Sam's eBay Horror Story #1

Last Update: 10-Jun-2008

I have been a member in good standing with eBay since 1999. As readers of Sam's Laser FAQ are probably aware, I have acquired a large number of lasers and related items on eBay, most at bargain basement prices. All in all I have been very satisfied with the eBay experience. Until now. Or at least during the last 3 days.

The saga below has resolved itself and the outcome is somewhat satisfactory, after a bit of a glitch. But with no explanation and no real apologies from eBay. And the route it took was like one of those nightmares where you're trapped on a 15 dimensional mobius strip. Someone suggested that that was better than being trapped in a 15 dimensional Klein Bottle but I'm not so sure. The latter sounds more interesting. :-)

(To whom it may concern at eBay: If after reading the dialog below, you agree that this is a truly lousy way to treat a member in good standing, and Valued Customer then I would expect a formal letter of apology addressed to me and personally signed by your CEO in ballpoint ink (so I know it's not just a form letter) delivered via snail mail, and also included with my account records. In addition, should there a similar situation arise in the future, it would be nice to have a direct phone number to a real person who has the knowledge and authority, and is able to answer questions posed in simple English. Together, these would go a long way towards mending our relationship!)

(4-Jun-2008)

About 5 PM EDT, out of the blue, I received in rapid succession, 5 emails:

(Item numbers, descriptions, my eBay ID, the eBay ID of the other suspended account, and any contact names have been changed since this is ongoing. I have confirmed that samslaser and shady-ebayer are NOT valid eBay IDs. (I had to change them both from what I had picked originally as fictitious IDs that turned out to exist!) Also, certain irrelevant portions of emails have been removed simply to save space.)

For commnications back and forth, eBay's emails are in Dark RED and my emails and other correspondence are in Dark Green, assuming your browser is set to accept HTML color selection. 

 aw-confirm@ebay ( 179) eBay Bid Cancellation Notice - Item 1 : 100 Grommets
 aw-confirm@ebay ( 179) eBay Bid Cancellation Notice - Item 2 : 100 Widgets
 aw-confirm@ebay ( 179) eBay Bid Cancellation Notice - Item 3 : 3 Whatsits
 aw-confirm@ebay ( 179) eBay Bid Cancellation Notice - Item 4 : 15 Glitches
 suspension@ebay (  54) MC055 INV NOTICE: eBay Registration Suspension - User
                         samslaser is Linked to a Suspended User

What the heck?

The body of the last email is suitably vague and makes no sense to me:

Hello samslaser,

We're writing to tell you that we have suspended your eBay account because our records indicate that it's associated with the following suspended account:

shady-ebayer

Unfortunately, while your account is suspended, you're not permitted to use eBay at all. This includes using another existing account, registering a new account, or using any eBay services -- under any name. For more information about this policy, please go to: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe-previously-suspended.html

To learn about appealing a suspension, please go to: http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/RegisterVerifyPSU.html

Any outstanding selling fees are due immediately, and any amounts that weren't disputed before your account was suspended will be charged to the billing method on file.

We regret having to take this action but have done so to protect the eBay Community.

Sincerely, eBay Trust & Safety

That email also appeared in "My Messages" with the greenish tint indicating it came from eBay, for whatever that's worth.

So, going to the first link, above, I finally found a contact form to fill out at http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/questions/why-account-suspended.html.

And this is what I wrote:

From: samslaser
To: eBay Customer Support
Subject: Request suspension explanation select a new subject

Hi:

I have been notified that my account has been suspended with the notice as follows:

We're writing to tell you that we have suspended your eBay account because our records indicate that it's associated with the following suspended account:

shady-ebayer

I have never even heard of this user let alone been associated with them. Also, note that I am only a buyer and have not yet ever sold anything on eBay. I have a 100 percent Feedback rating and no violations that I am aware of. So, you can imagine my surprise at this turn of events. I hope to have this resolved as quickly as possible.

Thanks for your prompt attention to this matter.

samslaser

--- samslaser

I searched my eBay mail folder - which goes back 2 years - for any reference to shady-ebayer and found none. I also searched my entire email directory and found none.

I did some poking around on eBay (what of it I could do with a suspended account) and found that shady-ebayer had no activity for the last several months. Before that, they were a rather mediocre eBay'er with a 95 percent Feedback rating, but nothing really stood out in terms of poor behavior. However, only auction numbers, not the description or actual listings are available on the Feedback page back that far. Thus, I have no idea of what sort of stuff they bought or sold. A quick search of the Feedback pages didn't find any reference to samslaser as a buyer.

I also ran virus and spyware scans of my PC to be sure it was clean. There were the usual tracking cookies and other junk but nothing of consequence. As an extra precaution, I changed my Paypal password (though that should not be present anywhere in the eBay system unless it was intercepted somehow during a transaction). I would have also changed my eBay password, but you guessed it, that isn't possible on a suspended account.

I read all my email in a text email program on a unix system. Internet links aren't live, so phishing schemes that depend on clicking on a link won't work. I have to actually copy and past a link into my browser (FireFox) to use it. And, I will always check that the primary URL (what comes before the ".com" or whatever) is valid for the supposed sender. I also do not reply to email from places like eBay without carefully checking the return address.

So, as best as I can determine, this issue didn't arise from my end.

(5-Jun-2008)

To their credit, I did receive a response (which in itself was encouraging as so many large companies seem to link on-line forms to /dev/null - the bit bucket). So, figured, OK, this may not be so bad. How wrong could I be!

Dear samslaser,

Thank you for writing to eBay in regard to your account suspension.

Your account was suspended from eBay due to the violation of our site policy as stated below:

Previously Suspended User - shady-ebayer

In order to continue with your appeal, you'll need to fulfill two simple requirements:

  1. Understand the policy for which your account was suspended. To review this policy, go to:

    http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/rfe-previously-suspended.html

  2. Print, complete, and send (by fax or mail) the Request for Reinstatement form along with proof that your eBay contact information is valid.

We will not be able to consider your account for reinstatement until both of these requirements have been met.

For detailed instructions on how to complete this process, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/poiinvreinst.html

***Note***

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely, Joe

eBay Customer Support

My interpretation of the response above was that the droid, Joe, had not even bothered to read what I wrote, so I replied back for whatever good this would do since the reply address isn't to Joe but to eBay Customer Support (rswebhelp@ebay.com), so some other random droid would likely receive it:

From: samslaser
To: rswebhelp@eBay.com
Subject: Re: your mail

Hi:

I'll print and fax the form, but with all due respect, I HAVE NO IDEA who the user shady-ebayer is. I have no record of any contact, email, auctions, or anything else associated with this user. I don't know him, of them, or ever dealt with them as best I can determine. I'm certainly NOT associated with them in any way, shape, or form, and they are not associated with me with my consent.

Furthermore I should note that looking at shady-ebayer Feedback profile, the last activity was in January 08. So, why is this coming up now?

Isn't it possible that this is either a mistake on eBay's part, or that someone has hacked my account or shady-ebayer' account or other records? Being suspended, I can't even check to see if the information in my account is accurate.

The attitude expressed by the notification is of guilty unless proven innocent. My dealings on eBay are not critical but suppose I had been a large business? An interruption of several days could be disastrous.

Sorry, I am upset. My experience with eBay has been very positive so far but this is really stretching my patience.

Respectfully,

samslaser, 100 percent positive 286 Feedback over 8 or so years.

The required form is found via the link above and is at

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/poiinvreinstform.html

If all it takes is filling out a form, that's still not so bad. But reading the form carefully, it seems to imply an admission of guilt.

Specifically, there are two statements that need to be agreed to:

And then:

So, I replied again to the likely useless Customer Support email with:

From: samslaser
To: rswebhelp@eBay.com
Subject: Re: your mail

As I read the form at:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/poiinvreinstform.html

by filling out the form, I am admitting to having violated the eBay policies. I cannot do this as to the best of my knowledge I have not violated any eBay policies.

How can I know what I've done wrong, if the only info you provide is "associated with suspended user" and I have no idea how that could have happened as I have had no contact with that user (shadydesls) - ever.

Please reply.

Respectfully,

Thanks.

--- samslaser

Then I decided to fill out and fax the form, but include a lengthy discussion of my perplexity and concerns as an addendum. Perhaps, just perhaps, a real human being will actually read it!

This is what I wrote:

To whom it may concern (Please forward to the appropriate department):

The email notification of account suspension I received on June 4 had the following as the cause:

We're writing to tell you that we have suspended your eBay account because our records indicate that it's associated with the following suspended account: shady-ebayer.

I honestly have no idea of what this means.

To the best of my knowledge, I have NEVER had any contact with shady-ebayer in any way, shape, or form including bidding on their auctions, communicating via eBay messages or other email, phone, fax. or in person, or using the term shady-ebayer in any eBay transaction.

The first time I heard of shady-ebayer was in the suspension email of June 4.

I have been samslaser for the entire duration of my eBay membership since 1999 with a 100 percent positive feedback rating of 286. I have no other IDs on eBay and have not done anything to my account in months or longer. I would have no reason to create other IDs. Also, if it has any bearing on any of this, all my activity has been buying. I have not as yet done any selling on eBay.

If my account now has some reference to shady-ebayer or their contact information, then it was hacked. Since I cannot presently access most of my account, I cannot confirm this one way or the other.

If shady-ebayer? account has some reference to samslaser or any of my contact info, that was done WITHOUT my knowledge, +permission, or consent, and should be considered a case of identify theft. Similarly, if shady-ebayer or some third party has attempted to open an account using my information, that too would be identity theft.

I only use computers in my home, all behind firewalls and do not give out passwords to ANYONE.

Having said all this, I am interested not only in having my account reinstated, but also in clearing my name of any reference to this event beyond a footnote with details as to how it happened.

Is it not possible that there is a problem with eBay?s records? That someone accidentally typed in a wrong ID? Or there was a case of identity theft?

I may be contacted via email or by phone 9AM-9PM EDT. I am very eager to get this resolved as soon as possible. As far as I know, I've broken no rules. But the suspension notice seems to imply guilt until proven otherwise.

Sincerely, samslaser

member since 1999, 100 percent positive 286 Feedback rating.

Now understand, that for me to send a fax requires dragging out my 20 year old fax machine (which weighs a ton) that I bought at a garage sale for $2 and figure out how to use it. I sent the fax twice to be sure, since the special paper ran out before I acquired it and I cannot be entirely positive if the faxes went through but I think they did.

A couple hours later, I received the following email. I have no idea which of my emails triggered it though:

From: eBay Customer Support
To: samslaser
Subject:Thank you for your email to eBay Safeharbor
Reply-To: eBay Customer Support

Dear eBay member,

Thanks for your email. We want to help resolve any problems with your account as quickly as possible.

The fastest way for us to help you is through Live Help, where you can have a one-on-one chat with one of our customer service agents. The chat happens right in your web browser, so you don't need any special software.

Please let the chat agent know that you already sent us an email, as that will help us speed things along.

You can reach Live Help by clicking the "Get Help Now!" button on this page: http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/ato-livehelp.html

You can find information on account security on this page: http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/isgw-account-theft-reporting.html

We won't receive any replies to this email, so please contact Live Help for further assistance.

Sincerely,

The eBay Account Security Team

Live Help! Wow! What a concept. This should be able to resolve something. Was I wrong.

Getting through was easy enough and the wait was reasonable. But the person who I was connected with, who must have been in a overseas, while initially seeming concerned and genuinely interested in helping, finally simply said that this was not a security matter and he could not help. No amount of prodding would reveal anything about my account suspension beyond that it apparently wasn't an issue with account security. OK, so maybe that was SOME information. But he did suggest I email eBay Customer Support again so I sent the entire addendum from the faxed form prefaced with:

I have already faxed the form to Inv Appeals as I really have no idea what it's all about and do not think I've done anything wrong. Although getting my account reinstated is important to me, having it cleared of wrongdoing is even more important. I am including the extended addendum I sent with it below.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read it tell me what's going on!!! :)

I've already spent several hours trying to get this resolved.

(Followed by the addendum.)

After exiting Live Help (or Live NO-Help), a pop-up window appeared asking me to fill out a survey as to the "quality of my experience" or something along those lines. One of the things it asked for was suggestions on how to improve service to which I entered: "Provide TELEPHONE support!!!!".

(6-Jun-2008)

And wouldn't you know it, whether a coincidence or some AI program analyzing survey form content, this morning I received the following:

From: eBay
To: samslaser
Subject: samslaser, get access to eBay Phone Support

eBay sent this message to samslaser.

Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay.

Coming June 16: eBay Phone Support

We don't give our number to just anyone (except you)

Get access to eBay Phone Support:

Only invited members like you will be able to call our new number. To access this faster service, you'll need to set up a PIN in My eBay. Also be sure to add your current phone number to your profile.

Then, you'll be all set to go on June 16.

LET'S GO

So I'm a "valuable member". Right.

The next email I received from eBay Customer Support was:

From: eBay Customer Support
To: samslaser
Subject: Your recent email to eBay's Trust and Safety Department

Dear samslaser,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your current account status. It usually takes 7 to 10 days to process information that was faxed to us. The process takes longer if you sent the information through postal mail.

(allowing for delays in the mail), and you don't receive an email from us explaining why your account wasn't reinstated, please resubmit the information and request another review of your account. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Amy

eBay Customer Support

So now it's 7 to 10 days rather than the 24 to 48 hours stated previously.

I replied to Amy, which will probably end up with Jack:

From: samslaser
To: eBay Customer Support Subject: Your recent email to eBay's Trust and Safety Department

Is it impossible for anyone in your organization to answer the most basic of questions? Sorry, I feel that I am the victim here and all I get are responses that could have come from a poorly written PC program! Well, maybe that's what it is. :(

I have literally spent hours and hours attempting to understand why this has happened including filling out and faxing your forms, emailing Customer Support multiple times, wasting time on Live Help which provided no help at all, and all I get are canned responses that make no sense.

Apparently though, eBay considers me a "Valuable Customer" since they just sent me email about phone support becoming available to "valuable customers like yourself" on June 16. Woopie! I'm a valuable customer who has been treated like DIRT!

Did the customer representative even read what I spent time composing below? Would it be too much for someone to take 20 seconds and tell me at least that what has happened isn't my fault, or if it is, what the !@$#% it's all about since I have not the slightest idea.

7 to 10 days? Suppose this had been a business that depending on eBay. 7 to 10 days could have put it OUT of business.

Would it be possible to get in direct contact with a REAL LIVE PERSON or is that asking too much from a Valuable Customer? To eBay, this may just be some shmuck's account that has problems. I see it rather differently. If this is what eBay calls Customer Service, perhaps all the complaints and whining I've heard from other eBay members, but not experienced until now, are correct.

Sincerely,

--- samslaser

Rather than sit back and wait for the eBay wheels to turn, I decided to exploit the vast power of the Internet to spread this tale. So, By altering the specific details, this should not compromise an ongoing investigation, if any. I have pointed a link to this page on the USENET newsgroups alt.lasers and sci.electronics.repair. Assuming Google isn't being controlled by eBay, the thread should be searchable by going to Google Groups Advanced Search and entering "Sam's eBay Horror Story" in the "with all the words" or "Return only messages where the subject contains" box.

I realize that there may be more going on here than a simple issue with my account, but there should be a better way of handling it.

My initial conclusion was that someone may have tried to reactivate the shady-ebayer eBay ID, or open some other account linked to shady-ebayer but using my contact info, and eBay needs to confirm that my info is really mine. If so, a Google search would have gone a long way towards this, or there's something called a public phone book!

Now, as a result of a comment on alt.lasers that appeared within 1 hour of my initial posting with regard to another eBay member in good standing being kicked off the same day, I'm rather leaning more towards the vast conspiracy (or cover-up) theory: That the eBay system has been compromised in some massive way and they are doing everything in their power in an attempt to prevent this information from getting out. If the eBay community found out that their account information presumably including credit card and related information had been hijacked, what would happen? This would be a scandal of epic proportions. But in the end, it's almost always better to come clean up front than to try to suppress what must come out eventually. And a lot less damaged to countless users would result if it came out sooner rather than later. I hope I'm wrong about this as the cause.

(7-Jun-2008)

As of now, entering "Sam's eBay Horror Story" (with the "") in the normal Google Search Engine finds Sam's eBay Horror Story #1 which has the complete thread. Note that it is the French Google Groups Web site. And it seems to pick up any postings within minutes, while the USA Web site still has no clue. Censorship? Nah..... ;-)

Then, around 12 noon, I received the following from eBay Customer Support:

To: samslaser
Subject: Your recent email to eBay's Trust and Safety Department From: eBay Customer Support

Dear samslaser,

Thank you for taking the time to fax the information we requested.

I appreciate the information that you have sent, and I have reviewed the details of this suspension. In light of additional information that has been submitted and a new review, it has been decided to reinstate this account.

Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jack

eBay Customer Support

And indeed, everything is back where it was before this nightmare began. I haven't received the courier-delivered letter of apology from eBay's CEO yet, and won't hold my breath in anticipation. :)

But there is something interesting. In checking the Feedback listings of someone who I had contacted via the eBay "Ask Seller A Question" link about shipping charges for one of his auctions, it turns out that 7 of the 56 unique buyers or sellers who left feedback (100 percent positive) are "no longer registered users". One translation of this is that they have had their accounts suspended. Now, it's true that this eBay member has only a few transactions spread over several years, so some of those no longer registered IDs may simply have exited the Klein bottle when a convenient wormhole appeared. But over 12 percent still seems rather high. And no, shady-ebayer isn't among them. :)

(2-Jul-2008)

So, just when I thought this was behind me, wouldn't you know it but around noon today I get kicked off AGAIN!!! 

 suspension@ebay (  54) MC055 INV NOTICE: eBay Registration Suspension - User
                         samslaser is Linked to a Suspended User

The body of the email was identical to the first one except the suspended eBay ID was: frankie23. Now, again, I'd never heard of or had any contact with this user. Furthermore, a search on eBay showed that they had been inactive for at least 4 years!

This time I simply replied via the link in the "My Messages" version of this alert with:

From: samslaser
To: eBay Customer Support
Subject: Request suspension explanation select a new subject

Hi:

I have been notified that my account has been suspended. This happened a few weeks ago and was reinstated with no explanation or apology after I Fax'ed the requested information. Do I need to do that again? Nothing has changed. I've never heard of frankie23, let alone had any dealings with them.

I have been an eBay member since before 2000 and have been fully satisfied until these recent incidents. eBay is making this a miserable experience and no doubt driving away valuable customers with this nonsense.

Grumble....

--- samslaser

But this time, I received a reply within 18 hours:

To: samslaser Subject: Your recent email to eBay's Trust and Safety Department

Dear samslaser,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your current account status.

After further review, we have determined that your account was suspended in error. I have removed the violation and reinstated your account.

We appreciate your patience while this matter was under review and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Sincerely,
Adam

eBay Customer Support

So, that's sort of an apology I guess, but how many times will this happen again???

To be continued.....