Beware of Webinterpret’s scam that ebay is allowing

[bigdeals.etc]

A couple of days ago a banner within my Seller Hub advertised reaching buyers in ebay international sites (shown in screenshot). I clicked it to learn what it was about. It pushed me to a 3rd party page (Webinterpret) explaining what it was and allowed me to register/sign up for their service. I didn’t sign up and just closed the page.

The next day, Webinterpret hacked into my ebay account. They duplicated all of my listings 4-6 times each listing. My usual 200 live listings became over 1200 listings. Each listing was specific to an ebay international website (au, uk, ca, de, etc.). They basically duplicated my inventory quantity as well… obviously I don’t have that much inventory to cover it. Beware, this is on ebay’s Main Seller Hub page that ebay is advertising.

Read further if you want to know ebay’s response to this:

I called my ebay concierge and after a few hours of asking around and researching, he called me back and said the company has been with ebay since 2011, they shouldn’t have access to your account without your signing up, authorizing, generating a token, etc. I told him I did none of that and the agent was confused on how the company was able to hack into my account like that. The agent helped me remove the duplicate listings manually (took awhile) and revoked any access from that company to my account. I checked and it appears many ebay members (dated as far back as 4 years) had the exact same thing happen to them and did the revoking, only to find months later the company hacks back into their accounts doing the same thing… sometimes even billing them. Ebay says they will check on it, but then again… this problem has been around for at least 4 years now and ebay hasn’t done anything about it.

I’m just warning others to NOT click on that banner.

[helloandgoodmorning]

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@bestpysanky wrote:

We got charged $10,600 for Webinterpret insertion fees.

Called eBay 5 times asking to refund - still no resolution.

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Were you in the free trial but didn't successfully opt-out before it expired @bestpysanky ?

[bestpysanky]

EBAY and WEBINTERPRET have a free international listing promotion from September 4th, 2018 to December 31st, 2019.

Still got charge for insertion fees.

https://pages.ebay.com/promo/2018/Webinterpret.html?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTUdJeVlUVm1OalJsT1RJeCIsInQiOiJh...

When is it?

This Promotion will begin on Monday September 4th, 2018, at 00:00:01 PT (12:00 AM plus one second), and will end on December 31, 2019, at 23:59:59 PT

[helloandgoodmorning]

@bestpysanky 

Did any of the charges result from the following?

• Sellers should be aware they are required to pay eBay final value fees which are specified for the eBay site they have listed their item. For example, items listed on the ebay.co.uk site will be charged the eBay final value fees specific for ebay.co.uk.
• This Promotion is only valid for Webinterpret-facilitated listings on www.ebay.co.uk, www.ebay.de, www.ebay.fr, www.ebay.it, www.ebay.es and www.ebay.com.au. Fees for optional features (such as reserve price, subtitle, Gallery Plus, listing in 2 categories, etc.) and any applicable PayPal fees will still apply. Please note: Not all features are available in all listing flows. Sellers are required to pay the insertion fees for items listed on eBay sites outside the six eligible sites listed here.

[stampx]

I was opted in to this Webinterpret program without my consent. I saw this evening that I had over a thousand emails confirming I had listed items that I had not listed today.

I saw I had an e-mail today from ebay about webinterpret and listing on foreign marketplaces. I searched my e-mail for "Webinterpret" and I only have two e-mails, one from last September talking about the program and the one from yesterday letting me know I was now signed up. And yet I have never actually signed up for anything!

I just revoked third-party authorization and deleted all of the listings. I do not understand how this happened. I better not be charged insertion fees for this mess. I never clicked on a banner, I didn't even receive an e-mails since September about this.

[salebolt]

They automatic activate it and authorize them to third party authorization if you click thru to learn more.  This is done without much warning and all your listings get submitted.  You can revoke it on the setup screen, but it doesn't actually revoke it.  You have to go into site preferences and third party apps and revoke the tokens.  (not app center).

[partsgalore1]

I have repeatedly told them they must change the way they do business... they must give full control to their customers by removing all automation. This type of **bleep** has only fueled distrust and anger against them. The company has been great to work with..but until they change their basic business model...they are not going to build trust.

[stampx]

I did not click through to learn more, I received one e-mail in September and then another e-mail a few days ago saying I was signed up for it. No interaction on my part at all between the two.

[div_style]

General reply:

Webinterpret's 11,000 extra listings on other sites is bring me several $100 a week.  I have no complaints other than having to spend so many hours packaging items.

[davin_electronix]

Most of the transactions made using WebInterpret's translated listings were fraudulent transactions. Paypal allows up to 6 months for a user to open an unauthorized transaction claim but WebInterpret allows only 60 days to get a refund. You need to call eBay, get a refund of final value fee and then show the refund on your eBay invoice to WebInterpret within 60 days. If the buyer opens a claim after 60 days, WebInterpret won't refund the commission fees that they charged for the transaction. I've lost more than $100 in such transactions. Stay away from this company!!

[bestpysanky]

eBay charged us $10,053 (international listings insertion fees) to our credit card on file.
It took them 3 months to investigate but still, they declined to refund or credit this amount.

[frenchblueshutters]

I also Clicked on it and they wanted Ebay Password and Get this they wanted Credit Card Information as it Costs dearly after the Initial FREE Stuff. Had to remove the 3rd Party Access on My Seller Hub Just so they don't try anything in the Future. They had already positioned themselves on my 3rd Party Access. FYI

[blackaudiousa]

Yes. I too allowed Webinterpret to grab all my listings and without me giving permission they took my 760 listings and created 2700 new listings. I called Ebay and complained that I had not given them permission to do that and I wanted more information. Ebay assured me that it was free for me because I had a premium store. So I let it stay, but I was very suspicious that this was too good to be true. 

So, last night I sold an item to a buyer in China through this service. On the sellers end they are seeing an invoice that is way overcharged for the item. I'm not talking about just adding import taxes, the buyer is being charged almost 75% more to purchase the item than I was asking. I called ebay three times about why the buyer is being charged so much and they can't give me a reasonable answer. When I continued to probe this they said I had to call Webinterpret.

This new service does not allow me to see an actual invoice that the buyer sees so when the buyer asks me a question about the inflated cost of the sale I can answer it. So I have to call multiple times and talk to techs who obviously do not understand this new service.

Now I have a very unhappy buyer and a crisis of confidence. I have to ask the buyer to Cancel the order and relist the item so I can regain control over the cost and the shipping.

Why doesn't Ebay understand the seller/customer relationship and allow poorly designed services like this to destroy the positive equity I have worked so hard to build. Why do I have to call three times and talk to techs who don't understand this new service? Why don't they train their people in new services? 

I have canceled this new service by filtering out all the listings from my Active page and ending them. I still have to work through the angry buyer I have in China.

Ebay has really dropped the ball now. They should be offering services that streamline the buyer/seller experience and giving me more exposure with less headache- but they bolted on this service without doing their homework and now I have to take the torpedo.

I am just about done with Ebay for good. I am going to seriously consider closing my seller accounts. 

[anestateofmind]

VERY DECEPTIVE EMAIL ALLOWED BY EBAY! The email states "Sell Globally, Pay No Insertion Fees", but after you have already signed up, you realize you should have scrolled down to read the fine print. You ARE being charged for anything over their LIMIT. We are being charged 5 cents apiece, for 1200 of the 5200 listings we have up, because only 4000 are ALLOWED. That is $60. So much for eBay looking after their sellers! And opting out is a F**king nightmare! Things just get worse on eBay. It is all about the money they can squeeze out of sellers!

[accessch]

I think this is a perfect case for class-action lawsuit. 

[readtoachieve]

Sorry for bumping up an old thread, but it seems like eBay is automatically enrolling sellers into Webinterpret now. I did not realize until after thousands of emails showed up in my inbox last week saying that I've listed my existing items to different international eBay sites. 

I've received some emails from time to time from eBay and Webinterpret asking me to try them out, but since 1) I was not interested & 2) I've read this thread, I never even clicked on any of the links in the email and usually would just archive the email automatically. All of a sudden, I saw a bunch of new listing emails showing up in my inbox so I went back and look through my inbox and found an email saying that I was automatically enrolled in the program (see screenshot below), another email from an eBay rep saying "

We have sent you a few emails regarding our Cross Border Listing Program powered by Webinterpret and I'd like to connect with you one more time before your account goes live. ", and a few more emails directly from Webinterpret saying that they've trying to contact me to no avail (but decided to go live anyway). 

So on Friday, I contacted them (both eBay and Webinterpret) immediately asking to un-enroll from the program that I never signed up for, removed all listings on international sites, and tried (unsuccessfully) to revoke the token of Webinterpret. My request for cancellation was not honored until Monday, and all of the listings on the various international sites went back up over the weekend so I had to remove them again on Monday, and I'm still seeing the token for Webinterpret  on my account.

According to a rep from Webinterpret : "Even though your account is deleted, Webinterpret plug-in will remain visible as a 3rd party tool at your eBay account level." So I guess this means that the next time eBay wants to enroll me into this program without my consent again, they'll be able to do it as long as I have international shipping enabled. 

So the tl;dr version : read all your emails from eBay (no matter how much they look like spam to you), don't ignore Webinterpret even if you never clicked on any links, and pray that eBay doesn't sign you up for anything. Good luck!