I signed up to eBay, brought a few things but never sold anything, so I was selling my first thing. I took the photos, selected a good skin, got Fiona to wrote a long description (because I can never think of a good item description), clicked Sell… Then WHAM!

I received this email from eBay:

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FIP NOTICE: eBay Registration Suspension - Contact information - [email address]

Dear Dave White (email address),

We regret to inform you that your eBay account has been suspended due to the violation of our site policy below:

False or missing contact information - Falsifying or omitting your name, address, and/or telephone number (including use of fax machines, pager numbers, modems or disconnected numbers).

Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are prohibited from using eBay in any way. This prohibition includes the registering of a new account.

Please note that any seller fees due to eBay will immediately become due and payable. eBay will charge any amounts you have not previously disputed to the billing method currently on file.

If you would like your account to be considered for reinstatement, please reply to this email. We will then contact you with a brief list of requirements that you will need to fulfill in order to be considered for reinstatement.

Regards,

SafeHarbor Department
eBay Inc

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What?!

Why was this? I went back to my eBay account, logged in and had notices on the top of My eBay saying my account has been suspended, the only thing I could do on My eBay was check my messages, and I had two both saying my account had been suspended! I searched for the item I just put up, and couldn’t find it! I searched for the item number and it came up but said “no longer a registered user”

I could not think of anything at all that I’ve done to deserve this? I signed up for a Sellers Account, I agreed to all the terms, I agreed for the Sellers fee to be paid, put in my correct bank details.

On the emails they give you links to the help files to find out why this might be, and they give an email address to reply to, so I did, I looked at all the help files and I couldn’t find anything wrong, so I replied to the email asking why this has happened.

Three days later, nothing… No reply, still couldn’t think of why they did this to me?! I looked for a help phone number for eBay, but after a bit of research I found out there is no contact phone number for eBay, but there is a Live Help which is a Live Chat here’s the link: https://cschatlb-na.corp.ebay.com/chat.asp?profile=15 . So I got in the virtual queue to talk to an eBay representative. Got through and they sent me some links… The same links as the email gives you! Useless!

The next day I got an email saying my account was suspended because they wanted me to prove who I was. I have to send photocopies of my passport or driving licence, a utility bill with my name on or a bank statement, to an eBay office in Ireland. I thought maybe this was fake and someone is trying to steal my Identity but it seems they do have an office there and this has happened to other people, I didn’t want to send them in the post so faxed them over photocopies of my driving licence and a bank statement proving my address and name.

The same day I received an email saying thank you and your account has been reinstated. I checked My eBay and the messages where still on the top saying my account had been suspended, but I could check everything and do everything on My eBay.

So I went back to the Live Help (https://cschatlb-na.corp.ebay.com/chat.asp?profile=15) for eBay and spoke to someone different and explained the annoying problem, he told me to wait there, I did… He came back and said ok, I’ve removed that for you now. I also asked if my item can go back up for sale, but he couldn’t. Now I have to get Fiona to write that long description again!