Question
More fun and games from EBayville!
FTR, I'm mostly laughing at the craziness of this situation and I'm sure I can get it resolved.
I get a phone call this morning. It is from one of my ex-business partners. He tells me to check out my ebay account. It is Naru'd. He tells me to check out my buying account (which has not been used in a long time). It is Naru'd. He goes on to tell me that all of the accounts for their ebay business have been Naru'd along with 5 personal accounts of one of my ex-business partners and 3 accounts of an ex-employee of ours who is now a partner in their business. Also 2 accounts that we used years ago with Migomi but we had forgotten even existed (no activity on those either).
In addition to all of this, 2 other accounts have been suspended (they got this info from their Powersellers rep - one of the few reasons you should accept being a Powerseller, IMHO). One has not been used for years and neither of us has even heard of. The other started in March, 2004 and has been selling bootleg DVDs of NBA slamdunk contests. We have no idea who owns that account either.
All of the accounts have been suspended for selling UNAUTHORIZED COPIES on Ebay. Neither they nor I have sold bootlegs on EBAY. They heard from VERO that there had been too many Vero's on their account, which is untrue. They have apparently had 2 encounters with Vero in the last year, both of which were cleared up. I did have an auction pulled for being Mature Product a couple weeks ago (it was a swimsuit DVD so not really Mature but you know EBAY) but have pretty much kept my nose clean. In fact, I really don't list that often anymore (Maybe 120 items this year?).
Now overall, this doesn't really affect me much. I'm sure I can get my end cleared up over the next couple of weeks and I could care less about listing stuff on EBAY until the fall. I'm sure it is hurting my ex-business partners since they sell about $10,000 / week on EBAY and even losing the several hundred auctions that were cancelled will hit them hard.
But the creepy thing about it all is: How the heck did all of our EBAY IDs get pulled into this? How are we associated with this bootlegger?
EBAY has been their usual helpful self. I will be reliant on my ex-business partners for info from EBAY since I'm sure EBAY wouldn't even bother talking to me. I'm going through the reinstatement process today and I'm sure it will all get worked out. But who the heck is this guy selling Slamdunk DVDs and how did he get linked to myself and the rest of the gang?
Any suggestions for further investigation will be appreciated.
Answer
Genx..There is a real issue with ebay and their suspension process.
Jim had it happen to him..and I've seen countless others over time..
Not only do they end your accounts, they send email to your closed buyers telling them not to pay you..(and will not send anything to correct it, EVEN when there is no good reason for it to begin with)..
Additionally, it takes days, your information is all lost (unless you use a service that stores it)..and if you had any volume at all. It can takes weeks to dig out of the hole they leave you in.
The process is broken, and the reason it doesn't get fixed is because its not something anyone gets worked up over unless it happens to them.
So, you're not going to have the mass "voice" it takes to get something changed.
Its a bad way to treat ANY customer.
The process is horrible..horrible..horrible.
crystal
Answer
I'm sure it will all get worked out.
Now there is an over blown case of Canukian Optimism.
Good luck, Mike
Answer
Aw Bill, it's just a matter of not caring so much.
If I never sold another thing on EBAY it would not bother me in the least.
Any way, update time.
According to Trust & Safety, this is a VERO issue. You can't talk to Vero. They don't have a phone (ya, whatever, right). Luckily, they are in the same building as Trust & Safety so someone there can talk to them.
Turns out that the evil account happens to have the registration information of my ex-business partner. Different credit card number though. And the email account happens to be a hotmail address.
So it looks like someone is doing a little identity theft so that they could sell bootleg DVDs on EBAY.
However, I'm still at a loss as to why my account has been suspended since I have nothing to do with my ex-business partners.
Oh well, I'm off to go jump through some more hoops.
If anyone is interested in seeing the evildoers account, here are the auctions he ran over the last month:
Listings for Evil EBAY ID: five*general
Answer
...the little Canadian General has been a busy bee....
Answer
Mike, when I was at eBay Live in the PS lounge talking with some people someone had had a similar thing happen. The person selling the 'illegal bootlegs' had bought from a good sellers and used their contact info for their bootleg accounts. So when the bootleg account gets stut down it took others with them. Could this be what happened to you?
Hope it gets worked out soon for you.
Answer
It certainly sounds like what happened to my ex-business partners. I'm just not sure why I got taken down at the same time as them.
Sounds like EBAY is using the "kill'em all and let goD sort them out" routine.
It really is just a matter of time until EBAY gets there asses sued for doing this. I'm sure the user agreement has something in it that removes their liability but some smart lawyer will figure a way around it. They is just askin' for trouble.
Answer
"kill'em all and let goD sort them out"
yep, they dinged us two years ago with this fillosofey
good luck
Answer
Looks like it is all getting straightened out now. The ex-business partners finally got some answers and new hoops to jump through.
The reason all the accounts were killed is simple. Ebay is stupid.
The deal goes like this.
Ex-business partners sell something to some guy in March. He takes their contact info and opens up an EBAY account in their name. Starts selling bootlegs.
July comes around and someone in VERO finally figures out that something is going on. They go nuclear on the offending account. Then they search for any other accounts with the ex-business partners name on it. They nuke those too. Then they look for any accounts with the same address but a different name on it. That's when the other ex-business partner and ex-employee accounts get nuked. Then they search for any other accounts in those peoples' names. Nuke away. Then they look for any accounts that had a different address but same name. They come up with the old Migomi accounts which still had the address of my video store. Sure enough, my accounts come up when they search the store address and both of my accounts get nuked.
Now, far be it for me to tell EBAY how to do their job. But shouldn't they consider making a courtesy phone call before going ballistic and wiping out 23 accounts which are register to 5 different people and multiple addresses? Or here's an idea. Pull the freakin' offending IDs credit card info so that you can see that it is a totally different name attached to the card than that of the ID. How do they even let that happen? I thought they checked your credit card info when you registered.
Freakin' buffoons can't do the simplest of jobs correctly. There are logical steps to be taken in an investigation of this sort. They didn't bother to take a single one of them.
EBAY will get their asses sued into non-existence one day if they are not careful. I truly believe that their lawyers are the only thing keeping the place running. If they make one false step it will all tumble down on their heads.
Answer
GenX.
I believe most processes at ebay work as they are intended to. This processes is so critically flawed, that I find it incomprehensible that ebay thinks this is the "best practice".
I told you Jim's story, but there are hundreds like it all over..Now, I understand they are aggressive at handling fraud, and I applaud that. But when it is NOT fraud, sellers are so extremely penalized that it strikes a real chord of fear within me for sellers who rely on ebay.
At any given time, a persons only source of income can be yanked with no warning, for no reason, with no recourse. The idea that on a whim it can all be gone..your data, your bidders, you unpaid bidders..everything in a flash.
It frankly scares the hell out of me. I worry about the people who get badly harmed.
crystal