Expert: Marvinator - 12/6/2006

Question

My wife has been a power seller on Ebay for a number of years. Recently she had some items get delayed in delivery and received some very quick negative feedback in a short period of time. In thousands of transactions, she has an extremely low number of negatives... but Ebay decided to freeze her account. She has since of course made sure the people received there items, and most of them submitted positive input. Ebays response to my wife was to have them all submit commentary on my wifes behalf. This seemed a bit unrealistic.

First off, corresponding with Ebay can only be via email it seems. Secondly, there response time is VERY slow. Any advice on resolution with EBAY  or another good auction site that she can use?

Any

Answer
From my own experience in the Power Seller arena, I know that all Power Sellers have access directly to ebay through the Power Seller Access Phone Number.  If your wife has lost this, she should write and get it.  This can speed things up dramatically.  

You also don't point out WHY the account was frozen. AND you dont' say whether you mean her Paypal account or her Ebay account.  In addition, if this is Ebay, was it temporary or permanent? I would hazard a guess that it is temporary as they investigate allegations made by some poorly informed buyer.  

With the low information you have provided, I can only assume that some buyer didn't get their item in timely fashion, and they either went directly to ebay or wrote and received a response that they didn't like.  I would again guess that the buyer was uninformed and didn't see the large feedback and went directly to Ebay.  In this instance, following the directions of Ebay staff is your only chance of getting out easily.  

Ebay has offered you a way of building a case against this unhappy buyer's allegations.  Unrealistic? Perhaps.  Needed? YES.  It's a way to feel proactive in getting things done and getting things changed.

Step one.  Have your wife review her sales and find some repeat buyers. Repeat buyers are those who will look for your auctions for items they want and will buy from you because of how you treated them in the past.  Even recent buyers who have had a positive experience with you are good candidates here.

Step Two.  Write a short but informative note to these buyers explaining the situation and asking for their input.  Be brief, but complete.  Try not to speak of the bad buyers in anything but bland and offhand ways.  "A buyer has inadvertently cause our Ebay account to be frozen and Ebay has asked us for input from buyers who had a positive experience.  Would you be interested in helping us in this?  All you would need to do is write a short note to Ebay on our behalf."  

Step Three.  Send the emails out and wait for responses.  (Note that it would be more hands on to ask for help and THEN provide the email address to write, rather than providing it up front. Then you know who is going to help and who is not interested.)  Once these people respond, you can give them the email address, the case number and any other information they may need.  (Ask them to CC you on any emails sent, so you have a list of those who followed through and can provide these to eBay if necessary.)

Lastly, inform Ebay that they should expect emails concerning this and then sit back and wait for a response from them.  If you don't hear anything in a couple of days, write them and ask.  And again...and again. Yes, it may take a while.  Is it a long drawn out process? Yes.  Is there anything else you can do?  Probably not.  Unless you have Meg's email address and have dinner with her at the club, you're sort of tied to what Ebay's rules are.  Just keep at them.