I was banned temporarily from selling a couple months ago on ebay for communicating with buyers who wanted to buy privately and avoid ebay fees, via sending emails and selling off of ebay a couple times. Not often, but i am sure everyone here has done it before.
What is people’s thoughts on this?
Will ebay ever fully ban an account?
How do the higher feedback sellers get away with it?
How do you avoid ebay’s shit… ?
I still pay alot of fees to them monthly, and they banned me once from selling an item because of sharing emails privately… what am i supposed to do… every few days i probably get a question about selling privately. I don’t like doing it, and just end up telling people to buy through ebay now, but buyers can always message me here or on facebook / instagram etc if they need items.
It seems like buyers are smarter these days, and avoiding ebay consistently. Facebook pages are booming, and private deals secured quite often.
I’ve had a few warnings, but never banned temp or permanent. I understand I am using their platform and the fees are understandable, but some higher ticket items are almost always asked to be sold privately and I have obliged a few times.
If you got banned you’re doing it excessively. If I get a message from eBay about it I don’t do it again for another 3 months. It’s really not that big a deal to pay your fees that you agree to pay.
I understand it’s hard to sell low valued items on eBay with fees on top of it, that’s why I don’t do it. Your items aren’t exactly low end either, but if you need them for your margins than work it into your pricing. You might lose a few customers, but I think you’ll find that the people willing to pay are usually a lot easier to work with and you’ll reduce your non paying bidders when you do auctions. I haven’t had a non paying bidder in the last 9 months and I do auctions regularly.
With all that said I’ve been guilty of going off site, but I haven’t ever got banned, and the only time I get a message is when my customer doesn’t know how to word things. I never post my email and use the attached photo option instead, I use a different email than the one associated with my account, I don’t say Paypal, but say PP instead, never use the word fees, email, @, or .com in your messages.
If you really want to get sneaky you can use an alternate account and message the person through that account so if it does get banned it’s not your main account, just don’t mention your username, instead just say you’re messaging them to talk about the item they’re interested in. You can also send them images to initiate the conversation to an alternate site.
Gotta say, i buy things outside of ebay all the time and shared email address and phone numbers with sellers constantly so they can send me better photos of said item for sale and ive never even been warned. Ebays screenshot system is damn awful at making out any detail so i have no choice but to send them my email, thats 99% of the time and i do it every few days.
I guess they keep there eyes on big ticket sellers, did you share your email address within a screenshot or somthing similar ? Doesnt take much for a buyer to report you out of spite or somthing and then your put on ebays radar.
Most the time, when I get an inquiry that I want off eBay, I refer them to efour and give my username here.
This does two things…it gives us a cool meeting place to discuss business and attracts people to our great site:) in fact there’s three active members here who were attracted that way;)
That is a great idea. I’m going to do this from now on
**Tip to buyers wanting to purchase items from sellers on ebay direct through paypal: When you message the seller don’t use obvious words/phrases like “direct” or “through paypal”, etc. Ebay’s word sensing immediately picks up on this which can compromise the position of the seller. I’ve declined most messages worded this way as a result.
But that said I follow the rules and would never violate any ebay policy.
eBay bans sometimes for completely unfair reasons.
Once I purchased a lens from a seller that stated it was in perfect condition, when I received it the lens it was full of fungus on the inside. Which is like the worst thing you ever want to see in a lens, since it can spread that fungus to your camera body and other lenses.
Let the seller know and they denied everything and refused to accept a return for refund, so I left negative feedback.
Seller complained about the feedback to eBay and then they banned me, I had been on there for 10+ years, 2,000+ 100% positive feedback. Made them tons of money and they banned ME, because a seller screwed me over.
Two thousand items might not sounds like a lot, but it was all car parts from $100-$2,000+ each.
Couldn’t get another ebay account until I changed addresses. Unfortunately ebay is the #1 selling place so I have to use it.
I have not gotten banned from eBay. I do get buyers asking for outside sales from time to time but, as it already has been mentioned you have to be a bit secretive with your word selection. Normally, people will buy from me and like the product so they email me directly. I’ve picked up a small customer base this way. Of course eBay fees can be a burden but it typically is the only way to sell. No one has dethrone them as of yet. I always do calculations beforehand to see if I can squeeze some decent profit even after fees plus shipping. The only thing I find absurd with eBay is that they don’t take into account the cost of supplies to ship and the time consumed to ship, I despise the shipping fee lol but, it’s understandable, even though I myself don’t overcharge for shipping, just try to make it as fair for me and the customer.
I’ve had many friends over the years perm and temp banned but NEVER anything even close for what you’ve described. Are you sure somethings not being left out?
I’ve done outside sales from ebay prolly about 60 times in 4 years. back when ebay owned paypal it wasn’t as big of an issue but now they are 2 separate companies and ebay wants there piece of the pie! I have never been banned or even gotten a warning message so I must be doing something right lol. if I can sell for cheaper and avoid fees it helps keep me under the 20k 200 transactions for Bullshit taxes. I’d prefer paypal gift all day tho!
