Received a warning for cancelling my item

[fortyfive2life]

I had an item listed for sale, and didn't have much interest after a couple weeks (1 offer, but it was too low).  So I pulled the listing tonight, and immediately received a warning email from Ebay about selling outside of Ebay.

I'm not selling outside of Ebay, and I have no intention to.  In fact, I get offers to do so and always turn them down; I won't even ship to an address that is not the verified PayPal address, and I always require a signature. 

Most of the few items I sell are pretty expensive, and I don't take the risk.  But it's a little ridiculous that as soon as I cancel an item, Ebay decides I'm selling off the site and warns me.  The email says "at this time, no restrictions are being placed on your account".  Fantastic.  So if I list another item and in a couple weeks decide to cancel it, will it be different?

I really wish there was a good alternative to Ebay.  I've sold thousands of dollars worth of items just as most of you have, and Ebay has profited greatly from it.  I appreciate the opportunity to reach a lot of potential buyers, but not the strong-arm tactics.

Thanks for letting me vent.  First world problems right?

[dakotasmoke]

I still cant find it. I wonder if they gave up on the policy and just went to nailing people with FVF for offsite sales if they cancel too much ect

[missjen831]

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@dakotasmoke wrote:
I still cant find it. I wonder if they gave up on the policy and just went to nailing people with FVF for offsite sales if they cancel too much ect

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If it was ever policy (I seem to recall that it was some years ago but can't find anything to prove my memory correct!) it has been removed probably because they can't legally do that as the item does not belong to them. There is a policy stating you can't SAY its listed in 2 places but they really have no legal basis to say that once listed on ebay, it can't be sold anywhere else, otherwise that would mean that the item belongs to ebay once listed. They can do that with your pictures and content but not with the actual item itself. 

[dakotasmoke]

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@missjen316 wrote:

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@dakotasmoke wrote:
I still cant find it. I wonder if they gave up on the policy and just went to nailing people with FVF for offsite sales if they cancel too much ect

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If it was ever policy (I seem to recall that it was some years ago but can't find anything to prove my memory correct!) it has been removed probably because they can't legally do that as the item does not belong to them. There is a policy stating you can't SAY its listed in 2 places but they really have no legal basis to say that once listed on ebay, it can't be sold anywhere else, otherwise that would mean that the item belongs to ebay once listed. They can do that with your pictures and content but not with the actual item itself. 

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See that's what makes me wonder about eBay charging fvf on off eBay sales. If they can't prove the sale was taken off of eBay with messages or something and the seller cancels it because it's sold elsewhere where do they get off charging fvf?

I think if anybody ever really try to put this to the legal test eBay probably would actually lose, however not many sellers are going to have the money to push it that far

[myangelandmyprincess]

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@kattinsanity wrote:

So--You had the item listed at just short of 3 grand.  You turned down the offer of 25 hundred.  The buyer came back at 27 hundred & you DID NOT RESPOND to that offer and ENDED THE LISTING SHORTLY AFTER.  THAT is where ebay sees you may have sold it for 27 hundred. 

Ebay policy is that if you make a habit of ending fixed price listings your account can be restricted.  That's why you got the warning that there are no restrictions on your account YET but saying more or less~~"keep up the habit and there will be".  You are on ebays radar now.

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If the op didn't respond it would have been autodeclined. ANd if I had told someone my bottom line and they came back lower I wouldn't respond either at that point. 

I would say it had to do with the message about the bottom line price more than anything.  Still stupid. 

[ersatz_sobriquet]

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@myangelandmyprincess wrote:

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If the op didn't respond it would have been autodeclined. ANd if I had told someone my bottom line and they came back lower I wouldn't respond either at that point. 

I would say it had to do with the message about the bottom line price more than anything.  Still stupid.

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I think it's probably any item that has a convo going back and forth and then the item is suddenly ended. Ebay assumes action A (convo) = action B (off site sale). 

Presumptive, and just plain wrong. But we've seen sellers getting this message, buyers getting this warning message too, for really stupid stuff like size questions measurements. We've also seen the threads where sellers are listing part numbers that are absolutely necessary for items, and ebay bots thinking they are contact info. Bots always will be stupid. 

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@kattinsanity wrote:

Also the buyer has no buyer protection so all the better for the seller.

The OP has done this before and gotten away with it~~this time ebay is questioning his actions.

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If they pay via PayPal, they have more than enough buyer protection.  If they pay via CC, they have protection.  Just wanted to address that little nitpick.

That said, I would not be surprised if their next step is to penalize a seller if they get an offer and either reject it or counter offer and the buyer never responds back; then the item ends via natural causes, and the seller does not relist it within a certain time frame (2 months, perhaps).

[godzilla_goose]

People,

I fully understand the items belong to the sellers and that eBay has no ownership rights to the sellers' items.

What I also understand is that eBay can NOT restrict or forbid a seller from selling the same item outside of eBay IF the seller chooses to do so for if eBay did that, then eBay would be guilty of Restraint of Trade.

Please, people, if you do not understand Restraint of Trade, please google it.

Interesting discussion. Please continue. . . .

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@sharingtheland wrote:

This is all I could find in Policies (and it took forever for the opening page to load).  This reads like a suggestion, not a rule.   And note that it refers to "auction-style listing before jumping willy nilly to GTC listings.

Manage your inventory carefully. If you aren't able to complete a transaction because the item is no longer available, it may affect your seller performance. If you have only one or a small number of an item to sell, don't list the item for sale elsewhere. That way, you won't have to end an auction-style listing early because you no longer have the inventory. If you're selling multiple quantities in a fixed price Good 'Til Cancelled listing, consider using the out-of-stock option to allow you to keep your listing active when you run out of stock.

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That is actually amazingly sensible (amazing for eBay at least).  The only thing I would change there is the verbiage to remove or a small number of an item to sell, since if you have multiples, then under most circumstances, you would likely divide them up between sites instead of putting them all up everywhere, so still no risk of an out of stock situation.

[emerald40]

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@nowthatsjustducky wrote:

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@kattinsanity wrote:

Also the buyer has no buyer protection so all the better for the seller.

The OP has done this before and gotten away with it~~this time ebay is questioning his actions.

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If they pay via PayPal, they have more than enough buyer protection.  If they pay via CC, they have protection.  Just wanted to address that little nitpick.

That said, I would not be surprised if their next step is to penalize a seller if they get an offer and either reject it or counter offer and the buyer never responds back; then the item ends via natural causes, and the seller does not relist it within a certain time frame (2 months, perhaps).

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JMO but a listing ending naturally because that was when it was scheduled to end, is different than someone abruptly ending it.

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@kattinsanity wrote:

So--You had the item listed at just short of 3 grand.  You turned down the offer of 25 hundred.  The buyer came back at 27 hundred & you DID NOT RESPOND to that offer and ENDED THE LISTING SHORTLY AFTER.  THAT is where ebay sees you may have sold it for 27 hundred. 

Ebay policy is that if you make a habit of ending fixed price listings your account can be restricted.  That's why you got the warning that there are no restrictions on your account YET but saying more or less~~"keep up the habit and there will be".  You are on ebays radar now.

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But if there was no contact info exchanged; like an email address to actually send a PayPal payment to, or a snail mail address to send a traditional payment, or even a phone number so that info could be transmitted by voice or text; then how could the pointy haired folk here accuse the OP of making an outside eBay transaction?  They have to get that contact info through messaging here first usually.

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@emerald40 wrote:

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@nowthatsjustducky wrote:

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@kattinsanity wrote:

Also the buyer has no buyer protection so all the better for the seller.

The OP has done this before and gotten away with it~~this time ebay is questioning his actions.

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If they pay via PayPal, they have more than enough buyer protection.  If they pay via CC, they have protection.  Just wanted to address that little nitpick.

That said, I would not be surprised if their next step is to penalize a seller if they get an offer and either reject it or counter offer and the buyer never responds back; then the item ends via natural causes, and the seller does not relist it within a certain time frame (2 months, perhaps).

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JMO but a listing ending naturally because that was when it was scheduled to end, is different than someone abruptly ending it.

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Of course.  That is common sense in our universe, but in the bizarro alternate reality eBay and its pointy haired bosses exist in; the above is the next logical step in trying to ensure that anything that has ever been listed here never gets put up anywhere else, even after it has had its turn.

[tellmemama]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

**general reply**

This is freaking me out a little. I have several books listed that my daughter would like to have. I was going to end the listings and send them to her.  Now I'm kind of scared I'll get a nastygram.

Still going to do it - it's MY stuff, after all - but if I do get a nastygram there will be an explosion of nuclear anger the likes of which has rarely been seen around here. 

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All.  Of.  This.  ^^^^^

It's bad enough that eBay makes up most of the super secret rules as they go along, can't fix a glitch if their lives depended on it, and created this current scammers paradise.  All the while weasel speaking their way out of everything.  To now claim "ownership" of the items listed here is beyond the pale.

If they want my inventory, then buy it outright.  If not, it's mine to do as I wish.

[moondogblues]

"Your listing shows you ended the listing because the item "is no longer available".  Ebay, of course, believes it isn't available because you sold it.  I guess I don't understand why you would list an item and if you "think" there is no interest in it you decide to cancel it before it ends on its own?"

I bid on a lot of 3 earrings, and today the seller canceled saying OOS...how do you lose 3 pairs of earrings? I wanted them too. I was a bit peeved, but there are lots more where they came from....

[moondogblues]

"Surprisingly I recently received one of these emails and I haven't sold on this platform in over 10 years. I received it after I won an auction on this site so it was kind of a head scratcher....whatever, I just ignored it and hit the delete button. I'm inclined to believe that fleabay simply sends these messages out automatically from time to time in an effort to keep people towing their line. "

I do not sell here anymore and haven't for months, I BUY a LOT...also got one of the nasty-grams. It made me so mad I went over to Et*y and spent about a hundred dollars.

[moondogblues]

"Im still looking to see if I can find it elsewhere. I would swear it was a rule a few years ago that you cant list on two sites at once but maybe they removed it since it would take a ton of man power to search every site to see if a seller was selling elsewhere. "

I sold books here...I was also on Bonanza, Etsy, Ruby Plaza, 3 big book sites and owned a B&M and never had a problem keeping my inventory straight. If a book sold elsewhere (which RARELY happened) I came here and ended the listing. Never a peep from the Bay. If it sold here then I ended the listing everywhere else. Worked just fine for me, and there is no 'rule' against it.