EBAY IS A SCAM - DO NOT SELL FROM HERE

[hanona96]

Do not sell your items here.

I am having to post this on my partners account as conveniently eBay has indefinitely suspended my account. Please if you was like me an honest customer that had a hobby/ passion for selling luxurious items as a little side hustle - think carefully I would not sell anything here. Firstly, read through your User Agreement CAREFULLY. If eBay feel you are doing something THEY consider as breeching their security (which by the way could be you simply forgetting send an invoice of a purchase) they will indefinitely suspend your account and HOLD any sales that you've made on to that account. I am heavily pregnant, currently renting and now that eBay has suspended the account I can no longer pay for my bills next week, I was rushed to hospital last night as all the stress the company caused me it nearly led to be have an early birth of my first child. Not only this I have stressed my mental illness I currently suffer from to numerous advisors that hang up the phone on me.

This company is vile. I am writing this message with tears rolling down my eyes because I am about to be homeless. They are refusing to give me my 7k from a sale I made and was approved by EBAY last month. They have said this sale could be held for up to 170 days or more. If you type into google indefinite ebay suspension you will see a list of customers that have gone through this exact experience. They will not tell you why your account was suspended but simply suspend it. I am having to call everyday send messages/ emails every other hour to fight for my money to be released. They keep saying they are holding my money as it's part of their process. They do not tell you how long the money can be held for just that they are holding it and that's final nothing you can do about it. Bearing in mind your account is suspending so they have already come to a conclusion, so really they are investigating nothing just holding on to your money. And they can do this because you would have signed in the user agreement to allow them to hold your funds. I am a honest seller, I would never sell an item that is fake. I take pride in doing immense research and only buy for legitimate places. there was nothing illegal from what I done. It was simply that I was a new seller that made a lot of money in short period of time.

My family need this money, we could be homeless it's extremely serious. I am begging for my own money at this rate. If you read this, please please think twice before you use this platform to sell.

[*vyolla*]

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@hanona96 wrote:

Also, the reason why the account was suspended is still inaccurate, if they needed me to send more documents to confirm or they had to do was ask. 

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Have eBay now closed your account and you are now showing as 'No longer a registered user' on your feedback profile page?

If that's the case, they've done more than just suspend it.

[douglaspuglas]

They are not a registered user anymore, (they posted their username on the community chat and I looked it up).

[vikkipollardanddafyddthomas]

You can still see their feedback (5, all for buying in the last month) and their one sold item (the £8k watch) which appears to be the only item they have ever listed for sale in the 12 weeks they have had the account.   I think they may have sold that as a private seller and have upgraded to a business account since then, possibly when discovering as a new account with just 5 feedbacks for buying, that listing and selling a watch for over £7k meant they weree going to face a hold on the payout. The buyer of the watch hasn't left them any feedback either. 

[douglaspuglas]

Yes I saw all that.

There is also an £5900 omega watch listing that comes up but if it's clicked on the "we looked everywhere" page appears.

Maybe bots were suspicious because before listing two expensive watches the only feedback they had was for buying plumbing supplies.

[theelench]

Before contacting the Financial Ombudsman Service I'd advise that you contact the Financial Conduct Authority.

Under usual circumstances the FOS would want you to have made a formal complaint to ebay and completed ebays Complaints Procedure, something that can take weeks, before they will look at your case. 

But, if the FCA thinks your case is serious enough they can (and have done so at least once reported on here) "Fast-track" your complaint to the FOS, possibly avoiding such delay.

The FOS has found against ebay and paypal (back when it was ebays payment processor) and on occasion has even awarded interest on the sum held to be paid in addition to the payment itself.  I would guess that when they've done that would depend on the size of payment Held and for how long?  I get the impression that it isn't a regular occurrence, only when the amount is large enough to make an appreciable difference? 

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

Ebay have to be aware of scams.

I spotted an item for £12.99 from a Chinese seller.

Going pirce with everone else was around £50.

I alerted ebay and got ignored.

Seller went on to sell 211 items before before negs started rolling in.

After about 15 negs ebay pulled the listing.

Ebay would have to refund everyone out of their own pocket.

The other thing is Vero which stops people selling branded goods if the company doesnt want them sold on ebay.

Even putting something like "not M&S" on a listing is looking for trouble.

[hanona96]

Thanks for all your recomendations I really wasn't expecting so many responses. I managed to get through to a supervisor who is reviewing my documents I initially sent. The relaity is eBay for Business has it's processes but sometimes they get it wrong, and this time they did. It's a shame because I have always been an advocate for eBay, my expereice is not siloed there are THOUSANDS of innocent memebers who have also expereinced this. 

Before making such an extreme decision eBay should ensure they have reviewed the indivduals account in question THORUGHLY. The email that was sent to appeal the restiction was even extremely vague, nowhere does it clearly say send proof of merchandise for ALL items you have listed on eBay to date. There are many gaps to try and get the user to not send something to then say we can't help you account suspended. Don;t bother contacting us that's the final decision come back in 7 months for your moeny. Where on any other legitimate platform would that even be enforced? To give a user such an extreme punishment so abrudtly without even giving them the opportunity to confirm that they were not going against eBay's rules is inhumane. If you do your research, you will see eBay chnaged the user policy guides a few years back, and if you do more research you will see at the same time in changing this thousands of users began to share their expereince and all are the same, some are completely identical. eBay are doing this purely to make money, it's a way for them to keep money from customers and then refer back to your policies to support them them in doing so. Which is a scam, and if you read the guidelines they even make it difficult to take this to court. I studied law so i can read between the lines. 

As many of you would like to defend them I am telling if you have a business acount close it down, if this does not happen today it will happen another day that you are in this same position. I have just had to learn the hard way. 

Hopefully I get a solution so I can close my account down and move on with my life. 

[vikkipollardanddafyddthomas]

"As many of you would like to defend them I am telling if you have a business acount close it down"

Did you sell this watch as a business seller or did you upgrade your account to a business account afterwards on discovering ebay were holding your funds ? 
There are hundreds of business sellers on these forums who have operated their accounts for 10 or 20 years or more and their accounts have NEVER faced this issue. So that begs the question why they can operate for 20 years or more and not face this issue while you open an account, list one item and immediately get your funds withheld and your account unregistered. 
The only item you have ever listed and sold is an £8k watch. You have no feedback for selling and just a handful of feedbacks for buying a handful of inexpensive bathroom items recently. Unfortunately that raises alarm bells for ebay. Your buyer of your watch hasn't left you any feedback either. Under those circumstances, I am not surprised ebay is holding on to your funds and has closed your account.  Of course they have to pay you eventually but in the meantime they are protecting themselves against any possible claims as a result of your sale. 

[kelliekellie90]

I am in the same position right now, they are holding £5700 for up to 170 days. 

Have you had any luck getting your funds released yet? It has me so so stressed and they don't care, I have provided them with proof of purchase for all items and it wasn't good enough, disgusting company!

[plpmr]

Another reason is you were selling brand new high ticket items on a private seller account.

[sagle1641]

If they're holding your money it's probably because you've been found out for selling fake luxury products 

they do spot checks and I don't think someone is going to spend £7k on a couple of items  on eBay 

[*vyolla*]

@sagle1641 

As this thread is from November 2023 it's likely that the OP has sorted this out now.

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[brianbm29]

I was defrauded when a buyer purchased a Fendi Rihanna Fendi bag, alleged it was counterfeit even though I had paid for Fendi to verify it and the thief sent me back a £6.00 ASOS bag instead of the £1000 original - Ebay completely refused to help even though they knew this was a fraudulent buyer and a thief - who is STILL operating on Ebay.

Ebay need a class action against them in the UK.

[brianbm29]

I have tried the FOS approach - as Ebay are registered in Luxembourg as a tax swindle nothing can be done.

[papso22]

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@brianbm29 wrote:

I was defrauded when a buyer purchased a Fendi Rihanna Fendi bag, alleged it was counterfeit even though I had paid for Fendi to verify it and the thief sent me back a £6.00 ASOS bag instead of the £1000 original - Ebay completely refused to help even though they knew this was a fraudulent buyer and a thief - who is STILL operating on Ebay.

Ebay need a class action against them in the UK.

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Out of interest, how did ebay know for a fact that you sent the £1,000 bag and not the £6 ASOS one?

[brianbm29]

Hello, photographed and sent by special delivery - I have had more than enough experience of Ebay scammers and anything of value used to be either stolen by Royal Mail or the recipient would allege they never received it, so now everything above £20.00 is tracked and requires recipient confirmation of receipt.

I strongly believe Ebay are the most dishonest business I have ever dealt with.

[4_bathrooms]

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@brianbm29 wrote:

I have tried the FOS approach - as Ebay are registered in Luxembourg as a tax swindle nothing can be done.

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Not so. UK users are contracted to "eBay Commerce UK Ltd" (ECUK) where payments are concerned. ECUK is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority; you can see their entry on the register here. As ECUK is regulated by the FCA their activities do fall under the remit of the Financial Ombudsman Service.  

[4_bathrooms]

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@brianbm29 wrote:

I was defrauded when a buyer purchased a Fendi Rihanna Fendi bag, alleged it was counterfeit even though I had paid for Fendi to verify it and the thief sent me back a £6.00 ASOS bag instead of the £1000 original

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How long ago did this happen?

[jckl1957]

Expensive bags are now covered by the Ebay authenticity guarantee.

So, a Fendi bag sold for over £500 would be sent to the authenticators.

If they decided it was authentic but the buyer wanted to return it, the buyer would have to return the bag via the authentication centre who would check that the original bag was being returned to the seller.

[papso22]

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@brianbm29 wrote:

Hello, photographed and sent by special delivery - I have had more than enough experience of Ebay scammers and anything of value used to be either stolen by Royal Mail or the recipient would allege they never received it, so now everything above £20.00 is tracked and requires recipient confirmation of receipt.

I strongly believe Ebay are the most dishonest business I have ever dealt with.

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That doesn't actually prove to ebay that you sent the expensive bag and not the cheap one.   It might be enough for legal action against the buyer, by you.