eBay debt of £5,700+ that they won’t help provide a solution for my blocked/permanent suspended acco

seinfeldiwish

Having recently been made a business seller I worked really hard over a 3 day promotion period, I managed to sell 7 watches totalling £17k.    I followed the instructions when labelling each package and they were all going separately to their authentication department.  The address screen explained it was essential I put in the address their specific authentication sale reference number for my watch sale so they can see who bought it .  Well it transpired that wasn’t the case at all.  Tuesday morning and I was getting message after message that buyers were getting refunded and watches being returned as “significantly not as described”.  What transpired was authentication team don’t see the labels as supposedly Royal Mail remove them!  The only way they can tie up to a customer is by the tracking number.  I put the wrong tracking numbers on my sales because I had four on one post office receipt, each with the same eBay authentication address, postage cost and roughly the same weight. 

I had no idea which tracking reference number belonged to which watch package and thought it wouldn’t matter as long as they all arrive safely which is what they did.  They opened my box and saw the tracking number was for a totally different watch so immediately marked it as “significantly not as described”, refunded buyer and started a return to me process.  

I managed to get one watch of the four corrected over the phone but three came back to me.  I had already received the money for them so I owed eBay.  

Two days later I realise eBay had suspended my account.  A phone call with them said it was permanently suspended to “protect the community”.  

I’m embarrassed it admit it would probably be because I let their customer service representative really know what I think of their management decision makers for leaving totally incorrect guidance on how to label packages to their Authentication department.   I definitely didn’t have a go directly at the actual representative.  

My actual problem now is my suspended account won’t let me pay the debt! For a about a month I got “Friendly Reminders” by email but the link to pay took me to a login screen that on attempting to login just said “Blocked user”.  I tired calling their customer service number but the automated questions stopped me from speaking to anyone because I no longer had a valid account.  

Now I’ve had two other emails saying this debt will eventually be passed onto an external debt collection agency if I don’t pay soon and they can add on their costs so please use the provided link and pay today.  These messages actually have a link I was able to log into but it still wouldn’t let me pay.  However I was able to speak with their customer service representatives.  I have made numerous calls and spoken to numerous people.  In a nutshell, their billing department sends me links that I still can’t use because of my suspended account.  So billing send me to Restrictions Department and even though they understand that I need something changed on my restrictions or have them removed temporarily they can’t do it.  “Once permanently suspended there isn’t a way of going back”.  Even escalating Won’t get me unsuspended or with the functionality to pay.  

I’ve spent hours and hours over the last week trying to pay.  It now seems I have to wait for a Debt Collection Agency to take over and pay them + any additional fees they choose to add on. 

Any advice would be really welcomed as I’ve never been in debt let alone given to a Collection Agency.