Account suspension.

[gomel3]

My daughter has been suspended from ebay, apparently permanently and she is at a total loss why. She has mostly purchased items from ebay for her crafts and never had or caused a problem. Everything bought was paid for immediately and never had any complaints against her. About a year ago, out of the blue she got a message, genuine, through ebay to say that her account had been hacked but they had solved the issue of someone using her account to commit some sort of fraudulent sale. At the time she was very impressed at how ebay had picked up the fraud and dealt with it before she even knew anything was happening.

The other day , for the first time ever, she tried to put an item, one of her craft pieces, up for sale. Today she received a message to say her account was permanently suspended and despite several hours of trying to get an explanation   talking to bots and eventually a person who could only say she was unable to divulge the reason , except to say something about suspicious activity and to give a telephone number that just led to more bots has left her in tears and left us at a loss to understand what is going on? I also read that sometimes having one person suspended at an address can lead to everyone at that address being suspended. For myself, with 20 years plus membership and 100% positive feedback that would seem incredible. I find this whole situation unbelievable and very upsetting and so unfair plus the lack of opportunity to fund out what the issue is incredible. 

[red_magpie]

I wish we could help you, but we are just other members and there is nothing that we can do.

Sometimes eBay is fairly open about the reason for restriction. At other times, as in your daughter's case, they disclose nothing except vague hints. It's possible that it's related to her account having been hacked last year, but it could be as simple as registering the same address as a user who has been restricted. Or she may have used their connected device to log in, or let them use hers.

If your daughter shares your address, I'm afraid it's likely that your own account will be restricted too.

The user agreement gives eBay the right to withdraw is services from any user at any time. To the best of my knowledge, we have never heard of a permanent restriction being lifted.

[gomel3]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. If I get banned too ot would be disappointing but probably save me a fortune, I know my wife would be glad as she feels most of what I buy is not needed. The situation just seems so unfair and I feel natural justice would mean for ebay to communicate clearly the exact reason and allow a right to reply, not hide behind a series of bots and have someone innocent trying for hours to make sense of it. Over 20 years my 100% positive feedback has been carefully guarded and if I too am banned there are lots of traders that will simply lose business as I rarely sell and in fact have not sold anything for years.

[gomel3]

Just an update and some great news. I reached out to ebay UK via twitter private message. They asked that my daughter contact them by the same method. She then provided details of our old postcode and a previous mobile number and her account is now fully re-instated. I think her old address was still on her ebay profile somewhere and she may have accidently used it recently when selling something for the first time. Whatever happened it is great news and thanks to that ebay representative for giving her time to listen and to solve the problem.

[tobiasd4]

Good to hear all sorted.

[tobiasd4]

Unfortunately ebay can & do suspend accounts without telling you properly why.

You are correct, your account will aslo no doubt soon be suspended, they do this to stop your daughter using your account to avoid suspension.

[gomel3]

Thanks for your reply. That is worrying but in effect, as about 99% of my dealings in 20 years have been purchases it would be their loss. We are just wondering if the issue from about a year ago has somehow triggered some computer to wrong flag her account as dodgy. I just wish it was possible to get talking to someone, a real person that could explain what the problem is. I totally get the need to protect people bit this is so unfair.

[tobiasd4]

Sometimes accounts can still buy, but only ebay can decide that, often ebay won't say why they suspend you, never known them to reverse decision.