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

missmelindalou · ‎09-05-2017

We also opened a spot in an antique mall. It's pretty difficult to learn enough to accurately describe all sorts of things without making a mistake. Asian looking pottery seems nearly impossible to correctly identify without spending many, many hours researching and learning.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-05-2017

No one has said you can't list condition in the title; you just need to remove your keyword spamming words. Remove not great and great, put in SOME DAMAGE.

I know you don't think it is keyword spamming; any words that are irrelevant and cause your item to show up in unrelated searches is keyword spamming.

Not great may be used by Mad Men fans looking for the character, cosmetics may be used by people actually looking for cosmetic. I know you said you don't want to waste buyers' time but in using keyword spamming, you actually are.

Racism has nothing to do with it.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-05-2017

@missmelindalou wrote:
It makes sense that even if great is not the first word it would show up under a search for great. But we also did not use the word "condition," so someone searching for "great condition" would maybe? not have our item pop up. I understand the problem, and largely we were just very upset at setting aside 3 days to list things to pay a bill, not being allowed to list things and then spending hours getting blamed and transferred around rather than reps seeing the problem and acknowledging the obvious, that we have a great track record and were not intentionally trying to violate policy.

Sorry, but you said you listed this 3 or 4 times? That would seem like you were trying to violate policy because you persisted in relisting without correcting so it was pulled each time.

Also any time the word not is used they consider that keyword spamming because you say misdirecting buyer's search for your benefit, it tells them what it is not. For example, you can't put NOT DISNEY, because then your item that isn't Disney will come up to everyone who IS searching for Disney. Hope that makes sense!

Beyond that, the Mad Men Reference, where ebay says, celebrity, is very serious as the owners of the Mad Men rights are VERY serious about that!

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-05-2017

OP stated they have 3 or 4 violations but they are just from relisting this item.

Apparently they persisted without changing things.

OP, so sorry.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-05-2017

OP, it is a good thing to describe the condition; you just can't do it the way you did.

Posters have mentioned how to do that.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-05-2017

Really wish you had come to the Boards on your first offense, instead of relisting it over and over without fixing it, as that just caused it to be pulled again and again.

People would have advised you of the seriousness of the issue and to make the changes that Ebay requested.

Sorry you are in this position.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-05-2017

@missmelindalou wrote:

I agree, but we were told we are either one or two instances of keyword spamming away from being permantely banned, and, after this, I fear that there will be some secret other mistake we make that is viewed as keyword spamming and we will get kicked off for good. It would be really nice if this mistake on the part of ebay would be addressed and removed from our account instead of us getting punished for someone else's error which might result in more serious punishments if someone else misunderstands things again.

So sorry, but it is not a mistake on the part of Ebay. Your thinking that it is someone else's error and not accepting that it is yours is what resulted in your being in this situation of being very close to suspension, because you just kept relisting it without making the advised changes.

It is not someone else's error. It is yours.

I am sorry you now fear you will make some secret other mistake; you might want to read the Selling Practices and polices, especially as pertains to keyword spamming. Hopefully knowing these things will lessen your anxiety. Most importantly, when you get a warning, comply with the instructions.

mistressmime · ‎09-05-2017

@missmelindalou wrote:
It makes sense that even if great is not the first word it would show up under a search for great. But we also did not use the word "condition," so someone searching for "great condition" would maybe? not have our item pop up. I understand the problem, and largely we were just very upset at setting aside 3 days to list things to pay a bill, not being allowed to list things and then spending hours getting blamed and transferred around rather than reps seeing the problem and acknowledging the obvious, that we have a great track record and were not intentionally trying to violate policy.

Ebay doesnt know whether or not you meant to do it, or even care if you meant to do it. They just care that you did it, repeatedly.

castlemagicmemories · ‎09-05-2017

@missmelindalou wrote:

Can you explain about using As at the end of a title? I'm not catching what this means.

Poster said to use AS IS, not just as.

AS IS means the way the item is, implying there may be some issues with it.

You then need to list what those issues are in the listing description and show it in your pictures.

missmelindalou · ‎09-05-2017

I understand and have no intention of relisting it with the same title, it is simply very frustrating to try very hard to be honest and do a good job and be successful at having a near spotless record but then suddenly, as a complete surprise, get banned from listing on ebay on the weekend we could have done others things, and then face accusations and threats of permanent banning because of one listing that needed to be relisted. I would think that there could be some common sense about this. Like if we were trying to bring everyone to our listing, wouldn't we have tried hard to keyword spam using a better keyword than "great?" And if we were trying to be sneaky, why would we keep relisting something that we knew was throwing up red flags? I don't know how any part of this can be confusing, but talking to reps it was like we were sneaky evildoers who wouldn't stop doing terrible things who really needed to be punished because we wouldn't stop doing evil.

dosprompt · ‎09-05-2017

Do not use these words in item titles:

Not or Like

Both are Keyword spamming and will get you suspended.

missmelindalou · ‎09-05-2017

We weren't aware that we had any offenses. I guess it's possible that listing was taken down and we didn't notice and thought the listing had just expired.

missmelindalou · ‎09-05-2017

But you understand that it was either never pulled previously or was pulled and we didn't notice. We have a lot of things that take a long time to sell and we regularly relist them all. Often there have been close to 50 things to relist at once. We were not aware that there was a problem of any kind until our account was temporarily suspended.

margarenisa_0 · ‎09-05-2017

@missmelindalou wrote:
But you understand that it was either never pulled previously or was pulled and we didn't notice. We have a lot of things that take a long time to sell and we regularly relist them all. Often there have been close to 50 things to relist at once. We were not aware that there was a problem of any kind until our account was temporarily suspended.

But surely after 4 pages of discussion- NOW you know right?