eBay

missmelindalou · ‎09-05-2017

We listed an item "Pair 2 Bose Double Cube Speakers Black Work Great Cosmetics Not Great" and our selling privledges are temporary restricted for keyword spamming because "not great" violates ebay policy of keyword spamming because "not great" is somehow a "brand name, celebrity name, specific product or much searched word". Additionally this is apparently our 3rd or 4th offense, but all of the offenses are relisting this one item. So we are getting close to getting kicked off ebay because we are keyword spamming when we have never keyword spammed.

We have spent hours and have got no where. Both myself and my girlfriend have tried to explain that although using "not" plus some other word might be a typical way of keyword spamming, "great" is not a celebrity namebrand name, product name or typical keyword search. Even though "cosmetics" was not part of the complaint in our email from ebay, we tried to explain that the word cosmetics has multiple meanings in english which seemed to be confusing to one operator. The worst was one ebay rep who seemed to get more and more annoyed about our refusal to stop keyword spamming and all explanations were met with some sort of "if you don't stop keyword spamming you will be kicked off ebay" with the operator never acknowledging that there might be some mistake after we had explained the error many times.

I sort of feel like this comes into the general category of racism, where non-native speakers blame and accuse and punish and blame and accuse more because they cannot accept that their understanding of English misses certain nuances. Sort of as though someone from the US were to accuse and blame and punish a minority or a foreigner because the majority US person did not understand them and could not accept that there might be a different point of view.

We are really concerned that we might be kicked off ebay for good

z50com · ‎09-08-2017

May I ask

What are you trying to accomplish in this thread?

You've been given advise from numerous EXPERIENCED sellers and you continue to be a brick wall. . .

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-08-2017

It may be a posting id. People often use them.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-08-2017

An internet search for not great reveals:

“Not great, Bob!”

- Pete Campbell, “In Care Of” (Season 6, Episode 13)

More than any other “Mad Men” line, Pete’s exasperated exclamation to Bob Benson was the quote that launched a thousand GIFs.

Ebay stated that NOT GREAT< CELEBRITY was the violation. MAD MEN listings have been pulled for years; MAD MEN zealously guards their property rights.

Whether you think it is a violation is immaterial; Ebay considers it a violation and that is all that matters.

missmelindalou · ‎09-08-2017

This is the only argument about how we might be in violation, according to the wording in the suspension letter, that has made any sense to me. But, also, ebay did not say "Not Great" is a celebrity or anything along these lines, it's just my only guess of how we might actually be violating policy by saying "not great." But I still don't think it's actually violating policy if we are obviously not refering to "Mad Men" especially if we are selling recent speakers and not early 1960s merchandise.

I think it should matter if some ebay employee sees something a search bot throws out and doesn't bother to do anything other than agree with the search bot, then multiple other ebay employees blame and accuse and randonly transfer and say a search bot is not in play.

I understand sometimes one just has to accept the way things are, but I feel like something is truly wrong when we are held to super strict standards and can not missing anything and employees of ebay seem to be not held accountable in any way and ebay is not held accountable for not providing better carrots and sticks.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-08-2017

This is kind of puzzling. You are upset with Ebay CSRs because they agree with the bots that this was a violation. They work for Ebay; they are not going to flout company policy that termed you were in violation. Any company expects their employees to back them up, not decide the company is wrong and you are right; do what you want. If they had told you to relist, you might be suspended forever now. They can't overturn the policy anyway. Any company expects their employees to uphold their rules; this was not an area they can vamp on.

Had you paid attention to the first message, Make sure your listings comply with Ebay policies you would not have earned a suspension. You don't know if Ebay cancelled the listings or not but it would seem they did and you just kept re-listing, which appears to be defiance and continued non compliance. Sometimes people knowingly do this, because they are determined to list as they cannot accept they are wrong. So that is what this appeared to be.

A message worded Make sure your listings comply with Ebay policies would probably cause one to take a look to see if you were in non compliance, but that did not happen.

Inconvenient for you; but you might have listed items for those three days and still had not sales to pay for those bills that were due Tuesday. There was no guarantee you would have sold anything in just three days before your bills were due.

You agreed to abide by Ebay rules when you listed the items. Sorry this happened to you, you got a friendly warning the first time, then they had to get your attention with a restriction. With 4 relistings, you are very lucky you are not suspended for good.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-08-2017

@missmelindalou wrote:
This is the only argument about how we might be in violation, according to the wording in the suspension letter, that has made any sense to me. But, also, ebay did not say "Not Great" is a celebrity or anything along these lines, it's just my only guess of how we might actually be violating policy by saying "not great." But I still don't think it's actually violating policy if we are obviously not refering to "Mad Men" especially if we are selling recent speakers and not early 1960s merchandise.

I think it should matter if some ebay employee sees something a search bot throws out and doesn't bother to do anything other than agree with the search bot, then multiple other ebay employees blame and accuse and randonly transfer and say a search bot is not in play.

I understand sometimes one just has to accept the way things are, but I feel like something is truly wrong when we are held to super strict standards and can not missing anything and employees of ebay seem to be not held accountable in any way and ebay is not held accountable for not providing better carrots and sticks.

Your OP says this: We listed an item "Pair 2 Bose Double Cube Speakers Black Work Great Cosmetics Not Great" and our selling privledges are temporary restricted for keyword spamming because "not great" violates ebay policy of keyword spamming because "not great" is somehow a "brand name, celebrity name, specific product or much searched word". Additionally this is apparently our 3rd or 4th offense, but all of the offenses are relisting this one item. So we are getting close to getting kicked off ebay because we are keyword spamming when we have never keyword spammed.

@missmelindalou

OP in your recent post, you say that Ebay did not say not great is a celebrity or something around those lines, it is just your guess.

In your original OP, you state Ebay said not great violates keyword spamming because not great is a brand name, celebrity name, specific product, or much search word.

So it is NOT your guess. You have contradicted yourself here. Sorry. You gave us exactly what Ebay said in your original post. I think you are upset and so convinced you are right that this is hard for you to accept, and I'm sorry you feel that way, but everyone has to comply with Ebay's rules. They did not single you out.

OP sorry this happened to you, but there is nothing more to be said or done about this; relist it if you care to, that is your choice, but just know the next suspension may be permanent. So very sorry.

missmelindalou · ‎09-08-2017

Where are you coming up with all this? I don't understand what's so complicated about all this, I just wrote something quickly and somehow made a mistake and said "cosmetics not great" instead of "cosmetics aren't great" and I seriously doubt that more than 10% of ebay sellers read every message from ebay.

I feel like there are two main reasons that people post to discussion forums:

(1) Because people feel good about assisting and helping less experienced sellers.

(2) Because criticizing other people online makes people feel superior to others and therefore feel better about themselves.

Are you sure you are not posting for the second reason? I mean, I am not trying to discount other people's efforts and I am highly appreciative of all the input, but at the same time internet discussions tend to have all sorts of motives.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-08-2017

I understand but the problem with that is you may be arguing incessantly when you are wrong, and the fact that you might be wrong does not seem to figure into your philosophy. While it may give you confidence, all the arguing in the world is not going to make you right.

Sorry for the angst you have experienced. Good luck.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-08-2017

@missmelindalou wrote:
Where are you coming up with all this? I don't understand what's so complicated about all this, I just wrote something quickly and somehow made a mistake and said "cosmetics not great" instead of "cosmetics aren't great" and I seriously doubt that more than 10% of ebay sellers read every message from ebay.

I feel like there are two main reasons that people post to discussion forums:

(1) Because people feel good about assisting and helping less experienced sellers.

(2) Because criticizing other people online makes people feel superior to others and therefore feel better about themselves.

Are you sure you are not posting for the second reason? I mean, I am not trying to discount other people's efforts and I am highly appreciative of all the input, but at the same time internet discussions tend to have all sorts of motives.

I'm sure I am not posting for the second reason but I know from this thread that you will not accept that. I'm sorry you had this experience, and good luck to you in the future. I'm done.

missmelindalou · ‎09-08-2017

Whereas I feel that you keep arguing for nonsensical reasons when you are obviously wrong because you have already argued something that is wrong and feel an inclination to support your already wrong early arguments.

Lengthy internet discussions just seems to end up being a battleground for strong willed people who are actually probably more alike than different. Probably we'd either get along in real life or end up arguing incessantly:o)