My Ebay Account Is Suspended
Account holds, restrictions, and suspensions | eBay
We may occasionally restrict or suspend accounts to protect our community. If you’re a seller, your payouts will be placed on hold until your restriction or suspension is lifted. If your eBay account is restricted or suspended, we’ll email you with the steps you need to take to have your account we believe your account has been accessed by a third party, we’ll place a temporary block on your account for your safety. For more information on what to do next, see how to get help with a hacked account
If we’ve placed a hold, restriction, or suspension on your account, we’ll send you an email explaining what happened and what you need to do to get your account back. You’ll find a copy of this message in your Messages.
Why your account was suspended or restricted
Holds, restrictions, or suspensions are usually placed on accounts for one of the following reasons:
You have eBay selling costs to pay
You need to reimburse eBay for a refund or a claim paid to your buyer
You have violated one of our rules or policies
We couldn’t verify your account information
How to have your account reinstated
Getting your account reinstated may be as simple as waiting for a temporary suspension to finish, making changes to your listings, or sending us some more information-it depends on the reason we suspended your account. The full details will be in the message we’ve sent you.
If your account was restricted or suspended because of outstanding seller costs or a refund reimbursement, you can make a one-time payment to resolve the issue. When we receive your payment, your account will be reinstated.
To make a one-time payment:
Go to Payments – opens in new window or tab in My eBay or Seller Hub.
Select One-time payment to make a payment
Aternatively you can add a new payment method
If eBay doesn’t currently manage your payments, you may also need to complete seller registration before your account will become fully reinstated.
Tip
Most account restrictions or suspensions can be resolved by making a one-time payment or by following the steps we gave you in the email in your Messages.
What happens while an account is suspended
When your eBay account is suspended, you won’t be able to:
bid, buy, or sell
leave feedback
create new listings or revise existing listings
contact bidders
reply to your eBay messages
receive payouts
If you’re a seller, your payouts will be placed on hold until the hold, restriction or suspension on your account is lifted.
Any bidders on your existing listings can retract their bids. When your account is reinstated, you’ll be able to leave feedback for any transactions you completed in the previous 30 days.
Depending on why your account was suspended, we may end listings early. If we remove listings because of a policy violation, eligibility for a fee credit will depend on the situation and any previous policy violations will be taken into account. These credits can be viewed by going to Payments within My eBay or Seller Hub. Keep in mind that listing fees can be forfeited too, depending on the reason for suspension.
Account verification holds
When you start selling on eBay, we need to confirm your identity and checking account details so you can receive your payouts. We may place a temporary hold on your account until we can verify your details. Once verification is complete, we’ll email you to let you know has been lifted and you can start selling.
Fake account hold and suspension notices
Watch out for spoof (fake) emails about account holds or suspensions. To confirm that an email was sent from eBay, check your eBay Messages – opens in new window or tab. If you can’t find a copy of the email there, then it wasn’t from eBay. Learn how to recognize spoof emails.
How I’ve Reinstated My eBay Account After It Got Suspended – CrazyLister
I listed my first ever item on eBay back in August 2008. It was a fake hair straightener sourced from a random Chinese supplier on Alibaba.
hair straightener for China – my first eBay product for sale
I grossed $700 in profit within the first 3 days and was super excited about the new business. A few weeks later, eBay suspended my account for the first and last time.
Lesson learned.
In this post, I’ll share how I got my ebay account reinstated and what you should do (and absolutely not do) if your eBay account gets suspended.
MC113 Your eBay account has been suspended
MC113 eBay note – means your eBay account suspended
Receiving this email from eBay for the first time was an “AHA” moment for me. Up until that moment, I had assumed eBay was the wild west – an unmanaged marketplace where you could sell and buy anything without particular restrictions and rules.
Boy was I wrong… The realization was quick and painful, the message was loud and clear – If I were ever to consider selling on eBay professionally, I’d better obey the platform’s rules and policies.
The reason for the account suspension was very obvious – I was selling a fake item.
If eBay had been awarding medals for “The stupidest seller of the year” I would have definitely made it to the finals, maybe even won. I was actually breaking one of eBay’s most critical policies: “We don’t allow replicas, counterfeit items, or unauthorized copies to be listed on eBay. ”
Yea that’s me back then – selling fake items on eBay
How I un-suspended my eBay account
Searching google for “How to un-suspend an ebay account” results in numerous services / tutorials on how to outsmart eBay with fake identities to reinstate your account – I’ll address these tactics later in the post.
In a nutshell – if you’re looking to build a long-term, sustainable business, avoid opening additional eBay accounts in case your account gets suspended.
What worked for me was simply following the exact instructions from eBay’s email.
In my case, eBay basically asked me to achieve 2 objectives:
Verify my identity to minimize security risks for the marketplace.
Educate me about the violations and the policies.
For identity verification, I had to fax eBay some documents and bills. As for the education part, I had to take a quiz which educated me about the policy I’d violated:
eBay education page regarding the correct way to sell authentic items
Now, some guides out there will encourage you NOT to follow eBay’s instructions, and not to send any identity verification docs, claiming these are sophisticated traps, set to gather information about you so that eBay can better close its gates from you, making sure they can easily identify you if you ever try to open another eBay account.
But that’s not the case.
If you’re a legitimate business, you should not worry about sharing your info with eBay / PayPal or any other service that requires TRUST building. Quite the opposite.
A few years ago we experienced one of our most horrific eBay fails when the Chinese mail system lost some $20, 000 worth of our packages. We got more than 50 eBay and PayPal claims opened against us within a matter of days. The only reason our business survived was because we were 100% transparent with both platforms through our business history and both companies had already learned to know and trust us, so when we told them we were taking full responsibility and working towards resolving the situation for the buyers’ satisfaction – we were actually trusted to do so.
I know of colleagues who didn’t get this level of trust and simply went out of business.
eBay’s mission is to connect shoppers with the most relevant items / sellers for them.
Ensuring a secure marketplace that shoppers feel confident coming back to is a shared interest for all sellers and eBay as a platform.
As a legitimate seller, you want sellers like me (not today… my early days) suspended from selling on eBay. Customers who buy fake / low quality items will not come back to eBay, and you’ll be losing these potential customers.
Economist George Akerlof actually won a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001 for his work on the subject – “The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism“.
What I’m saying is that if you’re serious about your eBay business, you should build mutual trust with eBay.
eBay sellers must build trust with customer to be successful
Key takeaway: If your account is suspended – be as honest and transparent as possible, provide all and any information that is requested from you. Your goal should be to build a long-term relationship with eBay, and your business success heavily depends on this.
Still, what if you send all the required information and it doesn’t go smoothly, and eBay doesn’t get your selling restrictions lifted? Or if the email doesn’t even contain any action items you can take?
What to do if eBay doesn’t reinstate your account?
The web is full of reports from sellers who failed to get their account reinstated by eBay after sending all the requested documents.
Whenever we had a situation with either eBay or PayPal that required an action on their part like – reinstate the account, lift selling limits, removing an unjustified buyer feedback or relisting a removed listing, we would get on the phone and call them.
We would usually wait for a reply for up to 48 hours after our initial email message and then call.
We would prepare the following info for the call –
Our eBay user ID
The email associated with our eBay account
Case reference number (From the email)
Have the relevant email in front of us
Here is eBay’s customer support number: +1-866-540-3229
We would prepare our homework – Have a list of applicable arguments, backed by the relevant policies. i. e – If we were calling eBay to remove an unjustified negative feedback, we were ready with the relevant eBay policy.
We would keep a professional tone, never raise our voice or take out our nerves on the representative.
We often had to switch reps, hang up and call again – until we got a rep who understood the situation and was willing to help.
eBay uses call centers in the Philippines etc. for support, these reps usually are less familiar with the eBay policies than you are as a seller – so we had to be REALLY patient and often time educate the rep of his own company’s policies.
This is how it is – reps are humans, and they differ in experience and empathy from one another. It was a struggle, and sometimes took hours over the phone.
Quick tip: We actually learned that we could trick PayPal’s automated voice recognition by constantly saying “Agent” – which was the fastest way to speak to a human agent.
With Paypal’s auto reply – repeat the word agent to get to a human rep
In the end, we always got what we wanted by being professionally persistent.
These kinds of struggles are natural filters – if you’re stubborn enough to go through the bureaucracy required to unblock your eBay account, you probably have what it takes to run your own business.
If you are running a legitimate business, It’s usually pretty much guaranteed that you can get your eBay account reinstated. Just don’t give up – if a specific rep is not able to help, ask (politely) to be transferred to a supervisor. Be ready with the required information and documents to present and support your case, show professionalism, make the decision to reinstate your account easy for eBay – show them that you are playing ball and respect the rules.
Giving up and using “stealth” tactics to reinstate your eBay account
There are tons of “eBay stealth” sites, forums and manuals, which promise to help you come up with a new identity so you can start fresh on eBay.
There are even books, (Ironically) sold on Amazon who promise to do just that –
eBook – How to get back on eBay after a suspension.
You’ll see hundreds of testimonials from happy sellers who got back on eBay using fake ID’s / addresses / IP’s / PayPal accounts etc.
Contrary to popular belief, eBay allows a business to have multiple accounts –
Guidelines to using multiple ebay accounts
I recently got to know a CrazyLister user who has 18(!! ) eBay accounts connected to the app –
this user has 18 eBay accounts connected to CrazyLister
There are legitimate reasons for having multiple accounts, for example dedicating separate accounts per line of products.
As you can see, what eBay doesn’t allow is opening a new account as a way to avoid an account suspension.
I’ll make it really easy for you – If you are selling on eBay as a hobby, go ahead and follow the stealth tactics. It’s definitely possible to outsmart eBay in the short-run, leave your suspended eBay account behind and start with a new one.
I personally know a handful of sellers who have dedicated devices, Internet service providers, and use the identities of friends and family to have multiple, unconnected eBay accounts.
However, they operate in fear and constant paranoia – they need to dedicate attention and energy to make sure they never make a mistake, which may allow eBay to inter-connect their accounts to the suspended eBay account, and subsequently suspend ALL of their accounts altogether.
Here is a very typical (and sad) case of how a seller who was not familiar with how eBay worked, got herself and her friend suspended from eBay –
eBay suspended account – seller’s story
Key takeaway: I would strongly suggest to invest your time in legitimately reinstating your account, rather than trying to outsmart eBay.
Three reasons why eBay may suspend your account
Now let’s take a look at the most common reasons for an eBay account suspension:
Non-payment of eBay fees
Not reimbursing eBay for a refund eBay made to your buyer
A serious violation of one of eBay’s rules and policies
This is the easiest problem to fix – pay your bill and your account will be reinstated.
Usually same as above. eBay took action to keep a shopper happy and protect the eBay brand. They are now requesting you to refund eBay for the refund.
Here are some of the more common policy violations:
VeRO – The Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program allows intellectual property rights owners to ask eBay to remove certain listings that offer items or contain materials that infringe on their intellectual property rights. These rights can include trademark, copyright, and/or other legal rights.
Violating VeRO policy repeatedly will make eBay suspend your account.
Listing an item that isn’t allowed, such as a counterfeit/fake item. Yeah, yeah I know, I was a naive newbie…
Using photos that aren’t allowed – “borrowed” from another seller for example.
Circumventing eBay feedback – for example offering a partial refund in exchange for a positive feedback.
Avoiding eBay fees – i. e. offering the shopper to finalize the transaction off of eBay.
Action plan – step by step guide to reinstate your suspended eBay account
Let’s sum it all up to an actionable steps:
Take a breath! I started my eBay journey with a suspended account for a blunt policy violation. I ended up growing a $100K+ a month eBay business, winning multiple eBay awards and lecturing at eBay events. It’s ok to make a mistake! As long as you learn your lesson and correct your mistakes.
Sometimes your account gets suspended because you have a crisis in your personal life, s#*t happens, we’re all human, not excluding eBay’s trust & safety department.
Find out the exact reason for your eBay account suspension by carefully reading the email.
Do your homework – meticulously inspect the instructions in the email and follow them exactly. It’s the time to be professional, transparent and honest. If you’ve made a mistake, admit, apologize and show eBay you’re cooperating and provide them all the requested information, help eBay build their trust in you. Don’t pretend to be naive, that won’t earn you trust points.
In case eBay doesn’t get back to your suspension appeal within 48 hours, call eBay’s support at: +1-866-540-3229. Keep a professional, calm tone – you’re a legitimate business, resolving a conflict with your business partner.
Remember: eBay needs sellers just as much as sellers need eBay.
If the phone call doesn’t help – return to step #4.
I know it sounds stupid, but that’s the best thing you can do – be professionally persistent, until you straighten things out with eBay.
Two more important points:
Avoid opening a new eBay account to overcome a suspension – Think of eBay as your business partner, trying to mislead your partner will never end up in anything good.
On the other hand – building a strong mutual trust with eBay is a very powerful business advantage, and retrospectively looking at all of our struggles, it was definitely worth the effort.
Make sure to carefully read policy update emails from eBay (a recent important eBay update included new links policy). eCommerce and eBay are constantly renewing. That’s the game – and if you want to stay in play, you MUST adapt.
Same goes for us as technology providers for online businesses – We constantly update CrazyLister to ensure 100% compliance with the platforms’ policies. Technology evolves at an ever increasing pace (exponentially), businesses simply must keep up, there’s no other option.
What to Do When eBay Suspends Your Account – The …
Selling on eBay can be a hobby or a full-blown business. If you rely on eBay for income, it can be a devastating blow to have your account suspended. It is why it is very important to educate yourself and understand all of eBay’s policies so you won’t be suspended in the first place. But, in the event your eBay account is placed on hold, restricted, or suspended, there are specific steps you can take to try to have it reinstated. Notice the key word here is “try, ” because there is no guarantee that eBay will reinstate an account.
Holds vs. Restrictions vs. Suspensions
Not all suspensions from eBay are the same. Minor issues, such as expired methods of payment or late payments, are likely to result in your account being placed on hold, and your account can be reinstated as soon as you update your payment method or settle your unpaid bill.
Restrictions are more severe than holds and might be put in place if, for example, you don’t meet minimum performance standards as a seller. For something like that, eBay might restrict you from selling certain items or lower your placement in search results. The only way to lift such a restriction is to meet eBay’s standards.
Suspensions usually occur only in the most egregious cases. For example, selling illegal merchandise or engaging in hate speech is likely to get a seller suspended indefinitely.
Stay Calm and Get the Facts
The first step in attempting to be reinstated on eBay is to identify the problem. If you are new, ignorance is your best defense. You may not have known that using stock photos is not permitted, or that you aren’t allowed to use the word Velcro in your title.
When you receive the notification email, stay calm and read the message carefully. eBay usually explains why an account has been suspended, and likely reasons include:
Not paying fees on time
Payment method is out of date (credit card expired)
Violation of a policy such as VeRO, which involves intellectual property rights
Listing an item that isn’t allowed, such as a counterfeit handbag
Using photos that aren’t allowed (stolen from another user, nonauthorized stock photos)
Offensive material (items including hate speech)
Recalled items
Drugs and drug paraphernalia
Hazardous materials, such as homemade weapons or explosives
Alcohol
Sometimes you don’t know if an item isn’t allowed since it is very difficult to know every single rule on eBay, especially if you are new. You may not know an item you have for sale has been recalled, or you may not know you can’t use stock photos, like pictures of clothing from retail websites.
Fixing the problem may be as simple as removing listings that were recalled in a massive recall of items from a specific company. If it is an easy fix, eBay will explain exactly what you need to do to have your account reinstated.
Call eBay and Discuss
If you don’t see any specific instructions on how to have your eBay account reinstated, don’t make a new account. Instead, call them at 1-866-540-3229 and discuss. Explain that you received the suspension email and are very concerned. It may take talking to several people to get to the right person who can help you. A few tips for talking with eBay customer service representatives:
Gather the facts before you call: Make sure you have the following information before you call so you can easily answer any questions the CSR may have to find your account:eBay user IDEmail associated with your eBay accountDate of the emailReference number in the email (if applicable)Print out of the email for easy referenceRemain calm: eBay CSRs are just regular people like you doing their job and have nothing against you personally. You should act as an investigator here, gathering the facts. Act in a calm, professional, and rational manner. The objective here is to get to someone who can and will help for a supervisor if needed: The CSR who answers your call may not know how to help you. If you haven’t received an answer or acceptable assistance after 10 minutes of speaking to someone, politely ask for a supervisor. Someone more experienced may be needed to help you.
Knowledge of Policies
The best way to handle an eBay suspension is not to get one. Whether you are new to eBay or a seasoned seller, it is beneficial to read the eBay policies to educate yourself on the rules. eBay is an ever-changing universe, and rules change from time to time, so new policies can sneak up on you. Always read email updates from eBay, and check your eBay messages frequently for updates and announcements.
Frequently Asked Questions about my ebay account is suspended
How do I get my suspended eBay account back?
In case eBay doesn’t get back to your suspension appeal within 48 hours, call eBay’s support at: +1-866-540-3229. Keep a professional, calm tone – you’re a legitimate business, resolving a conflict with your business partner. Remember: eBay needs sellers just as much as sellers need eBay.Nov 16, 2017
How do I contact eBay if my account is suspended?
If you don’t see any specific instructions on how to have your eBay account reinstated, don’t make a new account. Instead, call them at 1-866-540-3229 and discuss. Explain that you received the suspension email and are very concerned. It may take talking to several people to get to the right person who can help you.Mar 2, 2021
Why has eBay suspended my account?
Why your account was suspended or restricted You have eBay selling costs to pay. You need to reimburse eBay for a refund or a claim paid to your buyer. You have violated one of our rules or policies. We couldn’t verify your account information.
