Toilet Paper - Reporting Gougers not working

[pebmets]

For days many have been reporting people gouging on the price of toilet paper.  We were given the procedures to report them.  We are told it is working.

As of today, there are an additional 1000 toilet paper posting when compared to yesterday at this time.  I know EBAY is knocking them down as fast as they can, but they obviously they can not keep up.  I am now seeing sellers with feedback scores over 1000 and 100% positive gouging so greed has not gotten to some legitimate people.  

Reporting is still important but it is painfully obvious EBAY can not keep up and the prices are getting higher.  People see what others are getting for toilet paper so they are taking their stock piles and gouging the people who need it.  People say, just don't buy it from EBAY.  Well if you have none and desperate you will.  It is easy for people who have to say, don't buy it then.  The more people get the idea they can make money on EBAY selling a basic necessity, the more difficult it will be for stores to keep certain products in stock.  

More states are issuing Stay at Home Orders.  Businesses are closed, people out of work, and you mean to tell me EBAY can not make a coding effort or spend money to hire people to make sure Toilet Parer adds do not go up or help take the gougers down?  I don't buy it.

I am a coder.  I know it takes time.  I know what impacts changes can cause.  When there is a major issue and the business says fix it, a team gets together and you know what, they fix it.  I am not saying it will take 10 minutes but while other companies have made an effort to stop this gouging,  EBAY still as of last night, has not put toilet paper as a forbidden item to sell or a simple addition of price gouging to their reporting system.  

I have reported gougers from the procedures posted in the community forums and 12 hours later the postings are still there.  This proves EBAY is overwhelmed.  This means they have to do something else.  The definition of insanity is to repeat the same process expecting a different result.  

Too difficult or too much time is not an excuse.  Remember, EBAY gets posting fees and selling fees from everyone of these gougers that get through.  I'm sorry, the good of the country comes first so if EBAY  can not or is unwilling to take the time and money as other companies have to improve the process of removing these listings, then maybe they should be shut down until they can.  

I never said EBAY was not trying, but as mentioned, they can not keep up so they must not allow ANY basic necessity sales.  We should not have to to tell them to do it.  Hire people as supermarkets, delivery services and others have done to meet the needs.  

I hope everyone and their families stay safe.  When our supply chain is being stressed, EBAY can not go as business as usual.  They need to do what others have done to stop or drastically slow this gouging down.  

[dhbookds]

Remember also that Ebay is under various State orders to work at home and the procedures are probably not all in place yet.......since most of the orders started within the last wk......  Also remember that we really don't know how many of these sales go thru.......whether the buyers are playing with the gougers on their own terms.........or whether ebay stops the sale......  

[penguins_dont_fly]

@pebmets 

eBay has added "Price Gouging" as a reporting reason, and has added it to the policies.

(new guidance as of March 21)

Use the following Menu options:

1. Prohibited and restricted items
2. Price Gouging
3. Household items / medical supplies / hygiene/ other / sanitation

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/prohibited-restricted-items/reporting-price-gouging-ebay?id=5105

[pebmets]

I hear what you are saying, but can a few simple steps be done in the interim?

- Suspend new id creation for about 2-4 weeks, (most are new to EBAY and if suspended they just create another one).
- If taken down for gouging, automatic 60 day suspension. (if caught gouging in the time of emergencies, there is no excuse in the world in my mind to lift the suspension no matter how long you have been a seller. Like a large fine for running a red light, it will slow down the gouging especially from long time sellers).
- Make it easier to report. Just add COVID-19/coronavirus price gouging as a selection in the reporting system. Some people reporting do not know the correct path to take to get EBAY to respond quicker.

I do not believe these three things should be difficult to do. Again other companies are doing something. These will not eliminate all gouging, but it should slow it down enough to allow EBAY to keep up.

[pebmets]

I"m sorry, I just saw they did add price gouging, that is a positive step.

[penguins_dont_fly]

[[Make it easier to report. Just add COVID-19/coronavirus price gouging as a selection in the reporting system. Some people reporting do not know the correct path to take to get EBAY to respond quicker.]]

Scroll up to my previous response

Edit ... never-mind ... we cross-posted 🙂

[pebmets]

thank you. It was a timing issue, your response was not there when I started typing mine. Thank you for the update and as I said, that is a positive move.

[1tuna]

.......................general reply.........................

whether the buyers are playing with the gougers on their own terms

I would have to say there is a fair share or sport bidding going on,  "you reap what you sow"

I am sure plenty of sellers will realize they have been had,i hope ebays keeps the fees on blacklisted sales,then the sellers can slither off with a bad credit rating courtesy of ebay.

[ed8108]

Appearances vs Reality

Removal of price gougers may not be a extremely high priority, & realize there are no final value fees for ebay

[pebmets]

Gougers should be a top priority at this time. There are shortages of basic necessities and the gougers are taking advantage of a bad situation. I guess I am use to paying fees for what I have sold in the past.

[bbravo65]

...if somebody lists toilet papers in regular price with free shipping in intention of helping the ones that in needed, will their listings be banned too...?

[kensgiftshop]

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@bbravo65 wrote:

...if somebody lists toilet papers in regular price with free shipping in intention of helping the ones that in needed, will their listings be banned too...?

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That's one reason it takes awhile to remove these listings, they have to go through each listing to see if they are gouging or not.

If it's a decent price and shipping cost, they probably wont do anything unless they decide to ban toilet paper also.

[suntownresale]

Use a washcloth and wash them out, we lived for thousands of years without toilet paper. Our stores are limiting to 1 unit (package) per grocery cart per day.

[roadrunneraz]

I'm sorry to have to say this, but ebay's response to the price gouging is pathetic.  I've reported dozens and dozens of gougers (just for toilet paper alone) and as far as I can tell, all of the postings are still up and operating.  I've worked with computer systems and programming for about 40 years (yeah, I'm getting old) but I know for an absolute fact that ebay could nail this quickly.  They own and control their own data systems -- they're NOT lost in their computers or helpless over this.

[krazzykats]

Socks work well too!