Before I get into a rant, a little back story will probably help. Last year the company I used to be employed by went into administration. As a hobby, I have spent many years repairing electronic devices, so thought ‘I wonder if I could turn my hobby into an income’. So, made the decision to set up as a sole trader repairing computer hardware and selling it on eBay. Spent several thousand pounds on equipment and stock, registered my business with HMRC, took out a business insurance policy and then setup an eBay business account. Got an email from eBay ‘Welcome, your in! Thanks for coming to eBay’. Ten minutes later, get another email confirming set-up of my direct debit for payouts. Happy days I thought….
Now for the rant…
3 days later (18th Feb), I receive an email at 00:50. MC081 NOTICE: eBay Registration Suspension (shown below). The email requests I provide 1) Proof of name, 2) Confirmation of you registered address, 3) Proof that the item/s you listed are in your possession. Number 3 is an odd request, as I have yet to use the account, so have nothing listed.
The email then goes on to state that details of acceptable documents and how to upload them can be found by clicking this link:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/account/verification_request_documents.html
This link actually takes you to a page about Phishing…..I did wonder if this was some kind of bad joke.
At 00:52, I receive the following email stating that the account has been permanently suspended because of activity that was putting the eBay community at risk.
So, I reply to the first email pointing out that the link provided on how to upload the requested documents is incorrect and could they clarify how to upload the requested documents. 6 minutes later I get the following response.
Later in the day (after I’d calmed down), I used the online assistant thingy to request a call back from an agent. The agent explained that there is nothing I can do, the suspension is permanent and I cannot appeal the decision. She basically read out the previous message from Shiba H.
I then found this thread – Account Suspension . In post #4, roger_roger_over_and_nowt gives a link to request personal data. So I decided to give it a try. A week later (25th Feb), I get this:
A few hours later I then receive this:
Closely followed by this:
The nightmare is over, or so I thought….
On 8th March, I receive this.
Clicked the link to download my files, but I’m taken to a page of check boxes on what data I would like in the report. I tick all the boxes and click submit. On 11th March, this arrives:
Followed on 18th March by this:
You may be noticing a pattern emerging 🤔
Unfortunately, I was unable to click the link to download my files as a few hours after this email arrived, I got this one:
Closely followed a minute later by this:
Hmmmm, they look familiar….
So, I decide to try requesting my data again via the link provided by roger_roger_over_and_nowt. This morning (21st March), I get this:
To clarify, the only documents I provided were at the time of the first data request on the 19th of Feb. I was not asked to provide any documents for the second data request.
So there it is, after 20 years of trouble free use of eBay as a private buyer/seller, it all comes crashing down. In some ways, I consider myself lucky that this happened before I managed to get the business off the ground. I’ve read many horror stories of poor sods who have this happen out of the Blue with well established businesses.
It’s somewhat ironic that all of this is probably due to an over zealous IT system, considering the business I was trying to set up. It would appear that the top people at eBay have never heard of the Royal Mail Horizon scandal and how over reliance on IT systems can royally shaft innocent people.
The real kicker in all this is not knowing in what way I have endangered the eBay community. It's like being arrested by the Police and not being told what the charge is. The only thing I've done is create the account. I haven't listed a single item. In the brief time that I was able to actually login, I did notice that the currency shown in the seller hub was $, which set alarm bells ringing as I'm in the UK. I'm convinced that there has been some kind of glitch during the account setup process, but trying to get anyone at eBay to investigate this further is impossible. The customer service agents just read out what a computer tells them to.
Thanks eBay, thanks a bunch.
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