I got a VERO recently. No biggie. Ebay doesn’t want to actually police IP so they have a crappy algorithm do it and the rights holders run amok with it having little or no oversight. It WILL suspend me for the same thing twice so I don’t mess around with it. This was Allen Roth curtain brackets for something like $7. I used their photos. Its a Lowes brand. So Lowes wants to pump and pump and pump their liquidation loads until there is no profit. You have to buy 24 pallets to expect a profit on such things these days. Its stuff they didn’t pay the manufacturer for. So they pump their stolen junk and then use a 3rd party service to attack anyone using a stock photo to sell it on ebay. The brand protection people are shooting the liquidation people in the foot. No more Lowes liquidation for me. Jerks.
The email has a new bit. It says…
“Listings that don't follow this policy in the future will be ended. In addition, there will be a temporary 3-day restriction placed on your account, and your other listings will be hidden from search during this period. All fees paid or payable for listings that are ended and/or hidden from search will not be refunded or otherwise credited to your account.”
Well, that’s illegal. You don’t get to charge for a service (store subscription, insertion fees) and then just decide you aren’t going to provide said service without refunding what was paid for the service. Aussies call it “Fees for no service” and I like that.
Looks like we have some help in the US as well as of Oct 2022.
”The Biden-Harris Administration is taking action on junk fees that hurt Americans’ pocketbooks and the economy.”
“Exploitative or predatory fees. Excessive fees that target consumers who have limited alternative options – because they are locked into a product or service, or are otherwise economically vulnerable”
Hopefullly the ”President’s Initiative on Junk Fees and Related Pricing Practices” Can modify ebay behavior. It won’t let me unbold the font, sorry.
Just hiding items in general is fees for no service even without a full on VERO suspension. I found a NOS 1997 Black & Decker coffee carafe. Price research on my phone returns nothing. I bought it anyway because I love NOS. When I go to put it up I research again with the computer. I search the UPC. Notta. Ebay says none. Zero. Not even a mile of unrelated Chinese garbage. Nothing.
So I go over to google and pop in the UPC. Guess what the FIRST shopping result is. An ebay listing for four of them. Identical item. Identical UPC. The seller put the UPC in and its a perfect match. So If I was on ebay looking to buy that ebay told me there were none meanwhile this seller has paid a store fee or subscription fee to advertise the item. Ebay just took that money and provided NOTHING.
That is “Fees For No Service.” That IS “Excessive fees that target consumers who have limited alternative options – because they are locked into a product or service, or are otherwise economically vulnerable”
Its disgusting, if its not illegal it should be, it needs to end!
For everything that happens conditions exist such that nothing else could have happened.
