Is an annoying eBay security policy a boon to scammers?
The eBay security story I'm about to relay caused my blood pressure to rise about 100 points. But in fairness to eBay, I have to say that they are not the only large Internet company that has a similar policy, I know Google and others have it too.
EBay is the subject here, because I'm writing about an actual experience I had, with them. I would love to meet the lawyer that came up with this little beauty.
A while back, I placed several Civil War items on eBay which they took down because the said it violated their fraud and safety policy.
Okay, fair enough. I read through the email take-down notice and no specific reason was given for this action. Frustrating, but still, I understood. EBay is a huge company, it's cost prohibitive to send out individual emails for every issue they have with a user.
No problem, I'm a Powerseller, (or at the time I was) I'll just call and see which rule I've violated, fix my listing and re-post it. It's all good.
After 10 minutes on hold, I was greeted by a young woman with a very sweet sounding voice who assured me that eBay loves me and wants me to have a wonderful experience. What is my woe? I told her, I had these Civil War items, that were 100% legitimate, for which I had documented provenance, and eBay took them down but didin't tell me why. I gave her the listing # and asked her how I violated policy and how could I fix it.
"I can help you with that", she said, "just a minute". Five minutes later she came back and said, "eBay took the listing down because it violated the trust and safety policy". I almost spit my cold coffee out, but calmly,I said, "yes, they sent me an email stating that, but please tell me my how I violated the policy so I can fix it".
"Let me check" she said, "I'll be right back". About 5 minutes later, she came back and said, "there was a problem with the way you titled your listing". Now I"m getting itchy, but I'm still maintaing my cool. Well, I asked, can you be more specific? Is the term "Civil War" not allowed on eBay any more, did I use too many capitals, am I only allowed to list on Tuesdays and Thursdays or when the moon is full. Give me something to work with here!
"I'll be right back" she said, and this time she threw in that old faithful cookie cutter, "I understand your frustration". I don't think she did.
Five minutes later, she came back and said, (I kid you not), "eBay took down your Civil War item listing because the title violated our trust and safety policy for listings in that specific catagory". I'm ready to freak right out now, but I've got 10 years on eBay, their customer support is notorious, I expected a boxing match. I'm still hanging on to my cool, just about, but I am.
I tell her, "I don't think you understand my frustration, see, I need to know what part of the title was in violation of policy".
I swear, she said, "I'll be right back". To her credit, she did not take a bathroom break this time, she did indeed come right back in about a minute. She said, "I can't tell you exactly why eBay took the listing down, that would jepordize the integrity of our trust and safety policies".
Obviously, they had my number. Somehow through divine prophecy they determined that after 10 years of honest selling on eBay, I'd decided to walk the crooked path and was now attempting to infiltrate their Fort Knox-like security system.
When I asked her what I should do, she said the best thing to do would be to re-list it. What? Re-list an item that purportedly violated trust and safety. How can I do that? She suggested that I re-word the title. I did this, 2 more times, and 2 more times they took the listing down.
I was working for a consignor on this particular lot of Civil War items, or I would have just stopped wasting my time and sold the items somewhere else. Seeing how I was under contract to sell these estate items on eBay, I had to make every effort to get these items up again. I called back the next day.
This time, I was told that the authenticity of items were in question, and that I should get someone to verify that they were actually Civil War items. I explained that I had documented provenance and others were selling similar items on eBay. The person on the phone, a gentleman this time, told me that was not enough to go on, but suggested that I take the words "Civil War" out of the title, use them only in the description and all would be OK.
I did this, and as you can imagine, the items received little exposure and sold for short money. This was not a wonderful eBay experience.
Here are the questions that linger:
Why the cat and mouse game upon the first round of calls to support?
Why, if this security policy was iron clad, did I get the answer I got the second day I called?
Was I the victim of a scammer? A friend in the business, later told me that there are scamemers on eBay who look for high end items that they can report as fakes. Then they, or someone they are brokering for, come in and buy the item for short money when it's re-listed using titles with inappropriate, less flattering words. Is this what happened here?
Sadly, because of eBay's, "the seller is automatically wrong" attitude, and it's poor communication, I'll probably never know the answers to these questions. Other than keeping my readers informed here, and making a point in this article, I don't have the desire to list heavily on eBay anymore.
I've moved on and have become a very casual seller on eBay, dropping from several hundred items a month to less than ten. The funny thing is, judging by what I see as an "anti-small seller, hostile to auctions atomosphere" on eBay, I think eBay will be just as happy with that decision as I am.
What I'm up to:
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Comments
ROFLMAO...I am so sorry Wally. Not laughing at your experience, just the way it is told. I had the same recently with another policy for holding money. I religiously read the policy, I knew I did not meet any of the criteria that would make me a candidate for a hold, and got the same run around you did on the phone. Bottom line is, they are killing themselves, and if Donahue really was paying attention, he would realize that the current situation in our administration is going to wipe most of these huge business off the map. The little sellers are the ones who will survive. Economy is in the toilet for the the big guy, but since we are not affected as adversely, it is the little guy that will come out on top. That is repeated throughout history. Great article, and it is to bad they will not change what they are doing. Say la vie~
@ Kat Barton. I agree 100%. It has always been the little guy & woman who have been the backbone of every economy.
It's surprising that this lesson has to be taught over and over again.
That's why I went from 450 items listed to, oh, say 5. I couldn't sell brand name items with the brand name in the title. Um, how do you sell a brand name item with out the name? But they won't tell you that, they'll say you are over you limit. What's my limit, we can't tell you!! Who are they, the CIA?
I had a similar experience selling a Robert Gordon Vase,a known designer in Australia of pottery items. The vase was from his Shabby Chic range + it's actually called that, but it's no longer made. I listed it as a Robert Gordon shabby Chic vase and it got canned with high bids (but they don't give phone access to anybody but powersellers, so endless emails later) I had thought it was the designers name that did it...but not so. They said it was the term 'Shabby Chic' and that I could use it in my listing not my title....Apparently there is a company/trademark of this name in the States so nobody in the world can use the term Shabby Chic on ebay listing titles? huh?
I stopped listing altogether in Australia when they made Paypal compulsory for all members. Have you read the Paypal Aus. user agreement? Unconscionable !! All liability is reversed onto consumers. Ebay have made it so hard for everyone, it's not worth the hassle anymore...I'm over it. Ebay has killed itself
Now go take a looksie at your Seller Dashboard under your account, you now have a policy compliance violation. Since you may now be listing less items, or not at all it may be all grayed out and you cant see it, but you have one and that now affects ALL your listings, your exposure, your placement / search standing. Your fee reconcilation at the end of the billing cycle as well as its gone over to Paypal so if they see you being a problem, they can implement a rolling reserve, payment hold and in some cases especially those "high risk" categories they will run a credit report on you. Welcome to our hell, Have a great day!
This describes your typical ebay experience. I was (am?) a powerseller of 1000+ listing 100 items a week, and as the whole donahue takeover occured, and then the paypal mandate, i just stopped. I tried alternatives avenues, (OLA, Overstock) to no real results. So i just folded my whole business. If they want to screw everyone over, and google refuses to get in the game, i don't see any silver lining in sight.
Man Walt, I CAN really relate to this problem. I love the "we feel your pain" and "we are here for you" attitude then they read some crap from the book that they THINK might fit. Had it happen to me a coucple of times....I NEVER relisted items ...just went else where with them.
Hmmm... I wonder if the Military Veterans patch set will be yanked for the word Veteran ,...or maybe Army?? LOL
would help if they added in WHAT caused the item to be pulled when they do this ...and NOT just "policy violation"
It's called Ebay's trusted reporter program - someone reported you as an 'expert' on civil war items. Ebay allows hundreds of people - many without any qualifications, to report auctions.
Also you have Ebay employees who internally play a game and do this - it's been talked about by former employees. They remove auction listings and then keep a computer file of how many times they are contacted and how much the seller begs to get their items back on.
The employees bet (yes, they do this and have been doing it for years) in a pool on how much the item will go for once they let it back on without the appropriate keywords.
You've got members of Trust & Safety who have participated in this for almost 4 years. Sick, eh?
Donahoe isn't the worst at Ebay - Norrington and her team are. They are simply stupid. The best and brightest have left. The morons remained. Seriously.
Used to be a great place to work. Now it's just depressing.
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