Thursday, November 20, 2008

eBay still doesn't trust me to sell "branded" items


It's been months since I first got blocked by eBay for attempting to sell genuine "branded" items. eBay continues to block my sales, with no evidence of counterfeit intent on my part. They insist I have to build up my feedback, but block me from selling, which is how one builds feedback. When I manage to sell something within their secret restrictions, I get glowing positive feedbacks. In fact, my feedback scores exceed eBay averages in 75% of categories. Their logic is fundamentally imbecilic, which may explain why their Trust and Safety Department took 6 days to come up with this excuse for an explanation to their unjustifiable policy:

Dear 69fasty,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to the recent blocks you have encountered. I apologize for the delay in our response to you as we've been experiencing unusually high email volume.

We understand that you may be disappointed about the selling limits you are experiencing, and we hope you'll understand that account and listing restrictions are intended to provide the most positive buying experience possible, which increases overall sales for sellers. We apologize for any unnecessary inconvenience.

Unfortunately, we can't raise your selling limits at this time, but we'd be happy to review your account again after 90 days. Our considerations include buyer feedback, time and activity on site, and compliance with eBay policies.

It is important to note that the restriction you encountered was not directed specifically to your account but rather a site-wide initiative that we've implemented. As such, all sellers that regularly sell various items on our site were faced with this restriction at one time or another.

The best course of action for you at this time would be to continue selling your luxury items on the site within your limits.

If you have other types of items you may be able to list them on the site once you have hit your monthly limits to help you build your selling reputation on eBay and generate revenue.

Please visit eBay's Help pages for more information on our listing policies and guidelines:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/seller-rules-overview.html

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Bethany

eBay Customer Support

Once again, eBay encourages me to continue selling within the limits they placed on my account, but fail to disclose what the limits are. I can't think of any other comparable situation where this paradox of logic exists, at least in the free world. Maybe Guantanamo? Why eBay fails to enact real policies that address counterfeit sales without restricting legitimate activity is beyond my comprehension. Their shareholders are missing out on my seller fees, especially with the holiday shopping season approaching.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

I too am dealing with the same ebay issues. I cannot imagine ebay would last if the internet told them that they would not be able to sell some items, but not tell then what those items were. Right now this IS my income and my list has grown just Juicy Couture to now also include Ugg, Ralph Lauren Purple lable and Chip and pepper. Out of the 4 so far I have only sold Juicy hoodies, and 1 ugg jacket the rest are just restricted I guess because I cannot even listed them, I only bought them to list to then get rejected to then return to then hope that I do not but another label that I cannot sell. Oh yea and imagine if the internet just did not respond to ebays request for answers. I have always said the ebay could never pass its own standards, DSR, customer service they would fail.

You are totally right when you state that what kind of business is this, truly Katrina-like. If there where not so many people depending on this avenue for there families it might be funny but instead it just seems sad.