Ebay accounts being suspended?

[derek]

Hi lads, just wondering if this has happened to anyone else on here? I opened an Ebay account last Sunday, having never used the site before. I was trying to buy a footbridge from the seller that @Darius43 sourced his from for Whiterock. The seller and I were messaging back and forth until today when I was informed by email that my account was suspended- not giving any reason. I thought it was a scam at first, as they are looking for proof of identity, address etc. However it seems to be  genuine alright. I have contacted their customer services by email and will probably hear back Monday. Very frustrating, just wondering if it has happened anybody else.

[Mol_PMB]

Some thoughts as to possible reasons, I can't say if any of these are fact:

• Ebay users build up a reputation over time through successful transactions and good feedback. A bit like getting a credit rating with your bank. Brand new users haven't had a chance to do that, so may be viewed more cautiously.
• Most ebay transactions involve very little messaging. It's just a case of finding what you want and clicking 'buy'.
• Messaging can be necessary for genuine reasons but sometimes people try to use messaging for things that are against the ebay rules - e.g. buying directly from a seller outside of ebay, to avoid the ebay charges. 
• So it's possible that a brand new user doing a lot of messaging before buying anything may have been flagged as 'suspicious activity' (probably by some monitoring bot).

[Broithe]

Some of these issues may be down to eBay using AI systems that aren't actually that intelligent in real terms.

I recently mentioned a photo that was for sale purporting to be from Ballybrophy, but clearly not. It was suggested where it was and a few checks on Google Maps confirmed it. Out of the goodness of my heart I decided to inform the seller, in case a buyer was believing that it was Ballybrophy. This proved to be quite difficult, as the system scanning my messages was not happy about me supplying geographical data and refused to allow them to be sent, presumably thinking that we were negotiating a method to prevent eBay from getting their cut...

We got there in the end, but it was all a bit odd, to say the least. A 'real person' would not have been making such weird assessments.

having established that the information on the sale offer was incorrect, the system wouldn't allow it to be corrected, but the actual buyer was supplied with the true location - eventually.

[jhb171achill]

2 hours ago, Broithe said:

Some of these issues may be down to eBay using AI systems that aren't actually that intelligent in real terms.

I recently mentioned a photo that was for sale purporting to be from Ballybrophy, but clearly not. It was suggested where it was and a few checks on Google Maps confirmed it. Out of the goodness of my heart I decided to inform the seller, in case a buyer was believing that it was Ballybrophy. This proved to be quite difficult, as the system scanning my messages was not happy about me supplying geographical data and refused to allow them to be sent, presumably thinking that we were negotiating a method to prevent eBay from getting their cut...

We got there in the end, but it was all a bit odd, to say the least. A 'real person' would not have been making such weird assessments.

having established that the information on the sale offer was incorrect, the system wouldn't allow it to be corrected, but the actual buyer was supplied with the true location - eventually.

In this day and age we need to be careful. I tried to correct several wikipedia entries (all related to Irish railway history!) in recent years, and while in some cases I was able to, in others I wasn't. These were cases where incorrect dates or something else had been quoted. In an eventual conversation with a wiki person online, I established that they wouldn't change it as "it says so" in a separate online source. It did indeed "say so"; but that source was plain wrong.

[west_clare_wanderer]

I'm with Mol, in that I suspect it might be to do with the fact there was a lot of messaging on a new account. eBay really doesn't like messaging, principally because it suspects that users are trying to arrange deals outside of their system. It's just about them maintaining a monopoly. 

Fingers crossed, it's just a temporary glitch and you will be unblocked in due course. 

[Broithe]

10 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

In this day and age we need to be careful. I tried to correct several wikipedia entries (all related to Irish railway history!) in recent years, and while in some cases I was able to, in others I wasn't. These were cases where incorrect dates or something else had been quoted. In an eventual conversation with a wiki person online, I established that they wouldn't change it as "it says so" in a separate online source. It did indeed "say so"; but that source was plain wrong.

Ah, the Hierarchy of Misinformation...

This is a classic example of that.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Coolacurragh+Wood/@52.815813,-7.6684421,1160m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x485ce08c6d15b76b:0xa99f7ea7f5416d25!8m2!3d52.8160993!4d-7.6656446!16s%2Fg%2F11hpmy21jg?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MTAyNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

A woodland nature reserve - shown located in an area of empty grass fields with barely a decent tree anywhere.

I pointed this out to Google Maps, showing them the correct location, 10km away to the east, on the edge of the townland of the same name.

Not good enough!

I pointed out that you can actually read the name on the sign in the parking area on their own Street View pictures.

Still not good enough!

Eventually, I discovered that the NPWS site has the incorrect latitude/longitude reference on it, and this, of course, supersedes all actual reality imparted by lesser beings. I emailed NPWS, but never got a response. Mind you, I see that they talk about the lake on the site - there isn't any open water there at all - the lake is on a different reserve, about a kilometre east of that one.

https://www.npws.ie/nature-reserves/laois/coolacurragh-wood-nature-reserve

I don't know why I bother...

 

It's easier than ever now to do things properly and to correct mistakes that do slip through, but a lot of people just aren't bothered.

 

I spent a couple of years trying to persuade Google Maps that a local road was not closed. Eventually they did believe me, but only after they had shown it like that for about four years in total. I took four goes at it, I think. It had actually been impassable for only a couple of hours, whilst a fallen tree was dealt with, but, I presume, having got this from a reliable source, that didn't come back and report it unblocked, they just left it there. Well, I say that they believed me, I think what actually happened was that the local agricultural show generated enough traffic along the 'closed' road to make it clear that it was not closed at all.

It's not just 'the internet', I noticed this more slapdash approach on the change from LPs to CDs. A mistake in the production of an LP was very rare, but became far more common on CDs - missing information, incorrect track listings, spelling mistakes, etc., all became quite prevalent.

In my past life, I used to have to deal with earthquake resistance of structures. I noticed that there is a diagram that will be used in most books on the subject and it is almost always drawn slightly incorrectly, being endlessly regurgitated to the point that it is 'the true diagram' now.