E-Bay support has told me you can't use the word digital in a listing title!

[kythrill]

I had to call E-Bay today because an item of mine was removed.  E-Bay claimed it was removed because it violated their policy on digitally delivered goods.

However, it was a physical item, with a shipping method, and photos showing it was a physical item (a tape).  E-Bay support says the reason it was removed is because the word "digital" was in the title (because it is a "Digital Mono" tape so it is an accurate description).

The tech guy said that E-Bay is filtering for the word digital, and if the system finds that word in your title, it will remove it as a digitally delivered good.  Digital is a "power word" that indicates digital delivery.

I asked about:

Dolby Digital

Digital Audio Processor

Digital Audio Tape

Digital Optical Cable

Digital Audio Recorder

Digital Scales

and about a dozen other things.  He said I should think of another way to describe the items that didn't use the word "digital" or I run the risk of having the item taken down and getting a strike on my account (and another call to E-Bay to get it cleared up)!

Ridiculous if true!

He added my item back into the system, so I could still see it and wouldn't need to rewrite the listing and take pictures again.  However, they wouldn't make the listing active again (I had to relist), and I couldn't get a listing credit, so it will take one of my free listings for the month.

WHAT A JOKE!  It's E-Bay's way of saying, hey, we totally screwed up, and this is all our fault, but you have to pay for it with your time and paid for listing credits!

Add this to being hung up on multiple times, and my opinion of E-Bay at the moment is quite low!  Can the management not do a better job of running this billion dollar company?

[eburtonlab]

@kythrill 

The tech guy said that E-Bay is filtering for the word digital, and if the system finds that word in your title, it will remove it as a digitally delivered good. Digital is a "power word" that indicates digital delivery.

It sounds like eBay is cracking down on sellers advertising digitally delivered goods in certain media categories. Unfortunately, your item is being unfairly caught up in the search by whatever algorithm they are using.

Unless your buyers are finding your item by literally searching for the phrase "digital mono", you should probably drop that from your title and description to avoid triggering those bots again. I only see 22 items using "digital mono" in the title in media categories (mostly dvds; another 150 are in business/ electronics/ car audio categories, but presumably the bots are not looking there for digitally delivered goods). It does not appear to be an important key word phrase for searchers.

If you think the digital mono sound is an important characteristic for buyers, include a prominent picture of the tape or package where that phrase is clearly visible so buyers can see it, but it won't be found by bots searching for the text string.

[kythrill]

There are differences.  The same titles were released with both digital stereo and digital mono.  Typically the earlier releases (in the 80's) were digital mono and later editions of that title (in the 90's) were remastered with digital stereo.

I like to include as many words and be descriptive as possible in the titles, but it is information that I can move to the description (assuming filters aren't looking there too).  But it needs to be somewhere.

But this same confusion will exist elsewhere.  For example, the first editions of Jurassic Park on DVD had two releases.  One version contained only a DTS soundtrack.  The other version contained only a Dolby Digital soundtrack.  Again, you can't indicate to your buyers which version it is that you have for sale without using the word "Digital" (I guess DD maybe or AC-3).

However, Dolby Digital is in the title of 8721 listings in the DVD & Movies category.  So obviously, if there is some filter bot as E-Bay claimed, these should all have been hit with take downs.

I'm betting that an exception  was created for the combination "Dolby Digital", but they didn't think to make one for "Digital Mono".

Just looking for the word "digital" with a list of omitted phrase combinations is an overly aggressive search tactic, when we live in the digital age of 2019.

Think of the number of books, movies, or albums that have the word digital in the name of title or artist.  It would just be a dumb filter to search with.

[kythrill]

And...

Even if E-Bay has bots searching and flagging listings, I don't think bots should have the power to take down items (lost bidders/watchers when E-Bay is wrong) and they shouldn't have the power to flag accounts for policy violations.  The Indian CSR said this was entirely done by the search filter.  No record that a human CSR had canceled the item.

For every positive search hit a bot makes, human eyes need to confirm the item violates policy.

And at the least too, if they incorrectly take something down, they should reinstate it in its original condition, with original watchers or bidders, and original info intact.

When they restored my listing, it came back missing a number of fields.  Example, I had best offer turned on, but restored best offer price was blank.  Shipping method had changed.  Package dimensions were gone.  Weight was gone.  It wasn't even a full restore.

There has to be a better way to prevent people from swapping digital download codes, if  that is what they are after.  I can do a search and find several dozen violating listings right now.  Why can't it simply be a human, doing the same searches, seeing the violation, and ending those listings or suspending accounts?  They aren't so hard to find that we need all this bot cleverness.

[eburtonlab]

@kythrill 

I like to include as many words and be descriptive as possible in the titles, but it is information that I can move to the description (assuming filters aren't looking there too). But it needs to be somewhere.

Are you willing to bet your eBay account that bots won't search descriptions? I sure wouldn't. A week ago you didn't even know that the word "digital" could be a problem. If you guess wrong now, you could lose your selling privileges.

If the digital soundtrack is important, include a photo of the case where it is shown and a buyer can see it, rather than in text that is easy for a bot to find. Don't risk your account -- you're on eBay's radar now, they may be checking your listings more closely due to your current "infraction".

It's pointless to argue with bots, or expect that you will be able to explain that the bot is overly aggressive to a customer service rep, or that a rep will be willing or able to undo whatever the bot does -- best to avoid triggering the bot in the first place.

[dtexley3]

tyler@ebay Can you confirm or deny that using the word "digital" in a listing title will now cause the listing to be pulled whether it be site-wide or category specific?  This word botting is eventually going to make listing and searching impossible.

[tyler@ebay · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the tag @dtexley3!

Hi @kythrill - I want to clarify that using the word 'digital' in the title of your item does not mean it will be automatically removed. I'm having the call you made with CS reviewed so that proper coaching can be provided, as well as to provide coaching to the teammate that removed your listing originally. Thanks!

[dtexley3]

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tyler@ebay wrote:

Hi @kythrill - I want to clarify that using the word 'digital' in the title of your item does not mean it will be automatically removed. I'm having the call you made with CS reviewed so that proper coaching can be provided, as well as to provide coaching to the teammate that removed your listing originally. Thanks!

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Interesting, that means the listing was manually reviewed for removal, hmmmmm.  They almost *almost* admit to a mistake!