Selling help

[libbstir]

My sales have decreased significantly due to my eBay seller account being tagged by Vero for a Vero violation.  Does anyone know how long they will tag my account?  I contacted both eBay and the email contact eBay gave me for the Vero violation and received no help.  I also tried setting up another account and they deleted it.  I've tried markdown manager, promoting items which loses money and it barley helps.  Any advice would be great.  Thank you!

[dhbookds]

There's usually no suspension on a first Vero.......  and if there were a suspension of some kind they would have notified you........did they notify you of anything?

I see a number of sales in the last few days,  but if there was no notification, I would guess it's the low sales due to the virus that many of us are having right now......

[fashunu4eeuh]

It is possible the Vero takedown was coincidental with the lag in sales. With the pandemic, people may be less willing to purchase with the unknown economic future hanging over the country.

Why did you open another account? Were you trying to relist the item that was removed? If so, it is best not to relist a Vero'd item. You are on eBay's radar now and must be extra careful to follow policies. I see you sell branded ribbon. Do you have permission to use other companies' logos, characters, and trademarked identifiers?

[mam98031]

How many Vero Violations did you get?  Over what period of time?  It is important to know that in order to better advise you.

[chapeau-noir]

I've had a couple of VERO violations and they never impacted my sales. I suspect the general slow-down is coincidentally affecting you.

[mam98031]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I've had a couple of VERO violations and they never impacted my sales. I suspect the general slow-down is coincidentally affecting you.

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As have I.  Which is why I asked the OP how many they received, but they don't seem to be participating in their own thread.

[luckythewinner]

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My sales have decreased significantly due to my eBay seller account being tagged by Vero for a Vero violation.

You seem to be stating as fact that the decline in your sales is a direct result of your account being "tagged" because of a VERO notice. I do not agree with this conclusion.

Does anyone know how long they will tag my account? 

I am unfamiliar with the concept of an account being "tagged" by a VERO violation. Where did you get this information?

I contacted both eBay and the email contact eBay gave me for the Vero violation and received no help. 

eBay will not help you with a VERO violation. You and the intellectual property owner must work it out for yourselves.

I also tried setting up another account and they deleted it. 

Was your first account restricted or limited in any way? If so, creating a new account would violate eBay policy.

[chapeau-noir]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I've had a couple of VERO violations and they never impacted my sales. I suspect the general slow-down is coincidentally affecting you.

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As have I.  Which is why I asked the OP how many they received, but they don't seem to be participating in their own thread.

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Maybe seagulled, but it sounded like they just had the one.  Two of the three of mine were retroactive (a sweep was done of all similar items in the category - the second being a policy change in beer sales) and one confused me because there was no way anyone is going to fake a set of Beats headphones sold for parts but somehow you couldn't sell Beats unless they were shrink wrapped. ?  None made any difference because nothing was fake and of course I refrained from listing the items again (I drank the beer).

ETA: I think restrictions will only happen if the offending item is relisted.

[mam98031]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I've had a couple of VERO violations and they never impacted my sales. I suspect the general slow-down is coincidentally affecting you.

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As have I.  Which is why I asked the OP how many they received, but they don't seem to be participating in their own thread.

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Maybe seagulled, but it sounded like they just had the one.  Two of the three of mine were retroactive (a sweep was done of all similar items in the category - the second being a policy change in beer sales) and one confused me because there was no way anyone is going to fake a set of Beats headphones sold for parts but somehow you couldn't sell Beats unless they were shrink wrapped. ?  None made any difference because nothing was fake and of course I refrained from listing the items again (I drank the beer).

ETA: I think restrictions will only happen if the offending item is relisted.

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Not even then, as I did it by accident a couple times.  But multiple attempts will certainly do it.

[libbstir]

Mam98031 Thanks so much for replying.  First of all since everyone has mentioned the virus and the slow down.  The slow down in sales started way before the virus, October 2019.   As far as how many, that is the frustrating part, I have sold on eBay since 2002 with no violations until now.  They sent me a violation in June 2019 and removed the listing/item which is fine.  I don't want to sell anything I shouldn't and had no idea a peppa pig table cloth wasn't allowed since I had other peppa pig items.  Anyway, then in October they removed LOL doll paper plates that were listed back when the tablecloth was so I don't know why they didn't remove it then.  I called them to inquire why my sales had slowed so much and they said why didn't I call back in June.  I didn't think I had to since they emailed me and they were removed.  They also said that my account is now tagged by Vero and that is why sales have decreased but they couldn't tell me how long.  I just need to know how long so I can try to do something else if it's not going to change soon.  Thank you!

[mam98031]

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@libbstir wrote:

Mam98031 Thanks so much for replying.  First of all since everyone has mentioned the virus and the slow down.  The slow down in sales started way before the virus, October 2019.   As far as how many, that is the frustrating part, I have sold on eBay since 2002 with no violations until now.  They sent me a violation in June 2019 and removed the listing/item which is fine.  I don't want to sell anything I shouldn't and had no idea a peppa pig table cloth wasn't allowed since I had other peppa pig items.  Anyway, then in October they removed LOL doll paper plates that were listed back when the tablecloth was so I don't know why they didn't remove it then.  I called them to inquire why my sales had slowed so much and they said why didn't I call back in June.  I didn't think I had to since they emailed me and they were removed.  They also said that my account is now tagged by Vero and that is why sales have decreased but they couldn't tell me how long.  I just need to know how long so I can try to do something else if it's not going to change soon.  Thank you!

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You just got bad information from the CSR you spoke to.  Not that unusual sorry to say.  

Personally I think your bigger problem is starting your auctions at a lower price that even the FVFs would be much less shipping.  There is no need to drop the price that low unless you don't mind donating to your buyers.  You are working for too hard to create and maintain all those listings.  But it appears you are paying your buyers to buy from you.  That is a no win situation for you.  So to wish for increased sales in the way you are currently running / pricing your listings is to wish for donating more of your money.  So I'm not sure that I understand at all.

[zamo-zuan]

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@libbstir wrote:

My sales have decreased significantly due to my eBay seller account being tagged by Vero for a Vero violation.  Does anyone know how long they will tag my account?  I contacted both eBay and the email contact eBay gave me for the Vero violation and received no help.  I also tried setting up another account and they deleted it.  I've tried markdown manager, promoting items which loses money and it barley helps.  Any advice would be great.  Thank you!

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Someone brought this topic to my attention and I have had experience with this so I thought I should share some information!

I have observed many times that even for a SINGLE VeRO fair warning (not even a VeRO takedown/violation) is followed up by a penalty, even starting immediately at the time of the warning!

In our experience, and in the experience of other sellers that I have networked with, it seems the penalty lasts for 60 days (at least in Motors, I'm honestly not sure outside of Motors). After this time, it will no longer appear on your business readouts.

There may be some cases where it requires multiple violations, or there may be some leeway the first times you receive a violation. But I can 100% guarantee that even if you did not receive a violation in over a year, you CAN get a penalty just for ONE fair warning.

Now, at the time I was told by CSR's and even the VeRO team that you were NOT supposed to get any penalties for a "fair warning" and that you should only be receiving a penalty for a "takedown". We have never had a takedown, but still got the penalty, and it was confirmed to be one on the MSO Sellers Health 1-pager business readouts.

After months of trying to fight it, I received a response on the community forums here, where it was stated by a CSR that Fair Warnings CAN INDEED give a penalty.

Here is are some links to the thread, and I was very detailed about the VeRO issues there, and you can see the responses I was given:

- https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Slapped-with-3-day-suspensin-from-VeRO-when-ebay-supplied-the/... 

I am told that Fair Warning does NOT have a penalty.

- https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Slapped-with-3-day-suspensin-from-VeRO-when-ebay-supplied-the/... 

I am now told that "VeRO is an exception" and there is indeed a penalty, even though this is the OPPOSITE of what I was told by the VeRO team.

I am also told that if an appeal is granted the violation could be removed (contradicting other information I was told), but apparently they only offer appeals if it's the catalog causing an issue.

Meanwhile, even if the one who reported your listing for VeRO did so in an error, or if your listing actually WAS compliant, you are NOT allowed an appeal.

To make it further frustrating I mentioned the information to him that apparently, the requirements eBay puts on sellers to be "VeRO compliant" have changed, and I was told that they "do not have a policy" for compliance? So basically, even if you did exactly what eBay told you, you STILL can be given a VeRO warning, and that warning will STILL give a penalty, with no option for appeal.

If you have any questions let me know, but I believe most of it should be covered in that thread... Needless to say, the situation is extremely unfair.

[zamo-zuan]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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My sales have decreased significantly due to my eBay seller account being tagged by Vero for a Vero violation.

You seem to be stating as fact that the decline in your sales is a direct result of your account being "tagged" because of a VERO notice. I do not agree with this conclusion.

Does anyone know how long they will tag my account? 

I am unfamiliar with the concept of an account being "tagged" by a VERO violation. Where did you get this information?

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I believe we have discussed this in the past, but VeRO penalties do coincide with loss in sales. They even appear in the "Violations" section of the 1-pager reports. 

Sellers who received this can confirm that their traffic does decrease at the time of the violation being reported to you by email. And they can also confirm that it resolved in the amount of time (60 days for Motors sellers) and that the restoration to normal amounts of sales coincides with the penalty dropping off of the business readout.

Furthermore, you can see that even Trinton in the post I linked confirms that your seller account does get impacted.

[mam98031]

You may have missed the part that we have no idea how many Vero violations the OP has received, they have not shared that.  And if it is just a couple of them, it does NOT affect or restrict their selling account.  They will drop off completely after 90 days.  Or that is how they use to work.  And that is if you get a policy violation for them.

The first one does not create a policy violation on a seller.  Subsequent ones do as I remember it.  So unless the OP got a few of them, it isn't likely their issue.

The OP's issue, depending on how many violations they actually received, may not have anything to do with the Vero violation/s received.

[pburn]

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@zamo-zuan wrote:

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. . . VeRO penalties do coincide with loss in sales.Sellers who received this can confirm that their traffic does decrease at the time of the violation being reported to you by email. And they can also confirm that it resolved in the amount of time (60 days for Motors sellers) and that the restoration to normal amounts of sales coincides with the penalty dropping off of the business readout.

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Oh, good! Another theory for my folder of anecdotal evidence for eBay throttling!