My other account Suspended for refusing to change to a business seller

[**foxytori**]

So, it has begun. Despite me not trading, not selling anything new, not selling anything in multiple, and only selling personal items (currently I am selling my collection of Radio Times which I built up over many years when I was younger - most of which have now sold anyway so any future sales would be minimal) my other account has been suspended for selling. I am told this is because of volume of sales (despite ebay's own help pages stating that someone can sell tens of thousands of pounds worth of a collection and not be liable to tax or be classed as a business).

As I am in no way a business, and it possibly may be against the law to masquerade as a business when I am not a business, I'm really not sure what my options are. 

Customer service are useless (I have just received a message in very poor English to say that I have lost any appeal and the only way to lift the suspension is to "upgrade" (sic) to become a business seller.

[messier44000]

Request a customer service call back as early as possible after 8am today where you have 

a better chance of speaking to an Ire rep

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

[papso22]

You really only have two options if an appeal fails.

1. Upgrade to a business account, with all the consequences that will follow, or,

2. Stop selling on ebay.

I don't believe there are any laws against having an ebay business account and looking like a business when you are not a business.  Laws exist to protect consumers, they get better protection from a business, even if they really are not one. 

[1956glyn]

So not the account you are posting here on?

IF you do have another account suspended from selling then this one will go the same way too.

Any accounts that can be linked to one with suspensions will have the same restrictions once Ebay realise 😞

This topic will no doubt be coming up a lot on the boards in the not so distant future so please come back and let us know how you get on after contacting Ebay CS.

[**foxytori**]

Oddly, each time I re-logged in to actually post this thread it reverted back to this account. Don't know why, as Ideally I wanted to post from the account which was actually suspended.

[**foxytori**]

papso22: Lying about the structure of your business to solicit sales would be classed as fraud and is definitely not legal.

[1956glyn]

Have you tried clearing cache cookies/history etc  and signing in to that account via another browser?

[**foxytori**]

1956glyn - it's irrelevent now as this thread is now up and cannot be deleted 🙂

[theelench]

Obviously we can't see the suspended account and I've only looked at this one briefly.  But it looks to me to be a mix of vinyl, media memorabilia, prints and a few house-hold items.  All pre-owned, most the sort of collectables that someone might want to down-size.

[theelench]

Hmmm.  Evidently I can't delete or edit #9 which I now realise doesn't make much sense without being able to see the other account.

[1956glyn]

If you can get on your other account then you could come back to this thread and respond on it.

[**foxytori**]

messier44000 - many thanks, they called me and have lodged another appeal which will be answered within 3-5 days. Time will tell.

[**foxytori**]

1956glyn, as I mentioned, I *am* logged in as the other account but when I post here it posts under this account. No idea why.
The account affected username is allsortsallsorts1 but not sure it matters.

[1956glyn]

Sorry i thought you meant when you now log into Ebay your account changed....not just on these boards.   I obv misunderstood.

[lens-sage]

Log in for the boards and for your account are seperate, I believe.  I think you have to go to your icon at the top right of the boards and switch there.

The account you're logged into for selling doesn't dictate the account you're logged into for the boards.

[allsortsallsorts1]

Right, let's see if this works.....
THIS is the account which has been suspended 🙂

[notstopbuying]

Did eBay turn the account back on / remove the suspension ? I can see a couple of listings for Radio times magazines. 

[allsortsallsorts1]

notstopbuying:  no, as these two listings were auctions with watchers these were allowed to remain up until the auction end. All my fixed price listings were removed and I cannot list any new items.

[notstopbuying]

That is a really difficult situation, did you manage to speak with the UK/Irealand customer services, with regards to your new appeal?

I really hope that it works out and that they unsuspend the account.

[pg_kicks]

My uneducated guess would be your account(s) mirror those of businesses, obviously this isnt what you want to hear but you have atleast 2 (you can have as many as you like) accounts linked via IP addresses with over 10k sales and over 400 items listed. eBay seem to be being cautious now and it'll probably be upto you to prove you are not a business, which is pretty impossible but from eBays side its better to be safe than sorry.

There is no law to say you cant have a business account when you are not technically a business, all you do is offer extra protection and contact details (and lose discounts) but eBay can just close your account if they believe you may have broken policies, it'll be somewhere in the 3578354 pages of T&C's we all 100% read when we signed up and accepted any updated terms.