Counterfeit issue
have a weird issue, may be someone can explain what's going on.
Yesterday I got 3rd warning on my new second account about I'm selling counterfeit product and my listing has been deleted as well as account has been cross out from a search for 3 days.
I never sell anything counterfeit. All products 100% authentic and I can prove this. I sold a lot of products same brand name with 0 negative feedback or complains about counterfeit. All photo in a listing was unique, not from manufacture.
And the worst thing is I can't get any help from support to understand what's going on or even send evidence that product is authentic.
Funny fact, if I list totally same listing on my main 16-yers old account, its totally fine. No warning, no restriction....nothing.
Support (entry level) suggested only to wait 3 days. But this is very confusing. You never know when the System decide to ban your account next time. How can I do business if this is a gamble. How can I invest money to account and promotion ( Its eBay profit) if account can be banned or restricted any time.
Any thoughts?
redmodelt
·3 years agoSorry about mixing up the Borg and Daleks! star trek - Is there a link between the Vogon's "Resistance is Useless" and the Borg's "Resistance is Futile"? - Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange
Once a listing is pulled, they will only give you a general idea why, they don't want you to find a work around and relist.
ittybitnot
·3 years ago@just-cosmetics
Have your takedowns for counterfeit products been associated with a VERO (rights holder issue), or just eBay doing it? If is the former situation you will be told as much and given instructions to follow to perhaps get the complaint rescinded.
If it was just an eBay notice, that is different. Even if you get permission to relist the said product, the next time they run the BOT, it will be taken down again. In all actuality, it matters not if your product is real or fake in an eBay takedown. As a matter of fact eBay just purchased the tech company in charge of things like this. When I read the announcement, my first thought was "Oh, no....not another 'tuna net' let loose on the site", but apparently eBay had been using the company for some time.
In light of recent trends and ideas to make the Marketplace venues responsible for what is listed on their site coming to light, I would assume that tighter controls are going to be employed. eBay obviously does not want your business. Time to do something else. In the 27 years I have been here, I have never seen so many reports of accounts being permanently suspended. Basically, it is EVERY DAY. Though often it is newbies that are affected, it doesn't seem to matter once that algorithm is tripped if you started selling last week or 15 years ago with an impeccable reputation.
Ebay said so, so it must be true even if it is not.
borodas2005
·3 years agoNow I'm totally lost.
I don't understand what wrong on my listing, support can't give me an answer what to fix to avoid warning next time. Ebay doesn't give me a possibility to proof authenticity. I never received anything from VERO.
What next? How can I play the game if nobody can't explain a rules? Stop selling completely and move to shopify, etsy, fb marketplace etc? Even a squid games has an understandible rules.
ittybitnot
·3 years agoI don't understand what wrong on my listing, support can't give me an answer what to fix to avoid warning next time
@borodas2005
The customer service reps you get on call back or chat on eBay are in foreign call centers. They don't KNOW, and they can't help you. If you had a bot takedown, none of those people are privy to that information and can't override the decision made by some computer anyway.
This is not a place that values truth, logic, justice, fairness or any of those attributes. Truth becomes what eBay decides it is. Justice is too expensive to provide, so eBay has the final word, even if the final word was generated by a computer. Logic or lack of transparency cannot be questioned. eBay is judge, jury, and executioner. If you can work under that system and still prosper, more power to you.
The "rule" you were given was that ebay considered your product to be counterfeit. It doesn't matter if it is, or not, you don't get to offer proof of authenticity. eBay says it is fake so for purposes of selling here it is fake, and you should not list it again if you wish to remain here. It might have been fine to sell it here for years. It doesn't matter. Now eBay has declared it fake. They won't tell you, even if you find someone that knows, because they are afraid if you know why or what triggered the removal, you can work around their artificial intelligence police. That is unacceptable to eBay no matter how many "dolphins get swept up in the tuna net".
janet9988
·3 years agoThe user agreement states they can cancel anyone's account for any reason.
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/member-behaviour-policies/user-agreement?id=4259#15
3. >>>>>>
If we believe you are abusing eBay and/or our Services in any way, we may, in our sole discretion and without limiting other remedies, limit, suspend, or terminate your user account(s) and access to our Services, delay or remove hosted content, remove any special status associated with your account(s), remove, not display, and/or demote listings, reduce or eliminate any discounts, and take technical and/or legal steps to prevent you from using our Services.
If we believe you are violating our policies prohibiting Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay, you may be subject to a range of actions, including limits on your buying and selling privileges, restrictions on listings and account features, suspension of your account, application of fees, and recovery of expenses for policy monitoring and enforcement. Also, as provided below in the Fees and Taxes section, if we believe you are violating our policy on buying or selling outside of eBay, you may be charged final value fees.
We may cancel unconfirmed accounts or accounts that have been inactive for a substantial period of time. Additionally, we reserve the right to refuse, modify, or terminate all or part of our Services to anyone for any reason at our discretion.
inhawaii
·3 years ago"I got 3rd warning on my new second account"
Things are not looking so good for you my friend.
evelyb30
·3 years agoActually, Star Trek: the Next Generation (see Borg collective) but it still fits. Actually it fits better, since Borg are part bot. The Borg Queen however was a lot smarter than eBay management.
redmodelt
·3 years agoYou are now on eBays Bot-dar! What happens on one account can and will affect your other accounts.
Never relist something that has been pulled by eBays Bots.
As m60driver said "Resistance is futile." (nice Dr Who reference! and it fits)
lesegouts
·3 years agoI am amazed they didn't suspend you after three warnings.
coolections
·3 years agoI predict you will be booted soon. 3 warnings and you kept listing. One more out the door.
just-cosmetics
OP3 years agoIts 3 warnings for 3 different products. Not for the same. Thats why.
coolections
·3 years agoSorry to burst your bubble but it doesn't matter how many different products. You have already been given 3 warnings and a suspension.
m60driver
·3 years agoYou sell womens beauty products, one of the most protected categories by manufacturers. They will claim that any product sold outside their distribution network is counterfeit and Ebay will pull the product every time. Resistance is futile.
Understand that these products have astronomically high profit margins which the manufacturers wish to protect. Your or my selling of these products threatens those profit margins where the product itself costs very little to produce and costs are almost entirely bottling, marketing, and shipping. Again resistance is futile and never relist the product line or your account will be closed.
just-cosmetics
OP3 years agoSo, your suggestion is leave it as is and open a new account if current will be closed. Hm... weird strategy, but its a strategy.
pjcdn2005
·3 years agoI'm not @m60driver but I'm fairly sure that they are not suggesting that you open a new account if this one is closed. If ebay suspends any of your accounts from selling, than you are not allowed to sell from another account.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·3 years agoMy cousin is quite "Up the ladder" with Mary Kay and the issues are far far far more complex than this. Sure, there are counterfeits of products, buckets of em', literal buckets atop buckets of them that in fact drive prices of legit product up. 99% of said products are not made from the same ingredients nor quality thereof that legal standards define. They don't call them "Beauty products" they call them "Health and Beauty products" and that right there is KEY. Every lady using beauty products also knows there is expire dates for example just like medications on most all products. You would be astonished as to how many people take out after the product originators when they buy a knock off/counterfeit and end up havin health problems. Costs HUGE amounts of money to the likes of Mary Kay and others having to navigate the waters.
For example people think Mary Kay won't allow one to have an independent online storefront due to greed. Nothing to do with that, its the fact that said associates may engage in activities of selling that in fact damage Mary Kay when Mary Kay had nothing, knew nothing to do with any of it.
Cosmetics are a "hot bed" because its one of the industries as a whole that has taken up the subject in big ways along with medical professionals and the FDA to point of Congress and other public representation entities globally. How would you feel if you bought say Drakkar Noir, looks same, smells same, you use it and end up in the hospital in a life threatening toxic shock or you're daughter buy's knock off Mary Kay eye liner and ends up blind. Happens.
Quite different than buying a pirated copy of Autocad for $300 vs $1500 (x 100,000) thereabouts whilst folks scream about how the economy goes whilst they purposefully undermine it. Keep $1200 in their pocket then scream and yell when prices go up for everything related to usage of Autocad.
I can't even begin to tell you in technology how counterfeit/piracy literally demolished consumer choice, pricing, competition and more and the IT developers allowed it. How did Microsoft come top dog in office software and operating systems? I'll tell you, they allowed pirated editions to be sold whilst pretending to pursue it sorta/kinda. Consumers go, "Oh hey, MS Office $40 versus $499", I'll take the $40 box Jim!
So the consumer literally handed Microsoft the monopoly and those others choices such as Word Perfect and Lotus to name two had to allow the same thing or completely loose any market share. Top Dog became Microsoft and now they basically can choose how to dictate the market to the consumer, handed to them by consumers wanting save a buck.
With cosmetics, health and beauty its one of the very focal zones, a spear tip towards regulating internet eCommerce right out of the hands oh every third party indi seller albeit not the only one.
Last year or maybe year before was a story I saw in news report on I believe CNN. Guy invented a gizmo to wash motorcycles and turned out be good for cars and such too. He got venture capital from that TV show Shark Tank and things were going absolutely stellar. Then all of sudden Chinese knock off's start appearing, lower price, lower quality yet his company is getting constant literally calls of consumers raging. It'd come to a point the company was literally stifled in operating because of bad reviews and constant attack by consumers. They had hire a firm that goes after the sellers and listings all over the place. Crazyness but I or you or any of us put yourself in that position.
If you or the wife/hubby/daughter work for say Chanel or Lancome and you're job's fielding those calls that just never stop of people raging on you or telling you how their wife or daughter lost their vision, is in the hospital, five days a week, eight hours a day. Are you going to be consoling to those counterfeiting? Those fellow American's in their homes who just bought a new living room set through the money they made?
I've said it many a time here that I don't blame eBay for much anything. Vero nor Trust and Safety even be needed if everyone acted responsibly. Here perhaps we've a case of a seller wanting sell legit products and unable to do so, account to sell at all perhaps threatened yet did nothing wrong. It's not eBays fault that sellers past or present list illegitimate, expired etc product nor other products.
If you created a widget that get's counterfeited or counterfeits damage people and you're getting the heat how would you feel? You gonna blame those doing you harm? Are you gonna blame the venue's where they are sold yet you are selling to? Both? How about spending every waking moment of the day trying to defend more or less pursue those who are stealing from you?
In the end these are HUGE escalating problems across a gigantic spectrum of merchandise and NOT A SINGLE LICK of it is eBay's fault.
kensgiftshop
·3 years agoMaybe it hasn't been reported or caught on that account yet?
just-cosmetics
OP3 years agoNobody even have a chance to report. System pulled down my listing in a 5 min after upload. I guess it was by eBay's bot or something. Now I'm trying to understand why.
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·3 years agoI'll tell you why, because whatever the item(s) happen to be others before you have abused eBay and buyers related to said items. No, thats not you're fault at all nor is it eBay's fault, both are victim of wrong doer's.
How can you sell said items?
Well, if the manufactures allow their products to be sold at say eBay then you want become a licensed reseller of said products. Get authorization from those entities and buy product direct from those entities distributors and/or liquidators and get that info off to eBay.
Now with cosmetics its been such a hot bed issue globally those manufacturers might just say no regardless. Several reasons, first, you're sales in respect to their profit from you're sales might not be off high enough value to engage from their perspective. Secondly, they might have already decided "No" to all of it unless you're Macy's. Lastly, they may say no as they've no way to know 110% that a given item you sold to a consumer is TRULY product purchased from them and/or knock off products are sold by you additionally.
I remember going into Dollar Tree and they had knock off Drakkar Noir for $1 a bottle. Smelled just like it so I bought one, wife's fave scent for me to wear on my bod right? So I put it on and not 30 minutes later I'm scratching away like a flea ridden hound! I mean if I could have got my legs to kick like a dog scratching I'd had all four appendages working in Turbo Charged mode it was so bad!
I do wish you all the best...