I've been selling since 2004 and had multiple genuine items removed recently

[station_85]

I have  run a business and raised my two children with my eBay income since 2004 selling genuine handbags on eBay. I have a few employees who also depend on the income for their livelihood. A few months ago a genuine Coach briefcase was removed from the site and I was given a warning. I had it authenticated and it came back genuine, but was not too worried about anything, thinking eBay is a large corporation and sometimes errors happen.  A few weeks later an anniversary collection Coach was removed and I was given another warning. I had this authenticated and contacted eBay to see if I could send in the authentications and have the strikes removed. They refused to accept the authentications. Several weeks later, I had a Louis Vuitton with the Certificate of Authentication attached in the listing removed. I then was suspended from Ebay. I started to get desperate, and contacted thinking surely someone would side with me now, but they told me despite the fact I had this document that I had spent time and effort and money for, they would not accept the authentication. A week ago, I had a Made in New York Coach removed, and today  after being re-instated, a Dooney and Bourke was removed. My heart sank as I knew there was nothing I could do. I paid another $30 for authentications, just for my own piece of mind. Yes the items are genuine. I knew that already, but just needed the proof in the event anything happens with this. What on earth do I do? My business with 62,000 fb is lost, and I have only done my best to be forthright all these years.  I am heartbroken. 

[station_85]

By the way, when I say when they wouldn't accept the authentications, I mean they wouldn't even let me send them in. No one would even acknowledge them. 

[albertabrightalberta]

If you post pictures here and those who know the brands/bags can verify them, we can advise you on the steps to take when listings are (sometimes) removed in error. When posters come here to say their "genuine items" were removed, more often than not, those items were NOT genuine and were correctly removed. 

After reading your post, I did a bit of googling and found some posts indicating fakes. There were pictures of a fake Tribeca (July 14) and pictures of a fake Manor bag (March 27). When I clicked on the links, it looks like those listings were removed. 

I don't know if those are two of the items for which you paid for authentications but if they are, you need to find a different authentication service. 

Again, it's impossible to give advice without seeing pictures of the bags that were removed as fake but which you believe are authentic.

[auto_serious_mart]

wounderful

[auto_serious_mart]

best 

[station_85]

Hi, so I gathered up my authentications and some of the pertinent photos from the recent listings that had me booted. The first bag was the Large Coach Barclay Briefcase. The last item removed was the Dooney bag. It is an unusual Dooney, but beautifully made, lovely stitching and made in Italy. The Louis Vuitton French company bag had a COA attached to the listing, and was still removed. As you can see I paid Authenticate first for these. I really could use all the help I could get. Thank you! 

[albertabrightalberta]

Thank you for updating although I have to admit that your update isn't really clear. 

I'm not sure you're going to be happy with my comments. 

I can't comment on the authenticity of LV or the Burb but based on the pictures you've posted.

1. The COA for the LV doesn't show enough pictures for those who know LV to verify authenticity and you haven't posted pictures of the actual item. 

2. The couple of pictures of the Burberry item are useless for authentication of any item!  Hardware tells NOTHING about the item without pictures of the item! You should be experienced enough to know that many  pictures of the elements are necessary in EVERY listing. 

3. Coach creed image shown in your post: Just a creed from a Coach doesn't prove that it's the same item that the COA is from. FULL SETS of images must be shown, both for authenticators to verify and for buyers to know what they're getting. Keep in mind that lots of good clear and definitive pictures help you and your reputation too! 

4. Coach (pink) bag COA: The pictures don't show enough. Again, we need to see ALL the pictures that were submitted to the company. 

This is the part that you aren't going to be happy with.

Even if all the above are authentic, I'm betting that the suspension is based more on past history than on the items for which you posted COAs. 

What you didn't post are the COAs of the items I mentioned in post #3 above, Tribeca (July 14) and pictures of a Manor bag (March 27). 

Why didn't you post those pictures?
Were those authenticated too? 

Ebay doesn't suspend a member when they listed a fake once or twice. It usually takes several listing removals as well as a review of feedback to see how happy (or unhappy) buyers are. 

[station_85]

I was surprised at the number of photos I could upload onto this page. I will upload more later if you would like. Just let me know if it will actually help my case at all.  I just tried to chose a few for you as examples. I believe the the authenticators chose to not include identifying features on their certificates on purpose so others will have to send items in to be authenticated.  The point is that these are genuine authentications that were done by experts with multiple photos of the bags sent to them. It is very expensive to get items authenticated. I have not authenticated the second most recent bag because I was in CA that week, and I may still do it, but without any resolution on all the rest, I don't really see the point especially with the response I'm receiving here, but I could if it would make any difference.  I only started doing this routinely after eBay started kicking me off for my genuine "fakes". Before this I just shrugged and allowed  them to make the errors. I wasn't worried about being booted off as I would only get "warnings" once a year or so. 

I also believe ebay has a policy that in theory makes sense. If a person makes an error, they get a warning. If they make another error,  within a particular time period they get another warning and are removed if you are legitimately continuing to list phony items.  Over my seventeen years, I will admit there were a couple of honest mistakes made. I remember once a new employee grabbed a  bag from my pre-sorted box, and the item was removed. This was a lesson to her about the importance of listening to instructions and a lesson to me, to keep my boxes in locations far away from each other.  I also went on vacation once and something was removed, things happen. But my overall intention and what I have had overwhelming success with is providing customers with genuine products.

I'm of Greek heritage, and my Greek nature is the soul of my ethics in business, I really will go out of my way to put my customers before myself. I like to see them happy when they get a good price for a quality product, I want them to be happy. Selling customers a false product is just not something that I could do in good conscience.