eBay

ninasjewels · ‎12-10-2021

I was selling 3 new in package remotes that I purchased at an estate sale. I have other remotes by this company listed and have sold several - some new, some used. These 3 listings were recently pulled for VeRO violations. Charter/Spectrum is not on the VeRO list and there are no details about why it was pulled. No mention was made of the items being counterfeit or other typical VeRO issues. I reached out to the email provided at Charter to ask about it but, of course received no response. Anybody have any idea what this is about? I feel like this happened:

Don't do it?

Do what?

You know.

Know what?

And, if it happens again, we'll suspend you.

If what happens?

Sigh.

We had to remove your listing because it didn’t follow our VeRO Infringement Policy. Violating the intellectual property rights of a rights owner is not allowed

What activity didn't follow the policy

More specific details are provided below.

What you need to do next

You can't relist items we've ended. Please ensure your current and future listings follow this policy.

What is the policy

- Your listing was reported by Charter Communications Holding Company, LLC for violating their intellectual property rights. eBay’s Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program offers intellectual property owner(s) a way to report listings that they believe infringe on their rights
- Infringing intellectual property rights is not allowed
- If you believe a mistake has been made, you will need to contact the rights owner directly. If the rights owner approves your appeal, please have them contact us directly to reinstate your listing(s)

Charter Communications Holding Company, LLC is the title holder of the SPECTRUM products.

How this affects your account

Because you may not have been aware of this policy, we're sending this notice to educate you about it and ask that you follow this policy in the future.

- Listings that didn't follow this policy have been ended.
- We have credited all associated fees except for payments processing fees and the final value fee for your listing(s).

Listings that don't follow this policy in the future will be ended.

Why we have this policy

This policy helps to ensure that eBay users trust our marketplace, and comply with the law.

Listings not following policy

OEM SPECTRUM silver replacement C4000 REMOTE CONTROL w/ batteries NIP NEW
OEM SPECTRUM silver replacement C4000 REMOTE CONTROL w/ batteries/manual NIP NEW
OEM SPECTRUM black replacement URC2060 REMOTE CONTROL w/ batteries/manual NIP

We appreciate your understanding.

Thanks,
eBay

monster-deals · ‎12-10-2021

You are unlikely to hear back from a VERO owner but I have seen one case in these forums that someone did get in contact and got the VERO reversed.

Time consuming and labyrinthine and if the items are low dollar....probably not worth the effort. Dontae them or find another outlet to sell because if you list them again you are in for troubles.

albertabrightalberta · ‎12-10-2021

If you file a counternotice to the VeRO rep and don't hear back within (I believe the timeframe is) 10-14 days, you should be able to get the listing reinstated.

https://copyrightalliance.org/education/copyright-law-explained/the-digital-millennium-copyright-act...

"After receiving a counter notice, the service provider is obligated to forward that counter notice to the person who sent the original takedown notice. Once the service provider has received a valid DMCA counter notice they must wait 10-14 days. If the copyright owner sues the alleged infringer in that time frame the material will remain down, but if no suit is filed then the service provider must re-activate or allow access to the alleged infringing activity."

albertabrightalberta
Volunteer Community Mentor

southern*sweet*tea · ‎12-10-2021

Charter is a cable company, right? I cannot speak for any Charter equipment, but with DirecTv you can't sell anything of theirs unless it is equipment that is no longer supported and no money owed on the account. Anything branded with their name belongs to them and not the subscriber. Not sure if remotes would qualify, but that could be the reason.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

kensgiftshop · ‎12-10-2021

@ninasjewels

Don't think they were counterfeit, but they are owned by the company and not to be sold.

Have a great day.

ninasjewels · ‎12-10-2021

I think you might be right. We wondered the same thing. There needs to be more info available to sellers when they receive a VeRO. It makes it impossible to understand the program at all. Thanks for your feedback!

ninasjewels · ‎12-10-2021

I totally agree. We never relist VeRO'd items. Not worth the risk. I just always try to figure out why I got the VeRO in the first place to avoid the mistake a second time. I don't want to waste money on sourcing those items or time on listing them. eBay needs to do a better job of communicating this info to sellers. Giving us the email address of the reporter is not enough. Thanks for your feedback!

ninasjewels · ‎12-10-2021

This is good to know. Not worth it in this case, but I'm glad to have this info for future listings. Thanks for posting!

albertabrightalberta · ‎12-10-2021

@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
Charter is a cable company, right? I cannot speak for any Charter equipment, but with DirecTv you can't sell anything of theirs unless it is equipment that is no longer supported and no money owed on the account. Anything branded with their name belongs to them and not the subscriber. Not sure if remotes would qualify, but that could be the reason.

I'm curious though.

If the OP bought the remote and owns it, why wouldn't first sale doctrine allow her to resell something she owns?

albertabrightalberta
Volunteer Community Mentor

a_c_green · ‎12-10-2021

@albertabrightalberta wrote:
@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
Charter is a cable company, right? I cannot speak for any Charter equipment, but with DirecTv you can't sell anything of theirs unless it is equipment that is no longer supported and no money owed on the account. Anything branded with their name belongs to them and not the subscriber. Not sure if remotes would qualify, but that could be the reason.
I'm curious though.

If the OP bought the remote and owns it, why wouldn't first sale doctrine allow her to resell something she owns?

First off, I agree with the theory that these were cable-company remotes that technically still belong to the cable company (even though 99% of the time, the company doesn't actually want them back for various reasons, including wear and tear, no usable recyclable parts, and the fact that they're germ-infested after being handled many times a day for upwards of years on end). I have occasionally had to return a cable box under warranty, and have always been told to return the power cable or power supply, but not the remote.

I am not a lawyer, but I don't think you could argue First Sale Doctrine when the item wasn't supposed to be sold to you in the first place.

7606dennis · ‎12-10-2021

@albertabrightalberta wrote:
@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
Charter is a cable company, right? I cannot speak for any Charter equipment, but with DirecTv you can't sell anything of theirs unless it is equipment that is no longer supported and no money owed on the account. Anything branded with their name belongs to them and not the subscriber. Not sure if remotes would qualify, but that could be the reason.
I'm curious though.

If the OP bought the remote and owns it, why wouldn't first sale doctrine allow her to resell something she owns?

I don't think the first sale doctrine would apply since I believe that such equipment is leased to the cable subscriber and not purchased. One would need to check the UA between the subscriber and cable company.

"It is an intelligent man that is aware of his own ignorance."

southern*sweet*tea · ‎12-10-2021

@a_c_green wrote:
@albertabrightalberta wrote:
@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
Charter is a cable company, right? I cannot speak for any Charter equipment, but with DirecTv you can't sell anything of theirs unless it is equipment that is no longer supported and no money owed on the account. Anything branded with their name belongs to them and not the subscriber. Not sure if remotes would qualify, but that could be the reason.
I'm curious though.

If the OP bought the remote and owns it, why wouldn't first sale doctrine allow her to resell something she owns?
First off, I agree with the theory that these were cable-company remotes that technically still belong to the cable company (even though 99% of the time, the company doesn't actually want them back for various reasons, including wear and tear, no usable recyclable parts, and the fact that they're germ-infested after being handled many times a day for upwards of years on end). I have occasionally had to return a cable box under warranty, and have always been told to return the power cable or power supply, but not the remote.

I am not a lawyer, but I don't think you could argue First Sale Doctrine when the item wasn't supposed to be sold to you in the first place.

Right.

In my case, when we dropped Directv we called first and asked if we could sell the box. (the remote had been eaten by the dog years before and we bought a universal remote) They told us that the equipment belonged to them and that if it were sold it would not be allowed to be activated....BUT it was so old that it was considered unsupported equipment that they had no further use for, so they cleared it for sale. Yes, it worked just fine, but at the time it was ten years old and they just didn't want it back, so I was able to sell it.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell