Suspended for Seller Non-Performance policy

[levelzeromotorsports]

I woke up this morning to find out my account has been suspended a breach of the Seller Non-Performance policy.

I received a warning last month about low DSR's and have been working hard to get them to improve, which they very slowly have. Non of them are below 4.3, I didn't receive a neg/neutral so I can only assume I received a new 1-2 which bumped me up above 5%, looking at the numbers it was for Shipping Time.

I called the PS support line and the gentleman said he could see that my account was restricted but couldn't figure out why. He said to email Canadian support as they don't have phone support at this time. I have, but have yet to hear back. From what I've read I'm not very hopeful.

Can anyone tell me how long the suspension will last? What are my options? I've made the mistake of allowing ebay to become a large portion of my business and now that my account is suspended and all my listing pulled I'm pretty much dead in the water. Any help from other sellers who have dealt with this would be great.

Clayton

[surplusdealdude]

Don't try any of that - you'll get permanently banned. ebay watches IP addresses now.

I wouldn't even use your wife's account to sell - her IP is the same as yours, so it counts as the same account to ebay, especially if they suddenly see your items showing up for sale there.

Suspensions last as long as it takes for your negs to fall back under the 5% level plus the time it takes for Trust and safety to get around to you.

Looking at your feedback, I can't even suggest that you go back and try to get the negs withdrawn - those customers sound really mad.

Some tips I can offer;

1. This isn't new - your feedback shows that you've been skating on the edge for a long time. You have to make fundamental changes in the time it takes you to ship OR the communication with the customers that prepares them for the fact that shipping from Canada takes time. Your reaction to problems needs work as well - you need to deal with customer concerns immediately - that alone would prevent a lot of negs.

2. Do NOT bug Trust and Safety on this - you've sent one email, leave it at that. I've seen guys who pester T&S get banned permanently as a result. ebay is looking for COMPLIANCE right now - don't make waves.

3. Once you get re-instated, you'll be on a short leash. Another suspension will likely mean that you get banned permanently - ebay's mantra right now is buyer satisfaction and you're not keeping the buyers happy - that's dangerous here.

Good luck. -------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan

[levelzeromotorsports]

Thank you for the answer(s).

I completely agree and have been working to address the current issues, unfortunately to little to late. I have no problem taking my lumps and plying by the rules.

My only concern is that as it sits right now, I have no idea how long the suspension is for or if i will ever be allowed to sell on ebay again. From the email it sounds like forever. If that is the case then I need to find a new job 🙂

[surplusdealdude]

If it was forever, you'd be banned and unable to post on these boards. Your ID would show as NARU ( No longer a registered user).

So you're not banned, just suspended.

I'm just guessing here - are you using a drop shipper? -------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan

[levelzeromotorsports]

If it was forever, you'd be banned and unable to post on these boards. Your ID would show as NARU

If this is the case then thank you very much for clarifying that, it does make me happy to know that my ebay selling career may not be over.

No I don't use a drop shipper. 90% of my customers are in the US and used to getting their items in 2-3 days. Some of them also need the part they order to finish a project or get their cars running again and as such can be very impatient.

[surplusdealdude]

I take it that you're not close enough to the border to run it across and use USPS, then.

Many of the sellers here have found that managing the perceptions of the buyers is critical. You have to make it clear to them that it might be 3-4 weeks for delivery. If it's faster, they're pleasantly surprised. If it is the full period of time, they've been warned.

I have people that want express shipments as well. While I do run my stuff across the border, I tell the express customers that I can't do it. I find that they appreciate the honesty and buy from me when they're not in such a hurry.

As far as I can figure, you may have a month on the beach - that's how long it's going to take to drop a couple of negs off your record and bring you back into compliance. I'm not 100% sure of this, because the rules have changed in the meantime and ebay isn't spelling them out because some sellers were using them to abuse the process.

Trust and Safety will tell you when you can list again.

In the meantime, you might want to try some of the other sites or the online classified ads to sell some of your stuff. They sometimes work as an alternative. -------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan

[levelzeromotorsports]

I tell everyone 4-14 business days which normally is more then enough. The biggest problem is not everyone reads the listings. They see the picture and just click the buy it now button.

I'm about 45 minutes from the border, and have been setting up to do border runs for shipping, but as said ... too little too late.

From what I can tell the suspension isn't from my DSR's but from the fact that I've received 4 1's or 2's in the last 4 weeks for shipping time. Thats the only thing I can think of as 4/66 = 6%

The one thing that is strange is that in my dashboard it says that my buyer satisfaction was last updated on the 12th.

[surplusdealdude]

I would say that it's the 1's that are doing you in as well.

If that's the case, then, as soon as the oldest one drops off, you should be reinstated.

I used to tell people 3-4 weeks - oversell the problem. Then, Canada Post would deliver in 2 and I'd be a hero. It's a question of perceptions.

I used to repeat that when I sent them and invoice and when I sent them my shipping notification.

At 45 minutes from the border, I'd certainly think about it. I'm 2 hours from the border and it's made a HUGE difference to me - my sales are up 600-800% and I can finally fill orders from Europe and Australia( Canada post rates are so ridiculous overseas that I as telling people not to spend the money). AND MY shipping DSR's have gone from 4.5 to 4.94 - it helped my other DSR's, too - a happy customer gives 5's across the board.

Don't forget that you can charge for making the trip. I charge $4 handling. I use some of that to upgrade shipments from Parcel Post to Priority at USPS (often the charges are within a dollar of each other), but it pays for the trip.

AND you can fill 'er up with cheap US gas at the same time!

It's also a LOT cheaper to get some stuff in the States - have it shipped to your US PO Box (you'll need one for online shipping) and you can get inkjet ink for $7 each, car parts are cheaper, etc, etc.

AND you can sell on the River if you can ship every 3rd day. That's a whole new set of eyeballs for your products.

All in all, I think it's a good move. -------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan

[levelzeromotorsports]

Yeah at this point I'm really hoping that when the 1's and 2's drop off I will be back up and selling. Right now I'm also trying to find 1-2 resellers to take over the sales in our absence from the market and hopefully after we are back up and running. If I could spend my whole day just making parts, I'd have very little to complain about 🙂

I completely agree about shipping from across the border and the few times I have done it, it has been worthwhile. It will be the new method once this mess is smoothed out.

I have tried selling on the river and I have to say the results were less then impressive. I can only assume my demographic doesn't shop there nearly as much as here.

Back to waiting for my dashboard to update 🙂

[cartoonsinabox]

Did you know that the canadian Ebay phone support center does not exist anymore. 500 jobs lost in BC last week. So the person you spoke to does not know what he or she is talking about. Everything was transfered to the US. This is why you are not receiving a follow-up.

Frederic

[levelzeromotorsports]

I'm in BC but hadn't heard about that.

I'm not going to bother following up with T&S because from my understanding they aren't going to care that 90% of my customers are international (US) and only look at the fact that more then 5% of my customers are unhappy about the shipping times.

I have to say for a business this is rather frustrating. I've been given no definitive information on how long this suspension is going to last, and every time I log in things only seem to get worse. The buyer statisfaction rating portion of my dash board updated finally ..... to 6 strikes for shipping time. Looks like I'll be on the bench for even longer.

I now understand why so many sellers were so upset about the shipping time star. Even if you do keep you DSR's in the acceptable range, this one can come up and bite you on the fleshy part of your ....