1y ago

eBay restricted my account permanently and won't help me with it

I'm a casual eBay user. On rare occasions, I will sell household items when I no longer use them. Well, I went to sell my Nintendo Switch on eBay and found out my account has been restricted indefinitely selling. When I tried chat with the customer service agent, they provided a name of some entity that I don't recognize in relation to my account for the reason for restriction, then refused to help me any further and simply disconnect. What kind of shity service is that? When I was provided an automated option to "appeal", it didn't work when i clicked on it. It didn't do anything. Same with other options. They don't have any other way to appeal on their website from what I can see. So caught off guard and annoyed.

32 comments

aNd i wOuLd lIkE InFoRm yOu tHaT We dOn't mAkE DeCiSiOnS LiKe tHiS LiGhTlY
every time someone has to explicitly say this it's a lie
- All the rep did was copy pasta. What kind of ppl are they hiring.
  
  The lowest cost ones
  
  I mean, welcome to every online support chat since they were invented
  
  Many aren't allowed to go off script
  
  This is clearly overseas customer service rep with a script. It happens every time I "chat with customer service" for any business at all. Or it's an AI chat, which is equally possible.
  
  Maybe AI? I mean there wasn't anything of substance in the replies.

what kind of shitty service is that
it’s eBay
- Yea eBay has been terrible for the entirety of its existence.. unfortunately no one seems to be interested in making a better product and competing against them
  
  There are several alternatives out there but ebay dominates the market share so much they don't seem to do well. And it seems like setting up a competitor would be hilariously expensive and probably would end up just as terrible.
  
  I’ve been trying to think of a time when I had good customer service from them and came up with nothing so far.

I tried to sell my car on eBay back in 2008 - the first thing I ever attempted to sell on their site. I've bought a few random things from eBay over the years, including my car 3 years prior.
My account was immediately flagged for potential fraud and locked down. The only way they'd clear it was if I photocopied my driver's license and mailed it to them; they wouldn't accept a digital copy.
I just created a new account and have been using that ever since. I ended up selling my car outside of eBay; I'm never attempting to sell a vehicle through their site again.

I had my ebay account restricted the same day I made it. Was really confused and frustrated as I had made the account to buy something
So I just made another account with my same email address just without any periods, have had that account for years. Still no idea why I was restricted at all the first time and not the second..
- Had similar happen to me except I didn't get to appeal it for quite a while and they told me they couldn't tell me why it was banned and they wouldn't be lifting it, I had no purchases mind you. Just made another account

Hate this kind of thing. Would be cool if there was a more decentralized alternative for ecommerce that people actually use.
- I wonder if we can use ActivityPub for this...

If you use eBay and PayPal you're asking for this. They shit all over users and don't care. I've vowed to never use either of them again.
- I bought one thing on Ebay, thinking VAT was included, because that's how you buy things here (my offer included VAT). But afterwards they put on 25% what the duck. Then I just thought no more

This is really strange. For some reason they think you are the same person or entity as this techdiscount whatever account. Normally that would be because you have the same mailing address, or link the same bank account or something. Maybe your name and date of birth are similar to this other banned person?
Really stupid.
Can you call on the phone?

Geez, I thought Revolut support was bad when they abruptly closed my account.
- No wonder why eBay has fallen off

This is the start of the ai revolution.

Something similar happened to me though I have never sold anything but bought like 3 items over 5 years and my selling got limited for some unknown reason. I figured it's no great loss and deleted my account and made a new one.

I had an ebay account I used for years, and when I was travelling I bought a screwdriver set. A year later, my account was locked, I contacted support and they said it was because of that purchase.
It baffles me why they'd lock an account for buying something, but let alone after 6 months. Have avoided them since.

32 comments