<story><title>Your eBay account has been suspended</title><text>Got an email from eBay this morning:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;
Hello brokeninfinity,
We wanted to let you know that your eBay account has been permanently suspended because of activity that we believe was putting the eBay community at risk. We understand that this must be frustrating, but this decision was not made lightly and it’s important that we keep our marketplace safe for everyone. Learn more about how and why accounts can be suspended...
&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m a long time, infrequent eBay user, mostly buy stuff, 331 stars, 100% feedback rating. Haven&amp;#x27;t used eBay recently, no idea what just happened. Maybe someone was trying to hack my account? The suspension email has no reply address. I tried contact eBay through their web chat, and they say &amp;#x27;Sorry Scott, live support&amp;#x27;s currently unavailable.&amp;#x27;&lt;p&gt;I guess I&amp;#x27;ll stop using eBay now. The summary execution with no explanation and no escalation path and no appeal is not endearing. Count me added to the chorus of folks calling for regulations that will eliminate this sort of abusive behavior against consumers. We need some sort of &amp;#x27;due process&amp;#x27; required of companies that operate above a certain scale. I mean, I shudder to think of the position I would be in right now if I depended on eBay for anything important. Thank goodness for me that I do not, but not everyone can say the same.&lt;p&gt;What do you think?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>nikkwong</author><text>Agreed with your sentiment that there needs to be some due process for these companies. Amazon has been holding $24,000 of my seller accounts proceeds for a year now stating that I &amp;quot;violated their TOS&amp;quot; by using the same IP address as my girlfriend uses (who was also an Amazon Seller). Both my and her accounts had perfect selling histories; weren&amp;#x27;t selling anything against tos, etc.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been wanting to take them to court over it; but most lawyers have quoted me at the process costing ~$8-9k; which, I&amp;#x27;m terrified to be on the hook for if I lose. (I guess I did violate their TOS? But if that is their TOS, it&amp;#x27;s wildly stupid and should be illegal&amp;#x2F;not hold up in court).&lt;p&gt;So, they just have the money I use to buy food for me and my family and there is nothing I can do about it. The level of stress it&amp;#x27;s brought me over the last year...has been unimaginable for me if I were to ponder it before the situation occurred.&lt;p&gt;I still always have the hope that I&amp;#x27;ll recover it some time, some how, if consumer regulations change or if Elizabeth Warren gets her way. But for now it&amp;#x27;s me against them and they clearly are making whatever calls they want.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>neilv</author><text>Did you try consulting some government authorities, about your case specifically?&lt;p&gt;$24K is a lot of money for most small businesses (or family side gigs), and most people can&amp;#x27;t afford to out-lawyer a huge company.  Fortunately, one of the ideal roles of government is to protect the small from the large.&lt;p&gt;Were it me, since I&amp;#x27;m in the US, but don&amp;#x27;t know which government authority would be most appropriate or effective, I&amp;#x27;d probably first try my state AG&amp;#x27;s office.  I&amp;#x27;d ask if they&amp;#x27;re interested in this, and could look into it, or if they could suggest what other authority to ask.&lt;p&gt;If you ran out of topical government authorities, I suppose you could then contact your Congressperson&amp;#x27;s office, which could be a wildcard hero.&lt;p&gt;(The fashion is to Tweet one&amp;#x27;s way to customer service, but I still believe that government institutions can work.)</text></comment>
<story><title>Your eBay account has been suspended</title><text>Got an email from eBay this morning:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;
Hello brokeninfinity,
We wanted to let you know that your eBay account has been permanently suspended because of activity that we believe was putting the eBay community at risk. We understand that this must be frustrating, but this decision was not made lightly and it’s important that we keep our marketplace safe for everyone. Learn more about how and why accounts can be suspended...
&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m a long time, infrequent eBay user, mostly buy stuff, 331 stars, 100% feedback rating. Haven&amp;#x27;t used eBay recently, no idea what just happened. Maybe someone was trying to hack my account? The suspension email has no reply address. I tried contact eBay through their web chat, and they say &amp;#x27;Sorry Scott, live support&amp;#x27;s currently unavailable.&amp;#x27;&lt;p&gt;I guess I&amp;#x27;ll stop using eBay now. The summary execution with no explanation and no escalation path and no appeal is not endearing. Count me added to the chorus of folks calling for regulations that will eliminate this sort of abusive behavior against consumers. We need some sort of &amp;#x27;due process&amp;#x27; required of companies that operate above a certain scale. I mean, I shudder to think of the position I would be in right now if I depended on eBay for anything important. Thank goodness for me that I do not, but not everyone can say the same.&lt;p&gt;What do you think?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>nikkwong</author><text>Agreed with your sentiment that there needs to be some due process for these companies. Amazon has been holding $24,000 of my seller accounts proceeds for a year now stating that I &amp;quot;violated their TOS&amp;quot; by using the same IP address as my girlfriend uses (who was also an Amazon Seller). Both my and her accounts had perfect selling histories; weren&amp;#x27;t selling anything against tos, etc.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been wanting to take them to court over it; but most lawyers have quoted me at the process costing ~$8-9k; which, I&amp;#x27;m terrified to be on the hook for if I lose. (I guess I did violate their TOS? But if that is their TOS, it&amp;#x27;s wildly stupid and should be illegal&amp;#x2F;not hold up in court).&lt;p&gt;So, they just have the money I use to buy food for me and my family and there is nothing I can do about it. The level of stress it&amp;#x27;s brought me over the last year...has been unimaginable for me if I were to ponder it before the situation occurred.&lt;p&gt;I still always have the hope that I&amp;#x27;ll recover it some time, some how, if consumer regulations change or if Elizabeth Warren gets her way. But for now it&amp;#x27;s me against them and they clearly are making whatever calls they want.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yyyk</author><text>&amp;gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been wanting to take them to court over it; but most lawyers have quoted me at the process costing ~$8-9k; which, I&amp;#x27;m terrified to be on the hook for if I lose.&lt;p&gt;You could try to crowdfund a lawsuit (promise to donate the crowdfunding to a charity if you win and get costs). I suspect more than a few Sellers would like to get back at Amazon.</text></comment>