WOW where to begin!

please note :before reading this understand, I know eBay has to protect its buyers, I in fact appreciate it- given i am a frequent buyer, but the following example is not how it's done!

I'm all for suspending accounts or even banning buyers and sellers who abuse the system - however when its clear a suspension is not warranted you need to be able to revise/reverse immediately when its pointed out with actionable evidence..and not give people the complete run around.

3 days ago i woke up to a lovely MC999 email from Ebay informing me that had suspended my account due to the following:
An unusually high number of refunds received that are outside the sellers' return policy. Because of this behavior, we've: --Restricted your ability to buy items or place bids for the next 14 days. --

(We HAVE) Removed from related seller profiles any neutral or negative Feedback and low detailed seller ratings left by you within the past year. ..

well, ok then I guess the guy who threatened me ("be prepared for more upcoming things coming your way for your negative feed back given to me)" and other female buyers on Ebay will be happy given that warning comment was removed- so all good for him. For me not so much ...

Thinking that a mistake had been made, I called Ebay to speak to customer service. I explained I was confused, to which I was told "you have a pattern of abusive buyer behavior". Of course I asked, how so? To which I was told my percentages for returns were higher than normal- 20%.

Armed with this information, I went on to the eBay site to check my purchases against my refunds and indeed of the 81 purchases I've made 17 had in some way resulted in a refund... on the computerized surface red flag right? Actually no. not if someone at Ebay accounts had actually taken the time to look at the alleged abusive refunds ( which i am still being assured they did!)

so I went through the refunds myself: 8 were related to UPS/USPS shipping damage ( heavy electronics) of which:
* 5 were picked up by UPS and returned to the seller who subsequently filed a claim.
* 3 were kept by me, and a partial refund given to cover repairs, for which I have receipts!..

4 were related to shipping refunds, namely where the shipping calculator or shipping options had been incorrect and prior to purchase I had asked the sellers if I can ship the item using a cheaper method.

2 were "items not received" 1 was for an item that had been mislisted, and prior to seller actually shipping out I had caught this and canceled the transaction.( after all God forbid that I might want to hopefully save someone unnecessary shipping costs)

3 items were for refunds for items that did not work upon arrival.-

so I called customer service again to give them this insight. Whereupon, I was left on hold for an extortionate length of time, and then informed yet I showed an abusive pattern whereby " I bought things cheaply, and try to get them cheaper still"-(which is interesting given a lot of them were picked up by ups and all i got back was my original price!). Then I was told I should have avoided the UPS resultant refunds by "having UPS write the check directly to me" – which as you know, is not an option as UPS deals with the shipper not the recipient!

Tying to speak in "EBay terms" I got on the phone with different customer service rep who put me through to a customer service supervisor who put me through to a trust and safety representative, who then put me through to a trust and safety supervisor, who then put me through to the power seller/ top rated department ( as you can imagine this was lengthy process) I explained to all 5 people that indeed it may look high that there were 20% refunds,however it was misleading given that:
44% of the 20% of those refunds were due to shipping damage which is out of my control-( after all I take no joy in spending $500 on an item only to receive said damaged item, -only to have UPS pick it up to return to the seller -to get the same $500 back!!!... Maybe, I have some as yet undiagnosed form of eBay Munchausen)

22% of the 20% was simply shipping refunds

16% of the 20 % items not listed ect ect ect... in reality, the refunds that may have been of concern, i guess namely the partial refunds given due to not items not as listed(3) or shipping damage(3), equated to less than 4% of my purchases! ( yep i know i have a thriving 'get it dishonestly cheap' business going over here) Alas, the above made not a partical of difference, as I was told this restriction could not be lifted because of the percentages.. Ebay policy .. and of course, my abusive buying behavior ect,ect,ect ( yep that again) ... apparently someone, somewhere in the EBAY protection abyss had in fact reviewed my case thoroughly before suspending me- in fact my "polite emails have been taken note off"... well gee thanks, lets thank the heavens i am a polite thief!

when asked if I was responsible for the 8 damaged items I was told "no" when asked if the 4 shipping refund seemed unreasonable I was told "no"

when asked if being refunded for an item that didn't arrive was not reasonable I was told "no"

when asked if accepting a refund because someone had listed the same item twice and they had to cancel my order i was told "no"
- but that didn't change the fact that they couldn't lift the suspension..

however they would submit an appeal ( to do the same review they had done already - weird how that works..) to the same people who'd already done the review previously ( as you can imagine my faith in that process is questionable!)

As you can imagine I was/and stil am unhappy, I called again and went through the same rigmarole three times, each time being told the same thing.. on day 2 I was told Jeannette at T&S would call me back – no one did.. on day 3 I was told "Jason" would call me back first thing in the morning-

I have gotten nowhere. is this really customer service? is this really how you protect buyers and sellers?is this really how you resolve mistakes? ..

at this point I should mention I have personally reported 1 seller on 5 separate occasions, who states in his description that he will not honor Ebay bids, only bids made by his personal email !!- and guess what he is still on eBay, and those Bose V35's are still being sold to the gullible at $1700 a pop-

just to put a final smile on your face, my favorite nugget of the entire thing was when I asked who I could complain about Trust and safety to...." You can send a letter to John Donohue, diretly"...the CEO OF Ebay... I am so frustrated and disappointed by all levels of Ebay customer service at this point that i thought I would reach out here and hopefully someone, somewhere will have a solution to this mess!.. John, I'm sure you're a busy chap but if you could help out a tad that would be great.... i am waiting!! Please help if anybody offer any advice as to how i might get this resolved i'd be most appreciative...
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• Customer service