Ebay account suspended!!!

Crowqueen

Sometimes it has to be said.

You got banned because there were issues on your account.

It doesn't matter what you think of your buyers, it matters what they think of you.

There's no real way to say that without being kind of harsh because it is not nice - but when money changes hands people expect certain service and unfortunately eBay is very difficult to keep going.

Anyone can say 'Sorry to hear that you've been banned' but I've kept going for eight years now selling on the site and I've never had a problem that I didn't recognise as being partly my own responsibility. If a buyer is upset - then there is something as a seller that needs to be done. Some people come across as malicious, or impatient, or angry, or rude - but they spent money with you - and they deserve to be treated with respect.

You wouldn't take money from someone offline and not give them 100%. So when you take money from someone online you make a similar commitment. When you have a job you do what the boss says. When you sell retail, even as an occasional private seller like me, you do what your customers want you to do. I'm sorry, but too many people think eBay is a place where normal rules of trade don't apply - it's not.

It would be easier to give direct advice were you to still be selling on eBay and were we able to see your account. But I don't think telling someone they could have been a better seller is at all patronising or unfair. In among all the hugs there has to be some analysis of what went wrong - so you don't get it wrong when you sell elsewhere.

Everywhere that is worth selling will have the same standards. There is no 'money for old rope' any more about ecommerce. So it's better that you put right what went wrong, rather than think your customers are nasty and horrible while still wanting them to give you money for stuff.

I get disappointed with people here sometimes. They simply don't understand why buyers buy. Sit down and have a few minutes' reflection and then pick up selling on Facebook - but eBay is now closed to you for good.

Crowqueen

Contains_Mild_Peril wrote: »

I don't think the system of penalties for low stars favours the buyer at all. If the data were used for customer information only, so we could make up our own minds, that would be favouring the buyer. Ebay doesn't care about buyers any more than it cares about sellers: it only cares about profit.
When I studied research skills at college years ago, I remember being taught that meaningful statistics generally require a sample of at least 1,000. Sellers with thousands of transactions p.a. are likely to find that everything averages out to reflect their performance reasonably accurately, whereas low volume sellers are much more vulnerable (conversely, some may have anomalously high scores, but can't achieve TRS status unless they also meet sales targets).
I would recommend that the OP reads the thread about checking the expanded seller dashboard, and also studies their policies on eBay itself before attempting to persuade them to reconsider. Tbh all the grovelling in the world probably won't help at this stage, but nothing is lost if they say no. I advise against any attempts at opening another account or using an account belonging to another member of the same household.

Buyers bring in most of eBay's profit. Buyer protection needs to be robust because people are spending money with individual sellers who need to be kept on a tight rein to prevent them ruining eBay's reputation.

It's the same on most sites now, and the same for most businesses - if you don't please your customers you won't have any business. eBay's eventual customers are the buyers. The choice of a poor seller or a good seller is a false one - I hate getting stuff poorly packed, broken, where the seller thinks they can have the money for a week without sending out, that sort of thing. It makes me less inclined to buy from eBay as a result. I have no obligation to do so. I want to buy from people who want me to buy from them - and as such sellers, and eBay, need me more than I need them.

Lower standards from sellers - or less incentive to do well because eBay bans no-one - will just make people leave eBay for less hostile and more professional climates. This does not suit small sellers or private sellers - it suits the bigger sites like Amazon who are able to give good deals and are relatively professional when there is a problem.

Plus there are all sorts of laws governing ecommerce which mean in some situations eBay's hands are tied.

I sincerely don't get why it seems to be a bad idea to some people that customers - the people paying out all the money - are people to be sidelined, ignored, treated badly, neglected, because someone wants some money out of them. Surely, to get that money coming in, it's necessary at least to be diligent and have a reasonable work ethic when selling.

Is it really that hard?

heman2012

Crowqueen wrote: »

Buyers bring in most of eBay's profit. Buyer protection needs to be robust because people are spending money with individual sellers who need to be kept on a tight rein to prevent them ruining eBay's reputation.

It's the same on most sites now, and the same for most businesses - if you don't please your customers you won't have any business. eBay's eventual customers are the buyers. The choice of a poor seller or a good seller is a false one - I hate getting stuff poorly packed, broken, where the seller thinks they can have the money for a week without sending out, that sort of thing. It makes me less inclined to buy from eBay as a result. I have no obligation to do so. I want to buy from people who want me to buy from them - and as such sellers, and eBay, need me more than I need them.

Lower standards from sellers - or less incentive to do well because eBay bans no-one - will just make people leave eBay for less hostile and more professional climates. This does not suit small sellers or private sellers - it suits the bigger sites like Amazon who are able to give good deals and are relatively professional when there is a problem.

Plus there are all sorts of laws governing ecommerce which mean in some situations eBay's hands are tied.

I sincerely don't get why it seems to be a bad idea to some people that customers - the people paying out all the money - are people to be sidelined, ignored, treated badly, neglected, because someone wants some money out of them. Surely, to get that money coming in, it's necessary at least to be diligent and have a reasonable work ethic when selling.

Is it really that hard?

That last paragraph is the most patronsing piece of drivel I have ever read!

You assume an awful lot and it makes you come across as condenscending, especially as no one has mentioned treating customers with contempt.

oldone_2

With all due respect to the original poster, but the community boards are full of banned sellers complaing they did nothing wrong. They tell us they have 100% feedback, give good service and because of one malicious buyer they were banned. Careful probing shows that they are often in denial about part of the service they are offering buyers, or see nothing wrong in fitting in e-bay selling with their own lifestyle.

E-bay has changed. Even a smaller seller, when they take money from a buyer, is reguired to give a Premium service. Anything less and your customer will judge you against a bench mark of the very best seller they have dealt with.

porto_bello

Contains_Mild_Peril wrote: »

I don't think the system of penalties for low stars favours the buyer at all. If the data were used for customer information only, so we could make up our own minds, that would be favouring the buyer. Ebay doesn't care about buyers any more than it cares about sellers: it only cares about profit.
When I studied research skills at college years ago, I remember being taught that meaningful statistics generally require a sample of at least 1,000. Sellers with thousands of transactions p.a. are likely to find that everything averages out to reflect their performance reasonably accurately, whereas low volume sellers are much more vulnerable (conversely, some may have anomalously high scores, but can't achieve TRS status unless they also meet sales targets).
I would recommend that the OP reads the thread about checking the expanded seller dashboard, and also studies their policies on eBay itself before attempting to persuade them to reconsider. Tbh all the grovelling in the world probably won't help at this stage, but nothing is lost if they say no. I advise against any attempts at opening another account or using an account belonging to another member of the same household.

Thank you for this outstanding post. :beer:

I would add that the view "we all have the same buyers" isn't necessarily true. Overall,some categories are more likely to to attract issues than others and an opportunist is far more likely to target a new 'wet behind the ears' seller than a big, experienced powerseller.

Also, I'm sure I'm not alone in attempting to both reduce the opportunity for problems to arise by covering all the likely bases in the description (such as Paypal not being inappropriate for collected items) and this knowledge often comes with experience, which a rookie seller won't have. And actively trying to weed out and block the problem bidders/buyers before there is a transaction - which is probably something that a newbie wouldn't think to do or necessarily be aware of how to do (e.g. tightening bidder requirements to the maximum often isn't understood by newbies).

No system is 100%, and I can do nothing about last minute bidders unless they fall foul of my tight bidder requirements. However, I'm sure I've reduced the numbers of negatives and low stars that I would otherwise have received, which has obviously helped keep my account out of trouble. This is particularly essential since (returning to Mild Peril's post), as a small seller, my sales p.a. (or sample size) is rather less than 1,000 and any low DSRs and negatives will be amplified and damage the average.