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Is an annoying eBay security policy a scammers delight?
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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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