eBay accidentally cancelled bids on some users’ accounts, and then suspended the accounts altogether. The reports came in through posts on the eBay discussion boards and on the Down Detector board for reporting technical issues across the Web – with some of them saying they were unable to get assistance from eBay customer support.
The issue comes as eBay’s buyer base declines. eBay exited the third quarter with a 5% decline in the number of active buyers (and a 10% decline in sales, year-over-year).
“My Account was suspended for no reason and no reason given, can even get anyone to answer the questions as to why,” one person wrote on December 3 at 3:14 pm on the Down Detector page dedicated to eBay glitches.
At 7:46 pm, another person wrote, “Getting messages ‘bids’ were cancelled on items that were buy now two months ago then they suspended my account and won’t give me a reason why.”
At 9:02 pm, yet another person wrote, “I’m having the same issue about my account being suspended indefinitely. Can’t reach a human. Only get canned replies via email. Very frustrating.”
eBay customers also reported the issue on its discussion boards. One user said it was too distressing and said they would stop using eBay. In the thread titled, “Account Permanently suspended – then suddenly reinstated overnight,” the user wrote at 4:53 am this morning:
“Yesterday out of the blue I get an email from eBay stating that my account is permanently suspended and offered zero reason why. There should be no reason, I’ve been a stellar eBay’er for like 15 years..so I was shocked. I did a chat with CS and after they gave me a “2-3 minutes to review” my account message, came back with standard canned response. Yea you’re suspended, it’s permanent, nothing you can do and we won’t tell you why.
“Fine, to be honest. eBay fees are way too high anyway, I rarely sell on it anymore.
“Suddenly, overnight another email. “We’re pleased to let you know that your account is reinstated. ” Really eBay? Can you be any more dramatic? You showed me what you truly feel about your customers so don’t expect any revenue from me. I’ve suspended YOU – and it is permanent. I’m sorry, and I know this is difficult but we have to part ways.”
eBay did not announce the problem on the Seller Announcement board, but it did post a thread on its discussion boards yesterday (December 3) at 9:33 pm:
“Earlier today, a number of eBay accounts were inadvertently suspended. The issue should be resolved in the next few hours and any sellers who need to take action will be contacted. We regret any concern this may have caused.”
That post makes no mention of cancelled bids – and there’s no way to know if sellers were negatively impacted by lower bidding activity as a result. (We saw buyers mention cancellations were on bids on auctions that had already ended.) eBay locked the thread, leaving buyers and sellers impacted by the technical glitches who might have questions high and dry.
Ahahahahah! By far eBay’s most brilliant move yet. Let’s see them outdo this come 2022.
Another week, another bout of chaos.
eBay are making absolute fools of themselves with their grossly inept site management.
In reality, it has been this way since they took over site maintenance themselves from the company that managed the code for them.
I’m given to understand that at the time they were too cheap to buy the code manuals either.
Add to that a reckless tendency to rely on luck instead of thorough testing and here we are; some idiot in senior management has a brain fart and expects to have his ego stroked immediately via a programmer in Mumbai hacking away in a digital sweatshop.
Things aint gettin any better folks til someone who knows what they’re doing buys the out and sacks the current morons running the show.
Geez Loise, these idjits give me the grip!
This is very interesting. On Saturday I had an item sold that had already sold. When I called in I stated “the glitch that has been going around for months that is all over youtube” and they acted like I was CRAZY. Sunday I found something else I already sold had been relisted, so I called in again. We established both items were relisted on December 3rd. I dug some more, and found 16 items that were already sold were relisted on December 3rd! I sell in vintage collectibles so I almost always only have one of each item I sell. It seems like the December 3rd glitch caused other issues as well.
I have been on Ebay for 15 years. I was caught up in this Ebay Lock Down and had all 253 listings removed and my account canceled. I contacted Twitter Ebay people, they took down my information but I am still locked out of Ebay permanently. There is no one to talk to, no humans, no way to resolve this tragedy at Christmas. I had 99.9% positive feedback. There was no reason given, nothing at all. No communication, no way to resolve the reinstatement. Ebay is spiraling downwards.
I’m an experienced FT reseller with 2500+ active listings on multiple platforms. I opened an eBay store in July 2021 and listed 1 item (vintage wood serving tray) as a test. I didn’t perform any other activity for awhile and out of the blue got an email saying my account was being “permanently suspended due to fraudulent activity”. I contacted eBay via online chat and asked what caused this – the rep wouldn’t give details but said I wouldn’t be charged the $21.95 store subscription fee and abruptly ended the chat. Three days later, the charge showed up on my bank account so I contacted eBay again to have it reversed and close the store so my bank and credit card data would be protected. The rep closed the store but said he couldn’t credit the charge, even though I pasted the text in from the first chat assuring I wouldn’t be charged. For the next few months, I spent countless hours online, on the phone and email with eBay “customer service” reps trying to resolve the situation to no avail. I was still being charged $21.95 every month for a store I couldn’t use. I finally asked my bank to decline ALL future charges from eBay. Not only will I never sell anything on eBay, I won’t ever buy anything from eBay again either.