I never used play.com though I’ve kept an eye on them. Recently I wanted to dispose of some books and computer accessories so decided to check them out. I created seller account on play.com, aka PlayTrade account, last week and also sold one book.
I wanted to list one more item today and when I logged in I was greeted with this message:
Your account has been temporarily suspended and requires further verification.
Please contact our Customer Support Team on 0845 800 1020 or +44 (0)1534 877595 (from outside the UK)
Sensing trouble I googled and found loads of play.com fraud and scam warning pasted all over the Internet. That is so weird as I always assumed that play.com is some kind of reputed website and will not be affected by fraud.
On MSE alone there is a thread alive for past 2 years. I should have checked for Play.com scam before applying for a seller account.
The worst part is that they ask for Credit Card details without which they don’t allow to open account.
To make matter more worse they never send any e-mail or informed me that something is going on.
I just checked my Card statement and didn’t find any suspicious transactions. Sine it is dead of night I can’t contact their customer support and I’ve to for 10 odd hours to call them when I wakeup late on Saturday.
This is really so frustrating, specially when you trust some Internet based sweat shop like Play.com and happily spit out your credit card details.
Let’s see what happens when I call Play.com customer support to check out what went wrong and why they didn’t bother to at least drop me an e-mail if something went wrong.
From the information which I’ve gathered so far on play.com seller account fraud I came to conclusion that better be safe with them.
I’ll update again when I’ve a word with play.com customer support team.
Update on Saturday 06-Aug-2011 at 11:15 AM
After waking up on this lazy Saturday I called Play.com customer support on 0845 800 1020. My guess was that in worst case they will connect to a call center in India. But it seems that they have call center in Phillipines or some such SE Asian country.
I spoke to one guy and he informed me that my PlayTrade account has been suspended because of it has some problem with details. When I asked what are those details he requested me to contact PlayTrade support team via e-mail.
So I’ve sent e-mail to playtradecs@play.com asking to explain the problem.
Still can’t figure out, if there was a problem they should has contacted me by e-mail at least.
I’ll update when I get any response from PlayTrade customer support.
Updates on Monday 08-Aug-2011
This is really hilarious. Today morning I received 2 e-mails from Play.com. The first e-mail says my PlayTrade account has been suspended. This is some kind of joke, account was probably suspended 2-3 ago and they sent e-mail only today. It seems that their action is faster than their brain. It’s like you start browsing the Internet before your modem powers on.
lol!
Here is the e-mail which I received from PlayTrade today morning at 11:51
From: playtrade@play.com
To: my-mail
Date: 08 August 2011 at 11:51
Subject: Your PlayTrade selling account has been temporarily suspendedDear ,
This email is to notify you that your PlayTrade listings are not currently visible on the website. This may be due to a negative PlayFunds balance or the need to verify a recent order or changes made to your Play.com account.
If you have placed an order or have made changes to your account details then you will shortly receive a separate email advising you how to proceed.
If your PlayFunds balance has fallen into the negative please check the following details within your Play.com account:
Card number
Expiry date
Valid from date
Issue numberIf you require any further assistance please contact our Customer Support Team on 0845 800 1020 (UK only) or +44 (0)1534 877 595 (outside UK). Our opening hours are 9am – 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am – 5pm Saturday and Sunday.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Kind regards,
PlayTrade
If that was not funny enough, they sent one more e-mail informing that my account has been approved with apologies for the inconvenience.
From: info@play.com
To: me
Date: 08 August 2011 at 11:51
Subject: Your PlayTrade account has now been approvedDear AJAY KUMAR SINGH
Thank you for your recent email. Your account has now been approved.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused to you in this
matter and thank you for your patience and valued custom.Kind Regards,
Customer Support Team
Play.com
See the time stamp for both e-mails. They are same. So they sent me 2 e-mails back to back first for account suspension and 2nd for approval.
What a load of rubbish play.com are! Shame on you.
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