Abuse of reporting system

[sir.koinz]

Hi everyone! 

I sell mainly wheat Penny rolls and it has been a very lucrative business for the short time I have been doing it on ebay. It seems though that I have unwittingly made a very bad person angry at me somehow because 3 days ago i woke up in the morning to find that every single one of my listings (15) had been removed for violating ebays counterfeit replica policy. I immediately called customer service and after speaking with a CSR and then a supervisor I learned that a competitor had taken the time to individually report every one of my listings. I have always heard that ebay won't give you info on why or how you've been reported but this person told me only that it was someone who sells the same thing I do and it was obviously a competition type thing. The supervisor assured me that the offender would be reprimanded and not be able to harass me again.  When my listings were removed every one had bids and most of my customers are regular buyers of my rolls because I don't try to scam people like a lot of this type of sellers do. I have very valuable coins in my rolls and people pay between $50 and $500 each for them and sometimes I even take a loss rather than fill my rolls with throw away coins and the profits have outweighed the losses because of this and I was building a nice customer base and reputation and these people trusted me. Because of this I'm sure I've lost my trusted clientele because ebay sends all the bidders an email telling them i sell fakes, although I did email them explaining what happened. 

So I did as the csr advised and made completely new listings and even worded them differently so there was no way a violation could occur again. These listings lasted about 12 hours and were taken down for the same reason.  Strike two.  I called ebay again and was told it was not the same person that reported me last time but they needed to investigate for 24-48 hrs to see what was going on and advised me not to list anything until after i talk to them on Monday. I am taking that advice but I want to know if anyone else has gone through this and if so, how did you get past it without losing your ability to sell on ebay? Is it possible that since I was reported, although maliciously, my account is now "flagged" by the AI that runs ebay and no matter what i do now if i try to list another wheat Penny Roll it will always be violated for the same reason?  I know similar things have happened to sellers by what I've read on here but I'm hoping there is a cure because I can't afford to stop selling on ebay, this is my livelihood, my job, and it's hard to believe all it takes is one jealous person to flick a few keys and your financial security can be effectively destroyed with no recourse.  Would it solve the problem if i closed my account and opened a different one with a different seller name?  Or would the computer system simply follow me and shut me down once i listed something?  When my items were taken down the first time on April 7 i had a few listings that weren't wheat rolls and those were violated as well so it didn't matter what i had listed, they all got eliminated.  And as of now I figure I have lost all over $1000.00 because of this. Please someone help me with some good guidance, i am nearing a nervous breakdown and blown away that something like this can actually happen once let alone twice. 

Thank you in advance, I am most grateful for any help you can spare, 

J.J. @ Sir.Koinz

[coolections]

Correct. Every roll on every eBay listing I have ever seen I would bet has been searched over and over again. Those are definitely buyer beware listings.

[sin-n-dex]

@sir.koinz 

Not going to quote your whole message because it's long, I'm just going to share what I know as a person who sells coins and who had listings removed last week.

OK, if your listings come down, they are in your Unsolds as "Cancelled". Anything "Cancelled" you cannot relist, even if you change the wording to try and skirt the violation. CSRs that tell you information about who they are speculating are reporting you are just patronizing you, and what they say can't be believed. There will be no investigation. A takedown is a final decision with no appeal to eBay CSRs.

However, that being said, if you were to go to Facebook for business (someone can post that, or probably already did - didn't read the replies yet). And they overturn your violation, the items in your unsolds will return to unsold inventory (no longer cancelled) and the violation will disappear from your record - but you'd better check. If you have a violation, no matter what they tell you, you will accrue penalties by doing the same thing again, regardless of whether or not you know what you're doing is OK.

For the record (and the newsgroup is probably tired of hearing about this), I had two banknotes of Oman taken down because they "violated the Iran policy". I figured out today that Oman uses Rials, as does Iran, and that's probably why the BOT got hot and bothered.

Your listings might have been taken down by BOT and it's not a competitor or your listings being reported at all. There were two sellers in the forum who sold penny rolls that were "unsearched" and had a lot of mad customers, and the listings started coming down. eBay refers to these as providing a bad customer experience, that's why they can't be sold. They will cite a policy that's related to what you're selling, even if you didn't violate it exactly. (This is what I was told regarding Oman, it's similar, so they have to take it down, it's utter nonsense and I feel your pain on this).

I did not relist on Oman stuff, I just donated it to people who I knew would like having the notes. Better than the stress of dealing with this again. eBay Facebook for Business did overturn my violation and it was removed, and the items were put back in inventory and I was allowed to relist them. But why deal with that stress?

If you keep accruing violations, you'll end up being permanently suspended.

Good luck,

C.

[fashunu4eeuh]

JJ—thank goodness you took some of your listings down. I reviewed your listings when you first posted but did not have enough time to post a response.

Besides the Chance listings, there were other policy violations that were likely going to cause you more trouble. Below were the issues i saw in the removed listings. Will outline them here so you do not repeat the errors when you begin relisting your goods.

1) Sellers do not have the authority to forbid Money Back Guarantee cases. Telling your customers that opened rolls will void their MBG privileges is misleading. As noted in item #304846899554 for example:

“IF IT HAS BEEN OPENED AND INSPECTED I CAN NO LONGER ACCEPT IT AS A RETURN FOR REFUND AND THE EBAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE IS NO LONGER VALID.”

2) Restocking fees are not allowed. Not anymore.

3) When one offers Free Returns, that means for any reason, including buyer’s remorse. One cannot pick and choose which items with Free Returns they will honor. If it says FR, then you must accept it. The exception is if the buyer defaces the item or alters its condition. Then the seller has the option to withhold up to 50% of the refund. This is true for Top Rated Sellers and those who offer free returns.

For what it is worth, i agree with @mam98031 . It is highly unlikely that a single report, especially from a competitor, got your listings removed. If that were the case, there would be mass chaos on eBay.

The overseas CSRs are notorious for making up stories and feeding them to callers. So you were had, just not by a fellow seller, but by the so-called supervisor who told you a blatant mistruth. eBay does not disclose such information, nor do most frontline CSRs have access to it. They did you a great disservice by telling you what they thought you wanted to hear.

Wish you the best of luck, and much continued success, JJ.

[sir.koinz]

Thank you for researching this for me, it means a lot. I have tried to see the listings that were removed so I could try and figure out the wording that caused the violation but when i click on the listing it just has a message pop up saying they were taken down. The description in the listing you saw was a different description that I was using, and amazingly, they sold and I never had an issue with those. You can look at my sold items and you will see about a dozen different descriptions that I used, I never settled on just one and that's probably what messed me up.  Another crazy thing is after ebay told me there was a competitor reporting me I started receiving messages from a very unhinged individual who I had never heard of bragging that he got my items tossed and doing so from multiple accounts. I didn't even know a person could have multiple accounts on ebay!  This person kept messaging me even though i was ignoring him and he ranted about how i was supposedly building these rolls because i got ripped off and I couldn't figure out what he was talking about but i let him continue for a couple days then called ebay and brought it to their attention and the csr told me all they could do was block him from messaging me anymore and it would take 8 hours. That was day before yesterday and i have not heard another word from him. I finally relisted 12 rolls 2 days ago and since then I have had 1 roll taken down because of the chance listing policy AND the counterfeit policy!  The remainder have not been touched yet. I am only getting a small percentage for my rolls that I did before and it almost seems like that was the primary goal of whatever or whoever was violating me. I search other sellers listings and I'm so confused why they can list however they want and blatantly lie and still sell!  It's almost as if ebay wants sellers to lie! My listings didn't stop getting violated until I put the word "unsearched" on my listings!  I hate using that word but I did it as a test since others use it and are selling just fine. I'm going to go back to listing honestly in another week and see what happens because i know exactly what every coin is in my rolls, i have them inventoried in case a bad buyer takes out the "good coins" and rebuilds the roll with garbage and files a "not as described" case, which we all know can and does happen to we coin sellers. That's why i never used the word unsearched before.

I asked for the names of their other account usernames but they just ignored me. I hate to think it could be one of my loyal customers. That's the kind of paranoia this crap causes, not to mention the acid reflux from worrying when your stuff is going to be violated again, knowing it doesn't even need to violate anything, it just needs to be visible. How can anyone do business, or especially, succeed in this type of atmosphere. 

[sir.koinz]

You said that it was probably already put on ebay Facebook, what do you mean?  This issue I'm having or the violation i committed by saying something about the ebay return policy?  I know absolutely nothing about the Facebook thing, I wasn't aware there was anywhere to go for help other than Pakistan to talk to a csr. I understand now about being careful with the wording on a listing, the less words the better but I'm unclear on the chance listings policy. When you sell a roll of 50 coins you have to describe, tell the date and type of each coin and get front and back pics of each and every coin in the roll. If that was the case, nobody would ever buy a roll. The mystery is the whole reason people buy them. The trick is to be a good seller and make sure each buyer is happy with their roll and diversity of coins, dates, etc. but doing so is a violation yet every single roll seller attempts to do this, mostly. I understand trying to weed out the scammers and bad experience sellers but that's not me at all and that's what gets me, they don't take into account a sellers past sales, feedback, sales metrics, followers, happy and repeat customer list, and the worst part of all is they will tell you that your listing violated some broad term rule that makes no sense but they won't tell you what exactly was the problem. Then when you attempt to go over your listing with a fine tooth comb so you can find the problem yourself, you can't even access the listing because all of the details disappear once it's been violated!  No evidence, no way to learn how to correct the issue, no way to conform. It's just a game of chance and you hope and pray your listing sells before it gets removed again.  There's gotta be something in place so that stops happening. 

[sir.koinz]

No but 2 or 3 can, and did. 

[albertabrightalberta]

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@sir.koinz wrote:

I finally relisted 12 rolls 2 days ago and since then I have had 1 roll taken down because of the chance listing policy AND the counterfeit policy! 

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@sir.koinz 

You may not have to worry about fixing your listings. You say you've relisted 12 rolls and have had at least one more removal for chance AND counterfeit policy. But if you re-read the removal email you received and posted in reply #9 , it clearly states that you CANNOT and should not relist the removed items.

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@sir.koinz wrote:

 If you ever have dealings with a user by the name of "XXXXXXXX", turn around and quietly walk away and hope he/ she doesn't hear or see you because they get fixated on a seller and will make your eBay experience a complete nightmare.

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I've xxx'ed out the name of the person you allege reported your listings but you can't do that! Naming and shaming isn't allowed. 

[femmefan1946]

TL/DR

I immediately called customer service and after speaking with a CSR and then a supervisor I learned that a competitor had taken the time to individually report every one of my listings.

The phone reps have a terrible reputation for getting you off the phone as soon as possible even if that mean giving you the advice you want to hear instead of the advice you need to have.


https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.

https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en


https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.


The social media Chat accounts are covered by trained eBay employees with some authority.
And you get a transcript so you can compare what you heard with what you were told.
 

[femmefan1946]

@sir.koinz 

You can make paragraphs by hitting the Return key after you have finished a sentence.

Single sentences are easier to read than a Wall'o'Text.

[inhawaii]

General comment.

I've reported a competitors food item for expiration date violation about once a month for over a year.

The product expired in 2021.

The listing is still up.

It takes more than few complaints to get a listing taken down.

[soh.maryl]

If you are going to post absolute walls of text, can you do some of us a favor and break it up into paragraphs?  Thank you for your consideration.  

[mam98031]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

@sir.koinz 

You can make paragraphs by hitting the Return key after you have finished a sentence.

Single sentences are easier to read than a Wall'o'Text.

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Drives my eyes crazy.  Which is why I haven't been reading their posts.  I'm glad you took the time to read through it however.

[ckimodog]

@inhawaii 

There is a seller here on Ebay who is selling vape cartridges.  I can't believe Ebay allows this person to continue to sell.  They have about 7 different accounts. My nephew lost a friend to a tainted vape cartridge (fentanyl).   This seller is a danger to the community in so many ways, yet they can create new accounts and continue to sell illegal items.  Ebay needs to step up their game. 

[sir.koinz]

I meant to share these links with you earlier, just in case someone else in the future has a question about the AI systems that are running most of ebays functions, and have been for many years, almost as long as you have been on ebay,  maybe longer, depending on how you'd define the first attempts and applications of AI in the 90s. So you will have up to date info to share with anyone else looking for help/ info on various subjects because I now know too that the customer service reps that are reachable, through the app or website, do more harm than good, lie to you with zeal and conviction and gleefully spread misinformation. (Oh boy I'm probably in trouble for real now). 

I am just happy that I am much more enlightened and wiser than the panicked moment I first asked my questions on this forum. And very appreciative for the links you sent me to be able to reach some real CSR's and locate more help via Facebook.  That info turned out to be priceless because I had no clue they even existed before that. I am sure there are many others out there that don't know about that as well so now I can pass on that info to other panicked, close minded, idiots just like I was when I had my problem, as life threatening as it was lol.

Well here are the links, thank you for your valuable info and patience you displayed during my freakout, I am very very thankful for your wisdom and experience and even more thankful you passed some on to me,  thank you. 

That goes for everyone else who reads this that helped me those few days,  thank you. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/04/26/the-amazing-ways-ebay-is-using-artificial-intell...

https://tech.ebayinc.com/engineering/ebays-transformation-to-a-modern-ai-platform/