23 years on eBay. 5 suspensions. Home at risk. Has anyone else experienced these deliberate traps? | Seller Central

techautosuk · 2026-04-23T23:04:39.279000Z

My Story:I am a sole trader who handcrafts classic car carpets, one order at a time. Made to order. 3–5-week lead time. One man operation. I work entirely alone and usually through the night as I can concentrate better— bar my machinist who handles the finishing. I regularly work 90-130+ hours a week, to fulfil every order by hand. Since 2016 and at the age of 59 years old I earn less than the minimum wage of a 16-year-old. I am neurodivergent — dyslexic, with ADHD and autism traits. My partner of 25 years is partially disabled, and I am their primary carer. We receive no financial support whatsoever. This business is the only income that keeps a roof over our heads. I have been on eBay since 2003 as a buyer — opening my shop in 2009. That's 23 years as a loyal eBay customer. For seven years everything was fine. I maintained Top Rated Seller status. My feedback was near 100% most of the time. I loved selling on eBay, and I was loyal to the platform — and even today, despite everything you are about to read, I am still loyal. This is where I started. This is where I’d like to stay. But not like this. Then 2016 came — along with the shareholders and their AI — and my world fell apart. The Neurodiversity Failure:eBay has no support pathway for neurodivergent sellers despite a clear legal duty under the Equality Act 2010. I specifically requested support as a neurodivergent seller. I was refused with no explanation and no alternative offered. No reasonable adjustments were ever made — adding yet more stress to an already impossible situation, especially for a dyslexic like myself and many others. The Tracking Trap:For eight years eBay's AI has been systematically suspending my account every time I am forced to add tracking to a handmade order. I did exactly what their own agents told me to do. Suspended every time — even when I warned the agent that following their instructions would suspend my account. They refused to listen and told me to do it anyway. Damned if I did. Damned if I didn't. The Where's My Order Trap:The tracking trap is not the only structural failure. eBay's Where's My Order button is equally devastating, especially for handcraft sellers. When a buyer presses it — simply wanting an update on their order — it automatically opens a formal case against the seller without the buyer's knowledge or intent. The buyer thinks they are just asking where their item is. The seller receives a black mark before any communication has taken place. When you accumulate enough black marks your account gets suspended. As a handcrafter I receive more update requests and open cases than most — because buyers naturally want to know the status of something being made specifically for them. That is completely understandable. What is not understandable is that eBay's system punishes me for it. Yet another trap designed to destroy a seller's account. I hold my hands up — one of those latest cases was genuinely my fault. Stress related. Eight years of this does that to a person. Even eBay's own Leadership Team confirmed to me that warning buyers about this button in my listings was not a policy breach. Yet the damage it causes is real and ongoing. The Top-Rated Seller Trap:The Top-Rated Seller status trap is equally cruel. To achieve and maintain TSS you need to show 2–3-day dispatch times. As a handcraft made-to-order seller with a 3–5-week lead time that is simply impossible — yet I maintained TSS for years under my addendum. When the addendum was dishonoured, I lost that protection. Now I face an impossible choice every single day: — Show 2–3-day dispatch and get suspended for not meeting it — Show 30+ days dispatch and become invisible in search — effectively dead on the platform — Add tracking within the dispatch window and get suspended by the AI — Don't add tracking and get suspended for lack of tracking Meanwhile I pay the same fees — if not more — as every other seller. Fees designed with TSS benefits in mind. Benefits I cannot access anymore. I am paying full price for a service structurally designed to exclude me. That is not a level playing field. That is a trap with no exit. And for those who might say — eBay is a buy it now auctions house, MTO items were never what they wanted — I say this: eBay took my money. Every month. Premium shop subscription fees. Final value fees. Knowing full well I was a made-to-order handcraft seller. They cashed every cheque. They accepted every fee. If MTO sellers were not welcome, they should have said so in 2009 when I opened my shop — not taken sixteen years of fees while systematically destroying my business. The Addendum — eBay's Own Admission:What makes this even more extraordinary is that back in 2016 eBay themselves acknowledged this structural problem and assigned a formal addendum to my account — confirmed by their own team on SR# 1-478553973151. A written agreement protecting me from exactly this situation. The addendum specifically allowed me to set my own dispatch timeframe of 3-5 weeks, displayed prominently in bold throughout all my listings. When the AI flagged me, when cases were opened, or when late delivery marks appeared — eBay's own agents would review the addendum and cancel all marks and reinstate my account. However, this often-required hour-long calls, sometimes forcing agents to go back through historical records to even find the addendum — because it was not prominently displayed on their own system. A solution that existed, that worked, but that their own staff struggled to find. And then quietly, without explanation or notice, it was withdrawn entirely — dishonoured by eBay's own agents, leaving me completely exposed to the same traps all over again. The very agents who had used it to reinstate my account multiple times could no longer find it or action it. Gone. Without a word. eBay's own written correspondence confirms I was the only seller of handcrafted customised items on the entire platform (SR# 1-117927746776, June 2017). The addendum existed because there was literally no system built to handle a seller like me. Eight years later there still isn't. The Paper Trail:I have a complete paper trail documenting every stage of this battle — including the following key SR numbers: SR# 1-476093449601 — eBay's own Merchant Support confirmed in writing the suspension was eBay's fault SR# 1-478553973151 — eBay's own agent confirmed the addendum existed SR# 1-504233066895 — during this call I raised the fact that I had contacted Murray Lambell directly on LinkedIn begging for help. The agent escalated immediately and promised me a call back from the Office of the President of eBay USA — a call confirmed by eBay's own recording system — that never came. SR# 1-504299343398 — Jamaal from eBay's Leadership Team reopened my account, without asking for tracking information, he confirmed his outrage at the broken promise and directed me to write formally to eBay corporate — which I have now done. Every one of these and many more is documented, timestamped and verifiable. Begging for help:I begged for help. Hundreds of hour-long calls and countless emails — everyone ignored, deflected or met with a broken promise. Sometimes I had to repeat the same half hour story three or four times to different agents who had no record of previous conversations. Rinse and repeat. Eight years of it. In June 2024 as a last resort, I contacted Murray Lambell — then VP & General Manager of eBay UK — directly on LinkedIn begging for help. He read it. He never replied. Two days later Ellis Stijns from eBay's Executive Escalations team made contact. She took weeks to resolve anything, and I had to jump through countless hoops throughout — all the while having my payments withheld for six weeks, unable to pay suppliers or fund my home, causing even more stress and anxiety on top of everything else. They never contacted me again and clearly no action was taken to resolve any of the issues I was facing. The same trap closed again twice more in 2026, I could not cope with months of rebuilding hours of calls and all the above anymore, and this is why I’m here now in this impossible situation. I gave eBay the chance to have a quiet chat with me to hopefully resolve any or all of these issues, but they failed to respond, so I have. The Human Cost:Eight years of this has taken everything from me — not just financially but personally. My business debt stands at approximately £80,000 — mainly caused directly by eBay's repeated wrongful suspensions. Forcing me to rebuild my business multiple times instead of growing it. Money I rightfully earned withheld for weeks. Sales that should have been made weren't. Customers lost. Suppliers unpaid. A business that should have grown, stunted — all whilst jumping through countless hoops just to get back to where I started. And then six months or more to regain my Top-Rated Seller status — only to have the whole cycle begin again. Our home has been at risk multiple times. It is at risk again now. The sustained stress and anxiety of fighting a corporation this size — alone, as a neurodivergent sole trader caring for a partially disabled partner — has taken a serious toll on my wellbeing. My partner of 25 years has watched all of this. Putting on a brave face. Supporting me. Never complaining. They deserve better than this. We both do. And yet I am still here. Still making carpets. Still fighting for the little man. Because I love what I do and the people I make them for but giving up means eBay wins — and every handcraft seller after me faces the same fate with no one having stood up and said enough. What I Asked eBay To Fix:I submitted a solution in writing to eBay's own Executive Escalations team in 2024 — a simple fix that would have levelled the playing field for not only every handcraft and made-to-order seller on this platform, but all sellers: A Made to Order / Handcrafter flag on listing creation Seller sets their own dispatch timeframe eBay's AI follows the MTO flag — right buyer communications, right tracking expectations Buyer notified that this is a made to order item with a lead time Fix the Where's My Order button — seller notified before a case opens, buyer aware they can choose to open a case if not satisfied Fix the messaging system — the current tiny bouncing box drives sellers to find workarounds just to communicate properly with buyers. I have to open Word, write what I need, then copy and paste. Adding yet more stress to an already impossible situation, especially for a dyslexic like myself and many others. All customer service calls automatically transcribed and attached to the seller's case file — so when you speak to a new agent, they have the full history. No more starting from scratch. No more broken promises with no record. No more rinse and repeat. And one more thing I forgot to include — but the eBay community will understand immediately: Reinstate seller feedback for buyers. Allow sellers to leave honest feedback including negative feedback on buyer accounts. How are we supposed to protect each other from bad buyers if we have no voice? A marketplace works both ways. Accountability should too. Why eBay Should Want This Too:A few hours of a techie's time — perhaps even a week's worth of development — would have not only fixed this for countless sellers but brought millions in new revenue to eBay. New handcraft sellers flooding in from other platforms. New listings. New buyers. Happy sellers mean happy buyers mean more sales mean more shareholder value. The irony is that fixing this costs eBay almost nothing — and ignoring it has cost them far more than they realise. Without sellers there is no eBay. We are not the problem — we are the product. Yet somewhere along the way eBay forgot that and started treating the very people who built this platform like criminals rather than partners. I am not eBay's enemy. I never was. I am the loyal seller who spent eight years trying to help them fix something that needed fixing — all the while being systematically destroyed time and time again by eBay's own automation and their agents, forcing me to keep fighting to keep my business alive and my home. What Happened Next:On 09 April 2026 I sent a formal Letter Before Action by Royal Mail Special Delivery — tracking reference DS100033885GB, delivered and signed for on 13 April 2026 — and simultaneously by email to: — Eve Williams, VP & General Manager eBay UK — Samantha Wellington, SVP & Chief Legal Officer — Jamie Iannone, CEO eBay Inc — Jordan Sweetnam, Chief Commercial Officer The 14-day deadline expired on 23 April 2026 with no response whatsoever. This is the beginning of the action I promised I would take. Why I Am Doing This?:I want to be clear — I am a very private person. Putting myself and my family under the spotlight is not what I want. But I am doing it because no one has held eBay accountable for their actions. I have watched so many sellers leave this platform — never to return — for many of the reasons I have described above. And those who stayed have watched their power eroded. Buyers now know that sellers have no teeth — eBay pulled them. The culture on here is not what it once was. The respect between buyer and seller that made this platform great has gone. That is not the fault of sellers. That is the direct result of eight years of platform decisions that consistently favoured buyers over sellers until the balance tipped too far. eBay had every opportunity to quietly resolve this. They chose not to. Perhaps they thought I would not push forwards. They were wrong. They did not look carefully enough at who they were punishing. I am not a man who gives up. I am not a man who makes noise for the sake of it. I came here to help — myself, every seller on this platform, and eBay itself. That offer still stands. But it will not stand forever. I am doing this for ALL sellers — not just handcraft and made-to-order sellers. Every one of us deserves a fair and level playing field. If You Recognise Any Of This — Please Reply:There is strength in numbers. Together we are louder than one, so please feel free to contact me with your story. And together we WILL make a difference! And if this post has been removed by eBay, please note that I have documented, timestamped evidence that it was posted here. The removal itself tells its own story.techautosuk (eBay account)

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23 years on eBay. 5 suspensions. Home at risk. Has anyone else experienced these deliberate traps? | Seller Central | eBay UK