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I recently had a similar experience with eBay, though it got resolved: -I had an old eBay account that was closed through inactivity -I wanted to buy some hea

I recently had a similar experience with eBay, though it got resolved: -I had an old eBay account that was closed through inactivity -I wanted to buy some headphones so I decided to create a new account -When I went to eBay it had already given me a username through some sort of linked google account feature that used the google account I was logged in to -I tried to buy 2 $40 headphones and it wouldn't let me, saying I was over my temporary purchase limit -I figured maybe you can only buy one item at a time as a new user so I tried to buy a single pair of $40 headphones and got the same response -I thought it might be my VPN, but my VPN was off at the time. -I created a normal account linking it to my normal email and everything seemed well. I purchased the headphones successfully -A few minutes later, I got an email that the first account had been suspended for suspicious activity. I first thought this was fine, until I read that I was not allowed to use any other eBay account ever again in my entire life. There were no options listed for recourse. Reading internet threads suggested that they were serious about this and that even if my other account still worked, they would eventually find it and close it. Eventually I called and got a rep. I got the feeling he didn't believe me, but he fixed the issue so now I can use eBay again without worry. The whole experience left me a bit shaken though that triggering some automated flag nearly resulted in being cut off from one of the largest marketplaces in the world for the rest of my life.

nerdponx 7y ago
Why did this shake you so bad? You talked to a rep and they fixed it. That's what customer reps are for. If you have humans combing through records for malicious activity and reading off a rubric, you probably would've had the same issue.
- tobiasSoftware 7y ago
  There's a few different reasons: First, reading about similar experiences didn't make me optimistic. It seemed like 50/50 between getting someone who would help and someone who would tell you that the case is forever closed without recourse. I got the feeling that the in weird cases like mine these techs didn't actually understand what was going on and it was just the luck of the draw of what tech you got. Second, I realized how powerful these big platforms like eBay are. I looked around for alternatives in case I did get permanently banned and I sure didn't find much. What was particularly creepy to me was how being an undesirable to eBay could potentially spread: they track your account, name, address, credit card number, IP, and so on and seeing any one of these can lead to bans on other accounts. In a lot of ways this makes sense, but in theory, if I happened to log on to my banned account at my mom's, it could match my account with her IP and ban her account as well. I doubt this would happen in eBay's case as support reps would probably help her if that happened, but it definitely brought to mind the Chinese social credit system where linking to an undesirable can make you an undesirable yourself. Third and most important was personal. I'm engaged to someone who is planning to use eBay. I wouldn't care too much about being banned off of eBay but I would hate to see her life become any harder just because of some weird glitch.
  - olyjohn 7y ago
    The irony of this whole thing being that people are constantly creating fake accounts to bid on items and not pay. I rarely sell stuff on eBay, but when I do, some 0 feedback buyer with a fake address wins my auction, then never pays, and will never get banned. I just have a hard time believing that they do a good job at account auditing at all with how often I get fucked on my sales.
nashashmi 7y ago
You are lucky. I had a very old account that got suspended. Any further account on the same address also got suspended. They blacklisted the address. I called and spoke with them for an hour and they would not tell me why they suspended the account, other than "I have reviewed the information and have decided the suspension is correct. But cannot tell you why it is being suspended." they kept repeating that she personally reviewed and therefore suspension must be legitimate. I said to her that her review of the account sucks. And I had my pitchfork out to sue because they should not be doing that.
- tobiasSoftware 7y ago
  Yeah, that's what I was afraid of and I think I got lucky. The big thing for me is that I don't use eBay much but I'm getting married soon and my fiancee is moving a very far distance and she will need eBay to get decorations and such to help make her feel at home. I hated the feeling of inconveniencing her over some weird glitch that I was powerless to fix.

nerdponx 7y ago

Why did this shake you so bad? You talked to a rep and they fixed it. That's what customer reps are for. If you have humans combing through records for malicious activity and reading off a rubric, you probably would've had the same issue.

tobiasSoftware 7y ago
There's a few different reasons: First, reading about similar experiences didn't make me optimistic. It seemed like 50/50 between getting someone who would help and someone who would tell you that the case is forever closed without recourse. I got the feeling that the in weird cases like mine these techs didn't actually understand what was going on and it was just the luck of the draw of what tech you got. Second, I realized how powerful these big platforms like eBay are. I looked around for alternatives in case I did get permanently banned and I sure didn't find much. What was particularly creepy to me was how being an undesirable to eBay could potentially spread: they track your account, name, address, credit card number, IP, and so on and seeing any one of these can lead to bans on other accounts. In a lot of ways this makes sense, but in theory, if I happened to log on to my banned account at my mom's, it could match my account with her IP and ban her account as well. I doubt this would happen in eBay's case as support reps would probably help her if that happened, but it definitely brought to mind the Chinese social credit system where linking to an undesirable can make you an undesirable yourself. Third and most important was personal. I'm engaged to someone who is planning to use eBay. I wouldn't care too much about being banned off of eBay but I would hate to see her life become any harder just because of some weird glitch.
- olyjohn 7y ago
  The irony of this whole thing being that people are constantly creating fake accounts to bid on items and not pay. I rarely sell stuff on eBay, but when I do, some 0 feedback buyer with a fake address wins my auction, then never pays, and will never get banned. I just have a hard time believing that they do a good job at account auditing at all with how often I get fucked on my sales.

nashashmi 7y ago

You are lucky. I had a very old account that got suspended. Any further account on the same address also got suspended. They blacklisted the address. I called and spoke with them for an hour and they would not tell me why they suspended the account, other than "I have reviewed the information and have decided the suspension is correct. But cannot tell you why it is being suspended." they kept repeating that she personally reviewed and therefore suspension must be legitimate. I said to her that her review of the account sucks. And I had my pitchfork out to sue because they should not be doing that.

tobiasSoftware 7y ago
Yeah, that's what I was afraid of and I think I got lucky. The big thing for me is that I don't use eBay much but I'm getting married soon and my fiancee is moving a very far distance and she will need eBay to get decorations and such to help make her feel at home. I hated the feeling of inconveniencing her over some weird glitch that I was powerless to fix.