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eBay MC999 Account Warning Notice: Did I Buy Too Many GCs & eGCs During eBay Deals?

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great Easter or Passover Weekend.  Earlier this morning, I received this email from eBay telling me that my purchasing behavior is violating eBay’s Site Interference Policy.  Basically, eBay is accusing me of buying items via eBay Deals for the purpose of reselling.  I have been known to buy a few discounted GCs/eGCs from eBay, but I didn’t think it warranted a warning letter.  It’s not like I have 10 different eBay accounts and buy as many discounted GCs/eGCs as possible.  Here are the main parts of the email:

Listings promoted on the eBay Deals have a limit on the amount of items you can purchase, primarily to maintain an equal marketplace for all members and allow other eBay members the opportunity to take part in the eBay Deals.

The activity involved with these purchases appears to be related to the procurement of inventory for re-sale by a separate entity. If there is another reason for the volume purchased during this sale, please bring this to our attention.

Here is the complete email:

a screenshot of a email

I then checked out the Site Interference Policy to see what it said.  Like I mentioned earlier, I was not trying to circumvent the buying limits.  If the listing allowed me to buy up to 3 or 5 gift cards, I bought 3 or 5 gift cards.  Make the limit 1 if you do not want members to purchase more than 1 gift card.

Site interference policy overview

We strive to make eBay a safe and trusted marketplace for both buyers and sellers. Interference or attempted interference with the eBay site, site operations, or policies isn’t allowed. This includes attempts to purposely circumvent our buying and selling policies, or the way our site functions. These kinds of activities can undermine trust, interfere with searching for items, and negatively affect both buyers and sellers.

Examples of the type of behavior that isn’t allowed are in these guidelines, but any attempt to manipulate our site or policies may result in action against your account. In addition to your listing or product being removed, you may be subject to a range of other actions, including limits of your buying and selling privileges or suspension of your account.

To refresh my memory, I looked at the GCs/eGCs I purchased in 2019.  Year to date (YTD), I purchase 3 Lowe’s GCs and 5 Famous Footwear eGCs for a total of $470.00.  I took a break for the first 3 months of the year and just started to purchase GCs/eGCs in April to meet minimum spending requirement for my March App-O-Rama credit cards.

a screenshot of a website

I’m not sure if eBay is really strict about these recent GC/eGC purchases, or maybe they are warning me from my 2018 GC/eGC purchases.  I looked at my 2018 GC/eGC purchases from eBay and I purchased 275 eGCs from PPDG ($20,577.50) and 47 GCs from SVM ($3,560.00).  That looks like a ton of GC/eGC purchases, but these GCs/eGCs were purchased from my 1 and only eBay account and I did not violate any per listing limits.  Based on the number of GCs/eGCs I purchased in 2018, I would have expected to get a warning sometime in 2018 (I did not) or early 2019 (I did not).  I’m not sure what to make of this warning, but I am going to take a break from buying GCs/eGCs on eBay and focus on buying GCs/eGCs from Amazon and Swych for a while.

Have you received a similar warning recently from eBay?  Were you breaking the rules or just maximizing the current rules / limits in place?  Please share your data points below.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!


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29 thoughts on “eBay MC999 Account Warning Notice: Did I Buy Too Many GCs & eGCs During eBay Deals?

  1. Mike w

    Received the same, from the last batch of iTunes gift card sales. Purchased 3 (limit). Somehow that was a no no? Did you purchase iTunes today and then got it?

    Any other accounts linked to PayPal by chance?

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      That is very strange. You purchased the limit, so what is the problem eBay?

      I haven’t purchase any GCs/eGCs on eBay since April 1, and nothing today. I only have 1 eBay account linked to my PayPal account.

      Reply
  2. Lauren

    Hmmm, I didn’t get a notice about that, as I haven’t bought any gift cards on eBay. However, I do sell on eBay & I have received two notices over the past 2 days informing me that “1 of your listings contain(s) contact information such as phone number, email address or weblinks, which is in violation of listing policies. Non-compliant listings will soon be blocked.” I do not have any of the stated violations in either of the listings.

    I wonder if there is a glitch in the violation emails eBay is sending out. I have reached out to their business support team & am in the process of hopefully getting help.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hmm, I have about 10 items currently listed but haven’t gotten any eBay warning emails about them (yet). I wish eBay would include item numbers with the accusation emails so it would be easy to figure out what listings are breaking the rules.

      Please let me know if you hear back from the business support team. I am thinking it could be a glitch too…

      Reply
  3. Brion

    In my experience this message has historically only gone to people who purchased the same deal from multiple ebay accounts. And eBay is very good at tracking household accounts (e.g. incognito, vpn, don’t seem to help). I got the warning then got shut down when I bought a deal that my wife had, unbeknownst to me, purchased before I did.

    Reply
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  5. Robert

    I was shut down by eBay for “site interference” a few months ago. I received my first MC999 back in 2009 for truly violating terms (unknowingly), and eBay said the next infraction would result in a permanent suspension of my buying account on eBay. Apparently there’s no end date to that warning, as 10 years later they did suspend my account from buying. However, like you, I only bought the allowable number of gift cards on PPDG/SVM deals (as well as some legitimate consumer purchases). They refuse to provide further detail or reevaluate my case, saying I was “already warned.” Ebay is a terrible company, just like their partner in crime PayPal.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Yikes, that is crazy. This seems like an extreme way to deal with this situation. They should just block certain users from buying items from PPDG & SVM. That would be a better solution. I guess I should stop buying any GCs/eGCs from eBay to be safe. I can’t afford to have my eBay account closed since I sell items on eBay.

      Reply
  6. Daniel Smith

    Honestly, if this is type of shit they want to pull – why bother? ebay sucks. You don’t want to be in a position to depend on ebay (like having an actual business there). Same goes for any huge platform that locks you in. It’s a waste of time.

    For consumers – who gives a shit about ebay account anyway. Just make a new one if you need it.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      eBay is very important to me as a seller, so I don’t want to mess that up. If you are only a buyer on eBay, you don’t have much to worry about.

      Reply
  7. Jim Danner

    I got the email on my wifes account but not mine. I used to (until the GC market died) regularly buy the limit on both accounts knowing it was against the rules. The thing is, I havent bought GCs from eBay since sometime 2018, except a single Uber GC for personal use on one account. So, no idea why now I she got the message

    Reply
  8. John

    Had this happen to me, got suspended, and I never had anywhere near the volume of purchases like Grant has mentioned.

    This was back when PPDG offered $100 eBay gift cards for $95 and you could buy one. So, I would buy one, and then my wife would buy one. She never got the warning, but I did.

    Then, one day, in 2014 or 2015, eBay suspended my account. Calling their support line is useless. I sent an irate letter to the appropriate eBay VP, and, a few weeks later, I got a phone call letting me know my account was re-instated.

    There’s been no issues since then. I still buy the occasional gift card from PPDG or SVM but not because I’m trying to avoid getting flagged by eBay again; there just haven’t been too many offers that interested me. The $100 eBay gift cards for $95 from PPDG have disappeared, so apart from the SWA gift cards that come from time to time or maybe something similar for a fast food place, I just haven’t had a reason to buy gift cards on eBay.

    Reply
    1. Sown Park

      I have same trouble I’m having the same problem.
      I would appreciate it if you could let me know the contents of the mail you sent to the ebay vp.
      Thank you.

      Reply
  9. D.

    May I ask what you are doing with all these gift cards? Just like ebay I can’t believe you are buying $10000 worth of shoes.

    Reply
  10. Bryant

    I have never gotten a warning notice, but they gave me an indefinite MC999 suspension after cancelling a daily deals order order for circumventing quantity limits. I actually did not attempt circumvent the limits, but I was buying and shipping to a buying group, so the shipping address triggered something in their system. They froze the buying privileges with some $450 of ebay gift card credit stuck to my account. I haven’t been able to escalate this issue or even speak with anyone about MC999, calling them about this seems a dead end also. Filed FTC complaint, but haven’t gotten any traction there either.

    Reply
  11. Frank

    I bought more GCs than you in 2018 and I am not flagged. I did, however, place quite some orders for other items other than GCs. This may be one of the potential reasons.

    Reply
  12. sargis

    Hi guys on 4/28/2020 i got this

    Your account has been restricted for multiple violations of eBay’s Site Interference Policy. Unfortunately, this action became necessary when additional occurrences were identified around eBay Daily Deals quantity limits circumvention.

    You will not be able to buy on eBay anymore. Your orders will be canceled.

    ……………………………………….

    Would it effect my Seller account please respond as soon as possible i need help.

    and is there anyway i can get it back?

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Uh oh, that doesn’t sound good. I would lay low and not buy anything on eBay for a few weeks. Hopefully your eBay selling listing are not going to be affected.

      Reply

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