in Ebay fees PER YEAR. Not shipping, nothing to do with taxes, deductions, excuses... JUST documented Ebay fees. They had no concern or interest in evaluating anything or keeping an obviously dependable seller. Be careful out there in the Ebay swamps, they are absolute gators.

I'm really sad for you and my bloods boiling as well to be honest. Bottom line. Ebay don't give a two $h!ts and never have. Sellers come and go, they know it. There are youtube videos of people complaining about how their decade old business was shut down over a problem and then when you skim through the comment section, many others tell their stories. You are just another story.

The best thing about your situation is you have a wife and inventory coming to you that's paid for. You can come back on ebay if you form a company with her. Use her details. Clean slate, start again. Make sure you learn from this mistake so it never happens again.

Ebay follow their protocols and algorithms, the ebay staff have no powers, one employee will say one thing to you and another will say something else. If you're lucky and I mean lucky and some one knows what to do and over turn a decision you may be reinstated. But again I wouldn't have high hopes.

Multiple open cases and huge negative balances are a death sentence.

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by Remii

Yeah, I wouldn't even take a chance not paying them back, the debt could be reported and mess up my credit (which gives me more options than I realized until today). I just didn't want it to become a criminal matter and they could immediately see it wasn't, but in the end they really don't care about you, your situation or anything at all. I know there are a lot of sellers just making it from week to week, and an instant underserved ban would be even more devastating than mine is.

honesty towards crooks = stupidity

[agent006140]

Consider this-
It sounds like you have something Ebayers want and you delivered,and you have the decency to pay Ebay back with a bank loan so Ebay does not have to eat the loss.
Why not try writing to the president of Ebay,in a very nice way,ask to have your accounts back.
attached a copy of the bank loan and the proof you have used it to repay Ebay,be nice and humble,and tell him you have revised your business model and maks sure it would not happen again..
I know there are Ebay sellers who tried to get back to selling,one would hold a large sign in front of Ebay building every day and it works ,she got back to selling again !
Years ago AMZN sellers were able to 'write Jeff ' and promise to behave and revise their business practice ,I doubt Jeff read those letters but they did get back into selling,those were the early days of AMZN

[Christopher]

lol. It won’t get reported

Originally Posted by Remii

Yeah, I wouldn't even take a chance not paying them back, the debt could be reported and mess up my credit (which gives me more options than I realized until today). I just didn't want it to become a criminal matter and they could immediately see it wasn't, but in the end they really don't care about you, your situation or anything at all. I know there are a lot of sellers just making it from week to week, and an instant underserved ban would be even more devastating than mine is.

[BeachedHead]

I wouldn't pay them back a penny, in the UK, they 'sell' the debt on to a collection agency and the account name and address starts getting letters, but if they don't have any of your real details, they will be all outta luck doing that.

This is all fairly standard practice with eBay and has been for decades. Many of us ended up here with similar stories of getting shut down, it is what it is. Ubereats is the same for its riders...these big companies know with such an increasing population and the Chinese taking over Ecommerce, there will always be another Seller/Rider to replace you.

I never dropship or take orders ahead of having the physical goods for this reason, but we all gotta learn it some time, and this is your learning curve, as heavy as it is.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by BeachedHead

but if they don't have any of your real details, they will be all outta luck doing that.

That's a true point about stealth - not to condone avoiding paying dues...

[agent006140]

$45K is not a small sum of money and Ebay has legal dept ready to act,so I would pay them back,since you have the inventory and the customer money,you cannot have both.
Like I said before,you need to build up your working capital,you should also get a line of credit from your bank,just in case.
Setting up a new account under your wife name,make sure nothing about her account wil link it back to you.