The Day Disaster Struck!
Normally I would not make this type of post but I know one or two other students have had some tough times too and commented about it. Also Alex Jeffreys advised us to explain our current position on our blogs so that people can follow our progress.
This is not the type of blog post I’d ever planned to make, but so here goes.
(I may still change my mind and remove this post)
Everyone has good and bad days, but Wednesday 29th July was my worst in ten years of running businesses online.
Our printing business has been quiet recently anyway because of the time of year, the credit crunch etc, and our online sales have reached an all time low. That’s due to the amount of competition – people selling items for 1p plus shipping.
My girlfriend gave up her job as a financial controller to join the printing business and our combined income had already dropped far below her previous salary, and she had to give up her BMW company car and drive a small Honda instead.
I was beginning to see some success with my coaching course and had started to build a long term business and I felt things were improving gradually.
But then disaster struck!
My main eBay account which I have had since 1999 and had built up a feedback of 31756 was suspended. I have no idea why – it has 99.8% positive feedback and we have not had a warning of any problem.
http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=accessorieswarehouse&ftab=AllFeedback
I asked eBay why and this was the reply:
“I’ve personally reviewed your account and can confirm that it’s
restricted from selling on eBay. The reason for this is that your
account breached eBay’s Seller Non-Performance policies.
While your account is restricted you won’t be able to sell on eBay,
however you may continue to buy items, leave Feedback, access emails in
My Messages and do most other administrative tasks.”
That doesn’t answer anything – I am still trying to resolve the problem. This kind of situation is not uncommon on eBay.
eBay was not the main source of sales, but it was a backup and I intended to build up the business again on there – an opportunity now taken away for no apparent reason.
Wednesday evening we really couldn’t see how we could keep on our mail order staff.
We reluctantly abandoned our plan of going on holiday to Ireland at the end of August.
It looked like we could not afford to keep on our staff – I would have to go back to packing the orders myself (the few that we now have) try and find more business elsewhere. That would mean I have less time for my coaching studies. I realise a lot of other students have full time jobs and must really have to work hard to keep up, but I really wanted to put a lot of effort into my information busienss and build it fast.
I hardly slept at all Wednesday night. I felt I was trapped in a corner with no way out.
Thursday morning I got up knowing I had to do something fast and
I remembered what Alex Jeffreys said a few weeks ago
“Winner Never Quit, Quiters Never Win”
I abandoned the plans I had made already and began to work out how to strike back…
[To be continued..]
UPDATE
Forgot to mention my Amazon account also had a warning on it and payments are being withheld.
Things can only get better…
Tagged with: Amazon • eBay • Keith Purkiss
Filed under: General • Sourcing Products • eBay Articles
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Hi Keith
Sorry to hear of your troubles – I am sure you will deal with them in the best possible way.
I am not an eBay fan or aficionado but their “Seller Non-Performance policy” normally means unresolved disputes, negative feedback and other things. They also consider these actions over the past 30 days – so even if your past record is good – if your most recent transactions have had problems – then this may have resulted in the action being taken. (Hope that makes sense!)
If this is so, then you may have a case to answer – you could focus on an “abnormal trading month”, a “one-off bad spell”, or something like that to try to resolve things.
Whatever happens, I wish you luck.
All the best
pj
Sorry to hear that Keith!
Sometimes life does test us with a swift kick in the teeth just as things look good!
I don’t know if it’s to teach us more lessons it feels we need to learn – or to move us into a position of new opportunity’s we might have otherwise missed?
Looking back on my own offline bankruptcy a few years ago – I can say with hindsight it was probably the best thing that could have happened in terms of leading me to the life I now have…
But at the time it obviously was the worst thing that could have happened!
So here’s hoping the universe steers you to better things and resolves any issues that are currently stressful.
Randy
http://www.RandolfSmith.com
Im sure you will sort this out keith ….i had a similar issue a while ago when i sold sports gear on ebay..my fast selling line was suspended because somebody else was selling fakes ..no warning just stopped.
Make sure thats not the reason you could be unfairly blocked here.
Anyway every cloud and all that
hope it gets sorted soon
richard
Just a quick question on the last post …how do you get to here of the Seminars etc do you have to be in the circle to get invites
richard
Thanks PJ,
I’ve asked them again exactly what it was due to and have received the same answer twice now. I wish they wouldnt use copy and paste answers
Thanks Randy,
I now have to make sure my online business gorws as well as building up the other parts again.
I’m hoping to have some better news in my next post.
I have to agree with Randy. I choose to believe that it is kicking us in the direction of success on a different level.
You are extremely talented and will emerge on the other side of this better than ever.
eBay walks to the tune of their own drummer and don’t really care what individuals think. I still don’t see how they survive with their way of cutting people out of the loop but they are so big I guess they figure what the heck.
Maybe your employee was hiding more from you than you know.
As usual, any help you need — I am here. I just can’t reach across the pond and do much in that area.
Carol
Hi keith,
Really sorry to hear about your troubles with ebay, but don’t even think about quitting the coaching. You’ve got so much knowledge and technical skills, I’m sure that you can probably complete a task in an hour that would take me the best part of a day.
This should put your situation into perspective:
I’m broke. I have to try a learn things myself and can’t properly outsource, because I dare not put anything else on my credit cards. I’ve got a mortgage overdraft of tens of thousands, 3 kids (beautiful kids) and my previous business has practically come to a standstill.
This has to work for me, in a matter of weeks, or I’ve had it.
Just remember, there is always someone worse off than yourself and if you just pause for a moment and take stock of everything you’ve got going for you, you’ll probably see that things aren’t so bad after all.
Keep in the fight man – I’m counting on you.
Andrew.
Hi Richard,
I’m still trying to get an answer from eBay that isnt the same as the ones I’ve already had.
RE: Seminars – I heard about this one from Kevin Riley.
Maybe we should start a list of events for people so people can find out about them?
Hi Carol,
I’ll be back on eBay in 4 weeks as it’s a suspension not a completre ban.
In the meantime I’ll be building in other directions as well, and have some results already.
Thanks
Keith
Thanks Andrew,
I suppose this seems harder because my partner left her job to join the business, then we went into the credit crunch.
I’m already on my way up again, but this was a good point to re-start my blog from and tell my story from here onwards about how I build for the future.
Keith, that’s awful ! Talk about judge, jury and executioner. I’ve never really done anything on eBay although I have considered it at times. You do hear these stories, but looking at your feedback, you seem to have had overwhelmingly positive feedback.
All I can suggest is that you actually write to them, recorded delivery, asking specifically why they did it. Or maybe even call them, ask for their complaints department’s fax number, then fax to them. Call the next day to confirm that they got it and then ask them when you can expect a proper response. As you say, “cut & paste” answers are no answers at all.
Fingers corssed for you !
Roger
I’m really feel so sorry about what happen to you with an Ebay. This make me think twice about involve in doing business with Ebay.
What is my suggestion here, I think we only need to use ebay only as site income not as main source of income. I know there are a lot of success story about people or guru’s who had proven can make a lot of money. But for ordinary people like us who are blind with their term and condition maybe this is the best approach for this time being.
Looking at your problem I think i would like try to contact Dave Guindon. I think he is one of the best people for you to approach regarding your problem with Ebay. He have been teaching people how to make money with an ebay quite long times.
Just google his name and you’ll find it. I’m cannot promise that you can reach him but at least you can try.
Hi Keith,
I’m so sorry, I was totally unaware of this today.
I feel for your predicament, but you know I’m not going to hear of your quitting!! Your initial reasoning for taking the coaching is still sound, and opportunities OnLine are still expanding, despite the added restrictions we face.
Your partner’s involvement in the downturn can help you develop a stronger bond – but it’ll need working on with real care and patience I expect (after 42 years of marriage I speak with some experience!!).
I really believe that you are capable of planning a baseline route through this because you have the skills and resources to achieve a much stronger OnLine Income than many of those around you.
That doesn’t remove the worry and sense of responsibility towards others involved, but it should certainly give you hope and an increased desire to achieve success!!
You know I’d love to lob a few grenades into the EBay hornets nest for you, but I’ll resist that and concentrate on using the help you’ve given ME to try to do the same for you as I too work at achieving my OnLine ambitions.
Not sure if my sentiment will be represented as I mean it to be but here goes for an attempt at including an image……
[img]http://cdn.content.sweetim.com/sim/cpie/emoticons/000202C4.gif[/img]
Yours
John
Ah well, I’ll postpone the Robert the Bruce bit and not keep trying!! When you feel up to it you can tell me where I went wrong!!
John
Hi Keith,
I’m sorry to hear about your ebay business. That is so frustrating when they don’t give you a specific answer. How are you supposed to 1) Defend your position or 2) Fix the problem if they don’t tell you anything.
That’s good to hear that it’s only for 4 weeks, but I’d demand to know what caused it. Hope you find out more.
Thanks, Heidi
Hi Keith,
Great blog,absolutely bursting with great info,look forwardto
get to know you while we are both doing Alex’s course.
Cheers Derek
Hey Keith
Man thats crap news my friend so sorry for ya,but hey man we got this coaching course together my friend we will do this im sure of it. Man I am in debt up to me eyeballs depending on credit cards to stay afloat.I will never give up WE must never give up mate.
speak soon keith
cheers
marcus
Hi Keith
Keep your chin up and I agree with the other comments. Everything in life happens for a reason, I bet you’ll look back on this day as a turning point when you said “stuff ebay, stuff amazon I am only gonnae rely on myself from now on to make cash online”.
I know where your coming from, although I wasn’t making a living on ebay I used to make some extra, much needed cash from it and also had my account restricted a few times for reasons which never made sense. The problem with ebay is that sellers get walked all over, you never see that in the newspapers its all about how the buyers get ripped off, but all it takes is for your competition to keep reporting your listings and next the next day you open your account and your suspended.
Hope it all works out
Graeme
So sorry to hear of your troubles, Keith. Seeing both eBay and Amazon having issues with makes one wonder if they are related. What really irks me is that won’t tell you WHY. If you don’t know the why you can’t rectify it and could quite possibly do it again.
Cheers,
Rod
Thanks everyone for your comments.
I did get an answer in the end. A customer complained about an order, but we were not notified of this and had no chance to put our case. They won’t even tell us who the customer is.
Looks like anyone could knock out their competitors by complaining!
Hi Keith…
Ebay is notorious for doing stuff like that…but with your huge feedback it’s unbelievable that they just set things in motion without contacting you first and trying to get it fixed.
Hang in there…this is when the Universe is testing your resolve…how badly do you want the things you are dreaming about? There truly is a silver lining to what seems like a downer right now…
I love following you and your advice (and, I’ve included a reference to one of your posts of my blog), so see yourself through this bump because there is sunshine on the other side!
Kathy
Keith,
Almost sounds like Ebay is daring you to resolve the issue and then make a product about ‘how to sell on ebay, get banned and then become a millionaire out of sheer spite’ product.
Let me know if you need anything.
You’ll make it through… I know you will.
Cheers,
Rob
Hi Keith,
Sorry to hear about the shabby treatment eBay gave you but it seems to be resolving. Relying heavily on any one source of income or even two is not a good idea. When I worked for a distributor company (manufacturers wholesaler type) we relied heavily on one manufacturer and had a great business. All of a sudden they cut us of for no reason. In my small service business recently a similar thing happened. Half of my income disappeared.
So what you’re doing now is the right thing to do. Eventually you won’t have to rely on big shots for your income. This is also why I’m taking this coaching.
Thanks for your help. It’s great that you took the time in spite of your difficult circumstances.
Hey Keith…
It’s times like this when your best ideas come out for the HUGE money. This experience will have you looking at things in a whole new light so you could capitalize on what is most profitable to you.
Take the time now to keep building the online business and really hit it hard. There are only great things ahead for you, man. This experience should be a huge motivator for you to overly exceed any of your previous expectations.
I can’t wait to watch journey!!
To YOUR success!
Joe Fier
Well, after reading your latest post on Building The Business – it seems as though the eBay “thing” hasn’t put you off. As usual you are putting a lot of effort into your various businesses – which must be an inspiration to others! (It is to me!!)
Well done and keep it up!
Regards
pj
Great work keith.
I just joined your my Blog log
Steve
Hey Keith – glad to hear that you finally got some clue as to what went wrong. But are you still persona non grata as far as ebay are concerned ?
Roger
Hei from Norway Keith,
Thanks for this post!
Do share what develops for you with ebay.
I have also had some scale problems with doing business there and have never gotten follow through with them in resolving it.
Lead on!