I got my eBay account "permanently suspended" the other day. I was traveling for Thanksgiving and they had a $10 off $10 promo if you login to the app for the first time. I used the app from the Airport wifi to purchase two books for my friend I was visiting. Upon landing, I had received an email about my "permanent suspension" and if I had any questions, to contact eBay support.

I thought, OK, I tripped up their IP security rules. I'll just call them and get it sorted out. Except... you can't call eBay anymore. Their phone lines are a recording that tell you to login first. When I login, all the support options for my now suspended account are missing. There's no messaging, phone, text, chat, or email options provided to me. Only an endless loop of support articles.

Cross-checking this against my friend's account, he has all the options available and I do not. So in essence, they've shut me out from all communication and I can't ever get this account recovered. Many big companies moved to this communication model during covid, and it's extremely disheartening when something goes very wrong like this. If this is the new normal, we need to make it illegal.