eBay Has Gone Too Far

[amberwoodottawa]

My business name is "Shopline.ca" as registered with the Federal Government and the Province of Ontario and CIRCA and my bank., and as is reflected on my invoices, on my letterhead and on my business cards.

This afternoon, eBay pulled 3 ads because the name of my business was in my listings. There was NO link to my web page. There was NO www.shopline.ca anywhere in the listing.

There was no language anywhere in the listing tellling people to go to a web page.

I am growing very tired of this when I see the scam artists on eBay and all I do is keep my nose clean and pay the increasing eBay fees yet I get my lsitings attacked and pulled.

I am quickly coming to a decision to tell eBay to shove their rules and no longer give them any of my business and move on from selling on this format.

It will depend on eBay's response to my email to them but whoever out there who has it in for me (the person ratting to eBay)well get a life!

I may turn this over to legal counsel as no one has the right to prevent a business from using their business name, not even eBay.

Malcolm

[amberwoodottawa]

CIRA not CIRCA sorry spelling error typing while furious!
Malcolm

[your-chic-shopper]

I thought you changed all that ?? the last time they did this .

I as well have gone through the BS with Ebay on this . I got 2 answers . One said I could not do it ...because ebays rules state anything that takes a person off the site to a person web site weather a link or a stick link that can be copied and then pasted into the address bar ...is a no no

I then got another email that stated a discret link was fine if it was my companies name .

So stupid me I emailed the first person that said no ....the letter from the person who said yes . The no guy over ruled the yes guy

Why not just change your user name to your web site like others have done and not rule your web site in the auction s

?

[llee2]

I agree...try changing your user name to "shoplinedotca" or "shopline-dot-ca". It's not "copy and pasteable" therefore not in conflict with ebay rules but bidders will get the idea.

Isn't it sad how one gets harrassed over something so stupid? And Malcolm, I wouldn't count on getting anywhere with eBay's response to your problem. I've found that "Support" usually emails you back garbage which makes no sense and just infuriates you more. Save your time and effort.

Lincoln

[amberwoodottawa]

The problem is getting much more serious, than eBay (who we all know doesnt care about anything unless someone reports them)!

At this very moment my system is being bombarded by SPAM from eBay. We have received several thousand hits to our server and ran a check to determine where the the high hitting urls were originating from and low and behold it comes up with 2 urls registered to eBay in San Jose California.

While I dont think eBay is doing this, someone has either gotten access to their servers to Spam us OR they are somehow using eBay's "Ask a Seller a Question" to spam us.

We have blocked the urls and forwarded the information to spoof@ebay.com who I know looks at everything right away.

All I can say is that there is someone out there gunning for us and eBay has been assisting them which I find offensive.

As far as using my legally registered name, I intend to keep using it and if eBay keeps pulling my listings then I will see them in court They dont have the right to stop a business from using their legally registered name.

I will have a commercial lawyer review this and address eBay should their position not change.

Malcolm

[treasure-pot]

Malcolm, I sent you an email. I didn't want to use the user IDs in this forum.

Bill

[your-chic-shopper]

Trust me Ebay will not care ..They will state there user terms that when you signed up for Ebay agreed too . Best to go over the Ebay terms agree too before spending money on someone .

I am almost postive when you opened your account with Ebay you agree to the user selling terms when you made your account . It would super-seed this situation . Because you have agreed to sell your items under Ebay terms. Ebays terms state no static web sites or hyper link web site in the auction page . You will get a response , from Ebay that you agreed to place your web site in the Ebay me page when you opened your account with Ebay

Malcom "think" ...because I have been suspended before ..it's not fun ...I would change the auctions . Then I would bust my A$$ to get Ebay to understand the situation

[your-chic-shopper]

very smart Bill ........

[brownboxit]

Malcolm getting ebay to see reason in even the clearest things is like running up a mountain, the rules are applied at the level of a small child's mentality, it can be very frustrating!

You should try, but 1st protect your account because they will suspend automatically like a big dumb robot.

Then you have to deal with that, which in my experience has been like trying to keep a 2 year old still, and that's after 3 days of cutting through the 1st levels of fluff where unattended automated emails live.

[amberwoodottawa]

You know what pi$$e$ me off about this?

I actually recd a phone call from eBay last week when I accidently relisted an old ad that linked to our web site. Imagine that, eBay called me directly.

It was a very pleasant call and I was apologetic and acknowledged that it was in error and I only realized it 4 days after it was posted.

I said that all links were removed with the exception of the link to my new About Me page and that I only listed my business' name and our email address for inquiries in our new listings.

I referred the rep to our new ads to see that they now met eBay's guidleines. I then recd a reply from eBay thanking me for taking the position to make certain that my listings met their rules and she indicated that what was wrong in my listing was it was listed as "shopline.ca www.shopline.ca"

We have eliminated www.shopline.ca in our listings and only use our legal name.

I then responded to her email and ackowledged again, that we had done a relist of something we were selling months ago without removing the link. I then provided her links to our new listings that have our business name "shopline.ca" so that she could verify that we were conforming with the rules.

That was on Jan 22nd. The 3 listings pulled were different listings, ones we just put on in the last 24 hours yet we had about 30 listings on today all with "shopline.ca" on them.

So what is with pulling 3 listings and if there was a problem, why wasnt it addressed during my telephone conversation with eBay and the subsequent emails?

Malcolm




I then followed up that comversation

[your-chic-shopper]

I bet the Ebay staff nver even looked at the new auctions as a reference point . What I mean is, it would not surprise me that the Ebay Staff Member even knew or thought that removing the www was all that was needed. Because in some cases a web site will not pull up without the www. But now web sites can be pulled without placing the www in front of the web site

Really who knows the mind of Ebay

Really Malcolm we are spliting hairs here , I would have too assume that the New ones were pulled because . Under ebays rules shopline.ca can be placed into the address bar and pull up your site. Under Ebays terms " anything that can be placed into the address bar and take you too your web site from within an auction is against Ebay rules.

Why not change your user name too Shopline-ca . Once you have changed your user name . You then can place your username within the auction. Most people know when you do this-ca you mean too refer to your web site

[shooger]

It seems like you're expecting too much from eBay. They see you as a tiny peon. They are an inefficient, gluttonous, automated system programmed to produce dollars. Don't try and figure out why the emails are worded the way they are, or why they phoned you and then pulled three listings. Don't look for sense in something not designed to make sense.

[amberwoodottawa]

As a seasoned business man, it is difficult if not impossible to mold my business with a service such as eBay that is unpredictable, unprofessional, beaurocratic, non-responsive, irresponsible, unfair, getting to be too expensive, unsupportive, and so on and so on and so on.

Heck I even made "silver" and they didnt inform me, reminds me the time I got a 10-year pin 5 weeks after I hit my anniversar with a company. My boss pulled it out of his pocket, threw it on my desk and said "Here, congratulations. I had this in my pocket the last few weeks and forgot about it." and then he walked out of my office.

I never made 11-years there as I decided to leave the corporate world and become my own boss.

That and eBay's atentiion to people key to their success goes totally against all of my business principals, experience and practise.

As such I only consider them to be a short-term service to my business. Too bad!

Malcolm

[muminlaw]

"As a seasoned business man, it is difficult if not impossible to mold my business with a service such as eBay that is unpredictable, unprofessional, beaurocratic, non-responsive, irresponsible, unfair, getting to be too expensive, unsupportive, and so on and so on and so on."

Malcolm, ditching eBay won't help -- you've just described every level of government!!!

Glenda

[amberwoodottawa]

No more nasty eBay bashing.

I will be a good boy and list my items as being sold by Shopline (not my legally registered name of Shopline.ca).

I will answer all lawyer's letters from businesses that have the name Shopline registered to them and tell them I was made to do it and I will refer them to eBay to sort out any intellectual proprty infringements I may be accused of.

I will be a happy, happy camper as I remember my late father who was a civil servant for 35 years and all the crap he was fed and stupid, non-productive rules he followed and idiotic bosses he reported to (the very reasons I never worked for the government) and I will march in the eBay parade with all the other good, rule abiding eBay soldiers.

For ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die.

I am after all, a Member of eBay and as we all know "membership has its privelages", of sorry that was American Express.

I will think of my time selling on eBay similar to being a contract with the federal government and expect nothing greater nor nothing less.

Malcolm

[whoscloset]

Now you're talking!

[muminlaw]

Is anyone taking bets on how long Malcolm can remain meek?

Glenda

[amberwoodottawa]

Times Up!!!!

I made more money in one year shaking the crap out of poorly run businesses that got caught up in red tape than my dad did in almost 7 years as a public servant putting up with crap.

So who won the bet and do I get a cut?

Malcolm

[muminlaw]

Haven't had any takers yet Malcolm. Does that mean you're through with being meek already???!!!!!

(Shaking the crap doesn't qualify as meek) ....

GC