I lost my Ebay account for selling "hateful" books that I got no warning about whatsoever

[themeissnerlibrary]

Hello everyone, 

I really appreciate everyone hearing me out. We are absolutely devastated today. We are going to lose our account, and if you listen to me you'll realize that there's truly nothing we can do about it. 

So we are a book seller. We own about 50,000 different books in our book warehouse. We are just a bookseller, that's it, no other items. We have been completely safe and fine on Ebay for 6 years without any issues selling large amounts of books. 

We were doing fine, until about 3 months ago. About 3 months ago, we started getting notifications from Ebay that we are selling "hateful" books that need to be removed. Absolutely no issue with that. I totally understand, and we will remove any banned books. But here's the thing: They're suspending our account every single time a single "banned book" gets listed and THERES NO LIST FOR US TO REFERENCE TO KNOW WHAT'S BANNED. 

And so, as a seller of 50 + thousand titles at any given moment, we cannot avoid listing things that are banned. 

In 3 months, I've had my account restricted with a suspension 7 times now for listings "hateful" items, and we cannot get a list of items to not list from Ebay. I cannot find anybody at Ebay that can give me a list of things that I can't list. 

And so today, I received a notification that I am suspended for 10 days for having a book about O.J. Simpson listed. I had this book listed for a long time without issues. No warnings from Ebay whatsoever. They didn't ask me to remove it, they just suspended my account for 10 days. 

I am flabbergasted as a person and as a seller. I feel like my entire account is gone now, because at any moment I'm going to be told I'm listing a "hateful" book that I have no idea about. There's no list, there's no warning. You're just suspended and there's nothing you can do. 

I messaged and called Ebay and there's nothing I can do. I am lost and feel absolutely thrown away. 

I am just an honest person trying to sell books, and the bookselling model for bulk booksellers is completely threatened by the method by which they're removing books like this. 

I really hope someone see's what I'm talking about. I don't know what to do. I can't do anything. The next time I get a warning about these Ebay has told me that my account will be suspended for a month. 

I'm lost guys, and my business is over until I can figure this out. 

Thanks - Chase, the Meissner Team

[themeissnerlibrary]

For anyone that needs more information: 

I got multiple warnings to start, and I removed everything that I could that I thought would be considered "hateful"

This started for me in June or so. We were completely fine until then. Then all of a sudden we got a 3 day restriction for having a Dr. Suess book listed that I got no warning about whatsoever. I shrugged it off. 

Then I got another 3 day suspension for the same sort of thing, this time for a book about knives that we had listed for a long time. Again no warning, just suspended and told "don't list hateful things", without any list whatsoever. 

Then I got a 7 day suspension for listing a different Dr. Suess. Again absolutely no warning, no ask to remove it. Just suspended and told that I listed "hateful material". 

Then today, I received a 10 day suspension for having a book about OJ. Simpson listed that we had listed for a long time. I got no warning, there's no list according to Ebay customer support. 

I am literally, according to Ebay, responsible as a book seller to understand the material and the content of every single book that I list. I can't even believe that. 

[bonjourami]

Looks like you've canceled some transactions with out of stock too, you should know thats the kiss of death for a seller here, and puts you on Ebays radar, with a defect for each cancellation. As for the Dr Suess books, you can Google those books that have been deemed offensive by the company and shouldnt be sold anywhere.

[bashort]

It is a product of the times and will get much much worse.

[coolections]

Sory to hear the problems you are having. It is a jungle out there. Anything and everything that offends someone now days has to be banned and never talked about again. Be careful with any books about past presidents, generals, and any well-known person who lived 150 to 200 years ago. Yes, Dr. Suess was bad according to some. Other books such as a cookbook that mentions the name Aunt Jemima, any WWII books that mention Hitler and many others. Even Mr. Potato head people are offended because he goes by the surname MR.  I have no idea how you can sift through the minefield of books to determine which ones are OK and which ones are not. Good luck.

[themeissnerlibrary]

Hello, 

I don't believe we've cancelled too many transactions. We've cancelled 31 out of my last 2736 orders. I never received anything about cancelling transactions from Ebay. 

Thanks for hearing me out - Chase 

[themeissnerlibrary]

Thank you for hearing me out and responding. 

I'm glad you see what I'm saying. As a large bookseller, I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible to navigate the mindfield without a list. 

The wildest part about our 10 day suspension for this O.J. simpson book, is that we had this listed for up to a year without any issues. It was never known as banned, never known as controversial. 

Even Amazon. com was a retailer and a distributor for this book up until a month ago. 

The isbn is 0825305934. 

It's an impossible mindfield, and my business model in terms of selling bulk amount of books is now impossible based off of the way that Ebay punishes sellers for "banned" things that aren't known about. 

Thanks - Chase 

[animesalesandmore]

More they "ban" a book more I want it lol ig thats why all these "banned" stuff is creeping up in price. 😄

[rfmtm]

I  understand ebay's right to remove them.  The question is, if this is being done by ISBN number, why not block the posting of listing to begin with, or provide a list.   Otherwise, just take the item down without penalty to the seller who has no way of knowing what ebay has banned at any particular point in time.

Appears booksellers on ebay need to ban together and try to get some attention to this problem.  Would be interesting to know how other venues are handling this issue.

[onefootflipper]

---

@rfmtm wrote:

I  understand ebay's right to remove them.  The question is, if this is being done by ISBN number, why not block the posting of listing to begin with, or provide a list.   Otherwise, just take the item down without penalty to the seller who has no way of knowing what ebay has banned at any particular point in time.

Appears booksellers on ebay need to ban together and try to get some attention to this problem.  Would be interesting to know how other venues are handling this issue.

---

Most other venues don't care. 

[femmefan1946]

The question is, if this is being done by ISBN number, why not block the posting of listing to begin with, or provide a list.

ISBN wouldn't work very well, because different editions of the same title may have different iSBNs, particularly non-US editions, which often have their ISBN rejected entirely.

Author+ title would work better, although Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" has been pulled under two earlier titles. (No problem with the contents, just the titles.)

Better would be the same sort of warning that we see when listing Native American goods and the like. Then the seller could make a considered decision. 

And as mentioned above, it was the Seuss family who decided to stop publishing the affected titles, not eBay.

[albertabrightalberta]

---

@themeissnerlibrary wrote:

Ebay has been very clear that the issue with our account is what we list in terms of content and information, and that I'm required to know the "hateful" nature of books that I list. 

---

Although the main issue they're telling you is the problem, I think ebay looks at the full picture, history, feedback, performance, etc. 

With so many feedbacks indicating bait and switch, dropshipping (from Amazon), items in worse condition than pictured, slow shipping, OOS items, cancellations then same item relisted at a higher price, etc., they decide that this isn't the type of seller they want. 

Although 97% is a great score on a high school calculus exam, it's not a good feedback score on ebay. 

I've never had 50K listings and can't even begin to imagine how difficult inventory control must be so I do get it.

And taking pictures of each individual item is probably another near impossibility but especially with used items in varying conditions, using stock images with no description or disclosure of damage is bound to lead to unhappy buyers, reflected in many of the feedbacks about items that aren't like the pictures in the listing.

[1tuna]

heres my take on cancelling

anything more than 1 cancel per 500 sales is excessive

I dont think I have ever had 3 canceled items in a year out of 2000 sales.

I guess its just a difference  of opinion but you are off the charts

@themeissnerlibrary 

[themeissnerlibrary]

I 100% agree with you. Thank you for listening to us and chiming in. More than anybody I don't want banned books to be sold and I will immediately take anything down if it's not ok with Ebay. It's the fact that I'm now in a vicious cycle of endless suspensions that has escalated to 10 days in a matter of months. It will happen to every large bookseller if it hasn't happened to them already. Watch out for any controversial subject. 

It started with us with Dr. Seuss. Total accident, our mistake, we removed it and I removed everything that had to do with Dr. Seuss. We made a business-wide rule not to list Dr. Suess. I just took the 3 day suspension, and moved on. 

Then it happened again with a book about knifes, another suspension. Then a book about OJ simpson. I haven't in my research seen anything in any forums or list anywhere on the internet about this OJ simpson book ban before I got a suspension for it. 

It just can't be the case that a seller gets the suspension for having it up before getting a removal. 

Amazon, for example, will just not let you list things that are suspended by isbn. Ebay lets you list it without a list of banned items, and then will take your account away and suspend you. That Oj simpson book was up for a long time for us without any issues. 

[soh.maryl]

So when cool-stash mentions "goo goo" in reference to checking on books, they meant "google"? Good to know.