Is eBay Cracking Down On Overseas Dropshippers?
When eBay announced a new Shipping Performance Policy aimed at international sellers who sell on the main US marketplace, there was speculation the policy may be used to crack down on foreign dropshippers - now a flurry of posts in the eBay community indicates that speculation may have been correct.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
The new policy isn't set to take effect until July 24th, but there has already been an influx of complaints about account restrictions from international sellers, many of whom appear to be in violation of eBay dropshipping or item location policies or who simply have caused a "bad buyer experience" (according to eBay).
My account with 13 years and 572 positive feedback was restricted due to INR yesterday. In 95 transactions, 2 packages were claimed to be delivered late to the recipients, and 2 buyers said that the packages were not delivered. But these 2 packages were delivered to the buyers. I have proof of delivery. One of the buyers is a newbie to eBay and doesn't know how the eBay system works.
Sellers paying the penalty for ignorance, inexperience and mistakes of buyers and shipping companies. I can not know to will my account be fixed? eBay customer service was also unable to provide a satisfactory answer. Can anyone help on the subject?
The e-mail that Ebay sent me:
Upon evaluation of your recent transactions, we noticed that the INR% (item not received rate) of your eBay account is "extremely bad" level. Pursuant to our eBay user agreement and eBay policies, we regret to inform you that your eBay account will be restricted. This restriction means that:
(a) Your selling privileges are restricted. Consequently, you will not be able to create new listings or revise any listings that are live on eBay sites; and
(b) Your payouts have been placed on hold.The safety of our community is a top priority for us. We appreciate your understanding in this matter.
Some sellers claim the INR penalty shouldn't be applied or they believe eBay is unfairly enforcing the policy, however without more information it's difficult to tell what may really be going on in these cases.
my account got restricted yesterday because of the new INS policy, but when i read the policy and contacted some ebay agents i found that ebay is contradicting itself, they told me i will have to wait for 980days, and in their policy, they said the evaluation will be every 2 weeks, and another agent told me it will be every month, the agent doesn't explain anything they just tell you the account is restricted and they close the chat.
they also said this policy will start on 24/jul, and transactions before 2/jul will not be evaluated on their policy page, but then they said i was restricted because i had high INR in the last year.
this is weird, i posted this issue in a facebook group and i found many sellers with the same restriction, some of them have 0 ''not received'' cases
Other sellers are receiving restrictions due to "bad buyer experience."
For example this seller's account is registered in Morocco but their listings gave a generic item location of "Multiple Location, United States" which is a violation of eBay's item location policies that require "clear and accurate information about where the item is located, including the postal code, city and country where the item will ship from" to be included in listings.
please give me a solution for this problem. thank you very much.
message from Ebay:
" eBay regularly conducts evaluation of seller??s account. In relation to your aforesaid seller account, we have noticed that a significant number of eBay buyers have had extremely bad buying experience when transacting with you.A bad buyer experience (??BBE??) will occur but is not limited to the following scenarios:
(a) Buyer filed for a dispute under ??Item Not as Described??;
(b) Buyer returned the item and gave a return reason that indicates ??Item Not as Described??;
(c) Seller canceled the transaction because you no longer had the item, or the item was never shipped, and the buyer's money was returned;
(d) Buyer left a Detailed Seller Rating score of 1, 2, or 3 for ??Item as Described??; or
(e) Buyer left Neutral or Negative feedback for you.To protect the eBay community from BBE and pursuant to the eBay User Agreement and eBay Policies, we regret to inform you that your eBay account has been restricted.
This restriction means that:
(a) Your selling privileges are restricted. Consequently, you will not be able to create new listings or revise any listings that are live on eBay sites; and
(b) Your payouts have been placed on hold.The safety of our community is a top priority for us. We appreciate your understanding in this matter.
Regards,
eBay "
This seller received the same message about being restricted for Bad Buyer Experience and when experienced community members questioned whether it really came from eBay due to some of the wording, eBay community staff confirmed it is a legitimate eBay message and the affected seller should contact support for additional information.
While it would be very concerning if eBay is in fact restricting some of these accounts in error, many buyers and sellers will likely cheer on any efforts eBay may be making to crack down on foreign dropshippers or those who do not follow policies.
eBay has historically turned a blind eye to these violations, which has harmed legitimate sellers and chased away buyers who have increasingly had negative experiences on the platform.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
So why has eBay apparently started to crack down on the practice?
It could have something to do with the INFORM Consumers Act, which requires marketplaces to collect and disclose certain information about high-volume sellers (including if they engage in online arbitrage dropshipping) - with eBay facing fines of up to $50,120 per violation for non-compliance!
Liz Morton ~ Founder
