POLICY VIOLATIONS

[Anonymous]

I HAVE HAD 3 AUCTIONS SHUT DOWN FOR NO GOOD REASON because of POLICY VIOLATIONS.  I SPOKE TO THE POLICY DEPARTMENT AND THEY WERE CLUELESS AS TO WHY and GAVE LAME EXCUSES SO I WANTED TO SPEAK TO A SUPERVISOR.  THE PERSON TOLD ME THEY WOULD GET BACK IN 24 to 48 HOURS BUT no contact yet AFTER 6 DAYS.   What Customer service - As a seller I am required to jump thru all these hoops and I work Very Hard to get things right but what thanks do I get for being a Top Rated Seller = Pull my items for No good reason and THEN ingore me by not calling me back.  I have about had enough - another year or so and I AM DONE!  EBAY is OUT OF CONTROL AGAIN!  My guess is that they don't use Humans anymore when they decide to pull an item and rely on machines WHICH IS TOTALLY IDIOTIC as a machine cannot descern what the item being sold actually is and they rely on Keywords which could (in any combination) trip the system. RIP eBay = Keep mistreating your sellers and it won't matter how many buyers you have if all the quality sellers hang it up...

[inhawaii]

Are you just venting or would you like to discuss your violations?

[reallynicestamps]

The phone reps do not work for eBay so don't bother with them. They work for a subcontractor out of Utah.


https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.

https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en


https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.


The social media Chat accounts are covered by trained eBay employees with some authority.
And you get a transcript so you can compare what you heard with what you were told.

[iamalwaysright]

First off, what items were these auctions selling?

[heckofagame]

"My guess is that they don't use Humans anymore when they decide to pull an item and rely on machines WHICH IS TOTALLY IDIOTIC as a machine cannot descern what the item being sold actually is and they rely on Keywords which could (in any combination) trip the system."

Knock knock. "Sarah Connor?"

[maxine*j]

I may be telling you what you already know, but:

Given what you sell, I can well imagine that the primitive AI which is used to monitor listings and enforce policy gets led astray.  There are many things restricted and banned in the areas of Medical Devices, Prescription & OTC Drugs, Cosmetics, and Human body Parts -- and what you sell might easily have keywords or descriptors that AI bots would pick up as violations of those.

My only feeble suggestion is that you give those policies a thorough going-over with an eye to noting what words should never appear in any of your listings.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/prohibited-restricted-items?id=4207

By the way, I have some interest in the history of medicine, and you have some very nifty items.

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[Anonymous]

 FIRST: An 1890's bottle with content and box for Otto's Cure was pulled - They said it violated their "Wine/alcohol policy".  (There was no alcohol in it at all).  SECOND : an 1890's hemlock inhaler for being medicine that needs a prescription = their email: "We had to remove your listing because it didn’t follow our Prescription and over-the-counter drugs policy".  (You cannot prescribe an 1890's medication and the item was old and decrepid).  THIRD: was a old medicine that I clearly showed was empty (in multiple photos) but had a label that mentioned an item they don't allow (BUT IT WAS EMPTY).

[Anonymous]

CATEGORIES: Collectibles - Bottles - Pre 1900 - Medicines and Cures & Antiques - Science and Medicine - Medicine - Quack Medicine.  FIRST: An Otto's Cure with box was pulled - They said it violated their "Wine/alcohol policy".  (There was no alcohol in it at all).  SECOND : an 1890's hemlock inhaler for being medicine that needs a prescription = their email: "We had to remove your listing because it didn’t follow our Prescription and over-the-counter drugs policy".  (You cannot prescribe an 1890's medication).  THIRD: was a old medicine that I clearly showed was empty (in multiple photos) but had a label that mentioned an item they don't allow (BUT IT WAS EMPTY).

[Anonymous]

That may be true but when I list something that is Perfectly Okay I should not have to worry about it as I paid the listing fee and did Nothing wrong.  For me to scour my listings and their policies to see what they May pull is ridiculous.  It is already hard enough to sell on this site to properly photo and describe everything.  If they use something other than a human to make an informed decision that should Not be my problem when I listed something that  is in no way a violation.  I just had one of their "Reps" tell me that my 1890's medicine bottle with original box and content that they pulled because it violated their Alcohol policy (wine in particular) that "Well, we don't know what's inside" =  A Totally Absurd  Answer!  I plugged in the search words "with content" and over 5000 items came up and for example an old box of "Snowy Bleach"  came up.  Does their logic then mean it could be heroin inside the box.  I mean really , you can 'say' anything is something that it is not but if not true then what good is saying it then.

[livelifebeautiful]

Are you sure it didn't have anything to do with 

Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) policy violations  ??

VERO Policy eBay.com 

[Anonymous]

ABSOULTELY NOT - But THANKS for trying  🐵

[maxine*j]

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@Anonymous wrote:

That may be true but when I list something that is Perfectly Okay I should not have to worry about it... 

---

I'm just pointing our reality.  The situation is that you are selling on a platform with vague policies which are capriciously enforced, using AI. 

People who sell in EVERY category run into this problem.  As innumerable threads here show, the oddest and most innocent items are sometimes pulled, while egregious violations are sometimes not caught. 

That is just how it is, and it is not going to change.   

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[12345jamesstamps · Accepted solution]

Selling something that looks like there is something in it will get pulled...what if some idiot decided to swallow it. Anything with a label saying "wine" or "alcohol" on it should not be sold. I visit the USPS store every week and someone is always trying to mail just clothes in a box. Just because the box has the word "wine" or "alcohol"on the outside it cannot be mailed even though it's just clothes in the box. 

I am a little surprised not more of your stuff is shut down. Maybe empty the contents of some bottles. And rewording not using certain words in the title and description also might help. Just thoughts.

[Anonymous]

I have just waited All Day for a return phone call from the eBay policy dept. after being Promised a call back within one to 2 hours.  My point is, since Ebay can reistate my auctions which I worked hard at to produce and I can correct the suspected wording that tripped it up why won't they have a method of facilitating that.  That on top of their wanton disregard for returning my inquiries and canceling my auctions in the first place is just plain Bad Business.  Okay seller - you jump thru all our hoops and after you do it well we will step on your auctions Unessecarilly and Totally ignore you = THANK YOU EBAY - I AM PROUD TO BE PART OF SUCH A GREAT COMPANY

[Anonymous]

Thank You for your thoughts - appreciated!  So what you are relating is that ANYTHING with content should get pulled as someone could ingest the rug cleaner, gun oil or the plant food.  Heck they could even eat a razor blade - Just ban anything with content I guess.  I understand the alcohol box thing as ran into that early. Cheers!