Authenticity Program is Seriously Flawed, authenticators don't know what they're doing

[rwittlin]

As a Seller with 23 years of experience and 100% positive feedback I just had the worst experience with the program and it ultimately cost me a sale. I appealed it to Ebay every way possible with no response. They state that it doesn't cost anything to the seller is a LIE. I paid to ship it to them out of my own pocket, their authenticators made mistakes, it was returned to me. So I'm out the $43.00 it cost me to ship it to them.  They authenticated the bag, the additional information they added was wrong. If they want to use this program, they need to train the people they hire so they know what their looking at.  Furious doesn't come close. I'm done selling on ebay.

[pickapaper]

With 23 years under your belt, please don't give up selling on eBay.  You have some lovely items and great feedback.   

Unfortunately, many threads have been posted about the inaccuracy or other issues with the authentication program.   I don't list anything that would require it and I have read that a lot of sellers no longer use it because there are problems.

My 5 cents worth of advice would be to keep doing what you are doing but just don't list anything that requires authentication.  Frustrating, I know, but will save a lot of headaches in the long run.  

[ckimodog]

@rwittlin 

Very sorry for your situation.  As others have pointed out, there have been many posts concerning eBay's authentication process and it's shortcomings.  I agree that if eBay wants this feature to be successful for buyers and sellers, they need to hire actual people who know the product and are trained to authenticate.  My guess is they just hire random people for minimum wage, they read a lists of do's and don'ts & then go from them there.  To me that's not authentication, it's an estimated guess that costs the sellers their time and money & buyers out of their item.  Hang in there.  

[rwittlin]

Thanks for the response.

Your advice is well heeded, however there are a few items that I'd like to sell which will require Authenticity and I'll never use the program again. There's no way to opt out. So I will need to sell them elsewhere.

I suggested to them that for longtime sellers with excellent feedback such as yourself the program isn't necessary, and suggested that for new sellers with not enough feedback yet, the program "might" make sense but there was no way to do it. Of course they can - there's an algorithm for everything on the planet.!!!!! 

[orangehound]

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@rwittlin wrote:

There's no way to opt out.

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The software that decides which items go into the authentication program uses key words in the item details to make its decision.

If these key words are not in the item details, then the item sells without authentication.