eBay

duffy4444 · ‎08-05-2023

I woke up this morning to a notice from eBay that one of my listings last night was unilaterally ended by the bots. It was for a brand new Avon Cape Cod Collection Wine Decanter Full of Bubble Bath concentrate. Bubble Bath was right there in the title!

The email contained a lengthy explanation of how it's against eBay "policy" to sell wine or alcohol of any kind without legal approval to do so. Blah, Blah, Blah...

Here's the first paragraph of many in the email from eBay:

Hello duffy4444,

We had to remove your listing because it didn’t follow our Alcohol policy. Wine can be listed on the eBay US site (eBay.com) by eBay approved sellers only. No other alcohol products are allowed...

This is the stupidity of allowing AI bots to do the "thinking" of humans. All it saw was the word "wine" in the title, and my listing was toast. I guess other listings for other items with wine in the title as a color of cloth, for example, would also get ended. How about the color burgundy, or champagne? What about glassware? Are Beer Steins next? This is getting out of hand, and is proof positive that this country's obsession with AI is far from a good thing, and probably will always be.

I made a new identical listing with "Bubble Bath Decanter" in the title instead, and so far it is remaining. I could have made a lengthy stink with Ebay For Business on FaceBook, but my time is better spent just going around the stupid bots.

SMH...

Cheers, Duffy

duffy4444 · ‎08-06-2023

@inhawaii wrote:
@duffy4444
Love your new avatar!

@inhawaii:

Thanks!

The old blue swirl reminded me of what I feel like when I have a headache or have to work thru the occasional changes that eBay makes us pay attention to. I just had to change it to something meaningful.

Cheers, Duffy

ms.rodriguez* · ‎08-06-2023

True but I did not know if you used one of those listing programs like Auctiva. Hopefully, it will sell quickly.

duffy4444 · ‎08-06-2023

@ms.rodriguez* wrote:
True but I did not know if you used one of those listing programs like Auctiva. Hopefully, it will sell quickly.

@ms.rodriguez*:

Nope, I don't use any outside listing programs; just organic eBay, which keeps things pretty simple and successful for me.

My Avon Cape Cod items have always been good sellers. I just sold one yesterday that had been up for only 24 hours, and it will ship on Monday. And with this bubble bath=wine stupidity, I'm learning about second-guessing the AI bots and avoiding them.

It appears that the bots thought I was listing a full decanter of wine, but never bothered to see Bubble Bath in the title. The earlier advice from other sellers about dropping "wine" in my title when coupled with "decanter" and "full" was great. So far no problems on the brand new listing. I also have wine goblets that were listed just yesterday, and it appears that the words goblet and glass doesn't assume there is actual wine involved. There are also many other sellers of wine goblets and glasses that are not affected. So I am further learning the nuances of words in a title and how they can be construed.

Cheers, Duffy

silverstatetreasureboxes · ‎08-06-2023

@duffy4444 wrote:
@inhawaii wrote:
@duffy4444
Love your new avatar!
@inhawaii:

Thanks!
The old blue swirl reminded me of what I feel like when I have a headache or have to work thru the occasional changes .......

What drinking to much bubble bath Duffy?

duffy4444 · ‎08-06-2023

@silverstatetreasureboxes wrote:
@duffy4444 wrote:
@inhawaii wrote:
@duffy4444
Love your new avatar!
@inhawaii:

Thanks!
The old blue swirl reminded me of what I feel like when I have a headache or have to work thru the occasional changes .......

What drinking to much bubble bath Duffy?

@silverstatetreasureboxes:

That must be it! Come to think of it, I thought the wine tasted kinda funny... and here I'm blaming eBay's AI bots... Now I feel ashamed...

Cheers

tobaccocardyahoo · ‎08-06-2023

You have witnessed the state of the art in Artificial Intelligence.

Even little Ebay has had to use bots to screen its listings for policy violations. The alternative would be more labor costs and higher fees.

chapeau-noir · ‎08-06-2023

@duffy4444 wrote:
@ms.rodriguez* wrote:
True but I did not know if you used one of those listing programs like Auctiva. Hopefully, it will sell quickly.
@ms.rodriguez*:

   Nope, I don't use any outside listing programs; just organic eBay, which keeps things pretty simple and successful for me.
   My Avon Cape Cod items have always been good sellers. I just sold one yesterday that had been up for only 24 hours, and it will ship on Monday. And with this bubble bath=wine stupidity, I'm learning about second-guessing the AI bots and avoiding them.
   It appears that the bots thought I was listing a full decanter of wine, but never bothered to see Bubble Bath in the title. The earlier advice from other sellers about dropping "wine" in my title when coupled with "decanter" and "full" was great. So far no problems on the brand new listing. I also have wine goblets that were listed just yesterday, and it appears that the words goblet and glass doesn't assume there is actual wine involved. There are also many other sellers of wine goblets and glasses that are not affected. So I am further learning the nuances of words in a title and how they can be construed.
Cheers, Duffy

There's really little nuance or mystery to it, it's just basic semantic search, but it takes seeing an example like this to get it to click.

“The illegal we do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer.” - Henry Kissinger

"Do not obey in advance." Timothy Snyder "On Tyranny"