eBay

john_koenig99 · ‎06-09-2025

This is ridiculous. Are there any humans working at ebay anymore?

I deal with buying and selling vintage, electronics and watches. I found a watch for sale in auction that is clearly a poor copy of an authentic Casio watch. I submitted a IP infringement report, which came back, dismissed, within 5 minutes, indicating that the resolution was AI generated.

So, what's the point of submitting a report, if no human is going to take a look at it?

marnotom! · ‎06-10-2025

The point of submitting a report is to start creating a case against the seller. eBay generally doesn't take action when only one report has been filed, lest it be from someone who wants to sabotage the seller or the listing. If many reports from many different users are filed for the same listing or the seller has developed a history of receiving these reports for other listings, that will more likely get eBay's attention and action is much more likely to be in order.

I think you're confusing a measured response with inaction. Your report wasn't dismissed. eBay's AI was just programmed to log the report rather than to take immediate action.

That's my understanding of how things work from the responses to posts similar to yours, at any rate.

john_koenig99 · ‎06-10-2025

I understand that. But, in the cause of an auction, the clock is literally ticking, and someone might get dinged buying a fake item.

I'd say that these reports need to be looking into more expeditely, and not leaving them for AI to handle, which seems to be the norm with ebay, nowadays.

fh991586 · ‎06-10-2025

IP infringement from someone else than the legal owner of said IP has no value.

Caveat emptor...

flipistics · ‎06-10-2025

@john_koenig99 wrote:
I understand that. But, in the cause of an auction, the clock is literally ticking, and someone might get dinged buying a fake item.

I'd say that these reports need to be looking into more expeditely, and not leaving them for AI to handle, which seems to be the norm with ebay, nowadays.

What do you expect eBay to do though? They can't just take your word for it or people would run around taking down all their competitor's listings in a free-for-all that would destroy the platform. Similarily, they can't have experts in all the areas that were dedicated to looking into the reports. It would be far too costly. Reporting the items could help eBay take action if someone files a claim though, and could possibly trigger a manual review of someone's account if they receive a bunch.

marnotom! · ‎06-10-2025

@john_koenig99 wrote:

I understand that. But, in the cause of an auction, the clock is literally ticking, and someone might get dinged buying a fake item.

Then that someone can avail themselves of the Money Back Guarantee after they receive the dud item.

eBay's been around for over a quarter of a century, and fraud on the site has been around almost as long as the site itself. In the early days of the site, there was probably more human intervention performed more quickly into claims of phony merchandise being sold, but with the growth of the site, it probably became more like "Whack a Mole" to handle things in this manner, so that's why you've seen initiatives such as the VERO Program and the Authentication Program developed. No, not everything is covered by those programs, but that's a big reason why the MBG is there for just about everything else and it works the way it does.