All Government, Surplus and Military listings being removed?

[walter847]

Just wondering if anyone else is having this issue. My Military listings are being removed. The two that were removed were for Government Issue Cold weather wool inserts for gloves. I talked to a supervisor and was told I am not allowed to sell anything that is Government Issued or has the title Military? Why then does Ebay have categories for Military??  I have been selling for years on Ebay and that is my store Military items and surplus? Over 7,000 and 100% positive? Sooo I was told the DOD contacted them for removal. The email Ebay sent to me said I did not follow the Firearms, Weapons, and Knives policy? Again these are gloves. I have spoken to four different people and a supervisor.  They said the computer is taking off anything that has Government Issue or Military, then they said it was the DOD. Since that is mostly what I sell, I guess everything will be removed. I read the ITAR that they told me to read to see what I can sell. I found I can sell Chemical Pants, socks, boots. Which they have removed in the past. I also read I can sell gun slings, which they have removed in the past as well.  I have now contacted the DOD myself to see if I can sell gloves from the Government (Surplus). So I will wait for their reply. The Ebay site also states if you can find it at a retail store you can sell it. Guess what I buy mine at retail Army, Navy, retail stores. I have also contacted several Army-Navy stores and they have all said there is no such thing and they have never been contacted by the Government. Also, I would like to add the Government does auctions on Government items you can buy and sell! Hmmm very interesting!!

[fr8hvnhet0]

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@moondogblues wrote:
Wow, what a bunch of non-answers...'work with the DOD'...yea like that's going to happen.

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Well hey man I can get my car ready and we can all like, I'll pick y'all up and then we can head on down to the Pentagon to go speak to the General of the Army right? Or do you think maybe we should head to Norfolk instead and go speak to the Master Chief there? Come to think of it, maybe we just head over to the DGSC Richmond, then we can talk to the G9's and I'm sure, couple of phone calls and a bit of flashing some ID's around we'll have this situation straight in no time at all.

Work with the DoD, that's what they said right?

Should we maybe try a left approach and fly on out to Afghanistan and capture up some terrorists, present those as payment and as a show of appreciation and mutual cooperation in exchange for the information concerning why these listings were removed...

Work with the DoD, I'm about out of idears here...

You don't think they'll expect us down at AFB San Diego do you?

Yeah that would be a bit much on the driving, I'm not sure I can cover all the gas money unless y'all can might chip in a bit there, heck...

[robot-hands]

Textbook useless answers designed to disarm and not inform.

A secret "rule" & "policy" can never be followed, it's just a roulette wheel.

[r2a2t2_2]

www.dla.mil/Portals/104/Documents/LandAndMaritime/V/VA/PSMC/May09/LM_HaywardMay09_151030

Hopefully the above link is still good. The folks that are responsibile within the DoD for the items removed from eBay is the Defense Logistics Agency. They are a Law Enforcement agency in charge of defending the supply chain, not just supply. The above presentation will give you an idea of just how serious they are about dealing with knockoffs!

[18704d]

That page gave me a 404 Error

Thanks

Lynn

[r2a2t2_2]

Must have typed in something wrong but the page is still there. If you go over to the home page for the Defense Logistics Agency, type in fake garments in the search. This should take you to a page with two PDFs, you want the bottom one..."Presentation to PSMC - Using DNA to Secure Military Components".

[div_style]

Nearly all the military items I sell, including the glove inserts, were purchased from DoD as surplus items.  DoD has no interest in whether we use them, sell them, give them away, or throw them away.  There is no logical reason for DoD to ask such items to be removed from eBay.  All these items are sold in surplus stores all over the country.  All these items are Demil A:  No restrictions, not even restrictions about selling them internationally.  The whole situation stinks like dead fish, and whatever the reasons for these takedowns they are bogus.  DoD is not going to reply to inquiries about these items because THEY HAVE NO INTEREST AT ALL AS TO WHAT IS DONE WITH THEM.

EBay needs to own up to what the hell is going on.

[walter847]

Well said!!!  That's what I have been trying to say through this thread that I started. We both know the DoD could care less about my cold weather gloves,  Ebay told me the DoD wanted them to be removed. Ebay just does not want the Military items on their site anymore, its that plain and simple.

[lovefindingtreasures2]

I sell a lot of vintage military in one of my stores, mostly pins and patches. They used to sell great, now they don't sell at all. This my be the reason. They have been moved to the basement?

Sorry this is happening to sellers of military items.

[colorful*things]

It seems to me if eBay is not going to tell sellers what is and is not a violation, eBay has no basis to penalize sellers for unknowingly violating the mystery rule.  It also seems like sellers who are penalized with no information provided by eBay would have a good basis to file a complaint with assorted state entities.

[div_style]

Gloves, pouches of any kind, jackets, pants, and other wearables (not including certain equipment) are DLA classified as Demil A. 

From dla.mil website:

DEMIL Code "A". This code is for items that are neither MLI nor CCLI. Items that have not been modified or redesigned and which are identical in design, structure, composition and utility to an equivalent item in the commercial market, will be coded DEMIL code "A".

Since these items are the same as "equivalent item in the commercial market" DLA has no interest in how they are used or sold.  Therefore, there is no reason DoD, DLA would require that listings of such items be removed.  Something is very wrong here and your non-explanation is NOT satisfatory.  Somebody at eBay, or some comuter bot at eBay has made a mistake, and it needs to be corrected, and these items should be relisted.

If you don't know what the answer is then you need to find out what it is.

[robot-hands]

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@div_style wrote:

If you don't know what the answer is then you need to find out what it is.

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You will never get the answer you desire here by simply asking.  Every one of you sellers of military stuff needs to call every day multiple times a day.

Some out-sourced, overseas keyboard jockey gets paid $3.50 an hour to screw up ebay but somehow that is more cost effective than just doing it right the first time.

So you need to make it more expensive for ebay to take your calls than it would be to fix the problem.

[r2a2t2_2]

Do you have your release documents?

[dtexley3]

At this point all the affected sellers might try to take this to the Ebay Facebook and twitter feeds for support.  You may get more movement there as it's a more public forum.

[div_style]

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@r2a2t2_2 wrote:

Do you have your release documents?

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I have paid invoices from DLA/DRMS for all surplus items I sell.

Every item listed is classified on the invoice as DEMIL A, meaning no restrictions.

There is NO legitimate reason for delisting such items.

[r2a2t2_2]

If you have whatever you were given as a release document for the listings taken down then I have a feeling that eBay will, should, relist the items as promised. Or ask Trinton@ebay to step in and answer. I'd like to know too.

I don't like shotgun dragnets, I think this is something that we will see more of in the future, just like handbags, for various reasons. The DLA is a Law Enforcement agency, eBay can't tell you anything for that one reason alone.

As to the rest, I'm not a big fan of eBay policy either, I don't think it has anything to do with Demil status either. Because of what you said and I said up front on this or the gasmask thread, these are "consumables", they would normally be used up, not return or repair. So its either unauthorized product, knockoffs, or stolen. All reasons that come under the responsibility of the DLA.