'Upgrade to a business account' - virtually brand new account that's sold ten used £10 DVDs...

[vintage_clearout]

(I am posting from my private account here, just for clarity)

I have been using eBay for 20+ years to sell my old tat, and had amassed c.1500 +ves on a private account. I won't lie, I actually thought my days on here were as good as over, what with buyer fees, simple delivery etc... and my business which sells items c. £500 was doing just fine on its own website, always has - though this is due to the nature of the items having very little competition, we don't even need to pay for web promotion.

However, we introduced a new product line which is more like £70 an item, and in higher numbers, so despite the outrageous fees thought we would finally give eBay a go. I took the plunge and converted my old eBay personal account to business, changing the name etc... but we haven't bothered getting a shop.

I quickly learnt what an idiot I'd been leaving all my personal DVDs on there was, when they all renewed at 40p x100 on the same day, give or take 🤕. Also, it didn't look too professional having 'Death Wish 4 - Directors Cut with extra guns and helicopters' next to 'Perfect gift for Mothers Day'.

I had already opened a 2nd private account late Jan for buying, and a couple of weeks ago registered it to sell. I had to manually move the items across, painful. I have sold about £100 worth in 10 days, never had any email from eBay about any business account, then today woke up to all my items unlisted and the old "we recently asked you to upgrade your eBay account to a business account, to comply with consumer protection legislation" guff.

Got absolute nonsense from telephone CS banging on about 'government regulations say you must be a business' and then transferred to a 30 minute wait for a clearly non-existent 'supervisor' before being cut off, I expected as much and was working throughout.

Surely it is perfectly within eBay rules to have a business account for your business, and a personal account for yourself? Any ideas where to go next? Any internal heroes reading these boards care to help out behind the scenes? Am I better off tackling this from whatever CS I get via my business account? Thanks for reading!

[andha-21]

@vintage_clearout 

So if I understood that correctly when you realised that having your dvds on your new business account was a mistake you moved them to a new private account?

If you used exactly the same photos/titles/descriptions etc I'd bet money that flagged their AI system, that now thinks your new private account is nothing more than an extension of your business account.

From reading other posts I don't remember seeing similar to this come up before but my memory says that CS generally don't have the power to override the AI system.

Maybe one of the others here have ideas for you. I'm going to watch, so I can learn.

[vintage_clearout]

No, they were all existing listings, many of which had been there for 1-2 years. Ironically moving them made quite a few stagnant ones sell (I did reduce some of them). Remember the 'business account' was only a business account after I converted it very recently.

Looking back, I suspect it was not so much the AI from the listings as me removing my personal account details from the new business account replacing it with our Ltd. company one, and then re-entering the personal bank account details in order to sell on the new personal account...

And this is why AI is scary and is something we should be afraid of.

Not AI building an army and making cyborgs like in some film (like Death Wish 3.5 - The Reckoning...) but AI making decisions that affect peoples lives seemingly out of control of human oversight. Don't worry about eBay so much, as job applications, university, etc...

[vintage_clearout]

p.s I just tried the phone again to try and get Dublin CS - assuming this isn't a thing anymore or I am timing it wrong? Unfortunately the second lady was even worse than the first in that she simply had no clue what the issue was 'but you already have a business account and there is no problem there sir...' etc...

As ever I suspect I'm totally wasting my life trying to sort this out on the phone.

[andha-21]

It's also a really bad time to try and call CS. They will be overwhelmed by Simple Delivery and Invoicing calls and everything else.

They actually turned off the call centre a week or so ago. Left AI in charge. Don't know how long it was off.

[vintage_clearout]

Where DO all those fees go? 😂

[andha-21]

Well @papso22 got a Ferrari, we don't know exactly where the rest goes.

Hopefully they have a sense of humour and all drive "pimpmobiles" with slogans like "that's how we roll byitches".

I would be disappointed if they didn't.

[vintage_clearout]

This time next year, no doubt the bottom text on this site will say '(c) 2026 eBay - Part of the V1nted Family'.

[vintage_clearout]

Another nonsense reply from eBay to my email;

"So, all users who list or sell a comparatively higher number of items or with higher monthly total value but are registered as private sellers face this requirement to ensure they register as a business seller in accordance with government regulations to avoid future legal complications for both you and eBay."

"Since you mentioned that you have a different account that you conduct business with want to keep this as a private account, I discussed this with my supervisor to confirm if there is a way to maintain this one as a private account. However, currently there isn't a way to do so.  "

Yeah, 8 DVDs, I'm the king of sales there...

[britanniabug_stamp_store]

Very good ... or now part of the Amazon family.

I hope they will be taken over by eBid who have simple and clear policies and do not charge buyers a fee and who's selling fees are very low compared to an eBay business acount.

[vintage_clearout]

I'm thinking of that scene at the very end of 'eXistenZ' and substituting 'eBay' for 'Cortical Systems'.

[fuzzbuttfabrics]

I have a business account but recently opened a new personal account as I have a ton of clothes I want to sell.  Currenty buying bits and bobs on it to build up some feedback.  The clothes will not be on my business account, (obvs) but both my accounts have the same address and phone number on them.  So if I list all my clothes I hope I don't get hit with the "upgrade or die" email......

[sebastian4ever]

I think with everything that’s happened you would be better getting a bottle of bioethanol from B&Q and setting fire to everything in the garden.

[vintage_clearout]

So tempting just to get shafted in a different way by scanning in all 60 remaining blu-rays (approx. value here £9 each) to MusikMagpie and take the easy £60.

I accept that mistakes can happen, what leaves me just beyond frustrated is that on here when something goes wrong they just stand by their decision with multiple nonsense statements about consumer rights and that hilarious hot air above about 'future legal situations' - utter tripe - rather than there being someone sensible that you can go to for a review.

[andha-21]

@vintage_clearout 

CEX and ziffit could be other options too.

[vintage_clearout]

You know I'd never thought of CEX, used them to buy enough times!

Still boils my **** that I have to use these thugs for my business account for now, but there we go.

[technthread]

Here’s a tip for you. If you sell to CEX, take the voucher instead of the cash. You can then sell it on Cardyard for about 81% of the value, it works out more than the CEX cash payment. 

[vintage_clearout]

Nice! I did think the offers looked good for voucher, e.g. 'The Firm' Blu-ray £3 cash or £5 voucher - way easier than bothering to sell it on here truth be told! All my discs are in VVGC though so I will be annoyed if they have a habit of deliberately downgrading to get out of offers.

Never forget that episode of Watchdog where they sent brand new iPhones to one of those 'we buy any phone' type people and they all - shock! - were lured in at top prices but all the new phones were graded as 'Average' on receipt.

[technthread]

I did a trade to CEX on Sunday. Believe me some of the games were a lot less than VGC, I don’t take the P with damaged stuff but there is some scope with them.

The voucher is £79, I think the cash was £46 or so. I have to wait a week and then put it on Cardyard to get about £64 back. Those CEX vouchers sell within a day on there and it is a safe site to use from my experience. 

Yep I had that experience with a phone ha. Music Magpie were sent it 2nd time round, a lower quote but they were fair and paid, they didn’t start claiming there were micro scratches that didn’t exist. 

[andha-21]

Most of the franchise stores (that's most of them in the South, not sure where you are) check disc condition but it basically has to be scratched all over for them to refuse it.

The non franchise CEx stores don't check disc condition. They just check front disc label and scan.