Selling account suspended

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Buying account suspended, no longer a registered user.

benj111

I'm kind of in the opposite boat. I've had a long time account for buying. set a new one for selling. was in the middle of listing my 5th item and locked.

got exactly the same message as you.
"Your eBay account was suspended because recent account activity has raised serious security concerns. We've taken this precaution to protect our members while we make sure that the activity doesn't cause harm -- however unintentionally -- to the eBay Community."

spoke to them on webchat and no hint as to what i did. apparently all my accounts will be closed, except my original account still seems fine. a hint as to what I did wrong would be nice.

reading between the lines they did say they wouldn't release the outcome of any complaint to the complainant, and complainees are treated the same. but that still just raises as many questions as it answers.

soolin

benj111 said:

I'm kind of in the opposite boat. I've had a long time account for buying. set a new one for selling. was in the middle of listing my 5th item and locked.

got exactly the same message as you.
"Your eBay account was suspended because recent account activity has raised serious security concerns. We've taken this precaution to protect our members while we make sure that the activity doesn't cause harm -- however unintentionally -- to the eBay Community."

spoke to them on webchat and no hint as to what i did. apparently all my accounts will be closed, except my original account still seems fine. a hint as to what I did wrong would be nice.

reading between the lines they did say they wouldn't release the outcome of any complaint to the complainant, and complainees are treated the same. but that still just raises as many questions as it answers.

Ebay have recently tightened up selling restrictions for sellers, especially private sellers. A number of people on other forums and on the community boards reporting these account suspensions turned out to be trying to list restricted items. The list now includes not only the obvious masks and hand wash, but some soaps, nappies and other basic personal items. The link I posted this morning states that anyone listing a restricted item will be banned indefinitely with no right of appeal.

you may have fallen a victim to that. 

Rosa_Damascena

I'm suffering the same - had an eBay account for at least 12 years, but have used it to buy precisely once although I do occasionally browse for reference prices.

I had a good old declutter today and have a huge number of new items that I'd like to sell. Gumtree is my go-to site for selling, but clearly the current restrictions means it's a bad idea for any face-to-face transactions. What has put me off eBay in the past has been sellers fees and the not inconsiderable hassle of posting (more the hassle of calculating posting costs and then ending up out of pocket). I was offered free listings for 1,000 items until 1st May, so thought why not?...and listed a heavy and bulky item as a collection, willing to hold for the purchaser until lockdown is over.

Got the suspension email with no option to reactivate within minutes, emailed to ask how to resolve this asap and had a quick response telling me "We have determined that it is in our mutual best interest to part ways.". 

So that's that then? I'm no scammer, don't have the bandwidth for fraud.

soolin

I have spilt these away from another thread as these are suspended selling accounts, the other thread was buying accounts.

There is starting to be a bit of a mention of selling accounts being suspended, I’ve seen several reports now on various forums. Most are as above, suspended for listing a prohibited item, but some have been caught up in the automatic ban by accident, a word for something completely innocent like ‘windshield’ on a toy car causing an issue due to the ‘shield’ part of the word. 

There’s no simple way of sorting this , phoning EBay to find out what triggered it, perhaps if you can find any items that has a trigger word you can talk them through that. Rosa, in your case you might well have just triggered the usual fraud alert, a basically unused account suddenly listing new things could be the sign of a scammer, so you may be able to show that is not the case .

Rosa_Damascena

Thanks soolin, I'll give it a go but with reduced eBay support I'm not expecting a rapid response. 

I can accept that my pattern of activity will have been unusual, because it sure wasn't the item (an expensive piece of BN furniture, bidding fell far short of £100). First I'm encouraged by ben's post to create another account using the same email address. Just a little peeved that I have missed prime-time Sunday evening selling, but I suppose as next Monday is a BH there may be merit in posting today.

soolin

Rosa_Damascena said:

Thanks soolin, I'll give it a go but with reduced eBay support I'm not expecting a rapid response. 

I can accept that my pattern of activity will have been unusual, because it sure wasn't the item (an expensive piece of BN furniture, bidding fell far short of £100). First I'm encouraged by ben's post to create another account using the same email address. Just a little peeved that I have missed prime-time Sunday evening selling, but I suppose as next Monday is a BH there may be merit in posting today.

If you open a new account and it gets spotted (which it will) then you will definitely be banned for good with no right of appeal. Even if you did get it in under the radar you would have very low limits as a new account holder .

The other thing I did think of in your case was that you mentioned a collection item, you didn't try and suggest paypal would not be accepted did you as that would flag an attempt to get round their rules? Collection only items are a problem, especially for an inexperienced seller, have a read of this:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4949988/collection-only-items/p1

It is also not a good idea to sell now and hold item for an unspecified amount of time, you will be paying your FVFs now and no way of forcing the buyer to collect later if they change their mind, a worried buyer might also pay by paypal to hold the item which leaves you a bigger problem.

Personally I would sell your item locally, when it sells arrange a time to collect with buyer when they are out anyway, put item outside your door and ask them to pay the money in front of you and put it in an envelope which you can take and keep for a few days if you are worried. Facebook marketplace is absolutely flying at the moment, you may have to hold the item a few days after sale until someone is available to collect without making a special journey, but it is really going well.

Rosa_Damascena

PayPal not the problem but perhaps offering to hold the item was. Will heed your advice about not attempting a new account and will contact eBay instead.

re: FB - never even registered as always believed it's handling of data  is the work of the devil and my goodness how I have been proven right over the years. I have long been using W'App, and continued even when FB got its nasty tentacles into it so they got me there 

soolin

Rosa_Damascena said:

PayPal not the problem but perhaps offering to hold the item was. Will heed your advice about not attempting a new account and will contact eBay instead.

re: FB - never even registered as always believed it's handling of data  is the work of the devil and my goodness how I have been proven right over the years. I have long been using W'App, and continued even when FB got its nasty tentacles into it so they got me there 

I'm not sure what you mean by paypal not being a problem? It is an absolute no no for anything that cannot be posted with proof of delivery. 

lindens

By the way next monday isnt a BH its next friday as they moved it

Rantband

lindens said:

By the way next monday isnt a BH its next friday as they moved it

The Bank holiday is not next Friday it is Friday 8th May.