Ebay - Run by Idiots for your Bidding Pleasure

Okay, I have to vent. Talking to the support people at eBay is useless, so I'd like to just share with you all the ludicrous events of the last week or so, along with direct quotes from eBay itself about those events. I will try VERY hard not to editorialize; I think the ridiculousness of it all will be self-evident.

Note that I've changed some of the names of the accounts, in order to keep search engines from picking them up and linking them somehow to my web site. You'll understand the wisdom of that soon enough...

First, I get an email that says:

We regret to inform you that your eBay account has been suspended because it violates the site policy outlined in the User Agreement. eBay's services are not available to members who are currently suspended. Our records indicate that your account is associated with the following suspended account:

Then, below that portion, is a large blank area that doesn't indicate ANYTHING. After that, the email goes on to tell me that I can't use my account, nor open another account, nor use ANY eBay account ever in my entire life. Needless to say, I was a little perplexed.

After hunting through their site for hours, I finally sent a trouble ticket asking what the heck was going on. Several days go by, without a peep from them. I send a second email, trying to get someone - anyone - to tell me what's going on.

Seven days after the suspension, I get this reply:

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your suspended account. Please note that your account "krokmor" has been suspended due to association with the previously suspended account (PSU):

Let me interject here, that "krokmor" is not my account name. I have no clue what it is, or why they think it's mine. The letter continues:

Your account is found to be linked to (fin.la.tin) who is suspended for
(Unpaid Item). Please keep in mind that per our User Agreement, our services are not available to suspended members. This is stated in the first section of our User Agreement entitled Membership Eligibility.

Nice.

The letter continues, however, on a happier note. Sort of:

Now, in light of additional information that has been submitted and a new review, it has been decided to reinstate this account. I am glad that I have had the opportunity to reinstate this account, and I hope that your future experiences on eBay are pleasant and successful.

Heh. Pleasant and successful my hiney.

Okay, so I'm still confused and a bit concerned over this "krokmor" account being somehow linked to me. So I write back and I ask for clarification, and I make it VERY clear that I have no clue what the heck they're talking about. I should have known that wouldn't do a bit of good:

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to the suspension of your account. I can understand your frustration in wanting more information regarding what led us to take this action on your account. As you may know, eBay is taking a tougher stand to prevent fraud on our site. Regretfully, in that process, a few honest members may be required to take one or two extra steps before they are allowed to participate on eBay. For security reasons we are unable to be more specific about the details that led to this action. Thank you for your time.

What a crock. They screwed up, linked some loser to my email, closed my account instead, and then play the "for security reasons" card. Lamers.

I'm not saying I'm going to boycott eBay, but really I'm having second throughts about using it. If they're so incompetant as to suspend my account for no reason, and then write to me and say "your account, krokmor, has been reopened..." what other supidity is going on that might cost me money or credit or worse.

Besides, what really irks me is that they're unwilling to even take responsibility for their mistake, instead claiming it's a "security" issue. Just fess up, eBay, and admit you screwed up.

Of course, when you're one of the largest online companies in the world and make millions of dollars in the time it takes me to write one blog entry, I guess you can afford to push the little guy around. Pfft.