posted on June 27, 2001 03:27:57 AM
(FOR THE INFORMATION OF MEMBERS AND THEIR GUESTS)
AN OPEN LETTER TO EBAY MANAGEMENT
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
Dear eBay Management,
I am posting on this forum because I cannot get past your NCO’s to someone in authority and they are now victimizing me for pointing out that in my opinion, they have made a series of errors in judgement.
Recently you cancelled one of my auctions without notice.
I received a notification e-mail detailing the reason for termination and I would have accepted this had it not been for the fact that there were identical listings on the site.
I pointed out that you may have made a mistake as this item is frequently listed on eBay.
The next day I received a reply stating that the previous SS member had made a mistake in the reason for cancellation and I was given a totally different reason for the termination of the auction.
This was indeed very strange as concurrent with my auction was no less than three (3) of the same item with the same Title and virtually a word for word description. (My auction was listed one day earlier than those so please don’t say I may have copied their description as a fourth reason. Save your energy and make up another excuse.) These other auctions have now ended successfully and I congratulate the sellers. eBay is better off by collecting the FVF and the only loser is me.
I again pointed out that you may have made another mistake. (By the way, the description I gave was correct in every respect. I am an authority on this item.)
So what was your reaction to this?
[b]“Thank you for your reply. We understand your concern. We do try to
respond to all reports of any illicit or illegal listings when they are
received but as we do not actively police eBay listings looking for
these items it is often the case that some offenders will occasionally
slip by.
Therefore, we rely on eBay members to report listing violations or
infringing items so that we may take the appropriate action. If you
would like to report any infringing items you may do so by filling in
the form located at the following page: xxxxxxxxx ……
Please note that even if some sellers are currently in violation of eBay
listing rules and guidelines this does not lessen the seriousness of the
violations for those sellers whose listings have been reported to us and
subsequently ended. We will suspend the registration of any seller who
relists an item after receiving prior notice from eBay to not do so.”[/b]
So now you are accusing me of an “illicit or illegal listing” and that is worthy of legal action. And you are threatening me!
Looks like in a Dictatorship there is no right of appeal and eBay place themselves above the law of the land. Even a murderer has a right of appeal! eBay has ALL the rights and buyers and sellers have ZILCH!
This extract is from another communication received from your company:
[b] … eBay acts as a link between the buyer and seller. We provide the
automated bidding system. We do not authenticate users, we do not verify
items, we do not guarantee that you will receive payment or the item.
However, we are extremely concerned about our community and your safety
within our community”[/b]
How is that for a blatant attempt at “butt protection”?
If you were in any way serious in trying to cut down or eliminate an offending listing it would be fair to assume that you would do a search of your own site to find out if there are other “offending” listings with the same title and/or description. Had you done this, you would have found the identical listings.
But you are not serious about anything other than making money and it appears that when eBay is caught out they go to any lengths to cover up their mistakes rather than admit they are wrong.
And if someone like myself pushes you for justice then funny things start to happen.
(1) Like you send me an eBay Customer Support Satisfaction Survey with an INACTIVE LINK. (Probably you knew how I was going to respond and it wouldn’t look good to blemish your perfect statistics).
(2) My remaining listings can’t be accessed for anyone to bid on. (They were there for all to see but three bidders have e-mailed me that when they go to place a bid the system sends them elsewhere. Nice trick!
The façade you are inflicting on us is that you are trying to turn eBay into a safe trading community. Nothing can be further from the truth.
As evidenced above you have turned it into a jungle by encouraging community members to spy on each other and report back to Big Brother who will then make unilateral decisions, without recourse, as their fancy strikes them.
It is a hit and miss affair and innocent people like myself have to suffer the consequences of your Dictatorial State, your vindictiveness, your apparent disregard for justice, and your gross inefficiency. You are only interested in making money. That is not a crime. It is what we are all trying to do but you keep changing the goal posts to suit yourself.
You frequently remind us that you have an army of Secret Police on the payroll. Shouldn’t take them more than 2 minutes to locate me so you can apologize. I’ll give them a clue: Go through the “too hard basket” and you’ll find at least 5 of my e-mails nobody knows how to respond to. Or is it that they have run out of reasons and are fabricating more?
I am DEMANDING that you justify your actions in this matter immediately. You charged me a listing fee for a service you did not provide. The fact that you have allegedly refunded the listing fee does not negate the original contract between us. You are in breach of contract. Prove to me that your action was justified and then explain why some sellers are permitted to list this item and I am not.
Incidentally, I am resigned to the probability that you will suspend my account because of my audacity to challenge your Dictatorship in a public forum.
posted on June 27, 2001 04:10:02 AM
So what was the item?
what was ebay's first two reasons?
Sounds like it was a VERO cancellation, if so you can appeal that.
posted on June 27, 2001 08:27:39 AM
Thank you for speaking out.
The more people express legitimate concerns in a public forum the more we will all come to realize that we are in this together.
Ebay makes the rules and, even if some seem unfair, they have that power.
eBay applies the rules and often it seems they do so in an uneven manner.
If they won't change then we have to change.
Find and develop other solutions to our online marketing while still using eBay to meet our financial needs during the transition.
Many knowledgable users visit this board and I'm sure they will be willing to assist in resolving your concerns, to the extent the eBay maze with all of it's deadends provide resolution, if you would care to share more specific details of the listing under discussion.
posted on June 27, 2001 09:48:38 AM
same thing happened to me last night..i sell records..they cancelled on 1 of my auctions with a promo record in it,,they said it has not for "sale on it"..well duhhh!!! so do the other 40 i have on..did a search for promo records..6,410 hits..i just ignore them and put it back on in a week.i often wonder if another dealer turns me in..just a thought.
posted on June 27, 2001 11:32:13 AM
Congress is investigating auction fraud and expects Meg to testify. If you have any gripes, why not contact the members of the congressional committee about how badly ebay does things. This may be a bit off topic, but
it might give your complaint a venue to air.....
posted on June 27, 2001 12:21:45 PMveebee: Seems to me there was an AW thread a few months ago about Promo tapes and/or movies that posited the question of whether the "not for sale" implied "never for sale" or "not for sale before full release of the final tape." I don't recall whether there was a definitive answer or when the thread was, however. Anyone?
----
What's being done in the name of direct marketing nowadays is crazy.
The above are all just my opinions, except where I cite facts as such.
Oh, I am not dc9a320 anywhere except AW. Any others are not me.
Is eBay is changing from a world bazaar into a bizarre world?
posted on June 27, 2001 12:55:27 PM
I looked through ebays guidelines last night..Looks like 50 years is the earliest the copyright would expire..Like i said i just ignore them like everyone else does.
posted on June 27, 2001 01:46:40 PM
eBay generally doesn't take any action unless someone brings the offending item to their attention.
While "promo" items may state they may not be sold, who does this admonition apply to ? Certainly to the party it was originally given to, but what if he/she gives the item to someone else and they then wish to sell it?
posted on June 27, 2001 03:11:13 PM
I confess. I have a promo CD for sale on eBay. It does say not for resale, but as my current high bidder is in Austria, whose laws apply?
This is not my trading name.
posted on July 1, 2001 11:01:52 AM
After 2 years on ebay with only positive ratings (not even one neutral and no negs) ebay started shutting down my auctions with no explanation. Coincindentally, until recently I had no competition and these shutdowns started happening when a high volume seller started offering the same item. I sell batteries for digital cameras. About a month ago, ebay shut me down for mentioning that I accept C2it. They said I used more than ten words in my C2it mention and that is against the rules. So I reduced the words to under 10. They shut me down again. This time I had to call to find out why and they said I mentioned which camera the battery fits. Since I am not selling the camera, this is keyword spamming. I pointed out that every auction for batteries, lenses or other accessories mentions that cameras that they fit. Bidders wouldn't know what they were otherwise. Ebay insisted that they were corrected and I insisted that they then shut down all the battery and accessory auctions. They finally conceeded that I am allowed to mention the camera. I relisted and they shut me down again. This time they claim that I am not allowed to mention C2it's $10 back even though it is less than ten words. I have just relisted again and this time I say "Email me to learn how you can get $10 back. Ebay doesnt let me tell you here. Email me for a list of other cameras this battery fits, ebay wont let me tell you here. Email me if you want to know how to get free shipping. Ebay wont let me tell you here." (Someone else warned me that ebay doesnt allow conditional free shipping - free shipping if price reaches a certain point or customer buys another item). I'm sure they'll find some reason to shut me down again. Is ebay doing so well that they have nothing better to do than to look for reasons to shut down the auctions of good sellers? Or is there another reason why I seem to have been targeted?
posted on July 1, 2001 01:17:47 PM
Dictatorial monopolies never have had a very good record when it comes to dissenters.
Dissenters being used here to mean anyone who speaks out against them or simply tells the truth when the truth doesn't suit their purposes.
In days past companies used thugs dressed as private police to crack skull.
The progress this old world has made is easily seen when we realize bright faced youth are able to effect the same results by simplying sitting in some remote location and making a few key strokes.
Poof, your gone.
Some don't speak out because they don't care, others are just tired, this has gone on for a long time, or don't believe it will make any difference and many may be fearful that the financial lifeline that eBay offers is both important to their personal and family and not easily replaced.
They're understandably concerned that risking the right to sell on eBay is not something they can afford to do when so few alternatives exist.
posted on July 1, 2001 04:56:43 PM
Toteullenebay,
Assuming that your actual letter or "appeal" to ebay was anything remotely similar to your "open letter" I can totally understand why ebay might ignore you or send you a canned response. As I've mentioned in another thread, I've had items pulled as well and have been able to have them rescind those decisions. All of my responses to ebay added together are not as confrontational (nor long-winded) as your one open letter.
I'm assuming that you also were given three different reasons; that they kept changing the goal posts; that they ignored 5 of your e-mails, and that they allowed three of the same items with the same descriptions to run at the time whilst they cancelled yours.
They didn't!!!
Then, maybe you, too, would write a confrontational and long-winded post.
eBay cheerleaders do nothing to make them (eBay) correct their errors and injustices.
posted on July 1, 2001 06:10:57 PM
So I guess I'm just lucky or maybe my time is yet to come. What I find a little unproductive is labeling anyone who has a positive word to say, "a cheerleader". Some of them might not be cheerleaders at all. Maybe they're just smarter than you. Companies have policies and rules and all kinds of crap written down. But PEOPLE run and work for companies. Everyone in one way or another wants to feel special and to an extent, important. These are your potential allies. So what do you do? You take a "power position" of confrontation and demands when it appears that you have little power and little leverage. So what's your strategy? After all, your goal is to get your item allowed correct? Or is it just to vent and to feel victimized? If you've ever run your own business, as I've done for 10 yrs......or worked in a capacity where you make decisions, think back at how many times you've given people the benefit of the doubt or bent a rule and then compare it to the times you didn't or refused a request. What were the core factors that caused those discrepancies. Life isn't fair and there is no "level playing field". Get used to it.
