ebay pulling classified ads etc

jdvhsully

My husband has recently started a part time business on ebay collecting and delivering cars (not recovery, but ones that may be non runners etc). The aim of this is to build it up before he retires in 2/3 years time.
He advertised this on ebay and was getting a number of enquiries. After 2-3 months of advertising in the car section ebay pulled his ad saying that he was offering a service and that category had now gone.:(

He was advertising in the main car section- both classics and regular cars. Again this was okay until last month when ebay pulled his ad saying he was not selling a car. He spoke to ebay who said that they wanted his type of business advertised on gumtree, which they own. We have and had no enquiry/response at all in the 2 months that he has advertised there.
He has subsequently advertised a voucher, used a classified ad (as others are doing) and again we got enquiries. Yesterday ebay pulled the ad again.:mad:

My husband is getting very frustrated, he has spoken to ebay who have said that they will speak to a "manager" and forward his suggestion for a specific category in the motoring section. We are still waiting as this happened when they pulled his ad previously.:(
He has also advertised in the local paper, piston heads etc and had no response- only ebay is generating enquiries.

Any ideas on how to word the ad, who to speak to regarding getting the category in motoring or other suggestions would be gratefully received.:)

I am sure that this must be happening to the others who advertise in this section- or is one of them complaining and the ad being pulled which gives them less competition????

Many thanks

frivolous_fay

I'm not familiar with the classifieds, but it could well be someone reporting you - not necessarily because they're in competition - perhaps because they find it annoying looking for a car and seeing non-car adverts.

Have you considered a listing on the main site? There might be more categories available. Just a thought.

cyberbob

As fay said it could be because he was reported. He needs to stop listing until he finds where he can list within the rules otherwise constant breaches of policy his account may get suspended or banned.

I'm not up on classified either I understand that they removed the Services from the motors category. Although I believe and I can still find listings under local services (you may not be able to do this as a classified though). You may have to consider looking at other avenues rather than ebay if you can't find anything appropriate. Maybe your local free ad papers.

jdvhsully

The thing is, ebay are missing out on a source of revenue here. When they first dropped the Local Services category, I had a chat with them. Their answer was that all services are now on Gumtree (which ebay also own). The problem with that is that no one and I mean no one, looks on Gumtree. Its the same with just about any other advertising medium.
People watch cars on ebay and they don't come off that site to get delivery quotes. Ebay won't acknowledge this. What is needed is a new category within ebay motors for motoring services and put all the delivery companies and other services on that. Then people won't have to come off ebay to sort out delivery when they have bought a vehicle. Seems simple enough to me!
Maybe of any ebay people are reading this, they can comment?

aaarrrggghhh

cyberbob wrote: »

You may have to consider looking at other avenues rather than ebay if you can't find anything appropriate. Maybe your local free ad papers.

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jdvhsully wrote: »

He has also advertised in the local paper, piston heads etc and had no response- only ebay is generating enquiries.

hermum

Has he looked at Shiply.com a lot of ebayers with stuff to move now list on there. I'm not sure about motors though, but may be worth a look around the site.

Pembroke

There is a car transport section on Shiply as I've received quotes from carriers on it quite recently.

As for the Ebay problem well I thought Ebay were getting rid of classifieds for services anyway so it's not just your hubby.

Maybe he could use the ad commerce system, which uses keywords to place adverts on relevant sections:

https://adcommerce.ebaypartnernetwork.com/adnetfiles/home/en-US/index.html

Or maybe the partners service although I'd guess that is quite expensive:

http://partner.ebay.co.uk/partnercentre/motoring-services

Finally could he advertise in the same way that some breakers use, that is talk about the whole car but say at the end that you're bidding on just the wheel nut. I'd warn him though that this type of advert may be on dodgy ground.

jdvhsully

You see, this is why I post on this site!
I had never heard of Shiply until today. What a brilliant looking site. Many thanks to hermum for pointing it out. Just logged on and put the company profile on it. Seems like this could be the alternative to ebay that I've been looking for.
I will keep you posted.
Regards

forgotmyname

Too many people abusing the system. I was looking for some old kitchen units & tops for a shed.

273 items found were classified ads and auctions from a guy with a van offering his services. I gave up looking on ebay.

I really hate classified's.

jdvhsully

I would like to say a big thank you for recommending Shiply.:T
I have joined, bid and had them accepted so the jobs are beginning to come in.:j
I now don't even try with ebay- I wonder how many customers they have lost because of this policy? I do accept that some people put too many classified ads though. Oh well, not my problem now.:rotfl: