Ebay is continuously restricting my account for selling items that are allowed by Ebay policy

[grangertactical_dot_com]

I sell firearm parts on Ebay. I am very careful to follow Ebays restrictive firearms parts policy. Ebay has been removing listings and restricting my account even though my listings are compliant with Ebay policy. Recently they removed a bunch of my listings for "referencing an assault weapon". In my listing I mentioned that I do not charge extra shipping to HI, AK, etc. Well, they though my reference to Alaska was referencing AK as in AK47. So I contacted Ebay and after getting the run around for a long time I eventually got transferred to someone in Ireland with enough sense to see a mistake had been made. They were still unable to make my items show up in the search results for 10 days. Last week I listed a handgun slide with barrel. Both are specifically mentioned in Ebay policy as allowed. The listing was removed for having a threaded barrel. The barrel pictured and described is clearly not threaded. The barrel sticks out from the end of the slide about 1.5MM, which is not long enough to attach anything to. It is also obviously not threaded. I have reached out to Ebay and have only been able to chat with someone. I have done this three times now. Every time I get the same answer. "We had a firearms expert review the listing and determined you were selling a threaded barre." Has anyone else had a similar issue with Ebay. Has anyone had any success getting the account restriction lifted or any kind of success with Ebays "customer service." Is there a way to contact someone at Ebay that can actually do anything?

[coffeebean832]

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@grangertactical_dot_com wrote:

Recently they removed a bunch of my listings for "referencing an assault weapon". In my listing I mentioned that I do not charge extra shipping to HI, AK, etc. Well, they though my reference to Alaska was referencing AK as in AK47.

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That's an easy one to avoid because there's absolutely no need to mention not charging extra to HI or AK. Your listing states shipping costs in the shipping section and that's all you need. Keep the TOS very short with only essential info.

I can't help you on the threaded barrel issue. What I can say is that your account has been warned and restricted multiple times- whether eBay was right or wrong doesn't matter to eBay- and you've just dealt with a 10 day suspension. You may or may not get a 30 day suspension before eBay decides to ban your account for good.

I'm just saying- be prepared in case that suspension comes down the line. Don't keep all your eggs in one basket.

[simba6]

I once had a listing pulled over the line " this pen is easy to grip"   The bots left out the space between pen and is  and made one word of it.   Said I had to list it in the adult only section.

[wills_thrill]

I was selling that Trolls World Tour doll that had the naughty button.  I received a notice from E-Bay saying the listing was taken down because it violated the Firearms policy!

There wasn't a single word in the listing that could possibly be misconstrued as pertaining to a firearm, unless you include the word "button", which a firearm could have.

So I had to contact E-Bay about that one.  I chatted around and around with a couple of reps for 30 minutes, pressing them to explain how it was a firearm's violation.  I asked them to explain how a Troll doll violates the firearm policy.  They could never answer and I finally got them to remove the strike from my account as a mistake.  But they told me not to relist the item, or it might happen again.  

[chapeau-noir]

It's really important to understand that the people who work for eBay will not have a clue about the fine points of anything and whoever these 'experts' are, I tend to think they don't exist.  It's impossible for any human to know everything about the myriad items sold here, and there are over a billion listings to be monitored, so we have to watch out for ourselves. I've been through this three times and there are some things I just don't list here - if you run into trouble with them, like the so-called threaded barrel, list the items elsewhere.

Just don't push your luck, even if you know you're right.  No extraneous detail (like the shipping note).  You don't want to get booted from the site. 

[dblendeavors]

I once tried to sell a used firearm part on Ebay that was listed dozens of times by others. My listing was removed due to a wording issue not the actual item itself. I was warned and threatened by Ebay. When I contacted their so-called "customer service" they didn't car that dozens of the items were listed by other sellers, they were only concerned with a single word in my listing and would not reverse their decision and basicaly threatened me implying I was now under the microscope for a single word on a legal item.  

This is the political nature of Ebay, I went to gun broker to sell firearm parts safely after that, I would recomend the same to you. Sorry for your trouble.

[atlanticplumbingsupply]

I would remove the AK from your listing. There is a location for shipping policies in your listings. If you keep getting nailed for this i would remove it. 

[donsdetour]

"Well, they though my reference to Alaska was referencing AK"

Don't abbreviate.

[merylwitch]

     I experienced similar issues with non-related items about a year and a half ago due to Vero issues (2 unrelated items almost 6 months apart still got me a listing restriction).  After questioning it and getting nowhere I chose to look at it from a different perspective.  I asked myself which items / categories of items had the potential to be problematic and removed them to be sold elsewhere (over 2,000 items). I do well on here and chose to not jeopardize my account by focusing on being right (I found that whether I was or not is irrelevant).  If I'm uncertain about an item I ask before I list it then put the item aside until I get confirmation.  

[secretbuyer9]

I just received a 3 day suspension on all my listings (170) as I posted a Benchmade pocket knife.  When I started the listing, eBay generated a list of similar items, asking....”do you want to list your item with this title?”  In the list were about 10 similar Benchmade knives that are currently posted. I posted mine and within a couple hours got a bid then a couple hours later eBay canceled the listing saying it was a restricted item and since they’ve done this to me before, I received a 3 day suspension.

I pulled up 395 similar products and have started reporting them as a prohibited item.  I want to know why I’m being discriminated against?   I don’t mind there being a rule but this is a rule that doesn’t make sense since there are literally thousands of similar knives on eBay now. 395 is simply one brand, one particular item. Is it worth filing a discrimination suit against Ebay?

[hotsnot3dprints]

I am having same issue but i am selling air rifle parts very frustrating that they classify us with firearms

[tobaccocardyahoo]

All Internet marketplaces are making use of Artificial Intelligence aka bots to help enforce their policies.

You have probably experienced "state of the art" AI.

You can emulate Sisyphus or you can stop listing products which are similar to those which are prohibited, and can limit your vocabulary to words which are never used to describe prohibited products.

Putting your eggs in multiple baskets is harder than it sounds. Site like Amazon are way ahead of Ebay in taking down items which are too similar to prohibited products.

[kh-phdan]

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thanks for understanding!