Once upon a time...

This is the begining of my story.
I was a registered eBay user for about a week. I also signed up to paypal and was approved.
Once Paypal approved my card, I've entered eBay in order to by something and give my eBay and paypal account their first run.

I've been using my account for teo days, in which I've managed to watch some items in my account and ask some sellers about shipment to Israel, and for payment options (wanted to find out whether they want a payment via paypal or by sending money).

As i've sent a question regarding shipment and payment options to the second seller that night (seems like a legitimate thing to do if you want to by something overseas) I've recieved this email:


Dear itamar050,
We regret to inform you that your eBay account has been suspended due to concerns we have for the safety of the eBay community.

To appeal your suspension, please reply to this email.

Why have we suspended your account?

The section of our User Agreement headed "Abusing eBay" states that we may suspend an eBay account if we believe that the user is creating problems or possible financial loss or legal liabilities.

We may also suspend an eBay account if the user has breached the User Agreement or if we are unable to verify or authenticate any information that the user provides to us.You can read our User Agreement by copying the following link into a new browser window:http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/user-agreement.html

During your suspension you are prohibited from using eBay in any way, including registering new accounts. We have ended your open listings.Please be advised that this suspension does not relieve you of your obligation to pay any fees that you may owe to eBay.

Thank you for your cooperation.
Regards,

eBay Trust & Safety


Well, good for me, I'm a dangerous person HA HA HA...
anyway..I've replied with this answer, and that's the begining of my long and so far endless session with eBay:

Hello,

My name is Itamar Avidani,

I'm a registered user and I've just received this message saying my account has been suspended.

In my opinion - I was suspended due to similar messages I've sent to sellers regarding shipment information and payment options.

I did not abuse any user and did not spam anyone with multiple messages.

The message I've sent to users is:
"Hi,Would like to know if shipment to Israel is available. If it is, what would be the cost?Also - is it possible to pay via paypal?Thanks in advance!Itamar"

I would thank you if you would relief the suspension, since I'm a new user that didn't get the chance to fully experiment with the site.

Besides today I've contacted one more seller, which was kind enough and supplied the information regarding shipment costs and payment options.

I didn't get to win one item yet and once I've tried to get into working with the site - you've sent me this suspension message + a "feedback removal" message.

I would be grateful if you could remove the suspension and the negative feedback which you've given me, since there's an item I want to get and it's auction ends in less then an hour.

Thanks in advance,

itamar.


As you can see, i was innocent enough to believe that someone actually sits there at the eBay support center, who'll read my mail and check my account, see if I'm telling the truth about being a new user and will remove my suspension....well, the truth is this is , as I said, the begining of the true "neverending story".

More about that - at the next post.



itamar.