July 20

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Ebay Hell – Breathing life into an old account

By Christopher Mendla

July 20, 2008


Last Updated on December 3, 2019 by Christopher G Mendla

Dang, All I wanted to do was put up a tractor that might bring in 100 bucks if I’m lucky. I started working with my old ebay account that I haven’t used since about 2001.

Well, If I had simply done my usual consulting at my usual rates I could have thrown the tractor in the trash and come out 900 bucks ahead.

I realize that ebay has to protect against the legions of dirtball scammers but this is getting insane.

One of the complicating factors was when they bought out half.com back around 2000. The half.com accounts somehow became ebay accounts. I was using an old isp based email for my ebay so I used my primary, business domain based email for the ebay/half account.

Here is what I’ve done so far and still haven’t been able to post my steeenking tractor for sale.

  • Tried to change the email for my main ebay account. Problem. I could not change to my business domain based email because there was already an account with that email. (My ebay/half account). I had to do this because I no longer have access to the email that was on file.
  • Resurrected the ebay half account with a combo of ‘forgot my id’, ‘forgot my password’ confirm, etc.
  • Changed the ebay half account main password to another email I have.
  • Tried to change my main ebay account to use my business domain email. No luck. Evidentally it still thinks it is being used
  • So, I changed the email for my ebay main account to yet another email (gotta hire an accountant to track all this). Went through the confirm etc.
  • Then I put the ad together. Oops, ebay now wants .15 per picture. I’m planning on putting a bunch of stuff for the business up. So, what do I do?? I have some underutilized hosting and used the ‘host pics on your site’ option. However, it took me about 15 minutes to confirm that there was no cost for that.
  • Used the ‘save this sale’ option. However, when I would come back, the paypal email address would revert to the useless paypal address I no longer own and the shipping would keep reverting to USPS.. YEah, I want to send a 500 pound tractor priority mail to denver.. Yep, that’s the ticket.
  • So, I went on to the next step and it told me I needed to do a phone verification. Not sure which account it was, but I think it was my ebay main. I had to listen to the static hiss a couple of times to get the pin right.
  • So, I’m ready to post my sale.. Not yet pardner.. I’m getting a message that I have to verify my bank account. OK, Let’s do it.. Hold on there pard. “We’re sorry but we cannot perform this action due to technical difficulties”. Well, how long will THAT take?
  • So, I find the email to support and wade through the various ‘don’t really send us mail’ traps and sneak an email through. Got a “We got your request” email a couple of minutes later.
  • OK. Let’s see what happens. All I wanted to do was post a steeenking tractor.

Chris

UPDATE 7 20 08 – I found that there is a live chat feature on ebay’s home page. I didn’t see it because, for some reason, I didn’t think to look for it on just the home page. I would have thought that chat would be found on the contact page.. Oh well. – anyway, I contacted customer support on a Sunday and they were able to get me access to my site again. The one bad thing was that I lost my work in progress on my listing but fortunately I had saved that in a seperate file.

Christopher Mendla

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