Almost automatically and without thinking about it too much, the member in question re-joins eBay using a new account name and begins to trade again. Everything seems to be humming along well once more and then... What!? One day eBay suspends the new account unceremoniously without explanation, perhaps even along with accounts held by others in the member’s family or household!
The member, now very frustrated indeed, registers under a new name once again, and is this time suspended within a couple of days or even a couple of hours. Every attempt by anyone in the member’s social circle to create a new account from then on is met with almost immediate suspension, and repeated attempts to contact eBay do not change the situation. The member now is effectively banned from eBay for life, as are all of the member’s family and/or household members.
Don’t let this happen to you.
Creating New Accounts Gets You Nowhere
Don’t let this happen to you. eBay has very sophisticated tools for connecting accounts to one another by name, address, network service provider, bank account information, familial relationships, types of goods being sold, and other, proprietary techniques that are even more powerful. Once eBay has marked you as a “serial re-registerer,” there will be a file about you and your many accounts inside eBay, and the resources of the system will be brought to bear to make sure that you don’t get back in.Once you’ve reached such a point, it’s notoriously difficult to get eBay to ever let you trade on the site again—after all, it’s in eBay’s best interests to make sure that rule-breakers who fail to satisfy other traders are kept out. Despite your best attempts to slide back into eBay unnoticed, you will be spotted and suspended again. The eBay membership database is simply too large, too full of information, and too powerful for individual members to be able to fool it for more than a few hours at a time once you’ve made the list of problem members.
What To Do Instead
Members who are suspended by eBay are suspended for concrete reasons, almost always either because of rule violations or because of failures to pay for completed auctions or to deliver goods for which other members have paid.If you have been suspended from eBay, do not simply register a new account. To do so is to run the risk of never being allowed to trade on eBay again. Instead, contact eBay directly and ask about ways to resolve the outstanding issues on your account and trade openly on eBay once again. Note that it may take eBay several weeks to get back to you with instructions. If you begin to doubt that they are working on your case, contact them again and repeat the request to bring your account into good standing. Eventually you will receive instructions that may include one or several of the following:
- Paying your seller fees.
- Delivering any items you’ve failed to deliver or issuing refunds to the parties that paid without having received an item.
- Providing proof of your identity by faxing or mailing eBay copies of your drivers’ license, state or national ID card, or passport.
- Entering into arbitration of some kind with other eBay member(s) that have lodged complaints against you.
- Promising in writing not to violate relevant eBay rule(s) again.
The process may be time consuming. It may be frustrating. eBay may decide not to let you trade on eBay again anyway—legally, the eBay website is the property of eBay corporation, and they are within their rights to determine who is allowed to trade there and who is not.
At length, however, it is likely that you will be able to resolve the situation to eBay’s satisfaction and will be allowed to trade again—with your old profile and feedback score.
After Reinstatement
If eBay chooses to reinstate you, don’t simply begin trading where you left off as though nothing had happened. Read carefully all of eBay’s communication, most specifically including the reason(s) why you were suspended. Use the eBay help system to read the rules regarding the offense in question and change your trading and customer service practices to be sure that you don’t violate the rule(s) in question again.eBay is generally willing to reinstate members after a first suspension, but repeated suspensions for the same violation(s) will quickly cause you to be added to the blacklist as well—and once eBay decides that you are no longer eBay material, you will likely never be allowed to trade on eBay again.
