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Your eBay account has been suspended

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Re: Your eBay account has been suspended

#121

Post by kingcharles »

nikkwong wrote: post #102
TheSocialAndrew wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They almost definitely have an arbitration clause in the agreement, since companies like Amazon, eBay, Airbnb wish to avoid going to court altogether so as not to establish a precedent. This could be favorable to you because they are more likely to settle without either party incurring a lot in legal expenses, but on the other hand it's likely that the arbitration clause asks that each party split the arbitration cos…

Yeah, I have talked to other sellers and lawyers and Amazon would take it to arbitration if I decide to pursue. I believe the cost of going to arbitration against them is $8000 in Seattle; because I have to pay the arbitrator, my own lawyer and other related fees. I should have specified above that I'd be going to arbitration against them and not to court--I didn't expect anyone to read my comment. Unfortunately thou…

I expect Amazon to bring an entire legion of lawyers against you in a situation like this and basically bury the arbitrator in paperwork.

Does the contract say if Amazon would have to pay all your fees if you win? Or would you be out either way. Usually in court in the USA you often lose all your legal costs even if you do win.

Re: Your eBay account has been suspended

#122

Post by kingcharles »

charles-m-knox wrote: post #71

I recently had to sell a MacBook Pro. Decided to open an eBay account because I never use eBay, and pretty much immediately had it banned. I stripped the EXIF data from the laptop’s photos for fear of eBay not removing them for me - I didn’t want my GPS info exposed. I also accessed the website without a VPN and a fresh Firefox profile with only uBlock Origin. I own a clean email domain and used it for the account. I…

When I open an eBay account I buy a few dozen small items to get some positive feedback first. Shouldn't have to do such stupidity, but it's the only way to get yourself some "credit history".

Re: Your eBay account has been suspended

#123

Post by nikkwong »

kingcharles wrote: post #119
nikkwong wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess this is my version of tweeting into the void hoping that someone helps me figure out what to do :). It is a lot of money. It's funny because I am from and live in Seattle; and post of the local political will currently is against Amazon, but I don't know if that would work in my favor. I actually tried to contact the AG before and got a "we'll get back to you" and didn't hear anything. I didn't follow up beca…

I wonder what would happen if you went to Amazon's lobby and chained yourself to something solid? Would at least get some press. The only way to get these sorts of things fixed now is to have a large megaphone.

Don't tempt me.

They are constantly trying to hire me as a SDE. I'm this close to taking it so I can get inside and start raising hell about this.

Re: Your eBay account has been suspended

#124

Post by nikkwong »

kingcharles wrote: post #121
nikkwong wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I have talked to other sellers and lawyers and Amazon would take it to arbitration if I decide to pursue. I believe the cost of going to arbitration against them is $8000 in Seattle; because I have to pay the arbitrator, my own lawyer and other related fees. I should have specified above that I'd be going to arbitration against them and not to court--I didn't expect anyone to read my comment. Unfortunately thou…

I expect Amazon to bring an entire legion of lawyers against you in a situation like this and basically bury the arbitrator in paperwork. Does the contract say if Amazon would have to pay all your fees if you win? Or would you be out either way. Usually in court in the USA you often lose all your legal costs even if you do win.

I feel like it would probably somehow go poorly like you're outlining. I have a naive version in my head as to how this could work out well; but I imagine in reality that this would be as nightmarish and stressful as possible, ending in a loss and putting me even further into the hole financially.

It's just so messed up. $24K of my money that they're holding; that's not all profit for me. It probably cost me at least $12K to generate that $24k. So I'm already so far in the hole that I can't afford to keep going deeper.

Re: Your eBay account has been suspended

#125

Post by nikkwong »

tyingq wrote: post #111
nikkwong wrote: post #70

Agreed with your sentiment that there needs to be some due process for these companies. Amazon has been holding $24,000 of my seller accounts proceeds for a year now stating that I "violated their TOS" by using the same IP address as my girlfriend uses (who was also an Amazon Seller). Both my and her accounts had perfect selling histories; weren't selling anything against tos, etc. I've been wanting to take them to c…

Check the limits for small claims court in your state. Some of them go up to 20-25k.

Thanks; unfortunately I think it's only $10,000 in washington state.

Re: Your eBay account has been suspended

#126

Post by dylan604 »

neilv wrote: post #89
nikkwong wrote: post #70

Agreed with your sentiment that there needs to be some due process for these companies. Amazon has been holding $24,000 of my seller accounts proceeds for a year now stating that I "violated their TOS" by using the same IP address as my girlfriend uses (who was also an Amazon Seller). Both my and her accounts had perfect selling histories; weren't selling anything against tos, etc. I've been wanting to take them to c…

Did you try consulting some government authorities, about your case specifically? $24K is a lot of money for most small businesses (or family side gigs), and most people can't afford to out-lawyer a huge company. Fortunately, one of the ideal roles of government is to protect the small from the large. Were it me, since I'm in the US, but don't know which government authority would be most appropriate or effective, I'…

State Attorneys Genral love this kind of stuff rather than a city level prosecutor. Much more clout at the state level, and it's a great way to get their names in the news on their way to governor.

Re: Your eBay account has been suspended

#127

Post by dylan604 »

nikkwong wrote: post #125
tyingq wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check the limits for small claims court in your state. Some of them go up to 20-25k.

Thanks; unfortunately I think it's only $10,000 in washington state.

I had just posted up thread a recommendation about contacting your state AG about this kind of situation. However, if you're in Washington State, the state AG might not be too interested in taking on a large employer in their state. Or maybe they'd be even more motivated riding the anti-AMZN wave.???

Re: Your eBay account has been suspended

#128

Post by quisquous »

Update...got an email from eBay around 7p Pacific:

" Hello brokeninfinity, We're pleased to let you know that your account is reinstated.

If you had any listings that were removed when the account was suspended, we've restored those listings... "

Perhaps this discussion caught an eBay-er's attention, and if that was you, thank you for helping out. And thank you HN for helping call attention to my case.

That said, it shouldn't take this sort of attention for eBay to do the right thing. My point stands that eBay inappropriately suspending accounts without explanation or hope of appeal is not ok. And the email reinstating my account did not contain an apology or an explanation of what went wrong, so while I appreciate it, it's not enough. eBay needs to stop treating people this way.

Re: Your eBay account has been suspended

#129

Post by Asmod4n »

Thank luck you even got a Mail. I’ve put one(1) common used thing for sale on eBay with pictures I took myself and they just deleted the account with no explanation at all. Couldn’t contact support because they couldn’t find an account with my address.

Re: Your eBay account has been suspended

#130

Post by joecool1029 »

omgmajk wrote: post #115
tluyben2 wrote: post #5

Because my accounts are so old and I have so many of them, I get a message regularly saying that my account for service xyz has been suspended. When I contact them there a) never is a good reason for why it was done (hint; it is usually because they started using or recently updated some AI fraud detection service) b) small companies easily restore your account; with big ones it is usually game over. Ebay (and Paypal…

I wonder what would cause an account to be unclosable, never heard of such a thing.

For years this was the case on GoDaddy accounts. They've only changed the policy (probably due to GDPR/CCPA) some years ago. Old thread on them refusing to delete accounts: https://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=879982
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