My 21yo eBay Account Got 🚨Banned🚨

Overview

The video is a first-person account of being permanently banned by eBay and the chaotic process of appealing and obtaining personal data under GDPR/data protection rules.

What happened

• On 25 June 2026, the creator receives two emails stating their ~21-year-old eBay account was permanently suspended for activity allegedly “putting the eBay community at risk.”
• They believe the account should be low-risk based on their history, including:
  • no recent negative feedback
  • 300+ transactions
  • long-standing account use

Trying to figure out the ban (and struggling)

• The creator tries eBay’s appeal links, but encounters 404 errors and inconsistent guidance.
• After quickly reaching human support the first time:
  • support claims they can’t see why the account was suspended
  • a complaint is filed, with a promised response in a few days
• Later, another agent says the decision cannot be appealed again because an earlier appeal was already denied, so the suspension stands.
• The creator then tries a subject access request (SAR) to obtain all data eBay holds, but:
  • the account page initially errors
  • links they receive fail or error intermittently
  • some requests appear to go nowhere (“void in spaceime”)
• They also report delays and confusion around proof of identity requests, including multiple emails to different addresses with unclear instructions.

The suspected trigger: a dispute over faulty sandals

• The creator recounts ordering sandals for £9.99 in late April/May 2026.
• After wearing them briefly, they claim the sandals were defective (straps failing to hold the foot correctly) and they return them as faulty, including photos.
• The seller disputes the refund, alleging wear and refusing the refund, citing return conditions for unworn items.
• The creator escalates toward eBay and suggests a seller named “dodgy Sandalman” may have “dobbed them in,” potentially leading to the ban.

Turning point: identity verification reinstates the account

On a later phone call, support agent #4 claims the real reason:

• eBay needed to verify the creator’s identity because the system suspected the account was being converted into a selling account (or potentially was hacked / not the account owner).
• The creator is told eBay apparently banned first, then sent the “community risk” suspension notice, instead of asking for identity verification through a message.
• The creator is informed their account is reinstated soon after this explanation.

What the creator concludes from the experience

The creator frames the broader “lesson” as:

1. Human phone support is usually better than AI/chat systems, even if still ineffective.
2. Data requests sent via the wrong path or outside the account interface may disappear.
3. eBay may not be fully transparent or consistent about why a ban happened.
4. They express strong doubt about eBay’s commitment to GDPR compliance—at least during the process—though later updates partially improve the picture.
5. The “dodgy Sandalman” explanation may not actually be the cause; the final explanation points more to eBay’s identity/suspicion automation.

Final update: subject access request eventually delivers data

• The creator later receives confirmation that the SAR is ready.
• The data is delivered via Kiteworks as a password-protected zip file containing their data.
• They experience confusion about the password delivery mechanism, apparently needing support to obtain/read it.
• Eventually, they get the password from a support agent and access 21 years of eBay data.
• They also note that without record requests, eBay may not retain certain purchase history for very long periods (their example: a fountain pen purchase from over 5 years ago).

Presenters / contributors

• Jill (the creator), “Jill Versus the Machines” / Jill Barup