Report an Item Exploit?

[pius558]

I'd like to start out by saying. 

1. I'm the Authorized Wholesaler of said product.

2. I have customers who resell the product on eBay.

3. Yes it's authentic, and you questioning it opposed to trying to answer the question is ANNOYING.

4. I want to get to the bottom of the last 2 months rash amount of eBay item removals that happen usually from midnight to 8am , usually there is a 8 hour window of it happening. It's always overnight, and never during the day.

Ok first off, I am the wholesaler and liquidator of a specific product, i buy huge palettes from the manufacturer, and sellers purchase the items from my warehouse. Said products are genuine, i've been selling on eBay and my customers have been selling it also on ebay for 2 years. Last month , a new seller entered the niche. This particular seller doesn't buy from me, and the company has indicated they don't know who they are as well. All good, competition is good. Recently over the last month my customers have been receiving this email.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Your listing has been removed: Trademark Violation - Unauthorized Item

Hello xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After reviewing your eBay account, we've taken the following action:
- Listings have been removed. A list of items that were removed can be viewed at the bottom of this message.
- We have credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listing(s).
The listing or product that was removed appeared to violate eBay policy. Please remember that you are responsible for the quality and authenticity of the products that you offer on eBay. It is against eBay policy to sell any counterfeit items.

For more information please see our Replica, counterfeit items, and unauthorized copies policy:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/replica-counterfeit.html

If you have more questions, contact our policy experts:
http://ocsnext.ebay.com/ocs/cusr?query=1336&=PTB1208

- Past violations of policy- After careful consideration, your listing has been removed because it didn?t comply with our policies. We received a report concerning the authenticity of your item.These reports can come from a number of channels, for example law enforcement.This removal was for your safety and the safety of the eBay community, so please do not relist your item.Relisting your item may result in the restriction of your account.

Please be sure your current and future listings follow these guidelines, keeping in mind that additional violations could result in the suspension of your account.

Here are the listings that were removed:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We appreciate your cooperation.
Thanks,

eBay

Please don't reply to this message. It was sent from an address that doesn't accept incoming email.

>>>>>>>>>>>>

We've been dealing and wholesaling various products for a very long time, we've been selling on ebay since the beginning or within the last 15 or so years give or take a few. We've seen every policy email, every vero removal email etc.. As well as you can by googling. This is a "report an item" removal. Or it is a bot removal based on a specific set of events.. eg.. certain number of "people" also possibly called " bot team" exploiting this trigger. I don't know what exactly is going on, but i cannot be the only one who is legitimately getting screwed by this, i lose customers who won't sell it on ebay, and today i had my own listing removed, with the above email. I've seen this email over the last month countless times, sometimes it says "limited selling history" and other things similarly.  I am posting opposed of going off my 3rd party reports of this, because  i can cite my specific account to ebay to look at. I've had zero policy violations for this product, i've had 1 return out of 221 sales over the last 6 months. The last one being 12/1/2018.  We have had other policy violations eg.. Gilette likes to troll refills and other European companies as well who exploit the GMBH reasoning when offering Worldwide shipping. We no longer ship worldwide so that helps with these types of violations.  These violation removals are not suspensions, they are not VERO reports, they are coming from a bot, or someone reviewing reports of an item. 

Is anyone else experiencing this huge influx of product removals because you may of had another listing or brand previously removed?   Ebay definitely can contact me, i don't mind pm'n with someone directly to talk about this, i am of course on a buying account to post this.  Oh the other thing, with as many resellers as i have, the only one's being taken down are the ones with the higher best match rating than the new seller.So it just doesn't add up to me. 

[femmefan1946]

@Anonymous 

Apparently this authorized seller has been removed by a VeRO complaint.

Where does he appeal this.

[ittybitnot]

Your listing has been removed: Trademark Violation - Unauthorized Item

The message you reported it NOT due to a Vero takedown.  If it was, it would say so.  Others are reporting you, likely en masse,  to get your listings taken down.  

eBay is not going to contact you.  They prefer the shoot first method.  You need to contact them, and the regular CS people are not going to be able to help you.  Perhaps you can post your problem to the eBay for Business Facebook page and see what shakes loose. 

[slippinjimmy]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

@Anonymous 

Apparently this authorized seller has been removed by a VeRO complaint.

Where does he appeal this.

---

You follow the instructions provided with the notice!

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/selling-policies/intellectual-property-vero-program?id=4349

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing-and-marketing/verified-rights-owner-program.html#m17-1-tb2

[pius558]

It's not vero. I've said that, i know the difference. This email has been changed over the years it used to say " from various avenues including community" now they just leave the 1 possibility, and they leave the one that is supposed to scare you from listing counterfeits, if you're selling that sort of thing.Which i've expressed i thought quite clearly in my OP, that i know for a fact, they are not. 

I am 100% confident it's being exploited by report an item . I will try the suggestion someone gave. 

[bonjourami]

probably a competitor reporting your items as fake.

[pius558]

I am 99% sure of it, unless it's a new guardrail type of thing where certain metrics trigger it, which would make no sense based on user experiences with this product. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

@pius558 Wrote:

“...Is anyone else experiencing this huge influx of product removals because you may of had another listing or brand previously removed?...”

From reading the forum posts, it does seem that once a seller is on eBay’s radar, they are more apt to get flagged later on. (Have no hard evidence, it’s all anecdotal.)

[Anonymous]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

@Anonymous 

Apparently this authorized seller has been removed by a VeRO complaint.

Where does he appeal this.

---

Hi @femmefan1946, any appeal options would be available through the email that was received. A seller can also contact Customer Service to discuss in more detail the violation that was recorded. We are not always able to elaborate if doing so would pose a risk to our Community, but this seems like something we could discuss further with the OP if they called in. 

[pius558]

Still ongoing abuse of the report item feature.... I manage several accounts. And just had this one come in from a client today. Note this account has been listing auctions... not fixed priced... and selling makeup products, it seems the health/beauty section is being heavily attacked by competitors..OR it's ebay's new methods of removing all branded items from almost any sellers.  These again are not vero complaints, these you have no recourse on, you just keep getting hammered, and keep getting suspended 7/30 days. It happens daily. I am on another forum of makeup gurus and every day it's happening to all sorts of sellers, meanwhile some have no issue, and some of these have low ratings or BAD ratings. So it's bizarre.  Limited selling history is now a reason to have a listing removed? This client only sells as auctions and has sold about a dozen, most don't pay though. This client also has this same item in other shades still active that were not removed, this client uses beautiful pictures that show the exact item, the exact color and the accessory that comes with it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the photo's nor this sellers history. I post about this, and i see it going on, but i  don't see a lot of other reports of it going on. I am not sure what to think. It's either only this niche or some severely unlucky clients.   These are like 5-10$ items. They aren't even chanel, etc... higher end stuff. Cheap stuff. 

Hello xxxxx

After reviewing your eBay account, we've taken the following actions:
- Selling privileges have been temporarily restricted. You won't be able to list new items or revise current listings for 7 days.
- Violating listings have been removed. A list of items that were removed can be viewed at the bottom of this message.
- We have credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listing(s). 
The listing or product that was removed appeared to violate eBay policy. Please remember that you are responsible for the quality and authenticity of the products that you offer on eBay. It is against eBay policy to sell any counterfeit items.

For more information please see our Replica, counterfeit items, and unauthorized copies policy:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/replica-counterfeit.html

If you have more questions, contact our policy experts:


- Limited selling history- After careful consideration, your listing has been removed because it didn?t comply with our policies. We received a report concerning the authenticity of your item.These reports can come from a number of channels, for example law enforcement.This removal was for your safety and the safety of the eBay community, so please do not relist your item.Relisting your item may result in the restriction of your account.- Photos are unclear or otherwise fail to represent the item

During this restriction you can still:
- Send email
- Obtain shipping addresses
- Leave Feedback
- Perform other administrative tasks

After 7 days, your account will no longer be restricted. However, please be sure your current and future listings follow these guidelines, keeping in mind that additional violations could result in the suspension of your account.