WTF, Ebay?

November 3, 2023 7:41 PM

I have an Ebay account. I have never used this account for any purpose, never purchased anything, never committed any infraction I am aware of that would cause friction between us. My account is suspended.

I was trying to buy a small thing yesterday only to find that my account has been suspended. I have no idea why, they claim they sent an email but I have not received one. I don't even know precisely when it was suspended, it just told me when I attempted to log in.

I have reached out to Ebay agents via their chat feature. They just told me that there is no appeal and that this account, and any accounts "associated with it," will be closed. I am hesitant to create an alternate account using another email address but also kind of enraged by this.

Any ideas what I ought to do, AskMe? This is baffling.

posted by Alensin to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Response by poster: A search through my email turned up a suspension notice from... April, though it was less than informative. They just say that my account was somehow putting the Ebay community at risk, and if I think they've made a mistake to get in touch.
posted by Alensin at 7:49 PM on November 3, 2023

Ebay will suspend accounts that haven't been used for a long period of time to keep them from being used for fraud if the email address or password gets compromised.
posted by mikesch at 8:27 PM on November 3, 2023 [4 favorites]

Long-term inactive account that suddenly goes active is high probability a scammer.
posted by mr_roboto at 8:35 PM on November 3, 2023

Response by poster: That's fair enough. How do I convince them I am not, in fact, a scammer? I sort of get it, I just wish they were a little more understanding about this.
posted by Alensin at 8:46 PM on November 3, 2023

Better off opening a new account than battling a chatbot.
posted by Klipspringer at 2:47 AM on November 4, 2023 [6 favorites]

Ebay is weird. DO NOT open a new account. Send a private message/direct message to eBay on either Facebook or Twitter. Calmly explain things and see what they say. If they tell you anything about how this is permanent and irreversible, that is NOT true in any way. Keep at it, eventually you'll get someone who can help.

I am an eBay seller and message "Ebay for Business" on Facebook for stuff like this, but since you're a buyer it may not be the correct one, though it would probably get results as well.
posted by Slinga at 8:37 AM on November 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you used a weak or shared password for your ebay account it is possible ebay caught this and locked the account, or saw that someone else had guessed it and signed in to do shenanigans.

I would try searching for your email address on haveibeenpwned.com to see if your accounts on other sites are in known data breaches.
posted by zippy at 2:27 PM on November 4, 2023 [1 favorite]