Demonstrating the inconsistency of support

[coxengines]

Following is a copy and paste of email dialogues pertaining to me reporting a copyright violation (the offender was given 24 hours to respond, whereas I agreed to let him/her use our listing pics if he/she acknowledged my email. The seller did not bother).

eBay.com agreed. eBay.ca disagreed.

Oh (original expression deleted at the behest of the eBay moderation team 😄 ), (name deleted).

I took the pictures myself (yes, me, with my camera). I AM the manufacturer, I OWN the COX brand and, no, they are not stock photos available to use without permission.

Anyhow, a moot point. I reported this to .com and .ca and the issue has been taken care of by your USA colleagues and the listing removed (see copy and paste of the mail from your colleague).

Amazing that two eBay reps can deal with this in opposing ways but it simply demonstrates the complete ineffectiveness of your operation.

Cheers
Bernie

Dear Bernie,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your report on Image and Text Theft.

We reviewed your report and found that it was in violation. We would like to inform you that it may take a little time for us to remove this from our site, but rest assured we have taken the appropriate action.
However, due to concerns about privacy, we can't discuss one member's account with another member, so we can't share the results of our investigation with you. I hope this assures you that your account information will also remain private.

To review our images and text policy, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/image-text.html

It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.

Sincerely,
(name deleted).

eBay Customer Support

-----Original Message-----
From: eBay Canada Customer Support - carswebhelp [mailto:carswebhelp@ebay.com]
Sent: January-08-10 7:26 PM
To: sales@xenalook.ca
Subject: Re: CW=C00121 Item Description and Picture Theft [290389302874 #CA L97 A33 ?01 ] (KMM13807107I15977L0KM)

Dear Bernie,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your concern of image theft.

We've reviewed both your listing and the listing you reported.

In general, eBay doesn't allow members to use someone else's pictures or descriptions without the owner's permission. However, the pictures you reported appear to be stock photos readily available on the Internet or provided by the manufacturer. Sellers can use these types of pictures in their listings.

If the pictures you reported aren't stock photos, please write back with a link to your pictures and any information that shows you're the owner.
Or, if you have exclusive permission from the manufacturer to use the pictures, send the email from the manufacturer giving you permission to use their pictures. Once we've received this information, we can investigate further.

As a reminder, copyright laws may apply to these pictures. Copyrights generally protect things like paintings, book covers, and product packaging. Manufacturers, publishers, or other copyright owners could object to the use of their copyrighted material, even if it's scanned or altered in some way.

To learn more about our images and text policy, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/image-text.html

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
(name deleted)

eBay Customer Support
Trust and Safety Operations

[westernstargifts]

Oh shoot! I forgot, yes it is a violation to trash other sellers in a listing.

Does that include trashing another seller on your About me page?

Listing Policy Violations (improper keywords, outside links etc)

Regarding outside links, is it not against policy to post your URL or a link to your website on your About Me page if you are selling products off eBay. Is there not a 2 click rule that dictates that it must take at least 2 clicks from that page before you get to a page where products are sold?

Sorry about getting slightly off topic here.

[surplusdealdude]

Yes Bernie you're correct. I forgot about that too. LOL You had to be registered on .com for that stock photo thing to come into play right now. It'll probably be down the pike for .ca but right now it's only for .com registrants. We registered on eBay before there was a .ca. 🙂

No that's not it Surplus. It's not new. I've had to do it before when I saw some sellers trashing other sellers in their listings.

Report:

Listing Policy Violations (improper keywords, outside links etc)

Other Listing Policy Violations

Hateful, discriminatory or racial language in an item description.

Well, now, negative statements are a specific listing infraction, so there's double coverage.

Either way, it's an incredibly dumb thing for a seller to do.

[surplusdealdude]

Oh shoot! I forgot, yes it is a violation to trash other sellers in a listing.

Does that include trashing another seller on your About me page?

Listing Policy Violations (improper keywords, outside links etc)

Regarding outside links, is it not against policy to post your URL or a link to your website on your About Me page if you are selling products off eBay. Is there not a 2 click rule that dictates that it must take at least 2 clicks from that page before you get to a page where products are sold?

Sorry about getting slightly off topic here.

It depends where you look, I think.

Outside links on an about page are allowed IF there are products that aren't available on ebay - I think Pierre uses that.

[godboma]

I think you can under some conditions. Here is on the help file for the about me page:

On your About Me page, you may link to your own Web site or individual Internet store where you are offering to trade, sell or purchase your goods or services. However, you may not link to any page within online trading sites that offer goods from multiple sellers either in a fixed price or auction format.

Here is the link

But just on top of that paragraph you will find this:

eBay does not permit its users to place the following types of links on your About Me pages:

Links that directly offer any non-eBay listing or merchandise on the About Me page itself.

Links to other online trading sites or pages, including auctions and fixed-price formats.

Links to sites offering the same merchandise for the same or lower price (including the Buy It Now price).

Links to sites offering merchandise or information not permitted on eBay


So I guess you can as long as the merchandise is not the same or more expensive...

[jakeeangel]

Does that include trashing another seller on your About me page?

Yep!! The rules also apply to ME pages. ME pages can be reported. I found one seller who wrote this ridiculously long diatribe trashing every single bad buyer they had with full specifics of each and every incident. Numpty! He was PO'd that eBay didn't let us neg buyers so he did it his own way.

I've seen people try to sell stuff on their ME page. They don't want to pay the listing fees or only pay for a couple then put up a list on their ME page of what they have for sale and freely invite people to contact them. ummmm......nice try! lol

There is no such thing on eBay as a 2 click rule. You used to be able to have a link to an off eBay store on your ME page but they changed the specifics of it a while back. It's not just carte blanche that you can have a link to your off eBay store now.

[pierrelebel]

"Outside links on an about page are allowed IF there are products that aren't available on ebay - I think Pierre uses that."

Not anymore. My "about me" page was reported and I had to change it. 😞

[surplusdealdude]

You're just not catching ANY breaks, are you, Pierre?:-(

[pierrelebel]

Paranoia is not for me but....

...they are folks out there who like reporting my posts, my listings, my "about me" page, etc... whenever they perceive the smallest infraction. And the robots employed by eBay click the button, whether there is an infraction or not.

And life does go on. (I bet I sell more in a week on eBay than they do in a year!)

[surplusdealdude]

Yes, success is the best revenge.:-D

[coxengines]

This is funny!

They pulled another listing from the copyright infringer, sent us an email to the effect that they had taken care of the problem and included the line:

I would suggest that you place this member on your blocked bidder/buyer list to prevent that member from purchasing items from you in the future.

I mean, we did this anyhow but I found it odd that eBay would suggest it.

Bernie

[jakeeangel]

"Outside links on an about page are allowed IF there are products that aren't available on ebay - I think Pierre uses that."

Not anymore. My "about me" page was reported and I had to change it. 😞

It was not me!! LOL I have reported ME pages but only like the ones I outlined above where people use it to trash buyers or other sellers and those trying to sell on them. If we have to pay listing fees to try to sell then so do you. I've been genuinely shocked at some of the stuff I've seen on some of them.


Bernie,

I'm going to guess that eBay is suggesting it because they know there are some bad folks out there who will not only report listings etc maliciously but they will go out of their way to interfere with your business by messing with your feedback and ratings.

[surplusdealdude]

This is funny!

They pulled another listing from the copyright infringer, sent us an email to the effect that they had taken care of the problem and included the line:

I would suggest that you place this member on your blocked bidder/buyer list to prevent that member from purchasing items from you in the future.

I mean, we did this anyhow but I found it odd that eBay would suggest it.

Bernie

Maybe they've finally figured out how ebay works.:^O

[surplusdealdude]

jakee,

I doubt if anyone was thinking that it would be you.

However, now that you've brought it up.....




















]:)

[westernstargifts]

Links to sites offering the same merchandise for the same or lower price (including the Buy It Now price).

Yep!! The rules also apply to ME pages. ME pages can be reported.

So it is against eBay policy to put a link on your About Me page to a website / websites off eBay where you sell products.

It is also against policy to trash another seller on your About Me page.

Thanks for the clarification.

[jakeeangel]

Surplus!! tsk tsk tsk....it's hard to convey humor in a written discussion. I was laughing when I wrote that. I have an oddball sense of humor. When someone calls my name I answer - "I didn't do it or it wasn't me!!!".

I'm only joking around.

I had someone report me once for excessive shipping and like Pierre, the eBay monkees removed the listing. I threw a heap of four letter words at them and asked how $6.50 to ship 3 items when actual cost was $4.00 was excessive!! 😐

They apologized and removed the mark from my record. I was SO PO'd at that. Absolute stupidity at it's finest.

[pierrelebel]

"Absolute stupidity at it's finest."

Absolute stupidity at its finest was when eBay cancelled ALL listings by ALL sellers offering postage stamps from AJMAN, without warning or explanation and restricted selling privileges from ALL these sellers (myself included) for a week.

That was total madness at its very worse.

It took days of non-stop phone calls and emails with senior management in San Jose to make them understand postage stamps from Ajman were valid and legitimate and offered for sale on the website managed by the American Philatelic Society, eBay's philatelic partner! While my account was re-instated after three days, all other Ajman stamp sellers had to wait the full seven days.

Eventually I received apologies but no compensation. 😞

[surplusdealdude]

Surplus!! tsk tsk tsk....it's hard to convey humor in a written discussion.

:-)
:-D
:^O


;-)

]:)