account suspended...

Mark_engage

I dont know whether I am airing my grievances or asking for advice, I dont know if anyone can advise.. OK, here is the deal.. I started realising that I could make some decent money from selling books and cd's on e-bay - we have an impending move across the UK coming up and finances are tight, I put about 200 cd's on ebay and about 100 were going just over £100 so far. We also have a studio that we are selling as a business, with 6 people watching.

My mate was trying to help me out and wanted some of my items, he knew I needed money and he knew that I was aiming towards being a powerseller, I would have just given him the items, so my mate bids... problem.. my mate is a housemate, ebay thought we were shill bidding and pulled everything, I was gutted.

I have faxed ebay the necessary details and faxed again to make sure, I have also sent them registered post and now, over 3 days later I have heard nothing from ebay - I have sent e-mails and I have spoke to their live dept in the US, with no avail - they say I just haveto sit and wait. I am a huge fan of ebay but their customer services is poor.

What really aggrivates me is that people are on ebay selling heaps of ilegal stuff, they remain on, in this instance we were pulled, for nothing and there is nothing that I can do and the business that I was sales I was building and the good reputation has now been tarnished.

I am so annoyed, any thoughts / ideas / comments / encouragement!?

robthomas_201

if what you say is true then why didn't your housemate just buy the cd's from you? That would've guaranteed your asking price for them and saved you the listing fees and the final value fees.....i bet he was going to pay for them through paypal too instead of giving you the cash so you could pay unecessary paypal fees too? Come off it, you got caught so just accept it and start all over again with a new account. Look on the bright side...now your friend can buy the cd's he wants and save you the fees! You're making even more money for your move now!

jaxxy00

I have brought and sold on ebay for almost 5 years now and when a friend mentions about putting something on ebay that i would be interested in buying myself i let them put it on and then bid myself, up to what i would be willing to pay. This way i feel is fairer all round as theres no pressure in your friend having to sell it to you cheaper or giving it to you just because you are friends. Also they are getting a better deal as it may make more money than they wanted in the first place. The benefits of winning from a friend is that you save on the p+p cost, which many ebayers charge far too high for.
I do agree though that there must be cases where items are falsely bidded up which is not fair also.

BigKisses

I have to admit it sounds dodgy ,even if it isn't.I believe Ebay only investigate shill bidding if someone reports it so his bidding behaviour must have been unusual enough for someone else(another bidder) to notice it and report it.Then the things Ebay might look at is whether he's ever bid on anything other than your auctions,whether he was bidding the items up and then retracting bids etc.I suppose what i'm trying to say is that the fact that the accounts are coming from the same address is unlikely to be the reason Ebay investigated the accounts in the first place,but it was probably what sealed the deal when they investigated the other concerns that someone must have reported.Not sure you'll be able to convince them that this wasn't shill bidding but do let us know how you get on.

soolin

What BigKisses says is correct, it must have looked dodgy enough to have been reported. It would only have been when ebay investigated that they found the user id's were registered at the same address.

Ebay prohibit bidding where the accounts are connected, so the same address would be enough to cause the suspension even if you do not consider it a true shill bid.

I'm not sure how ebay will proceed now, I've never come across a case where a shill bidder has had their account reinstated, but if ebay are asking for details from both of you perhaps in this case they will reinstate.

However, neither you or your friend must trade meanwhile using any other id you may have. If you are caught trading whilst suspended it is an immediate ban for life.

Soo

Mark_engage

Yeah it was fairer for my mate to do it this way, plus he knows that I was wanting to become a powerseller, so his feedback helped. My mate has brought other items off other people and has never retracted another bid from me.

OK, what about this, I am about to move, could I not set up an account to my moving address? Would they still link it with me? What if I used a different paypal account too - or it is just not worth it, should I just sit back and wait?

soolin

I really wouldn't risk setting up a new account. Once you and your mate can prove you are different people ebay should consdier reinstating you. Remember though that you both need to prove your id, if only one of you do that you won't get your accounts back. Setting up a new account from the new address probably won't work either as you have the same name on whatever bank details you provide to ebay, they don't care about email addresses or paypal accounts, just the bank (debit or credit card) information.

Also, your mate's feedback won't help powerseller wise. Only one unique feedback is counted from each person and power seller status is based on turnover anyway. I've got 1000 positives at 100% and do not qualify as a power seller because my turnover isn't high enough.

Soo

RACHIE77

Its the fact that you have the same IP address that would give ebay cause for concern rather than actual postal address I'm sure, so as long as you are sharing the same PC the activity will be highlighted as suspicious.

I think however inncoent you claim your bidding was that it really was a bit pointless either way (hope I dont sound harsh saying this), firstly the feedback is meant to give an indication of how well you sell things on ebay right, selling things to your mate sat right next to you doesn't really throw up the same challenges that NPBs (new word - just learnt it! lol!) and regular cranks will when you really have sold the 200 hundred CDs to regular ebayers. Secondly you are wasting peoples time, when people bid it is because they want the stuff, I'm guessing that your mate is putting in a pretty high proxy bid and always winning the items and that way no-one else can win?? Maybe i'm a bit daft but people are wasting time bidding on your auctions and have spotted what they believe to be shill bidding then they aren't going to touch you with a barge pole even if you are a power seller!! Lastly I believe (i may be wrong) that power seller status is awarded to people with regular sales over £x each month, are you going to keep doing this every month??

It all just seems a lot of hard work for very little gain, i would much rather buy something off someone with 20 or 30 feedback but a honest and clear track record (and yes I do often check out feedback) than someone with powerseller status and a whole bunch of dodgy looking auctions!

My advise to you would be to sit back and just ebay honestly and things will be just fine

Rachie

trace-j

Would selling a load of stuff and reaping the positive feedback from the same person not count to your rating? I've sold bits and bobs in seperate auctions to a single buyer. When they left more than one positive I only received an increase in my rating by 1.

Doesn't ebay calculate rating on feedback left buy unique bidders?

soolin

That's right trace-j, only one feedback per unique id is counted towards the overall score.

Soo

RACHIE77

did you get your account back mark_engage?