mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
I got a similar message on a different product early last year. I too came here to share what I got and the response I got was quite different than what you have received. With that said, I'm happy to see that you are getting plenty of support here because I feel what others are telling you is correct.
It is either a competitor or someone that wants to be a competitor. So they want to scare you off selling the product to allow for more room for what they sell.
The way you received this message is not the way it would have come to you if it were a real Vero violation. It would have come directly from Ebay with the information inside the email to tell you what was going on. While Ebay is extremely brief in their explanation, it does give you something to go on. And at the bottom of the email would be a way for you to contact the company in VERO that lodged the complaint.
You are fine. I wish you the very best of luck in your sales.
@needalittlehelpsometimes wrote:
@hillbillymedia wrote:I briefly looked at your listings. I`m just a guy with an opinion but....as far as I can tell you are using all your own pictures and are not using information "borrowed" from manufacturers websites. If your item are genuine and you own them, I would think that the 1st sale doctrine allows you to resell these items. Here is just one of many links I found that explains it:
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-first-sale-doctrine.html
I am super careful about not breaking any policies because I am on thin ice with ebay by having 2 listings taken down in one week through the Vero program. I was using my own photos and words and I had no idea I wasn't supposed to be selling the item in question since there are currently 1400 of the same brand being sold.
Having said that, when I first started selling in ebay (not this ID) I was selling SkinScience items. My listings were taken down by ebay thru Vero and I was given contact info for them and I contacted them. After jumping thru hoops to prove my items were authentic and were bought from a valid re-seller I got squat in return. In other words, I never heard back.
Fast forward approximately 8 years and there are still over 400 active listings for this brand. So I decided to try again. I successfully sold a handful of these items over the course of 4 months or so and never had a problem, until now.
I think I will follow the advice to ignore this person. IF they are genuine, I believe they would go thru the proper channels to have my listing removed. The only way I will stop selling this brand is if I receive a cease and desist letter from a real lawyer.
The fact that this email reads like a person with no knowledge of the law or even how a business person would write an email is further proof that this is probably just a competitor who is afraid of a little competition.
What I did when I got a similar message is I responded to them and gave them a link to the Vero program and invited them to sign up and submit their issue about my listing through the proper channels. I also reported the email to Ebay.
I never heard from them again.
BTW, I believe the violations roll off every 90 days. While if you tried to repost them after that, you would get almost immediately dinged again, the violation count is wiped away after 90 days.
@needalittlehelpsometimes wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:I got a similar message on a different product early last year. I too came here to share what I got and the response I got was quite different than what you have received. With that said, I'm happy to see that you are getting plenty of support here because I feel what others are telling you is correct.
It is either a competitor or someone that wants to be a competitor. So they want to scare you off selling the product to allow for more room for what they sell.
The way you received this message is not the way it would have come to you if it were a real Vero violation. It would have come directly from Ebay with the information inside the email to tell you what was going on. While Ebay is extremely brief in their explanation, it does give you something to go on. And at the bottom of the email would be a way for you to contact the company in VERO that lodged the complaint.
You are fine. I wish you the very best of luck in your sales.
Thank you. I have had several run ins over the years and you are 100% correct in how legitimate businesses deal with ebay sellers.
What makes this funny is that I only have ONE item from this brand that I am selling. Just one compared to others that are selling dozens. I wonder if they got an email also?
Yep and one is all it takes.
One of the items I sell is a series of patterns put out by Annie's attic for Barbie dolls and friends. I got dinged many years back for using the word Barbie in my titles, so I stopped doing that. Yet there are 1,000's of sellers to this day that do it without issue. A few I became friends with over the years and they never had any issue whatsoever.
I even got in trouble one time for Jacuzzi Inc. I had a doll pattern to create a small pool / spa / jacuzzi in plastic canvas. Jacuzzi had my listing pulled because I used the word in my title. I had this multiple email thing go on with Jacuzzi's legal department on this subject. Their position was that it could be confused with their products.
SAY WHAT?!?!? I asked how it could be confused with their products and they just continued that it could be. I brought to their attention that it was a size that any human could use, in fact it doesn't literally even hold water. But that didn't matter to them. They said they would prosecute me if I continued. OMG some people just haven't a clue.
