Yeah. I got the call.
They asked why I had been completely inactive lately- no buying or selling. Brought up that BS Bill Me Later Garbage to try to entice me to buy, and how there were free listings for cars and my auto parts- which honestly I had sold a bunch of on Ebay.
Just blew her off, and you're right- instead of someone who would admit they were in Asia but not what country, she claimed she was "in the Bay Area".
So she went right on with the hard sell- Had Ebay done something.
I told her yes. Absolutely.
I had been an Ebay member since 2000. My dad and my name is similar. All of a sudden- it is early 2013- and he registered on Ebay to sell an expensive auto part when I was swamped with work, they locked his account. Told him he'd have to call in and verify his ID. He's a crusty old fart in his late 60's and he could really care less- so he tells Ebay to FO and goes on with life.
About August 2013 I go online and I list that Cuda grille for him on my account with a couple hundred feedback and 100% positive rating.
Ebay locks my account too- tells me it is because I am "associated" with another locked account. I told them I didn't have multiple accounts- that was my dad's. They knew that- but we were still "associated".
So I am in the process of selling a $2000 part, have it sold, and I get locked. Buyer is freaking out, he's a restoration guy and he needs the part, his customer is calling me giving me ****. I offered to sell it off Ebay but they were too leary- honestly I would have been too- so I had to get the $2000 in my Paypal Limbo resolved.
Ebay tells me I have to get my dad to calll in and verify his ID, and then they will lift my suspension, and I can complete the transaction.
He very reluctantly does, and honestly- it ticked him off he was having to do it, and he gave them a hard time. He finally had to answer a series of ten questions, everything from what vehicle did he own to where did he work in 2004 to what address did he live in 1976- the problem is that on those questions, none of the answers are making any sense at all. They were giving him multiple choice identification questions that had NOTHING to do with him.
The Asian on the line was confused and he kept asking more and more of these and he would say "You are sure the answer isn't C. You didn't live at C in 1976 ? C isn't the answer".
He was trying to feed the answers to my dad. My dad refused to go along with that, when none of the questions even remotely pertained to him- he had never lived in Asheville in 1976, he always worked 7-10 years average for a company so he has a short list of employers, we never owned any of the vehicles they said we had listed, and when they asked what address he resided in Memphis in 2000- he had never lived in Memphis TN PERIOD.
Finally the asian gives up. He says ok even though he had said- I'm sorry sir none of these answers are correct, you must answer 4 questions correctly, and had kept going with the BS questions.
Asian Ebay just says fine- we have verified your ID. They then ask him to have me call them. I was there at the time, so I just spoke to the Ebay twerp in Asia.
He tells me that my buying privileges have been restored and that he will be transferring me to someone who can help me with my selling limits.
Selling limits you say ?
I get transfered to this guy who informs me that I have a 3 or 4 year old unpaid debt in which I had sold some item for $1300 and I had not delivered it, and Ebay had issued the person a refund. So this new little dipstick is trying to get me to give him permission to charge me $1300 so I could sell on Ebay again.
Mind you- I had never ever ever failed to pay my Ebay fees and I had never failed to ship an item. I had cancelled a transaction, but I always reversed and gave the person back their payment.
So it became clear someone with a name similar to mine and my dad's- we think maybe the middle and last name- had burned someone on Ebay, Ebay decided to play e-sleuth and get us to slip up and reveal ourselves with their clever multiple choice questions and then they could charge one of us some money.
I hung up on the guy, I immediately went online to close my Paypal account so they could not hit my account for $1300 I did not owe them. They refused to let me close my Ebay account until I paid the $1300- so it is left open with the ability to buy only.
There are times- like when I'd like to buy a kid some cheapo tools- that I wish I had the ability to buy on Ebay still. But I will not take the risk of opening a Paypal account for them to screw with me and charge me $1300. And Paypal did attempt to make a charge against my debit card and my bank account about 4 days after I had closed the account, but the bank never would tell me if it was for $1300 or how much- just it was a failed transaction as I had them warm card my Debit and told them "No on anything from Paypal."
The really strange thing is that supposedly I owe this $1300 but I never before and still haven't had a call from a collection agency and Ebay had never mentioned this before I was suspended by association and they still haven't mentioned it again. If I go in and attempt to list something, it just says I can list $0 in items and that I owe Ebay $0- but if you call in, I get told "one of your other seller accounts owes $1300".
This was during the big Ebay seller purge- so I figured they either needed a pretense to refuse to let me sell, or they genuinely thought they'd shake me down for $1300.
It sucks sometimes not having it as a sales outlet. I live 2 hours from the nearest city that has a Craigslist site, so it is too far for most people to come look at what I sell, but people aren't realistic about that- so I always end up with a 99% failure rate and it takes 5 weeks on average to sell ANYTHING.
Too Long, Didn't Read aka Cliff Notes Version: F### Ebay.
