OT - Help - Ebay banished me!!

[e107collector]

I ran my dilemma by Leon first, and he stated it was ok to pass along what Ebay did to me last week. I'm not sure where to turn, but from the looks of it, it appears I'm banished for life from selling on Ebay.

I've been selling some items on Ebay since June 2014, and have been a member since 2002. I sold some sports cards this summer, and basically started to sell items from "cleaning out my closet." I put some items up for sale Sunday night, and when I checked my account Monday morning, all of my items vanished. No emails or explanations of any kind.

I'll let you know, that my feedback is 100%.

I posted some 1988 NFL Starting Lineups in the package, Authentic Reebok NFL Jersey's and Ralph Lauren clothing, that I purchased myself from Polo.com, and an unopened bottle of Chanel cologne. I called Ebay, and the girl told me that I'm selling high risk items that are fake and well below market value. I stated that I priced my items based on your website, telling me what similar items to mine have sold for recently, when I posted my listings.

They told me that they will send my case to appeals on Monday, and someone will get back to me in 2-3 hours. It's been 96 hours, and still no call, and I even called twice since then, and got the run around from other reps. I still haven't received any notification of any kind, as to them removing my restrictions.

It appears I'm done selling on Ebay, due to no fault of my own, just a rash decision on their part. The little guy gets screwed, in my opinion.

Just wondering if anyone knows who might be able to help me out, or at least look at my case, and remove the restriction?

I think numerous board members know me well enough, based on previous deals we had, that I'm extremely honest, and would never sell fake items of any kind.

I really don't want to start all over with a new account or stealth account, but that might be next option.

I appreciate you taking the time in reading my request for help!

Tony

[Luke]

That's unreal. I hope you can get it sorted out. If you can get ahold of someone, you can offer to send them the items so they can see that they are authentic. Just a weird move by them.

[ATP]

Don't quote me on this, as it's just what I have heard second hand. The market for selling brand name clothing type items that are used can be one of the more difficult categories to successful sell. Competitors report your clothing as fake, and I think in some cases you might even need the original receipt shown. The big brand names do VERO searches quite often and take items down, of which ebay must abide. Not that they can always tell from just a photo, but have heard of it happening. Also, the NFL is really cracking down on non copyrighted apparel, with several big busts in the last couple years, and may have a rep scanning for items. If you still have the receipt or invoices for any of that stuff, it might help.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Believe it or not, there is a forum for those who find themselves in similar situations: http://www.aspkin.com/forums/

Never had any reason to post there....and have not read much at all there, again not had any reason to.

I know of one seller who filed a complaint with the San Jose, CA BBB and was surprised as to how much quicker he was contacted by ebay in regards to his concern as a seller.

Good luck.

[ooo-ribay]

I kind of understand where ebay is "coming from" but totally disagree with how they dealt with you. This is so typical of ebay - they are all about knee jerk reactions with absolutely no nuance or subtlety.

Good luck!

[bn2cardz]

A few years ago (Dec 2011 to be exact) I was at the hospital as my wife had just given birth. I was going to upload images of the baby and when I was in my email I noticed an email from ebay stating that my account had been suspended with no other explanation. I hadn't been selling or doing anything because I didn't want to have any outstanding auctions when my wife was expecting so this confused me.

When I had a chance I called Ebay and I was told that I had been trying to sell software that was fake. Well I had sold a computer software, but it was a couple weeks prior. I bought it off Amazon on black Friday for a great price and flipped it on ebay the following week. I put the price 1 penny less than the lowest price buy-it-now and sold it the same day it arrived for a quick flip. I guess the price was below MSRP and it raised a flag. I pointed out the deal already had gone through and the buyer gave me good feedback and explained where the software came from.

I was told it may have been a mistake and they would fix it. They reinstated my account by the time we were back home a couple of days later.

[jbsports33]

keep it simple tell them you will not sell that stuff again - stick to cards only

good luck

[drcy]

Say "Falsely accusing me of selling fakes? I'm not sure if that's libel or slander, so I'm going to sue for both."

I know someone who volunteered at a non-profit animal shelter and she asked a woman on the phone if she wanted her pet "spayed or neutered." The woman responded "Whichever is cheaper."

[D. Bergin]

Yeah, sorry you have to go through this.

Probably the Ralph Lauren and/or Chanel stuff got you in trouble.

Many of these companies are using the Chinese counterfeit market excuse, to pull perfectly legal stuff out of the secondary market, to cut down on pricing competition for themselves.

Probably authorized distributors also scanning listings on Ebay to get rid of competition.

[drcy]

The source is likely either due to the company themselves (and eBay protecting them) or competing sellers. I recently read selling fashion on eBay isn't for the faint of heart due to the other sellers-- leaving false bad feedback etc. I wouldn't doubt falsely accusing a competitor of selling fakes would be one of the tricks.

Also, no doubt the selling of forged brand name goods is legitimate problem eBay and the brand name companies have to deal with. Baseball card collectors know all about the market of fake baseball cards on eBay. Sports autograph dealers have gotten into trouble, not because the autographs were fake, but because the NFL jerseys the signatures on were knock offs.

[Butch7999]

In an only tangentially related situation, but one that may serve as further evidence that eBay has no idea what it's doing,
we've been banned from posting on their Community Boards and from eBay private messaging since around May
-- almost six months now -- for allegedly attempting to include in a forum post a link to a "competing site" (which we didn't even do).

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by ATP

Also, the NFL is really cracking down on non copyrighted apparel, with several big busts in the last couple years, and may have a rep scanning for items.

This isn't even remotely true. The NFL does one or two high-profile busts each year but fakes and counterfeits are all over the place. The proportion of fakes in the NFL category is so high on Ebay that there's absolutely zero possibility that someone from the league is scanning and doing anything about it. Did a search just now for "Peyton Manning Broncos jersey" and dozens of fakes came up in the first page of results alone. Heck, a few years ago, Ebay put a fake Peyton Manning Colts jersey on the cover of the Christmas catalog they mailed out to people. They used it to hype the "great deals" people could find on NFL jerseys on their site.

And, of course, Ebay doesn't care about the fakes. Why would they? They create sales for Ebay.

[Sportsnutcards]

Once you get the "We think you are not the type of seller ebay wants" email you are out of luck unless you want to try a stealth account... But all stealth accounts get found eventually as well. Its very frustrating dealing with ebay and once they make a decision they very rarely go back on it.