Yesterday my account got restricted, an MC011 restriction. I am extremely concerned as eBay is my livelihood.
I sell haberdashery items and jewellery. My business has been built upon eBay over the course of 5 years. We use Royal Mail for our shipping. 1st class and 2nd class for deliveries in the UK and Royal Mail Standard International shipping for everything overseas. I don't send anything tracked, as it is impossible to stay competitive otherwise. However, buyers have the option of paying for signed for, express or international tracked and signed delivery at the checkout.
Recently there has been a huge demand for my elastic products, I guess due to people making facemasks, I have seen an increase in order volumes. At the same time as this, Royal Mail has made their service users aware to expect delays in deliveries across the country and overseas. As a result, more buyers than usual have been opening 'item not received' cases. I have been responding to every single case with the following message:
"Hi,
Thank you for your purchase.
Your order was sent on the xx/xx/xxxx.
You chose the free delivery option, which is Royal Mail 2nd Class. It usually takes 3 to 5 working days.
However, I have been in touch with Royal Mail, they are currently facing unprecedented demand on their services combined with a shortage of staff due to COVID-19. They have informed us to expect delays to delivery services across the country / worldwide.
It will be with you shortly. Thank you for your patience."
A lot of the cases are getting closed (closed by the buyers) as soon as they receive their items albeit a bit delayed. With the cases that still remain open, no further response has come rom the buyers after sending the above message.
Given the restriction, I have taken it upon myself to message every single open case to confirm if they have received the item since the last message from me.
I had 31 cases open when the restriction was put on my account yesterday, after sending this message:
"Hi Have you received your item? If you have not received it, please let us know and we will process a refund. Kind Regards Araesh Boutique"
5 buyers closed cases by this afternoon due to receiving the items and a further 5 I refunded because they still hadn't received them. I will continue attempting to get into contact with the remaining 22 cases to resolve the matter. I am seriously considering just refunding them to close the matter as they have not responded to my second message.
Whoever is reading this, please check my profile - I pride myself in keeping on top of everything ensuring I go above and beyonf all the standards eBay expects of their sellers. 99.9% positive feedback, high seller ratings, top rated seller ect.
This pandemic has put many businesses in unprecedented situations, how exactly is eBay helping sellers like me? By restricting my account over a slight increase in cases which is down to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.
I am lost for words, I have contacted eBay - nobody is willing to help, all just keep saying respond to the MC011 message with evidence. Is my seller account not evidence? is the fact that buyers are closing the cases when they recieve the items not evidence? Is the Covid-19 distruption not evidence? Is Royal Mail's delivery delays not evidence?
I need someone to have a look at this with some common sense. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can resolve this? 
