posted on August 19, 2004 09:42:34 AM
I receive zillions of those spoof emails warning that my ebay account has been improperly accessed, that my credit card is not up-to-date, that my bill is overdue, etc. etc. All of which I either delete, or forward to ebay's spoof dept.
About 2 months ago I started receiving more detailed spoof emails, in that a specific dollar figure was mentioned with regard to my "outstanding balance". When I logged onto my account, in fact, that specific dollar figure showed as the PREVIOUS month's paid-up charge. My credit card was still current, and the charge in that exact amount had already successfully been applied to it. My new current balance due was even less than the previous month's charge, evidence that those other charges had been paid.
I thought that was odd, but just assumed the scammers were becoming more sophisticated, perhaps even working from within ebay at times. I forwarded the email to ebay, and received back their canned "thanks for sending us the spoof" response. They did not give any indication that I had a problem with my account, or that the forwarded email truly originated from them.
This morning my 25 current auctions were fine. Then this afternoon I received another "ebay" email warning me that my account was now suspended.
A routine, paranoid check revealed that in fact -- all my auctions HAD been cancelled and I am now NARU.
I tried to log into my seller's account to rectify the problem, but I cannot even get access!
posted on August 19, 2004 09:50:48 AM
Yo! Robert Frost! Are ye in NH?
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we! They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” ~ GWBush White House 8/5/4
posted on August 19, 2004 10:34:00 AM
Thank you, max40, for the live help #. I was able to speak to a service rep who confirmed that:
1. my credit card was on file;
2. my credit card was still valid; and
3. that ebay had been billing me on this credit card regularly for years, most recently on June 29, 2004.
She could not explain why ebay suddenly decided to DISCONTINUE billing me, causing my account to come into arrears. She suggested writing an email to their help department, a response to which will not come for 24-48 hours.
Meanwhile, of course, all my auctions have been zapped, bids cancelled, income disrupted.
Tomwii, I am currently in Maryland but New Hampshire sounds good. A small cabin in the woods without electricity, computers or ebay sounds nice.
posted on August 19, 2004 10:52:57 AM
did the ebay suspension email give the reason for suspension??
did yo block or trash past ebay email which gave the reason why you are suspended??
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on August 19, 2004 11:23:22 AM
stopwhining, ebay's notice said my account was being suspended because my account was in arrears.
Which evidently it was, because ebay had not charged my July fees to my credit card on file. No explanation was offered as to WHY they did not charge July's fees in the same manner they have been charging me all along -- via my unexpired, high limit credit card on file.
Completely exasperating! Totally out of left field!
posted on August 19, 2004 11:39:13 AM
I've been lurking behind eBay HQ in San Jose, and I pulled this top-secret hush-hush eyes-only communique out of an open dumpster.
August 15, 2004
FROM: Margaret "don't call me Peggy" Whitman, Empress of All She Surveys
TO: U.S. domestic eBay staff
SUBJECT: Our proposed new Mission Statement
Hey all,
How about this:
"eBay: We Don't Care. We Don't Have To."
Fits nicely onto a bumper sticker, don't you think?
OK, now back to work everyone. You've got more sellers to NARU to clear the field for our new Corporate Partners.
posted on August 19, 2004 12:13:13 PM
there has been some ebay snafu recently,some suspended accounts were unsuspended for several days -the emails said they have applied the payment and so accounts are no longer in arrear.
then several days later,they said whoops ,mistake,account re-suspended.
go figure!!
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on August 19, 2004 12:14:51 PM
if it turns out ebay is in the wrong,you can ask them to remove all listing fees and FVF as your livelihood has been jeopardised.
(for those auctions cancelled by ebay)
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on August 19, 2004 12:35:47 PM
And, the billing problems continue. I got my invoice for my July bill in August. My billing period ends on the 15th. They still haven't taken the money, which normally they take on the 5th of every month. Now, I'm worried. I'm in Ohio so, maybe the eBay class action will begin to look better and better.
Cheryl
. . .if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist- I really believe he is Antichrist- I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend.. . - War and Peace, Tolstoy
posted on August 19, 2004 01:03:34 PM
GOoO GOoO GOoO,GOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOO G
May be all the Ebay employees are trading Google shares and too busy to do anything.
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on August 19, 2004 02:00:23 PM
You know this might be an automatic thing. Remember that they are still having problems with their billing. I wonder if that is going to happen to anyone else!
posted on August 19, 2004 03:04:46 PM
Even if the process is automatic (which would be a dumber-than-a-box-of-rocks decision), someone in charge is responsible.
I fully support milestogobeforeisleep if she decides to drop said box of rocks on the head of the appropriate eBay management goon. It looks like someone has to.
posted on August 19, 2004 03:22:44 PM
they need to change the wording to 'PowerlessSellers'
We're sort of going through this now too, i "think" ... ebay hasn't charged our business credit card in SEVERAL months! ... so, I get nervous and do a makeshift 'automatic payment'; twice now! . ... we've been ebay so-called {'coveted', see below HA!!!} "powersellers" for a few years .... well just a few days ago ebay "powerseller board" sends us an email as to maybe losing powerseller status, and in bold/underlined they mention 'account in good standing' (and THEY'RE the ones that have not been 'taking' our payment from us, like they usually do) ...
Important Alert Regarding your PowerSeller Status
Dear {heyyou},
First, we want to thank you for your participation on eBay, and for being a part of the Silver PowerSeller Group.
We want to help you maintain your coveted PowerSeller status. According to our records, your sales are not meeting the standards for the Silver PowerSellers program. To participate in the Silver PowerSeller program, the following requirements must be met:
- Keep your account in good standing
- Maintain 98% Positive Feedback
(% Positive Feedback = Total Positive/(Positive + Negative Feedback))
- Maintain a 3 month average sales of $3,000.00
- Average 4 listings per month for the last 3 months
To maintain your status, we recommend that you use Seller Tools, eBay's Auction Management Software. It will help to streamline your process - bulk listing, bulk invoicing, leaving multiple feedback, and much more. Learn more.
In one month we'll review your sales. If you are within the Silver PowerSeller standards, your membership in the PowerSeller program will continue without interruption.
We would love to help you keep your PowerSeller status. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions, or if you would like a few ideas to help you maintain your good standing.
posted on August 19, 2004 03:27:41 PM
It just really sux ... "powerless sellers" do NOT get any special 'attention' or quick replies from ebay servicers, like back in the good ol' days. ... we ARE one of the big herd now.
posted on August 19, 2004 05:14:07 PM
That's the standard sell more! sell more! boilerplate letter. I've gotten it a half-dozen times over the years. Has nothing to do with your account.
posted on August 19, 2004 08:43:41 PM
In the segments I follow, I've noticed a couple of Powersellers who haven't listed any auctions for a couple of months, but they've kept their little power symbol - whatever that is.
So maybe they send out a lot of these "sell, sell, sell" emails ... but do they really follow through and take away that symbol?
posted on August 19, 2004 09:23:28 PM
Yes, they will take it away. I'm what is known as a "seasonal" powerseller. I'm a PS for about 6 months, then I lose it for 6 months. Big revolving door. If someone could get the stastics, which Ebay would never give out, I would venture to say that there are twice as many Powersellers in any given class in January as there are in August.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on August 21, 2004 03:00:39 AM
well, powersller rep writes back to me that I "just dipped below" the average amount of sales I was supposed to have to maintain silver status, and that is why we received the 'automatically generated' email from ebay.--- and i replied to him,
"Okay ... my biggest concern was that the bold wording on the notice you
sent us, was that we need to keep our account 'in good standing' .... and
ebay has not been billing us timely, nor have they been 'taking' our ebay
fees payment from our credit card (as usual) for several months... so I kept
getting very concerned and would 'MANUALLY' make some ebay payments. ... Then yesterday, an ebay seller posted over at the vendio.com 'ebay outlook' board, that his/her ebay account had just been naru'ed and all auctions ended, and they described their 'ebay billing situation' errors, and it sounded identical to how my ebay fees account has been messing up too .........
i need to make sure you don't 'naru' us, because this is our full time income
.... I hope ebay's billing problems get fixed soon ... thanks .."
-----
and now check out the AUDACITY in this reply i got this morning ...
"Thank you for taking the time to write back - I completely understand
your concern, as we hope the billing system is smoothed out shortly as
well.
[b]It is hard to speak about exactly what happened with the other seller
without knowing the details, however, I can assure you that we don't
NARU accounts based on billing delays in our system. As you know, in
any situation it is natural that the party telling the story gives their
side exclusively, often leaving out critical details which may not
reflect well on themselves.[/b]
In any case, I just wanted to reiterate that your account is perfectly
fine, and that I am sorry about the wording of the notice. We are
working to make changes and updates to the Alerts so that they are more
helpful and positive.
We do appreciate your manual payments, which actually help to smooth out
the delays that we are experiencing in the automatic payments. We also
hope to have the delays fixed very soon so that the automatic payments
are again consistent as they used to be.
{... (closing pleasantries lip service omitted by AintRichYet cuz they're boring)}...
Regards,
eBay PowerSeller Support
posted on August 21, 2004 09:28:03 AM
AintRich, if you have a direct email address or phone number for the ebay rep who advised you that ebay does not "NARU accounts based on billing delays in our system," I would sure love to have it.
While it may be true that "in any situation it is natural that the party telling the story gives their side exclusively, often leaving out critical details which may not reflect well on themselves," this would likewise apply, would it not, to large corporate entities operated by Meg Whitman?
It may not be ebay POLICY to NARU accounts based on billing delays, but it does appear to be their defacto PRACTICE.
I think until ebay's billing system is standardized, making the manual payment entries as AintRich is doing, is the safest bet. Along with scrupulous and time-consuming record-keeping . . .
