eBay

hustlestoreus · ‎06-03-2023

Hello All,

Recently, We've been experiencing a significant issue with eBay. EBay has reduced our listings' impressions due to "violating the item location policy."

In short, we have four different warehouses in the US, and some items are stored simultaneously.

We did this to offer always free shipping and a five-day delivery period. However, eBay claims that regardless of a company's size and warehouse base, every item must have only one ship-from location.

This rule is unreasonable. As you may understand, we keep some items in multiple warehouses to deliver faster and cheaper to every customer.

For example: if our customer is from California, we will ship their item from our warehouse in WA. But if the buyer is from Tennessee, we ship from the Florida warehouse.

Have any of you experienced a similar issue? Please share your experience.

Thank you.

Alex

fab_finds4u · ‎06-04-2023

Here's another angle to consider.

You have ltem locations, "your warehouses you own the products in," in nine different cities not four.

China, Bulgaria, Cucamonga CA, Ontario CA, Tacoma WA, Kent WA, Seattle WA, Richmond VA and Jacksonville FL.

That sure looks like dropshipping to me. Especially when similar items like the 3-D puzzle show some are shipped from China and some from CA. It's OK to dropship where you have a contract with a wholesale distributor and they ship to your customer. What's not OK is to show it's shipped from CA but it was shipped from China.

Free shipping might be a problem. I'm going to assume you build the shipping into the item cost. And that would be a cost to cover shipping to the furthermost point because for sure you aren't going in the hole on shipping. What the buyer from CA sees is a total cost from Richmond to buy a tub. They know shipping really isn't free and they're OK with the price because they know an oversized item costs a lot more to deliver to CA. Imagine their surprise when it's shipped from zone 1 instead of zone 7. They paid too much if how they feel.

What I am seeing is of course it's only natural to want to ship it from the location where it's cheapest to you. They way you have items listed is misrepresenting the item location policy.

I agree it shouldn't matter where it ships from as long as it gets delivered by the delivery date but it still sticks in my craw if I think you built the highest shipping in the listing and then I found out it shipped from nearby.

If eBay wants you to ship from the location in the listing that's what you must do.

If the stock photos are screaming dropshipper here then take your own photos. If they're items you've already bought then that should be not problem. You have the item. Take a picture of it. Use it instead of a stock photo.

Once you get on their radar they can start demanding receipts. If they don't like who you're buying your stock from it could be a problem. There's no guidebook for sellers this happens to.

Just ship from the location in the listing and you'll be fine.

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dbfolks166mt · ‎06-04-2023

I doubt the impression reduction has anything to do with your item location. There is another post somewhat similar to yours that has some information that may assist you although some of the comments seem to conflict with eBay's Item Location policy. However, since you are using free shipping hard to say if that matters.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Location-location/m-p/33789016#M2222176

hustlestoreus · ‎06-04-2023

Hey,

I appreciate your response. However, if you insist, I can send you all the pieces of evidence I have where eBay representatives are saying that due to this policy violation, a depression on my impressions is applied.

I have a response from the highest department at eBay, confiriming it.

Thanks for the provided link.

ALex

soh.maryl · ‎06-04-2023

Just curious: What's the highest department at eBay?

dbfolks166mt · ‎06-04-2023

Hey,

I appreciate your response. However, if you insist, I can send you all the pieces of evidence I have where eBay representatives are saying that due to this policy violation, a depression on my impressions is applied.

No need to send me that personally although others on this forum may be interested to see that. I wonder if that is also effecting the others referenced in the posting I shared. I can somewhat understand why eBay's policy exists but it makes it difficult for merchants that are in your situation.

Have to wonder what would happen if your item location simply stated US. I don't have an answer for this but maybe there is a seller on the forum that has their listings setup this way and can comment.

I have a response from the highest department at eBay, confiriming it.

Thanks for the provided link.

ALex

hustlestoreus · ‎06-04-2023

Some ebay representatives said that just US is not an acceptable item location. No matter the shipping is free. On the related policy it is clearly written that every item must have an accurately defined location + a zip code.

The bad news is that the official Adidas ebay store has only one item location for each of their products listed. However, they are not always shipped from it. I tried buying one of their items. Guess what - it wasn't shipped from the location it was shown!

Therfore, I asked ebay if there are double standards among the sellers. Of course, they said that the rules go for every single user.

I can't actually share screenshots and other sensitive information here, because I am in a process of gathering evidences against ebay, because I plan on going to court against them. My attorney is communicating with ebay now. It's not me. The main objective will be the double standards and the unfair competition practices on ebay. (I could use the correct expression, but you get the point).

Our business on ebay is not a hobby. It provides for several families. We were growing it for 4 years now. The situation we're now is extremely bad. That's why I'm seeking for help everywhere.

hustlestoreus · ‎06-04-2023

I'm sorry. I didn't express myself clearly.

I was transferred several times to the so called internal team that handles account restrictions.

Also, thanks to my decision to involve my attorney, I was able to get more info from a team that doesn't communicate directly with ebay account holders.

valueaddedresource · ‎06-04-2023

@hustlestoreus when you say "our warehouses" do you mean your business actually owns 4 different warehouses across the US or are you using 3rd party fulfillment or dropshipping?

I noticed a lot of your items can be found on AliExpress. I'd recommend making sure you are familiar with eBay's dropshipping policies as well as the location policies.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/drop-shipping?id=4176

hustlestoreus · ‎06-04-2023

Hello,

Thank you for joining here. We are authorized delaer for evry single item listed on ebay. We're using our suppliers' and manufactures' warehouse networks to provide an exceptional shipping experience.

However, it might be called dropship. I'm unsure. But we are not placing orders with aliexpres. All the items are within the US, except several units which are listed as "located in China".

As long as I understand, dropshipping is when you buy an item only after you get paid for it. This is not the case with our company. We paid for the items we listed here upfront.

Any helpful advice is highly appreciated.

Alex

stuff4divas · ‎06-04-2023

@hustlestoreus the solution is to put a specific location address on your listings and then u can ship it from whichever warehouse you want

trying to justify lack of location address due to offering customers free shipping obviously does not conform to eBay policy, so just do what their policy says to do or find another platform that is more to your liking

turnpiketreasures1 · ‎06-04-2023

I expected to see thousands of items when you say you have 4 warehouses, how on earth is it feasible for you to do that with the small amount of items you have. Just me being curious, but maybe someone at eBay was curious too. Although I doubt anything but a bot has looked at your shop. It's probably just that they have it in their algorithm to check for multiple shipping addresses? That might explain it and the explanation you got from eBay...and I wouldn't think having an attorney and doing anything in the courts will get you anywhere but further in debt from legal fees. And what on earth would you pursue in the courts anyway, it's in eBay's policies that you have to have one shipping address, so what are they doing that is illegal. I would pick one address and put that in everything, but when you ship you ship from wherever...with free shipping it simply won't matter. Good luck.

hustlestoreus · ‎06-04-2023

I'm not trying to justify lack of location address due to offering customers free shipping. Every single listing is correctly described. The point is that some items are stored in more than one warehouse. The ship from location depends on the delivery address. It's that simple.

By the way, what did you mean by this "put a specific location address on your listings and then u can ship it from whichever warehouse you want"? Evidently, our account has been somehow restricted just because a lot of items were shipped not from the address shown in the listing, but from the closer to buyer warehouse.

hustlestoreus · ‎06-04-2023

We had more than 2200 listed unique items here. Of course, as I mentioned a few times, they were not just by a single piece.

More warehouses = faster and cheaper shipment. Before eBay did this to our store, we had our $-selling-limit $2M almost completed.

I doubt it is a bot's work because many eBay back-team reps are involved in this.

There are lots of things to be pursued here: misleading information; misleading drop ship policy; clear lies from eBay representatives; eBay seller double standards; and a few more things that I cannot share now.

It does matter if you ship even for free.

Please, people, I am searching for someone with a similar business model. Any help is greatly appricveated!

Alex

stuff4divas · ‎06-04-2023

@hustlestoreus well, since i posted that u lack a specific ships from address, all of a sudden your listings show Kent, WA (without a zip code) instead of the generic ships from USA

you r asking for assistance but u say u aren't going to 'share' other info, so in that case, we can only advise on the info u DO decide to share.

You are now on eBay's radar, so if it were me, I would comply to eBay policy or they'll bounce u off of their platform.

eBay's platform, their rules.

baantiques · ‎06-04-2023

So just put one location in your listing, but then ship from whichever location you want to ship from. Sometimes what they don't know won't hurt them.