Erroneous Policy Violations on the Increase
Summary: tarnotop is concerned about receiving several erroneous policy violation notices from eBay, which they believe are due to the platform's automated system misinterpreting normal words in their vintage postcard listings. Despite appealing the violations and providing examples of how text errors are causing false positives, they have not received any response from eBay for over a week. They are seeking advice and assistance, expressing a willingness to amend their listings if given accurate guidance, as they struggle to prevent further violations without understanding the specific issues.
Recently, I have been receiveing a series of eBay Policy Violations.
So far, none have been accurate.
The speed of these false policy violations appearing scares me.
Since I cannot identify what in my listings triggered the false violations, I have no way of addressing/fixing them.
I did enter appeals for two for them. It's been well over a week, and so far, no reply to either appeal.
The third was shortly taken down before I could appeal.
I fear whatever the triggers were, I may have many more listings that could trigger such false violations.
With no help from eBay, I am struggling.
I would like to adapt my listings to avoid the errors in their algothrm, but I have no info to use.
Can anyone advise, suggest, confirm anything related??
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Hello eBay Support Team,
I am reaching out because my account has been hit with three false
violations, and my formal appeals (which were basically requests for info because
I had no idea what was being misinterpreted), have been unanswered.
Two violations were for "Buying or Selling Outside of eBay" which I have never done.
One violation was for "Travel Services" without authorization. I sell postcards not travel services.
I asked OpenAI the following question:
I am a vintage postcard seller, but eBay's automated scanning
algorithms are generating false positives by misinterpreting
normal words as hidden links, hotel, etc.
OpenAI responded:
Here are the exact text triggers causing the bot errors:
1. "Off-Platform" Reference ID: 2-108484086669
Title: VTG Postcard - Jacksonuille International AirportPrinted in Ireland,.
The Error: A missing space created the string AirportPrinted . When
the bot strips spaces, it misinterprets the text block containing
printED. IN ... as a hidden off-platform web extension.
2. "Off-Platform" Reference ID: 2-108484088712
Title: VTG Postcard - Royal Pam Hotel - Miami Beach.
The Error: A spacing/typo issue created the string royalpamhotel
When the bot removes spaces to scan for URLs, it misreads the
pAM.HOtel text transition as an attempt to hide a
extension or an off-platform website.
.am domain
3. "Travel Services" Reference ID: 2-108653744730
The Error: The bot flagged this because it contains the words "Hotel"and "Miami Beach," falsely assuming
that I am trying to sell unauthorizedhotel bookings or vacation rentals off the platform,
rather than a piece of vintage paper.
As you can see, these are entirely legitimate, physical vintage postcards.
The automated system is freezing these listings and issuing unfair account strikes based on keyword matching.
Could a human representative please manually review these listings, overturn the violations, and clear these strikes from my account record?
I have over 40,000 postcards listed with more being listed daily.
I fear many more may be subject to these false violation accusations.
And, if they trigger quickly, eBay might be unfairly harsh in their response.
I will gladly edit my current listings to conform to what ever standard eBay defines,
but I need to know exactly what is actually triggers these false violation, in orer to do that.
Since they are false, I do not know what to change.
I cannot conform without accurate information.
