Your eBay account is restricted!

I was on eBay earlier, looking at trading cards. This is something I do frequently. I saw an Angel Reese WNBA rookie card I wanted to buy. Do not judge me. I got an error message when I clicked the “Buy Now” button:

I tried to buy something else. Yes, a different Angel Reese WNBA rookie card. Again, don’t judge me.

I then looked at my messages on eBay. After all, the message told me to provide the information they requested. I checked my messages and searched for “Your eBay account is restricted.” Nothing came up.

I had to contact eBay

It looked like I needed to contact eBay customer service. I dreaded having to do that. I’ve been on eBay since 1997. I don’t remember ever contacting eBay customer service. Some individuals, particularly those in the eBay reseller YouTube community, need to contact eBay customer service at least once a week. I know this because they make videos about it. I’m a firm believer in trying to figure out your problems yourself. It didn’t seem possible to do that in this situation.

Since I had never contacted eBay’s customer service before, I wasn’t sure how to do it. I read the help section and learned I had to contact eBay using an eBay chat AI. It wasn’t very useful. It told me I needed to read the message they did not send me. This was after I told them I hadn’t received a message.

The chatbot told me I needed to speak to a customer service agent. It verified my phone number and informed me that an agent would call me within 10 minutes.

I ended up speaking to three different customer service agents in the Philippines. The first two just transferred me back into the queue. The third agent transferred me to an agent in the United States.  She asked how she could help. I explained the situation. She asked if I was using a VPN.

Was I using my VPN?

I took a look. Sure enough, my VPN was turned on. I told her I was, and I turned it off. She told me that eBay showed my IP address was in Iran.

When I use my VPN, I select “Eastern United States.” What I don’t do is try to get fancy with it and pretend I’m in the Middle East, let alone a repressive regime like the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I logged out of eBay and logged back in. I went ahead and bought that Angel Reese card I wanted, and it worked without a hitch.

In conclusion

If you encounter an error stating that your eBay account is restricted, ensure you are not using a VPN. If you are, turn it off and then log out of eBay. Log back in and try to make a purchase. Additionally, avoid attempting to purchase a WNBA card if you are in the Islamic Republic of Iran.