Is eBay purging accounts from their system? Some sellers report on forums and in e-mails that their accounts have been restricted with no warning, taking away important sources of income and/or fun. “My account, that I’ve had for twelve years, has been essentially closed. My wife’s income is now severely restricted, and I’m starting to panic,” writes reader Michael.

A similar purge occurred back in August, and industry blog EcommerceBytes got confirmation from eBay that accounts were restricted based on their performance. “Recently, we took action on certain seller accounts that were below performance standards based on a variety of criteria,” a spokesman explained. An account could have flawless standard feedback, but the swift hammer of suspension could fall on a seller that didn’t maintain a certain (unspecified) score in eBay’s Detailed Seller Ratings. DSRs, as the cool kids call them, are ratings on a scale of one to five stars that go beyond standard positive/negative/neutral feedback. Customers rate important features like shipping speed, the fairness of shipping and handling charges, and whether the item is as described in the listing.

Members who can no longer sell are still allowed to bid and buy on eBay, though it’s understandable that they would no longer want to.

We contacted eBay to find out whether they can tell us why sellers are getting restricted and what the criteria are, and will update this post when we hear back from them.

eBay Seller Purge 2.0 [EcommerceBytes]
Seller performance standards [eBay]
Your account has been restricted indefinitely – can anyone help [eBay Forums]

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