Counterfeit item listing removal
One of my listings was taken down because eBay said the item was counterfeit.
It didn't offer any explanation as to why it removed the listing, the item in question is a water filter for a refrigerator.
It's brand new in original packaging and was listed with exactly the same details on the packaging. All the pictures were clear.
So I am not really sure why they pulled the listing.
Any insight would be great!
13 comments
annadryl
·3 years ago*kinda related*
I bought some HP printer carts once from Fred Meyer (major retailer, not exactly the black market) and they didn't work at all. HP told me they were likely counterfeits. FM let me return them but I was kind of bummed that it happened. So... sorry if that perhaps did.
Hard to see it coming these days.
lakefor94
·3 years ago@nightbiker07. If I have an item taken down for ANY reason, I never relist it. Can't take a chance on the bots taking down my account. No one from eBay CS is going to look into it or give you a legit reason. They may say they are looking into it, but that is not true. Don't believe anything they tell you about a takedown.
It is just business, nothing personal. It is a bot. I just move on without thinking about. Sell it elsewhere or give it away.
slippinjimmy
·3 years agoUse the Search All Content box at the top of the thread, search - refrigerator filter -
You will find a bunch of older threads about this very issue.
blurryrobot
·3 years agoI suspect a primary meaning of "counterfeit" on Ebay is, "Manufacturer's profit margin is high but they don't want a secondary market to exist".
See also, exercise DVDs, which enter the used market in an enormous tidal wave at the end of every February, but companies like Beachbody would like to pretend that there is an army of pirates counterfeiting something for which there is already a vast unwanted supply, so Ebay plays right along.
The water filters are very much like exercise DVDs. They are incredibly cheap and simple to make, but GE has a razor-and-blades business model, or perhaps better stated as a printer-and-ink cartridge business model, where their profit is in the overpriced consumables. So they have that chip, basically just to enforce use of their own product. Some of the printer companies do that too.
Then there is the collectible market, where the situation is slightly different. Every counterfeit claim I have ever gotten has been on a legitimate, genuine item. I got a takedown from Hershey on a used, empty chocolate tin, I got a takedown from some movie studio on a Scholastic fan-book from the old Book Fairs. Obviously neither of these were fake. Who would bother?
I got a takedown from Trends Intl claiming a poster was fake. That one ended better though. Because I was in a salty mood that day, and I fired off a nasty email to Trends declaring that I would remove all their posters from my brick & mortar comic shop if they didn't reconsider. And you know what? They sent me an email and apologized. No kiddin'. I framed it.
See, these people just have bots or crawlers or interns or whatever, who just do buckshot searches for their company name and file claims on everything. Complete abuse of DMCA but Ebay plays right into their hands.
caldreamer
·3 years agoSome brands only allow "authorized dealers" to sell their products. Do NOT relist this item or EBAY may terminate your account.
nightbiker07
OP3 years agoNo. It doesn't tell me anything about why they pulled the listing. So they don't tell me what the actual problem was that flagged the listing, Nor does it offer recourse for the situation.
They were brand new Whirlpool Everydrop filters. Bought them at Home Depot on clearance, 6 weeks later the compressor went out.
They have been listed for months, along with a handful of other filters I got from HD.
So unless HD is selling fake filters, there is nothing wrong with mine.
r_lresale
·3 years ago@nightbiker07 I received several of those same filters on a liquidation pallet a couple of years ago. Mine were also taken down and not only are they from China but after much research Whirlpool and any of its extended brands are very vigilant on anything that bears or alludes to those brands and they will go after resellers of these products so I would not relist them. Personally I think that the big box stores that include these prohibited items on pallets should receive some repercusions from it but as of now we resellers catch the bad end of it and we don't know until we list those items.
toysaver
·3 years agoJust because you bought them at The Home Depot does mean they are legitimate. No store is immune from the counterfeit revolution, especially since manufacturing has moved to third party businesses in China. Customer buys the real thing and brings back the fake as a return and it's put back on the shelf. Happens every day in stores selling designer goods to hardware.
EBay did not call you out on the fake filters. They have no expertise in telling the good from the bad. It would have been Whirlpool who noticed the situation and alerted eBay. They have people on staff paid to scour the internet and protect their brand. Usually it's a tiny error in the packaging like a wrong font or missing punctuation.
nightbiker07
OP3 years agoWell if there's errors on the packaging, then it would be safe to assume that particular item was safe from counterfeit return.
This has all been very insightful, but it's definitely bull**bleep** that there's no way to fight it, and the notice said nothing about how this was determined, just that they determined it and that's the end of it.
stainlessenginecovers
·3 years agoOf course the notice said nothing as they are NOT going to give a seller that has an item (or items) that are counterfeit, any detailed information on 'what' (they can do to make it less look like a fake).
ckimodog
·3 years ago@nightbiker07
Sadly, Ebay is saturated with counterfeit items. If ebay states it's counterfeit, my advice would be not to list it again, as it could jeopardize your account.
inhawaii
·3 years agoI recently bought a counterfeit GE refrigerator water filter on ebay.
It looked just like a genuine filer.
It was shrink wrapped.
It was in a GE package.
When I installed it I kept getting an error message.
After contacting GE I learned that counterfeit water filters are a huge problem.
The counterfeit filters do not have the electronic micro chip required to work properly.
I ended up buying one at Lowes (for twice the price) and it worked fine.
I'm not sure where you got the one you were selling but I just wanted to let you know that apparently counterfeit filters are a rampant on ebay.
luckythewinner
·3 years agoI am confused. Doesn't the first sentence tell you exactly why the listing was removed?