Ebay problem?
Hello all, This posting is about my current difficulty with communicating with ebay. The reason I bring this here is because a lot of us rely on very obsolete and sometimes obscure equipment and parts, and ebay is an important channel to trade such items. I have heard of all sorts of troubles related to dealing with ebay themselves (not the sellers/buyers on ebay) but this is something I never realized until I had problems on my account. For those curious, if you google, you can find endless number of anti-ebay websites describing all sorts of troubles they had with ebay. I don't need to be another of those, so I keep this to a factual summary. I made my ebay account many years ago, in late 1990s. I have used only one account and have sold/bought about 20 times total since then. I have a very low activity level on ebay, and my most recent activity is already many months ago. Out of the blue, I have this email from e-bay: > Dear RS(my ebay handle here) (my ebay email address here), > > Your eBay account has been suspended because our records > indicate that it is associated with the following currently > suspended account: > > XYZ (someone else's ebay handle that I've never had anything > to do with) > > To review the eBay Previously Suspended Users policy, please go to: > > http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe-previously-suspended.html > > ***During Your Suspension*** > > - You are not permitted to use eBay in any way. This > includes using another existing account, registering a new > account, or using any eBay services under any > name. Accounts or User IDs that are associated with your > account may also be suspended. > - Any outstanding seller fees are due immediately. eBay will > charge any amounts that you have not already disputed to > the billing method that is currently on file. > > Sincerely, > > eBay Trust & Safety This is unacceptable, since I do not know ANYTHING about the user XYZ above, never traded with them, or saw anything about them (until I googled this username after seeing this email). I wrote back, telling that this appears to be an error in their investigation, and I requested more careful evaluation of whatever they have gathered. They replied with another automated message: From: eBay Customer Support <rswebhelp@ebay.com> Subject: (a number) Your recent email to eBay's Trust and Safety Department (another number) > Dear Ryuji, > > Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your account > suspension. > > We value your concerns and have reviewed your account > again. However, though we understand that you may not agree > with our decision, your account will remain closed > indefinitely. > > Your account was found to have the same or similar contact > information (such as: address, telephone number, name, etc.) > as the account that you were found to be associated > with. Due to privacy concerns, we cannot give out the actual > address, phone number, name, etc. that was found to be the > same or similar. > > To protect the integrity of our site, eBay does not permit > suspended users to re-register with eBay, or use eBay's > services under any account name. > > eBay reserves the right to suspend new accounts opened by > anyone in the same household of a suspended user, or by any > other associates of a suspended user. Based on our records, > the information you provided to us matches that of a > previously suspended user. > > Thank you for your time. > > Sincerely, > Kit > > eBay Customer Support I don't know what to say. This is complete nonsense and they just took up my ebay account for no reason. Furthermore, they argue that they will remove any other account if I create one. Is this a common problem among this community? Is it a recent trend for ebay to close innocuous and harmless accounts for no good reason (and reasons that they cannot describe)? P.S. I guess people may respond with all sorts of comments, which I would appreciate, but I will reply only on the portion that I think is of interest to photographers who use ebay to trade items. -- Ryuji Suzuki http://silvergrain.org
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