posted on January 6, 2007 03:05:06 PM new
My account was temporarily suspended a few weeks back due to non-payment of my ebay fees. I found this to be very odd because my ebay fees are automatically charged to my credit card each month and the card is always paid in full each month. So, I did the live phone chat with eBay support to find out what was going on.
The eBay representative told me that eBay tried to charge my credit card, but the payment did not go through and he didn't know why. His responses to my answers were a bit slow, and while waiting for him to write an answer I called my credit card company on the phone and asked them if any charges were denied to eBay during the month of December. The credit card representative told me that my card is up to date, fully paid and that no charges were denied on my card during the last few months. He also told me that what often happens with eBay is that they try to put through an enormous amount of charges at the same time, thus timing out the system and some charges do not get processed due to the time out error.
Back with my ebay representative, I told him what the credit card rep told me, and once again he told me that he does not have any information as to why the charge did not go through only that it didn't. He told me that I can do a 'one time payment' to get my account out of suspension mode and I did that; he then released my account out of suspension mode.
I found this to be rather disturbing; I have been an ebay member for almost nine years; selling thousands of dollars each month. I am sure this is not the first time eBay has had this 'time-out' issue. One would think that they would have a mechanism in place which would try to re-process charges that did not process the first time around especially with sellers that are on their 'automatic payments' system.
I also asked the eBay representative about live phone support. He told me that live phone support is only available to powersellers. I told him i was a powerseller, there is a powerseller icon next to my eBay ID, but when I tried to login to the powerseller site, I was told that I was not eligible for powerseller status. He told me that he didn't really know anything about why this would happen suggesting that perhaps I didn't accept the powerseller invitation when it was offered to me. Again, I told him that there is a powerseller icon next to my ebay ID, but when I tried to login to the powerseller site, I was told that I was not eligible for powerseller status. He told me he would have to research why this is happening and send me an email later in the day.
However, after I disconnected the session with him, I found that my powerseller status had been restored; i was able to logon to the powerseller site at eBay. I also found this disheartening; eBay suspended my powerseller status because they couldn't process my credit card charge.
After nine years, and thousands of dollars worth of revenue, eBay couldn't even give me the benefit of the doubt and leave my powerseller status alone; so, I couldn't even call eBay and talk to them about the problem.
when the eBay representative wrote back to me later in the day, he only told me where to go on the eBay site to find information about the powerseller program.
posted on January 6, 2007 03:33:54 PM new
My thoughts are big business does not care about small business . Not only does eBay not care but the credit card company knows about this problem and also have done nothing to fix it.
Also I think the more problems sellers have paying with credit cards or mailing checks the more will sign up to pay with PayPal. Just what they want.
posted on January 6, 2007 07:53:56 PM new
The way they treated you really sucks!! I had a similar experience. Not much intelligent life when talking to Ebay reps. I don't know whether it is that they do not really KNOW the answers or are trying to be evasive because they do KNOW the answers and realize that Ebay made a mistake.
posted on January 7, 2007 04:56:28 AM newthoughts?
Yeah. Chill. It's no big deal.
You weren't "suspended"; your account was placed on hold pending payment of fees. I know this because it happened to me a few days ago. Normally I make daily payments through PayPal, but I was gone for the last three weeks of December.
First I was warned on December 27 that fees were due. I ignored that. Eight days later they put my account on hold. On hold means you can't buy or sell until you become current.
I paid the outstanding fees, and like you, expected to be instantly reinstated. It didn't happen. The login screen continued to say that I was on hold due to non-payment of fees for several hours afterwards. I gave up and went to bed. The next morning everything was fine.
It seems obvious to me that there are several automated processes that update accounts, process payments, restore access, etc. and they run as scheduled. You were denied access to the much-vaunted (snork) PowerSeller area before one of the processes had run.
There is no vast conspiracy. I think eBay is satisfied with the way fees are extracted from us. I doubt you'll ever find out the real reason why your card wasn't charged, but you do have the option of paying cash as you go. Many smart sellers have gone that route.
fLufF
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[ edited by fluffythewondercat on Jan 7, 2007 06:00 AM ]
posted on January 7, 2007 08:16:32 AM new
If this is the first time it has happened to you in 9 years,I would not worry about it.
On Yahoo shopping,Yahoo wil batch all the credit card transactions each night and send them for further processing.
There has been glitches,it could be Yahoo,it could be the banks,it could be the intermediaries,who knows!
It happens when you do international wiretransfer as well,number gets transposed and end up in some odd place,as long as it gets resolved in a timely manner,I would not get too upset over it.
posted on January 7, 2007 01:37:59 PM new
It sounds like a original problem was a processing glitch on eBay's side. As to how you've been treated by eBay after generating income for them these past nine years, well at least you've discovered the reality. You're just another cog in the eBay empire.
Celebrate a Prosperous New Year with Bill Cobbs' latest eBay fee increases. More to come next year
posted on January 11, 2007 04:44:54 AM new
Powerseller phone support is a funny thing. I tend to bounce between silver and bronze level powerseller. Silver level has the phone support but bronze does not. I once called with the wrong status, they were extremely rude and told me to never call them again. Thanks feebay.
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