eBay keeps pulling my auction

[llee2]

Had eBay pull my listing 3 times now because they thought the insulin delivery device I listed contained insulin. Never mind the fact that the auction description clearly states "no insulin comes with it".

Each time I've complained, they responded saying the rep in question pulled it in error as they thought it contained insulin. Hello? Read the description. So, last week it was pulled again, and today I get the "we're so sorry, you can relist it". So, I relist and within 6 hours (and another lost bidder), it gets yanked again because "insulin is not permitted on eBay". This is total BS. So, I've relisted it yet again... 5574410387 - at least this time when it gets pulled, it will be for a legitmate reason. Sorry for ranting but this is really pissing me off.

Lincoln

[jakeeangel]

I don't blame you for being pissed. Some of these reps are so flipping stupid it's a wonder they have a job.

---

[sunset_sports_cards]

I love the auction preamble! I laughed my ass off!

[catseye*]

why not put it in the title? NO INSULIN

[vesivus]

I am a type-1 diabetic, and these novolin pens are usually free from the pharmacy (subsidized by the government). Are you paying for yours?

If you're not paying for yours, or even if you are using your insurance carrier to offset some of the cost of thse pens, this is insurance fraud. I just wanted to warn you on this.

If you are truly paying for them, but are getting them at a good price, please let me know how you get them. I am going off of benefits shortly and will be self-employed, and can use the cheapest supplies I can get... 🙂

Thanks.

John

[llee2]

John,

I run a healthcare provider service and get my items directly and legitimately from manufacturers and/or wholesalers. But thanks for the warning.

Lincoln

[zarzuella]

You could try making that font a little bigger ... 🙂

[llee2]

catseye,

Yes, I could put that in the title but I'm already at the maximum number of characters. And I'd rather use that space to attract potential bidders than to appease a lazy incompetent trigger-happy eBay rep that doesn't know how to read. If the lazya$$ isn't bothering to read the auction before he yanks it, I don't think spelling it out in the title will help much.

You would think that pulling an auction would be the most drastic step (aside from suspension/getting booted) against a listing. Then would it not make perfect sense that the rep actually read the auction description to determine the actual (and not perceived) legitimacy of the listing? This is akin to pulling a listing for a gun rack off eBay and saying "oops, I thought the rack had a gun on it and you can't sell guns on eBay". Remember that this has been pulled 3 times now all for the same erroneous reason (and all 3 had bids). Once, I can chalk up as an oversight on eBay's part, but 3 times??? Especially when I relisted only after I received the OK to do so from the Community Watch Team. BLAH!

Lincoln

[catseye*]

what makes you think they're gonna read it this time??

If you can't make room for it in the title (which I assume they DO read), maybe do a subtitle.

[llee2]

Pay $1 for a subtitle because they're too lazy to do their job properly? I think not. It'll be a cold day in Hell before I pay an extra penny in fees just to run the chance that an eBay rep "might" do their job properly.

If they keep yanking it, I'll just keep selling these items through my brick & mortar or other venues only. Besides, I keep getting people emailing me inquiring about supplies after eBay yanks the listing anyways. I try not to sell outside of eBay as per their rules, but they're leaving me little choice by ending my auctions for no reason other than their own incompetence. I've sold these for devices for years on eBay and only in the last few months or so, have run into this problem with trigger-happy reps.

Lincoln

[recped]

Have you considered the possibility that someone is reporting you on these listings? That in no way excuses eBay's incompetance but it might explain why it's happening.

I've only had a couple of item pulled by eBay but at least one was incorrect and obviously no one had read the full description.

I'm not really sure how it works but my guess is that most of the process is automated, a rep is then presented with a huge list of potentially offending listings (based on some obscure criterea). They should examine each listing but more than likely they just click the remove button.

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

[llee2]

What's really annoying is that the first time this happened, I not only pointed out that my description clearly states that no insulin is included, but there were in fact sellers blatantly listing insulin for sale on eBay.

In fact, I just ran a search for "Humulin" (Lilly's brand of human use insulin) and there are no less than 8 store listings for it. And eBay can't use the excuse that they don't know what "Humulin" is, because when they warn sellers not to sell insulin, they use Humulin as an example. I would think their time is better spent removing listings that actually contravene the rules, but these listings persist unabated while I get screwed for listing something perfectly valid.

Anyone wanna bet if I report these listings, nothing gets done to remove them?

Lincoln

[shoplineca]

eBay does not police the auctions. Seldom do they look at listings to make a determination that something is in violation. They depend 98% on members reporting other members.

It is a natural thing for many people to think they are the eBay police and eBay capitalizes on this fact as it means less expense to them to have to employ staff.

So in my estimation, and as Ben suggested, you have someone out there gunning for you.

Why not call or email eBay and demand to know who it is as they are reporting you without any merit and clearly an act of saboutage. In all likelyhood, eBay will tell you they are not permitted unless you obtain a court order, in which case you can tell them that if you have to go to that extent then they will be included in the action as they are clearly supporting the act by whomever is reporting you.

It wont force them to reveal who it is but it may twig them to stop pulling your listings without verifying if you are in violation of their rules the next time.

Malcolm

[audioshack]

It is totally irrelevant that someone may be "gunning" for the OP - a competitor is not the one pulling the plug. An eBay employee or, possibly, employees are yanking the auctions without merit.

IMHO, eBay does "police" auctions, but generally in response to complaints as has been mentioned before (that is what policing is). Ordinarily, eBay will "investigate" the validity of complaints and make a detemination as to whether the listing meets listing guidelines. It appears, in these instances, they are unable to read any text below the listing description.

Bravo to the OP for the measures taken and you are quite right. The description sole purpose is to attract buyers and not meant to ward off zealous competitors or eBay cops. Nor should you ever spend a dime on sub-titles for that purpose. Without opening Pandora's Box again, eBay's fee structure more that adequately provides for the salaries of staff that can read. In my view, hold eBay employees responsible to do their jobs. For too long they have hidden behind their securtiy screen and cared little for the damage they do to sellers. It is high time that individuals step forward and take ownership for their inability or unwillingness to administrate the site as per the company's policies. An apology doesn't cut it after they have yanked the auction for the third time.

[shoplineca]

audioshack
Out of curiosity, how would you hold eBay employees responsible? What is the leverage that you could exert on them to force them to take a different position? and if they didnt, what would the next step be?

I fully agree that eBay employees are the ones that are pulling the listings on the unsolicited advice or request of another eBay member however the root of the problem begins with the person reporting as a malicious act.

If it is NOT a malicious act, rather a misdirected one, then eBay should inform the person making the removal requests aware that the OPs listings are within policy.

I suspect that there could be tens if not hundreds of eBay employees who may be charged with the responsibility to act on complaints so the opportunity to get a different eBay employee each time a complaint is made, is probably a pretty good odd.

At the same time, the OP cannot be given some sort of carte blanche mark on their account that everything is ok all the time as conditions could change and the OP could actually list something and inadvertently have a listing violation.

If eBay were policing the listings, they would be randomly reviewing listings, by key word searches and other means and not simply react to complaints.

However when reacting to complaints, additional effort should be expended to ensure that the complaint has validity. If they determine that the person reporting has a history of making false claims against competitor members, then that member should be dealt with more severely than simply informing them the other party was in compliance.

Malcolm

[llee2]

Malcolm,

When someone reports a possible listing violation, it is eBay's responibility to evaluate the complaint and take the appropriate action. While I don't doubt the fact that someone out there is making false complaints, (I have a good idea who) it is eBay who is ultimately responsible. They may only do partial policing (relying on users for the most part) but the enforcement (removal of listings) is completely in eBay's hands and therefore the onus of responsibility.

EBay encourages users to do the policing for them and to report possible listing violations. However, the decision to pull a listing is solely eBay's. And that decision is based on their evaluation of the listing with respect to the rules and regulations they have laid out. It would be difficult to penalize somone who wrongfully reports a valid listing. If you penalize them for wrongful reporting, then no one will dare report possible violations. But it is eBay's responsibility to properly evaluate the listing to see if it does in fact violate the rules or not. Because the ultimate decision to pull the listing is theirs, then should the rep not bear the responsibility of their decision? I don't see how this is different from any other job. You make a decision, you better be able to justify it and take responsibility for that decision. With that power comes that responsibility. I can't see having one but not the other.

In my case, all 3 listings would not have been pulled had the rep bothered to read the auction. And that's what burns me the most. You say that one cannot be given a carte blanche mark for all listings. I agree. But by the same token, you cannot pull every listing that has "insulin" in the title. ALL auctions must be evaluated individually to see whether or not they violate rules and regulations. That's the rep's job and the rep's responsibility. And they should be held accountable.

Lincoln

[audioshack]

shoplineca

I do hold eBay employees responsible. And careless perfomance of their duties may not be malicious but, IMHO, when they are well aware that their actions affect the incomes of eBay sellers it is the next closest thing.

As far as leverage goes, this forum goes a long way to exposing some of the dumb things eBay does on a daily basis. Occasionally it even reveals some of the good things they have done. Unfortunately, of late, there have been fewer and fewer of those occasions.

The OP's measures seem, on the surface, to be a pretty fair way to deal with eBay when they refuse to listen. At some point the escalation stops when eBay finally decides that it is to their financial benefit to pull back.

These measures would likely have a little more impact than emailing or calling and demanding to know who could be reporting. Your chances of success equate to a snowball's chance in warm places.

You said "eBay employees are the ones that are pulling the listings on the unsolicited advice or request of another eBay member...". Even if this is the case, it is eBay employees pulling the plug and they need to take responsibility for their (pick one):

a) laziness
b) sleep walking
c) uncaring manner
d) (insert your here)
e) all of the above

You also said "If it is NOT a malicious act, rather a misdirected one, eBay should inform the person making the removal requests aware that the OPs listings are within policy." Of course, I fully agree - BUT THEY HAVE TO READ THE LISTING FIRST!!!!!

No one ever suggested that the OP be given any sort of hall pass. I'm not sure how you got that idea. I certainly never suggested it and, in reading over the posts, I cannot find where anyone else came remotely close to suggesting that. In this instance he is entirely in the right and eBay cops are entirely in the wrong - nothing more, nothing less.

Finally, if, as you say, eBay only reacts to complaints about listings, it leads me to wonder about your last statement. You said: "However when reacting to complaints, additional effort should be expended to ensure that the complaint has validity." If this is the case why are eBay cops not exercising additional care in all instances??

Bottom line - eBay reps totally missed the call in all three instances. Let the hang their heads in shame and no soup for them.

[shoplineca]

The Pinks dont come to eBay.ca Power Seller forum. The last time they wanted to talk to Cdn Power Sellers they held a 1 hour discussion on the US Poweer Seller thread and then came onto our forum and posted 3 congratulations to new Power Sellers without reading any of the comments given, especially to one of them and then they have not returned since.

It has been well over 1 year since the last one came to this board, so your comments are pretty much falling on deaf ears here!

In principle I wholeheartedly agree with your arguments however what do you intend to do with the situation in reality?

eBay promised more employees to deal with our problems when faced with the barrage of complaints over fee hikes with no improvements to service. Well here we are 4 months down the road and the same BS and lack of attention with no additional eBay employees to help.

For those that are running businesses on eBay, even if that business is only generating 30% of household income, eBay does not respect your business as if it were a business and that is a major problem.

How can a corporation as large as eBay give a minimum wage, grade 12 graduate the authority to review and pull listings, the reprecussions of which cause financial damage to peoples businesses?

Easy, by hiring minimum wage employees, by being evasive, by responding to serious inquiries with canned automated responses, they can increase their profits and keep their shareholders happy, which is their principle objective.

So the dilema remains. You can keep emailing eBay and getting clerk "A" say you are correct and advise you to relist while clerk "B" takes the complaint from your competitor, who is probably well known to eBay as a long-time Seller with multiple accounts, and your listing gets pulled again.

Their heads wont hang in shame. They could really care less. That is why they are hired by eBay.

I am not trying to argue with either of you. What I am trying to do is to suggest that you might have to look at resolving this issue some other way aside from emailing eBay and expecting that your problem is going to go away because the lights are going to go on at eBay all of a sudden and they will suddenly realize their multiple, repeated mistake with your account.

I firmly believe that you have someone, another Seller, perhaps a competitor, that is trying to make your life on eBay misereable. So maybe it takes trying to determine who that party is as being your edge to have eBay rectify the situation permanently and not just each time your listing gets pulled.

While your repeated arguments about your listings not violating eBay rules are given to them, there remains a serious problem when your listings continually are being pulled despite being well within their guidelines and that reason is what you have to determine.

I think in your situation, this is well beyond clerical error.

Malcolm

[llee2]

Malcolm,

I started this post with essentially a rant out of frustration. I'm well aware of the lack of Pink presence here and this thread was never intended for them (not that they could or would do anything about it either).

I agree with both you and Ben that there probably is a competitor trying to derail my listings (someone who has tried in the past along with a handful of other dirty tactics). But the fact remains, reporting a listing (whether it is in violation of rules or not) does not automatically get a listing pulled. Support must review the complaint and the listing in question and then decide whether to pull it. The problem here is not that the listing was incorrectly reported. The problem is that support pulled a listing they should not have.

There is no penalty for falsing reporting a listing. In fact, eBay phrases it as "report a POSSIBLE listing violation". It's up to eBay to determine the validity of the claim. It shouldn't matter how often or how many people complain against a listing for whatever or how many ever rules are violated. If it falls within the proper rules, the listing should not get pulled. I hate to bring this example back in the spotlight, but do you remember those "charity" fake LiveStrong bracelets that were the topic of another thread? How many people in this forum alone complained to eBay about a possible violation or rules there? Did eBay automatically pull it just because someone complained? Nope. They ruled that the listing did not violate the rules and regulations. SOMEONE had to review the listing and make that decision not to pull it. Should we have all been penalized for reporting this "valid" (and I use this term loosely) listing?

My point is that you can't penalize someone for reporting an item that may be potentially infringing on whatever rule. While it may very well be someone attempting to cause havoc with my sales, the filter has got to be eBay's ability to make the right judgement. EBay will not prohibit someone from reporting an item, nor do I think they should. They should be able to complain as much as they want and as often as they want. If the reps were doing their job properly, I wouldn't even hear about it. They would review the complaint and the listing and once they've actually READ it, they would see the listing is valid. They would then reply to the complaint that the listing is not against rules and valid. Listing goes UNTOUCHED and I don't even hear from them. Repeat this process as many times as the troublemaker wants to report it. Whether someone is "gunning" for me is completely irrelevent if the reps do their jobs properly.

My issue in this situation is not against the person that may be reporting my listings. Why should I worry about someone complaining about a completely valid listing? My issue is the blatant incompetence of the rep(s) responsible for incorrectly acting on the complaints. You're absolutely correct in saying this is beyond a clerical error. It's sheer incompetence.

Lincoln

[shoplineca]

Or it is someone with eBay who supports the other Seller?

That is my point that I was trying to avoid coming out and saying directly.

Once is understandable, twice is irresponsible but three times is collusion.

Malcolm