Banned for life???

[vanislemommy]

Recently my 70 year old retired dad tried to fix the screen of his ipad and was not able to, so he just decided to sell the battery on ebay.  His listing was removed without any explanation, and when he phoned customer service he was told that there was a security violation with his account and it was banned for life, but they wouldn't tell him exactly what he did wrong.  The ipad was not stolen, it was his personal ipad that he bought from a store years ago (it's old) and there are multiple batteries listed on the site.  He has bought and sold things on ebay prior to this without any issues.  What the hell ebay? If this is how you treat your customers I'll close my account and never buy or sell another thing on this site and will advise all my friends to do the same thing. Not cool.

[marnotom!]

Your paraphrase from eBay is that the problem is with his account. That's different from an issue with the listing itself.

Have there been any issues in the past that may have required him to reset his password? At some point has he had problems trying to log in from a different computer or location? Has his account been inactive for some time?

Could someone else have hacked into his account and used it fraudulently?

[recped]

His listing was removed without any explanation

No explanation or an explanation that was either not read, not understood or not agreed with?

When eBay pulls a listing they send a notice, the notice contains the reason.

[vanislemommy]

No there was literally no explanation given as to why his listing was pulled or why his account was suspended. When he called the customer service line, they put him on hold and said there were no details available and his account was banned permanently and there was no way to appeal. There were no issues with his account prior to this. He used to work in IT for IBM so he's not computer illiterate.  There are currently ipad batteries listed for sale on ebay, so I fail to see why this was even an issue. And why refuse to discuss the account with him and give him a lifetime ban with no reason given??

[momcqueen]

It sounds as if his existing account was hijacked. Sometimes the Customer Service Reps aren't the brightest bulb in the fixture and might not know how to explain that. If this were happened to me, I'd check to make sure nothing worse had transpired around identify theft elsewhere, and open a new account to do as I like on ebay. 

If that doesn't work, it may be that his IP is banned. Does he live in an apartment complex? Share wifi? I'm assuming you've had the talk with him about safe internet usage.

Also, have him write into the Discussion Board himself. We'll get further that way in troubleshooting if we aren't going through third-parties. 

[reallynicestamps]

@momcqueenwrote:  I'm assuming you've had the talk with him about safe internet usage.

@vanislemommy   wrote:  He used to work in IT for IBM so he's not computer illiterate.

[momcqueen]

Uh huh.

[momcqueen]

Let’s hear from him. We can’t offer meaningful assistance otherwise. The situation being described doesn’t make sense to me as it’s been presented so I’m assuming that’s due to key facts being lost through renditions of the story.

[reallynicestamps]

Yup. Time to get Dad to sit down at your keyboard and tell us his story, including what he was selling (because some things are more restricted than others) and how he was obtaining them for resale.

We don't need specific names, but if he was listing Tibetan "silver" as sterling, or pre-selling items he bought on AZ and had shipped by them, or if he had a contract with a dropshipping supplier, or if he persistently relisted items that had been removed by VeRO, each has a different reason and approach.

[slaneyenterprises]

The email sent would have said why. And someone at eBay would have been able to see & tell him why as well. Just because you don't agree with it the reason doesn't mean one wasn't provided

[vanislemommy · Accepted solution]

My dad is the most straight laced guy you would ever meet. He just couldn't fix his old ipad screen himself so tried to sell one single battery from his own personal ipad on ebay. There was nothing sketchy going on here. Thanks accusations.

Seems like the community is about as helpful as the customer service desk. I think I'll switch to selling on amazon or kijiji instead. 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

I've had 1 listing called into question on 2 occasions. 2nd relist & then relisted using the same information months later. First time because I was using the same category that other duplicates were already listed in. The 2nd time because of using "descriptive" words to try to accurately describe the condition.(Also forwarded over from the previous revised edition). Still similar to other listings that were already available. Rules being followed and enforced entirely randomly. A better suggestion might be....Hey, you have a listing that doesn't follow our guidelines. If you could be so nice and fix according to the attached guidelines by this date, that would be awesome.  Or something similar. Is a firing squad really required for what may have been an honest mistake?

-Lotz

[momcqueen]

We asked to hear from your father directly; we can’t help him otherwise. Like I said from the onset, it’s possible his account was hijacked by someone else and used for something of which he was unaware. Or, if he lives in a community, a shared IP address mistakenly identified him as a culprit for something. We can’t know to help until we speak to him.

Good luck as you carry on forward.

[tryubik-useonlyasdirected]

If a Canadian phone number is used it shows as a different number at the call center. Sometimes this can be confusing if not clarified.

And has he called back more than once? Sometimes its just the CSR you get; talk with one and they are all power hungry, talk with another and they are super helpful.

We once had a CSR try and hold our account hostage. They were demanding we hand over our social insurance number and all sorts of other personal identification eBay has no rights to or use for. I refused (they were making request I believe to be illegal in Canada) and they refused to unlock my account!

They had the gaul to state (and I highlight this as an important factoid for people to consider) that the CSR was collecting personal information on behalf of eBay to input into a third party person identification database of US citizens. Then that there wasn't enough information to differentiate me as anyone in the US matching my name in that mystery database therefore until I differentiated myself by handing over private, personal and proprietary data my account and myself would be considered frauds! (This did not make me okay with the situation at all, though the CSR's candor was appreciated).

I record all phone calls for tertiary purposes and stated this call was on record and would be submitted as proof of abuse. Suddenly - no issues whatsoever. All good since then. Perhaps it was a disgruntled CSR. CSR's are usually very helpful IMHO.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@tryubik-useonlyasdirected wrote:
...

We once had a CSR try and hold our account hostage. They were demanding we hand over our social insurance number and all sorts of other personal identification eBay has no rights to or use for. I refused (they were making request I believe to be illegal in Canada) and they refused to unlock my account!

...

I record all phone calls for tertiary purposes and stated this call was on record and would be submitted as proof of abuse. Suddenly - no issues whatsoever. All good since then. Perhaps it was a disgruntled CSR. CSR's are usually very helpful IMHO.

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Requiring a Canadian SIN is illegal unless needed for government related purposes (eg.  an employer, a bank reporting income for tax purposes).  An immediate warning flag if someone wants it for ID purposes.

https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/sin/protect.html

Possibly the CSR had a moonlighting job of collecting stolen data.

-..-

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @vanislemommy - I'm definitely sorry to hear that there was such confusion over the decision made with your father's account. As others have mentioned, any time a listing is removed an email should be sent with some sort of explanation as to why. If an account is restricted in some way, we should also be sending a notification with information as well. 

I agree that having your father participate in the thread may help us get more clarity. Alternatively, he's more than welcome to reach out to our CS teams by social media (Facebook or Twitter). These teammates are tenured and very able to assist! 

[slaneyenterprises]

You had a listing removed for describing the condition? I don't understand why??

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

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@slaneyenterprises wrote:
You had a listing removed for describing the condition? I don't understand why??

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We only have one-side of the story at the moment and it's not even a direct account of the seller, so I'm taking this thread with a huge grain of salt...

OP said they are moving on to Amazon and Kijiji. I wonder if they're aware that Kijiji is owned by eBay...?