Account restricted and payout on hold.

[joblom15]

I’ve been on eBay for about 5 years but just recently started selling off some stuff I had around the house as I was cleaning up. It was fine until I switched from T-Mobile to Verizon and was given free phones from Verizon to sign up. I had my 4 old phones tha myself and my kids were using so I listed them on eBay. They sold fast and I shipped them quickly. Items were received and all was good. However, my account was locked. Ebay wanted tracking info, my ID and receipts for the phones. Everything is fine except for receipts for the phones. Two of them we bought off Facebook marketplace and the other two I’ve had for years, no receipts. I wrote a letter to eBay but now I’ve not heard a thing. Will I ever see my money or is it just gone to the gods of eBay now?

[dentalsales4u]

I would contact via eBay for Business on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness

Let them know what you just said here.

They will ask you to verify who you are, follow the prompts.

They may not respond right away, but they are actual eBay employees and can let you know what you might be able to do.

Maybe show them the receipt for the new phones and the old phones are so old, you don't have receipts any longer.

[albertabrightalberta]

I think your problems may have arisen from the fact that you sold 6 pre-owned iPhone 14 Pro Max phones, all with the same pictures, description, color, etc. Ebay is questioning that you have all of them and that you got them through legitimate sources. 

I'm curious. How do you manage to have 6 of the same phone, all with 92% battery life, all with "a couple of minor scratches" and all "otherwise perfect?" 

Electronics and phones are among the highest fraud listings and also often stolen in smash-and-grabs. 

When a new seller suddenly has many of those items listed, eBay uses extreme caution both for buyers' protection as well as ebay's own protection.

[joblom15]

It was the same phone just relisted. I had someone buy the phone and then after the purchase I would get a message from someone else on the purchase asking me to send it to another address. The person who bought it had no feedback. This happened 5 times with different accounts. I searched the address they wanted me to send it to and there was lots of reports of eBay scams going to that address.  It was always the same story and the same address they wanted me to send it to and that address didn’t match the address they initially had when the purchase was made.

[dryophelia]

@joblom15 

When you cancelled these transactions, what reason did you choose? 
That could also be a red flag for the bots reading your account activity. 

[joblom15]

I put “problem with sellers address.” There was nothing about possible scam so this was the closest thing to it. I tried to reach out to eBay but I cannot find a number for them that I could actually get in touch with someone. Later after researching a bit more I found a chatbot on the site that I could talk to someone but that was after all of this happened.

[lakefor94]

Social Media is probably your BEST choice for eBay's assistance. 6AM to 6PM PT - 7 days a week. Weekdays are best.  Good luck.

Only use one at a time! 

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness

Send message(blue message button)
 
https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en

Use direct messaging

https://www.instagram.com/ebayforsellers/

Send message(blue message button)

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Why would you cancel a purchase because "someone else" messaged you to change the address?

I'm assuming this means the message about changing the address wasn't the same User ID which actually bought the phone?

This is most likely why you got flagged.

[joblom15]

I canceled because they were messaging off the seller information. Then I would look and the seller had 0 feedback. I messaged the seller every time but never received a response from them. I had just started selling and didn't want to be scammed.  I would list the phone, someone would buy it with for full price and then 10 minutes later I would get a message attached to that sale asking me to send it to a different address. I would message both of the accounts back and would get nothing.

[albertabrightalberta]

---

@joblom15 wrote:

I put “problem with sellers address.” There was nothing about possible scam so this was the closest thing to it. I tried to reach out to eBay but I cannot find a number for them that I could actually get in touch with someone. Later after researching a bit more I found a chatbot on the site that I could talk to someone but that was after all of this happened.

---

Cancelling for "problem with buyer's address" because you suspect a scam or because the buyer is a newbie is a great way to find your account permanently banned. 

As a new seller, especially one with high-fraud electronics items,  should buyers assume you're a scammer because you don't have a lot of experience? 

[pcmwire]

If you sell the item send it to the address entered at eBay checkout with no exceptions, and on a phone I would get signature delivery even if value is <$750 (eBay requires sig for >$750 to get seller protection). You are protected by eBay "seller protection" if you send it the correct way and follow the rules. If a buyer asks to change the address, explain to them you cannot and eBay only allows you to send to the address entered by buyer at checkout. Also that if they want it sent to a different address you will have to cancel transaction and have them re-purchase. If they ask to cancel, then select "buyer ask to cancel" when cancelling.

If you are getting the same buyer(s) over and over again asking for the change of shipping address, put them on your blocked list.

[orangehound]

---

@joblom15 wrote:

 I had just started selling and didn't want to be scammed.  I would list the phone, someone would buy it with for full price and then 10 minutes later I would get a message attached to that sale asking me to send it to a different address. I would message both of the accounts back and would get nothing.

---

Yes, probably scam attempts.  One of the reasons you were be targeted by scammers is because you were listing the phones for 30-40% higher than the market rate.  Only scammers over-pay for expensive electronics ... because ... in the end ... they aren't paying.

Good for you for not letting the high price blind you to the scammers.

The lesson is to price such things at market rates so that you increase the probability of attracting legitimate buyers.

[joblom15]

They can assume that, I don't really care. I didn't pop on eBay to sell for a long time. I had some stuff I wanted to get rid of so I decided to sell it on eBay. It isn't that big of a deal and I assume a lot of people do that. I canceled the sales because I thought at the time that I was being scammed. There isn't an option to cancel because of a possible scam so I chose the next best thing. After researching this address I found that multiple people stated not to ship to this address because it is a scam. I do not care if I ever get my account back because I am never using this site again. All I want is the 580 dollars that eBay is holding of my money. All I am trying to figure out is 1. How to contact these people that actually have the power or 2. how to get them to understand that I do not have receipts for items I purchased years ago for personal use. I really don't need everyone to tell me what I did wrong because its to late to go back and I didn't know at the time.

[joblom15]

Again, details not needed now and the sarcasm is not asked for. I looked at phones on ebay and put the price that others were selling them for. If this is such a **bleep** problem maybe ebay should spend a little more time going after these people and not taking 580 dollars from an honest person.

[albertabrightalberta]

@joblom15 

How sure are you that the original buyer is the same person who requested a different shipping address? 

Did you actually look at the buyer's ID and compare it to the one that requested the change? Most of the time, they are NOT the same ID. And often, the buyer is legit and it's a scammer requesting the change of address. 

New or inexperienced sellers don't usually know to compare the IDs because they aren't as familiar with the various ways scams can be pulled.