VOGONS


First post, by DosFreak

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I think the last time I used ebay to buy something was about 2 decades ago. Bought some Lexx DVD's (don't judge). Never sold from it.
About a month back I changed my email and password.

Never received any emails from them about any account issue before I received the below, never received any voice mails, I frequently receive tons of telemarketers spamming my phone so I never answer and have it on do not disturb. If you don't SMS, email or VM me then that's on you, not me.

I'm not going to go through the hassle of getting my account reinstated. My sanity is more important to me. Ebay "permanently suspended" me? heh, no skin off my back. I've just permanently blacklisted (Sorry PC police, "blocked") ebay and will badmouth them whenever the topic comes up. Customer disservice seems to be the theme and only getting worse.

The below email references https://www.ebay.com/help/account/account-hol … 20third%20party

Getting your account reinstated may be as simple as waiting for a temporary suspension to end, making changes to your listings, or sending us some more information – it depends on the reason your account was restricted or suspended. All the details will be in the message we've sent you.

There were no details shitheads. The below is a template.

Hello xxx, […]
Show full quote

Hello xxx,

We wanted to let you know that your eBay account has been permanently suspended because of activity that we believe was putting the eBay community at risk. We understand that this must be frustrating, but this decision was not made lightly and it’s important that we keep our marketplace safe for everyone. For more information, see our article on how and why accounts can be suspended or review our User Agreement.

Here’s what you need to know
You will no longer be able to use your account to buy or sell items and any new accounts you set up may also be suspended.
Any listings have been removed and they can be viewed below.
We’ve credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listings.
Any outstanding selling fees are due and will be charged to your payment method on file. If you’ve already opened any dispute claims for these fees, they won’t be charged until the claims have been resolved.
Any store subscriptions have been canceled.
If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch. We’re here to help..

Thanks,
eBay

Last edited by DosFreak on 2024-01-03, 00:55. Edited 4 times in total.

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Reply 1 of 9, by DracoNihil

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Well, I wonder when I'll eventually get a email like this out of nowhere. Though I have a feeling my eBay account was already deleted or whatever for not having used it for years anyways.

Though this makes me wonder, if this is the result of "mass reporting/flagging" and eBay's staff just thinking "oh there's nothing suspicious about these flags this must be serious!" as if none of the people on staff have ever been briefed on such a phenomena as well as "social engineering".

“I am the dragon without a name…”
― Κυνικός Δράκων

Reply 2 of 9, by BEEN_Nath_58

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Such illogical events happen to the best of us. YouTube removed my video on dgVoodoo2 and DXVK because "harmful content".

5-6 of them got flagged the same and reappealing does nothing.

previously known as Discrete_BOB_058

Reply 3 of 9, by konc

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This is probably the 100th nested IF in the "AI" they are using that flagged the account. Something like "last login more than 5 years ago, from continent x, first login after that changed password, different continent". A bug in the flagging logic that is not easy to happen.

Reply 4 of 9, by maxtherabbit

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the dormant account probably got hacked and was being used to make fraudulent sales

Reply 5 of 9, by Errius

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I log into all accounts at least once a year because of this. I usually take the opportunity to change the password too.

(This is non-trivial as I have multiple eBay, Google/YouTube, Yahoo, Microsoft and other accounts.)

ETA: As an aside, I'm glad to see that Google removed the requirement for telephone verification for all accounts. I was locked out of several of my accounts for several years because I refused to give them my telephone number. I guess so many people complained about this that they got rid of it.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 6 of 9, by giantclam

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konc wrote on 2024-01-03, 07:06:

This is probably the 100th nested IF in the "AI" they are using that flagged the account. Something like "last login more than 5 years ago, from continent x, first login after that changed password, different continent". A bug in the flagging logic that is not easy to happen.

Yeah... anything signed 'From Ebay' is just machine generated. Leaving an account active but unused for 20years, and the next first activity is change credentials, would likely have raised a red flag....ie; user has died and someone else not them has found the departed's credentials and is hijacking the account. Yonks back this red flag would've been passed to human agent attention, but now it's cheaper/easier to just let the machine handle it, defaultly close the account... and then wait and see if a real human being complains about the action --- no complaint? Presume it was a bot 'sleeper' account, or else user has indeed passed away. Either way, the account closure is justified, as no human (user) responded.

Not that I've had much trouble with ebay over at least the same amount of years, but when something has gone awry it's invariably 'just the machine' and no one person is behind it, so I take no personal affront when it has happened ~ I instead concentrate on ?why? it happened...which wrt ebay, means getting a case number, and exchanging emails with a human ebay agent, to divine the cause/reason. Once it becomes obvious to both the ebay agent & yourself that's it's a {ahem} "system operation", they pretty much fix it all without you needing to ask - they ask you instead. There is still camaraderie alive between humans, when they realize some damn machine did it =)

Reply 7 of 9, by konc

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Errius wrote on 2024-01-03, 20:20:

ETA: As an aside, I'm glad to see that Google removed the requirement for telephone verification for all accounts. I was locked out of several of my accounts for several years because I refused to give them my telephone number. I guess so many people complained about this that they got rid of it.

It's because now you cannot create a new account without verifying your phone number, I guess they just stopped doing it for existing accounts . Other big email providers do the same btw.

Reply 8 of 9, by Errius

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I understand that Google are going to start deleting inactive accounts and so they probably did this to avoid the bad PR from lots of people losing their accounts because of the difficulty of verifying them. They'll probably reinstate the old policy again in future.

In the old days you could verify things like this by just supplying a second email address. I assume they want our numbers for tracking/marketing reasons.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 9 of 9, by gerry

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konc wrote on 2024-01-03, 07:06:

This is probably the 100th nested IF in the "AI" they are using that flagged the account. Something like "last login more than 5 years ago, from continent x, first login after that changed password, different continent". A bug in the flagging logic that is not easy to happen.

yes i'd say that was it. more of that to come as mixed flow chart type logic and AI combine to remove the last vestiges of human judgement from all organisations!..