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I opened my first EBAY account in early 1999; my first PayPal in early 2000.
Over the years, I used EBAY to buy and sell items ranging from a few bucks to twenty grand. The only problem I had with EBAY was in Spring 2001 when some scammer collected about ten grand from me for a Rolex and shipped me...nothing. It was only after the FBI got involved that he got scared and returned my money to me. I was told that he was later arrested for continuing the scam with others who weren't strong enough to intimidate him into refunding their cash.
Towards 2006, I stepped up my EBAY listings with brisk sales of high end items, and at one point I was listing a $3000. item every day, staggering the listings so that one would come in the A.M., the next day in the P.M., so that there would be about 12 to 36 hours between each listing.
Then, after I'd sold about $50K of goods, suddenly I awoke one morning to the dreaded "abusing EBAY" suspension email. I really couldn't believe it and was overwhelmed. I had over 500 feedback all positive and had been a member for 7 years.
I tried hard to get reinstated and started a letter writing and email campaign to all the top brass at EBAY, and T & S, and even got some responses from top people, claiming they would "do what they could." Finally, in the end they wrote to me that they had decided that my "account would remain suspended" and said something about how I was a "high risk account."
No one ever defined exactly what this meant, but I learned over time that "high risk accounts" are suspended not because they have done anything wrong, but because EBAY is concerned that they might do something wrong in the future. For example, close auctions and not deliver.
Yeah...right...I'd like for them to show me even one account that built up $50K in recent good will and then tried to sting people. A few hundred, a few thousand maybe, but no one would risk shipping $50K for a scam operation. Especially not on an EBAY account that old that had always been gold.
I also pointed out to EBAY that I had continued to ship about $9K in goods even after being suspended, some of which was paid for with overseas bank wire, but they didn't understand or didn't want to understand the implication - that I was an honest seller.
Ironically, my certificate making me a high level Power Seller arrived in the mail right around the time that EBAY declared the suspension final.
Over the years, I used EBAY to buy and sell items ranging from a few bucks to twenty grand. The only problem I had with EBAY was in Spring 2001 when some scammer collected about ten grand from me for a Rolex and shipped me...nothing. It was only after the FBI got involved that he got scared and returned my money to me. I was told that he was later arrested for continuing the scam with others who weren't strong enough to intimidate him into refunding their cash.
Towards 2006, I stepped up my EBAY listings with brisk sales of high end items, and at one point I was listing a $3000. item every day, staggering the listings so that one would come in the A.M., the next day in the P.M., so that there would be about 12 to 36 hours between each listing.
Then, after I'd sold about $50K of goods, suddenly I awoke one morning to the dreaded "abusing EBAY" suspension email. I really couldn't believe it and was overwhelmed. I had over 500 feedback all positive and had been a member for 7 years.
I tried hard to get reinstated and started a letter writing and email campaign to all the top brass at EBAY, and T & S, and even got some responses from top people, claiming they would "do what they could." Finally, in the end they wrote to me that they had decided that my "account would remain suspended" and said something about how I was a "high risk account."
No one ever defined exactly what this meant, but I learned over time that "high risk accounts" are suspended not because they have done anything wrong, but because EBAY is concerned that they might do something wrong in the future. For example, close auctions and not deliver.
Yeah...right...I'd like for them to show me even one account that built up $50K in recent good will and then tried to sting people. A few hundred, a few thousand maybe, but no one would risk shipping $50K for a scam operation. Especially not on an EBAY account that old that had always been gold.
I also pointed out to EBAY that I had continued to ship about $9K in goods even after being suspended, some of which was paid for with overseas bank wire, but they didn't understand or didn't want to understand the implication - that I was an honest seller.
Ironically, my certificate making me a high level Power Seller arrived in the mail right around the time that EBAY declared the suspension final.
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