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The eBay Gulag | 11 comments (11 topical) | Post A Comment
Ebay's heavy handed policies[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#1)
by auctionhugh on Mon Dec 11, 2006 at 06:33:51 PM PDT

As someone who associates with several ebay sellers, it is not at all unusual to have your auctions yanked for having "copyright or trademark infringing photos or text" and not be able to figure out what the problem was.

I realize this is a tangental comment, but the issue is communicating. I am allowed to sell a used dell monitor, but if I copy and paste the specs on the monitor from the Dell website, I am infringing on the dell copyright somehow.

It is all very confusing, and not open to any real appeal process.

It is not like ebay has any real competition in the marketplace so to say market forces will keep them doing the right thing is kind of a stretch.

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Ebay: the judge, the jury and the executioner[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#2)
by Anton7849 on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 03:33:21 AM PDT

I have a better story to tell you. I have been suspended and reinstated on eBay several times. As a matter of fact, after four years with no issues/problems of any kind I just had my 3rd year anniversary of the 1st time I was suspended by them for some weird cause.

The beef that I have now with this monopoly is that they do not follow their own rules/policy. I am talking specifically about their "fair shipping" policy. You see, they shut down auctions right now if they "feel" that you charge too much for S/H fees. I have been suspended and reinstated and talked to 10 reps, (yes, literally ten eBay CS reps), and every single one of them gave me a different answer. Since some of them were talking to me from the position of power, they can do this when they are holding all the cards and have this type of leverage over you. They are the judge, the jury and the executioner of your sentence.
If you do not see the irony in that, and that there are no checks and balances in that system, it gets worse. I am talking about their "fair shipping policy".

Guess what?
1. They cannot give you a clear answer as to what "fair shipping fees" are. They say that it is written down and that it is "confidential information." And therefore cannot send me a copy of their policy! So it seems they would prefer me to violate their policy rather than educate me; they would rather suspend me, than make it crystal clear as to what the policy actually is.

2. The FAIR shipping fees that they have in their own eBay Shop are HIGHER than what they want their sellers to charge.

How does that work? Why do they want me to charge less than they charge for the same value item? They are a big company and charge more than what I charge, or what they want me to charge, for the same shipping service. Why the double standard? Maybe, because they cannot make money, or maybe the shipping charges are actually more than they want us sellers to charge, which forces us to lose money!

And guess what they sell in their store ~ You've guessed it, eBay promotional stuff. Why are they selling all this promo stuff anyway, they should be paying us to wear it and advertise for them, and then definitely ship it for FREE, or for less than I do.

3. Ebay policy requires any seller to have a phone number, but guess what? Their shop doesn't have one.

4. Ebay policy states that you cannot have your s/h charges as a percentage of your sale price. And yes, you guessed it again. They have that included in their sales prices as well.

I am not just complaining. No. I proposed many solutions to this issue and others as well (you didn't think there was only one?), they all fell on deaf ear. Do they not see that they are killing their own sellers. Or are they just scared that this won't last, so they are trying to get paid now. I thought they were supposed to facilitate win-win transactions between buyers and sellers and charge a fee for that. Instead they are trying to influence our behavior to maximize their profit. And doing it at all costs.

So, how can I listen to a company that violates its own policy and is trying to kill its base? I would guess that for 5 billion/year NET profit, they can hire someone to at least check on that part of their business, to have a discussion on how to improve it for all parties involved.

Oh, but I forgot, they are the judge, the jury and the executioner....

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"Confidential Rules"[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#8)
by BigManTate on Tue Dec 19, 2006 at 01:51:44 PM PDT

1. They cannot give you a clear answer as to what "fair shipping fees" are. They say that it is written down and that it is "confidential information." And therefore cannot send me a copy of their policy! So it seems they would prefer me to violate their policy rather than educate me; they would rather suspend me, than make it crystal clear as to what the policy actually is.

That sounds as bad as Comcast suspending users for using too much "UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH" and telling the users that they can't divulge the supposed unlimited limit. Sounds like monopolistic bully tactics to me. :)

Allen Tate
www.AllenTateComputing.com
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mac video soft[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#10)
by Anonymous User on Mon Sep 01, 2008 at 06:03:01 AM PDT

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Not a Copyright Violation[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by srynas on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 02:29:40 PM PDT

I do not believe this statement is a correct interpretation of copyright: "if I copy and paste the specs on the monitor from the Dell website, I am infringing on the dell copyright somehow." This is information that Dell is making publicly available to describe its product.

As consumers, we need to be more assertive about protecting our right to use information and NOT let the vendors define what our copryright rights are.

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eBay Gulag - punishing the wrong people[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#5)
by wmbennett on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 03:36:05 PM PDT

My daughter dropped her older-model digital camera and broke it. Since she had an expensive underwater case for that particular model, she went to eBay to buy an exact replacement. The camera she purchased arrived in a non-operative state -- completely dead. She even took it to an authorized camera repair center, but was told it was unrepairable. After a long hassle from the seller, she went through eBay's appeal process and her claim was denied on the basis that the seller's listing didn't specifically say the camera was in operating condition! That seller, to my knowledge, is still doing business on eBay. Seems like they're issuing parking tickets while the real crooks go on ripping off buyers.

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The eBay Gulag | 11 comments (11 topical) | Post A Comment
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