eBay

valueaddedresource · ‎06-01-2021

Why is eBay actively promoting a Funko Pop Funkoween event where most listings are in violation of eBay's Presale Policies?

These are just a few examples but many of the 400+ listings eBay has included here don't follow the rules.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-policies/presale-listings-policy?id=4252

https://www.ebay.com/e/artscollectibles/funkoween-2021

a_c_green · ‎06-02-2021

@valueaddedresource wrote:
Between Brian's answer and this Tweet from eBay - it's starting to sound more to me like this was possibly a partnership with "one of eBay's biggest brands" to promote their event, even though it should have been clear from the start the items being promoted would not be released until Sept/Oct and couldn't possibly comply with presale policies.

One unofficial Marketing slogan is that it's always easier to seek forgiveness than permission, and so in this case, I suspect that some knucklehead in eBay Marketing decided to jump into this very-premature campaign without noticing (or perhaps not caring) that it violated a bunch of eBay policies by doing so. This is not the first bonehead undertaking and will certainly not be the last.

That said, I would hope that the cleanup will actually get done soon, because it's very easy for one doofus to make the whole department look bad, and a prompt cleanup will go a long way toward resolving that.

valueaddedresource · ‎06-02-2021

@a_c_green wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
Between Brian's answer and this Tweet from eBay - it's starting to sound more to me like this was possibly a partnership with "one of eBay's biggest brands" to promote their event, even though it should have been clear from the start the items being promoted would not be released until Sept/Oct and couldn't possibly comply with presale policies.
One unofficial Marketing slogan is that it's always easier to seek forgiveness than permission, and so in this case, I suspect that some knucklehead in eBay Marketing decided to jump into this very-premature campaign without noticing (or perhaps not caring) that it violated a bunch of eBay policies by doing so. This is not the first bonehead undertaking and will certainly not be the last.

That said, I would hope that the cleanup will actually get done soon, because it's very easy for one doofus to make the whole department look bad, and a prompt cleanup will go a long way toward resolving that.

@a_c_green I honestly hope that's the case too.

However, back on April 8th there was another example of this same thing with eBay promoting a trading card presale that was in violation and despite reports on Twitter, here in the community, and multiple people reporting that actual listing, it was not removed.

I brought it to eBay's attention in the chat on April 14th. It was allowed to continue until it sold out on April 26th with 254 sold.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Discussion-with-eBay/Community-Chat-April-14-1-00-pm-PT-General...

gracieallen01 · ‎06-02-2021

But .... but .... but ..... but .... Isn't everything simply 'Blue Skies' and just hunky-dory when it is more advertising dollars in ebay's pocket? Perhaps the knucklehead in Marketing got a raise - nah, just got to keep their job.

Not saying 'NO' doesn't mean 'YES'.

The foolishness of one's actions or words is determined by the number of witnesses.

Perhaps if Brains were described as an APP, many people would use them more often.

Respect, like money, is only of 'worth' when it is earned - with all due respect, it can not be ordained, legislated or coerced. Anonymous

valueaddedresource · ‎06-03-2021

Seriously, how hard can it be to get this cleaned up?

Even if they just went manually one by one (which would be silly but whatever works), it would literally take eBay only a couple of hours to have someone check all 450 or so listings in question and remove the ones that don't meet the very simple rules in the policy.

Presale listings must guarantee that the item will be shipped within 30 days of purchase

The date the item will be available to ship must be clearly stated in the listing

Listings must clearly indicate in the title and description that the item is being offered for presale

valueaddedresource · ‎06-03-2021

brian@ebay

valueaddedresource · ‎06-04-2021

brian@ebay wrote:
@valueaddedresource I've received an update on this.

We are always trying to deliver the best selection of products on site, no matter what the category. FUNKO new releases are always some of the most highly sought after items on eBay. The FUNKOween event was an attempt to display all of the new upcoming releases from one of our top brands, but in doing so, some listings that were featured circumvented our 30 day presale policy. We have realized some of the items being featured were against our policy and ended the event.

brian@ebay I know you have your hands full with that billing glitch, but I'd appreciate some clarification on your answer here.

From what I can tell, all eBay has done is remove the promotional banner from the Collectibles page - what you called "ending the event."

The listings which are in violation of eBay's presale policies and FTC 30 Day Mail Order rules are still active and still selling - some for hundreds of dollars.

For eBay to allow these listings to continue with full knowledge of the violations and the fact that buyers will not be covered by eBay's MBG is unethical and unconscionable.

Are eBay's General Council Marie Oh Huber and/or Chief Compliance Officer Molly Finn aware of this situation?

valueaddedresource · ‎06-04-2021

Because I've clicked on some of these listings, I just got an email - "Are you still interested in Cheshire cat funko Glow BAM Exclusive 2021 Funkoween PRE-ORDER?"

Yes eBay...I am still very interested. 🤣 I bet the FTC is going to be interested too.

itsjustasprain · ‎06-04-2021

@valueaddedresource wrote:
brian@ebay wrote:
@valueaddedresource I've received an update on this.

We are always trying to deliver the best selection of products on site, no matter what the category. FUNKO new releases are always some of the most highly sought after items on eBay. The FUNKOween event was an attempt to display all of the new upcoming releases from one of our top brands, but in doing so, some listings that were featured circumvented our 30 day presale policy. We have realized some of the items being featured were against our policy and ended the event.
brian@ebay I know you have your hands full with that billing glitch, but I'd appreciate some clarification on your answer here.

From what I can tell, all eBay has done is remove the promotional banner from the Collectibles page - what you called "ending the event."

The listings which are in violation of eBay's presale policies and FTC 30 Day Mail Order rules are still active and still selling - some for hundreds of dollars.

For eBay to allow these listings to continue with full knowledge of the violations and the fact that buyers will not be covered by eBay's MBG is unethical and unconscionable.

Are eBay's General Council Marie Oh Huber and/or Chief Compliance Officer Molly Finn aware of this situation?

Probably not but you can usually find official contact info for them via linkedin.com. You might want to just report this to the FTC yourself as I doubt that Ebay is going to contact the FTC and turn themselves in. 😉

If you do get some traction with FTC reporting please post the links here so that others can file reports if they want.

valueaddedresource · ‎06-04-2021

@itsjustasprain wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
brian@ebay wrote:
@valueaddedresource I've received an update on this.

We are always trying to deliver the best selection of products on site, no matter what the category. FUNKO new releases are always some of the most highly sought after items on eBay. The FUNKOween event was an attempt to display all of the new upcoming releases from one of our top brands, but in doing so, some listings that were featured circumvented our 30 day presale policy. We have realized some of the items being featured were against our policy and ended the event.
brian@ebay I know you have your hands full with that billing glitch, but I'd appreciate some clarification on your answer here.

From what I can tell, all eBay has done is remove the promotional banner from the Collectibles page - what you called "ending the event."

The listings which are in violation of eBay's presale policies and FTC 30 Day Mail Order rules are still active and still selling - some for hundreds of dollars.

For eBay to allow these listings to continue with full knowledge of the violations and the fact that buyers will not be covered by eBay's MBG is unethical and unconscionable.

Are eBay's General Council Marie Oh Huber and/or Chief Compliance Officer Molly Finn aware of this situation?
Probably not but you can usually find official contact info for them via linkedin.com. You might want to just report this to the FTC yourself as I doubt that Ebay is going to contact the FTC and turn themselves in. 😉

If you do get some traction with FTC reporting please post the links here so that others can file reports if they want.

Thanks @itsjustasprain it was already on my weekend to do list and I will definitely report the results....I'm just not sure if I should do one big report or 445 individual ones? 😉

valueaddedresource · ‎06-07-2021

It looks like eBay has now killed the official link to the event

https://www.ebay.com/e/artscollectibles/funkoween-2021

But they still haven't ended all the listings that are in violation. If you search for Funkoween, some are from previous years and the seller has them in hand and ready to ship, but many are still preorders from this year's event which say they won't ship until Sept/October - and many of those are the same listings that were in the original event.

brian@ebay - do you have any update on this?

valueaddedresource · ‎06-07-2021

Just a few examples.

valueaddedresource · ‎06-11-2021

brittanie@ebay in the chat on Wednesday you said you heard heard back from the team on this:

"We will continue to double down our efforts to regulate the presales of items within this category that fall outside of our current presale guidelines. This process will take some time to complete, so we appreciate the community’s effort to support us by reporting and flagging any items outside of presale windows."

Just to be a good sport, I picked 15 violating listings at random (took less than 5 minutes to find that many) and reported them. 48 hours later - the only 1 that is not active was ended by the seller and relisted.

We're coming up on the 2 week mark since eBay has been notified about this issue. We're literally talking about a few hours worth of effort at the most that would be required here - and that's if you just manually went one by one down the search results list.

How much more time could they possibly need?

valueaddedresource · ‎06-12-2021

Also in the chat on Wednesday, in response to another user asking why users should have to report these violations individually, tyler@ebay said:

"we review and remove listings in violation daily, but there are always more that crop up. That's why we'd encourage you to report items that you believe to be in violation of our policies. Working together we can make eBay a better platform for everyone. "

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Discussion-with-eBay/Community-Chat-June-9-1-00-pm-PT-General-T...

I want to be crystal clear that this is not a case of eBay removing listings and sellers relisting the prohibited items - many of the listings I am seeing still active are the exact same listings that have been active since I reported this issue to eBay almost 2 weeks ago.

Many of them are the same listings that eBay had featured in the promotional event (before they "ended" it). So no, this is not just another case of eBay doing the best they can to play "whack a mole" with violating listings that "keep cropping up."

"Working together to make eBay a better platform for everyone" only works if eBay does their part - which so far they have not done in this case.

valueaddedresource · ‎06-14-2021

brittanie@ebay - just FYI, one of the listings I reported after the chat on Wednesday was allowed to continue until the auction ended with a winning bid of $171.00,

Again, I have to ask, what is eBay going to do if that buyer does not get the item in 30 days?

The rest of the 15 I reported are still active - as are many others that were included in the original event.

I hate to burst @a_c_green 's bubble here, but eBay certainly does not appear to be in any great hurry to clear this issue up.

luckythewinner · ‎06-14-2021

@valueaddedresource wrote:
Why is eBay actively promoting a Funko Pop Funkoween event where most listings are in violation of eBay's Presale Policies?

From the eBay user agreement:

"Additionally, we reserve the right to refuse, modify, or terminate all or part of our Services to anyone for any reason at our discretion."