Dear eBay Queen:

My husband and I have been separated for 6 months. Yesterday, he sent me a text message and told me that if I didn’t give him more time with our kids, he would shut down my eBay account.  eBay has been my children and I’s only source of income since he left.  The alimony and child support have not been established yet.  I have moved out of our home and now live in a one of my parent’s rental houses. When my husband and I were together, my eBay business helped support HIM while he was in dental school.

I’ve sold off and on for 6 years, but really, full time and making money in the last four.  I have sources for my product, I file taxes, and it’s a real business. I don’t know why he wants to take food out of our children’s mouths.  The eBay account was set up in his name, just because that’s the way he did it. I have 5828 unique feedback, and it is 100% positive.  I’ve earned my top rated seller status within the last year.  He hasn’t bought anything or sold anything in YEARS.

I’ve worked so hard.  I don’t want to lose my account and feedback.  He hasn’t mentioned anything about our PayPal account. It is actually in my name, and has my credit/debit card associated with it. Do you have any suggestions on what I can do?

Cora

Dear Cora:                          

This is really a hard question to answer.  I’m sure you know that I am not an attorney, and the best advice I could give would be to contact your attorney and ask him/her.  I did do a bit of research to figure out if there have been similar cases like this, and there have been!

Unfortunately there are a lot of people that don’t think having an eBay business is legitimate.  I would have the following things prepared, so when you speak to your attorney, you are conveying how important this account is to you:

• This is account is how you support your family.
• If the account is taken away from you, you have to start at square one with no feedback and you won’t be grandfathered in to the old rules where your money isn’t held for 30 days.
• Be willing to supply tax records to show how you’ve used the account
• Print out the purchases that have been made. Are they mostly yours?
• What email address do the messages come to? Yours or your ex-husband’s?
• Do you use any tools associated to your eBay account? . Sixbit, Turbo Lister, Auctiva? Whose name are these registered in.
• Whose bank account/credit card account are the eBay fees taken out of ?
• What is the registered PayPal email address?

I hope that you and your husband can work this out.

Dear eBay Queen:

I bought some lovely vintage Pyrex to complete my collection.  I paid a pretty penny for these, and I don’t understand why every other day, the seller is asking me to give them feedback.  Before I tell them “to go away and I am not required to leave feedback,” can you think of any valid reasons this seller would be harassing me for it?

DHP

Dear DHP:

I can certainly understand why this would be annoying to you.  Here are a couple of reasons why this seller is begging for feedback.

1. They could be nervous that you have not left feedback; therefore you might not be happy, and this was an expensive item.
2. The Seller could be new to eBay and under the some new rules their money could be held for 30 days or until you leave feedback.
3. They may have a low feedback score, and want to boost it.
4. The Seller just might want to know you are happy.

I hope this helps.

Strange eBay Item of the Week: Item #:391373231080. Anyone who has visited my home knows I have a special affection for bowls. Particularly crock, yellow ware, and sponge ware. The problem is, they can be kind of pricey! Martha Stewart By Mail Set of 3 Yellow Ware Yelloware Mixing Bowls. SOLD: $504.00.