Ebay Removes One Of My Listings For No Valid Reason

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

So just the other day I get an e-mail from eBay that one of my listings was removed because it violates their ivory policies.  This listing is an old one, that I have relisted for a long time.  Nowhere in the listing does it say it is ivory.  In fact it says it is Faux Bone.

Years ago they removed many of my listings & suspended me for a week because I used the term Faux Ivory for some of my jewelry.  So I changed them all to the term Faux Bone.  But there are thousands of listings with the term Faux Ivory.  I phoned eBay to complain that they needed to be consistant.  If I can't use the term then no one should be able to.  But it didn't matter to them. They just singled me out.

With all the problems they are having lately & so many glitches, you would think they should be concentrating on fixing these on eBay.  I can't believe they are wasting their time looking for listings violations that aren't even there.

[momcqueen]

I’m sorry this happened to you. I’m willing to suggest an envious competitor reported your listing and brought it to the attention of eBay. Did you keep a copy of it so you can recreate it to suit their fancy?

[femmefan1946]

In my youth there was a advertising campaign for wigs that used the tagline "It's not fake anything-- It's real Dynel."

Rather than calling your items 'faux' anything, which I suspect is the word the bots are catching, how about calling it what it actually is?

Resin? Bone (if it is)? Plastic? Bakelite?

Here is the policy on ivory and bone.

Though there a few exceptions, most ivory products can't be offered on eBay because of various international trade restrictions and treaties banning the sale of these items. You can find additional information about ivory laws below.

Restricted

• Bone from non-ivory–producing animals (such as bison, buffalo, and oxen) as long as the species is clearly stated in the listing description
• Cultured, man-made, or vegetable ivory as long as the listing description specifies what the item is made of
• Fossilized mammoth teeth or bone as long as they are listed in the Fossils category. Fossilized mammoth tusks are still prohibited.

Not allowed

• Items made from ivory
• Bone from animals that produce ivory, including elephants, walruses, and whales
• Fossilized ivory or mammoth tusk

And now I want a fossilized mammoth tusk.

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I have never sold real ivory on eBay nor would I ever even try.  I have been using the word faux ivory for many years & when eBay made a fuss about it I changed it to faux bone or resin or plastic as they said that was allowed.  Why all of a sudden would it matter now?  My beef is that there is no consistancy on eBay.  There are hundreds of listings that use the words faux ivory & the sellers have been using this term for years on eBay.  My question is why are they all able to use it with no punity?

[retroman_studios]

What exactly are you selling? What is the actual identity? Because even bones from Ivory producing animals are prohibited.

Even if what you are offering is legit and not prohibited, your terms must also match.

You can't also use words to imply your item is like something else. I found that out listing some watches as I had used the term "Rolex style" and the bots caught it.

Rules are rules, regardless of who actually obeys them. You see this on the roads. Drivers don't obey the rules and get mad that they were singled out for a ticket. "But officer, everyone else is doing it" sadly doesn't work as an excuse.

Take your lumps and reword the listing. It won't look as good or grab attention like the other infringing listings but you will suffer less for it.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@2nd-time-around-jewelry wrote:

So just the other day I get an e-mail from eBay that one of my listings was removed because it violates their ivory policies.  This listing is an old one, that I have relisted for a long time.  Nowhere in the listing does it say it is ivory.  In fact it says it is Faux Bone.

I can't believe they are wasting their time looking for listings violations that aren't even there.

---

I had once had to reword a description that used "elephant tusks" -- violated the ivory prohibition. Item was metal coin that had a set of crossed elephant tusks on one side.

...

There are over a billion listing on ebay -- your listing is collateral damage in their efforts to weed out criminal activities.  ebay does not have the resources to do individual human checks of every listing, so have overbroad restrictions for the bots (and unskilled staff) to use.

...

Your listing was probably okay under the rules when originally listed, but when recently checked (listing revision or reported could be a reason) it failed the current rules.

...

Annoying, but reword the description.

[momcqueen]

My one and only Product Review on ebay was written exclusively as a test of the Ivory-keyword bot-check. It's about soap.

[hlmacdon]

The bulk of listing violation checks by ebay are going to automated using key word analysis, so figure out what key words are going to trip a filter as using "fake" or "faux" doesn't prevent the word from being detected and adjacent words are not going to be used for context to provide and exception. In one of the niches I sell there is a quite extensive list of key words you want to avoid as they trip the automated checks.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Not positive but as far as I know most elephants in recent history were killed for their ivory and not by Ivory Soap being shot at them. Will research further and get back to you.  🙂 Apparently, elephants have been carved from Ivory Soap. Not sure if that would still be a concern to the bots?

-CM

from Change dot org

STOP USING ELEPHANTS FOR IVORY SOAP!

It is obvious that Procter and Gamble are using elephants for soap because that is the only place on earth that they can get Ivory. Although it smells good, stealing ivory from elephants is bad. That's like taking away my grandmother's Pall Mall 100's-she'd be useless without them. Please tell Procter and Gamble that their name sounds like a butt surgeon that plays poker, and to stop using elephants for soap!

[trixie-cat]

I think a rival seller singled you out and reported you. Some sellers are jerks.

 Though sometimes eBay is a jerk.

A few weeks ago I saw a listing for a potentially dangerous prescription drug used for the treatment of heroin addiction up for sale so I reported it. It’s still up there.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

If listings are going to get pulled(And some definitely do need to be) there still should be some sort of message from eBay to that seller and a short window to defend oneself. Some sort of bot over-ride.

-CM