listing removed for circumvention of fees!

nightswimmer

windswept wrote:

Having spoken to a few fellow business ebayers over on the boards, it's seeming more and more likely that this powerseller has reported the listing, what a t***t! He isn't even selling exactly the same thing, his are childrens, mine are teen-adult in completely different designs. I have checked his listings in detail and he is breaking so many rules!
It seems pointless me reporting HIM, as there is no certainty of his listings being pulled, I may however, get a powerseller friend to report him.

Sadly, it looks like it might be a v.strong possibility.

It really bugs me. I'm a PowerSeller and proud of it, but I don't expect any special treatment above and beyond the extra support you get. But it's this kind of action that has turned 'PowerSeller' into some sort of dirty word on these MBs and some people refuse to buy from them. :mad:

windswept

I am totally convinced it was him now, he has huge advertisements for his own website and guess what? He is selling them for more than we were!!!!:mad: and his link from ebay is to a page with things for sale!( not allowed , AGAIN).
When you have a listing pulled, do ebay check the rest of your listings , shop front etc. I am concerned now incase anything else could be construed in the same manner, I have checked and I don't think so, but you never know, if he is a nasty git he could be ripping my shop to bits right now! ( I know, you're never alone with paranoia!):o

baffcat

windswept wrote:

I have just got an ebay e-mail telling me it has been removed for breaching the rules-for circumventing fees!

All because I requested that buyers contact us before ordering as there are different colours and sizes and we don't keep them as stock, they come direct from the supplier. we would have to have about 60 helmets listed to cover all the combinations.

I think it's more likely your listing was pulled because you were giving buyers options of colours & sizes. Ebay frown upon it. They want you to list each size in each colour, separately.

Yup, I know that's a lot of listings (60ish, you said), and so do ebay, which is why they want sellers to do it. By giving the option, you are circumventing fees.

There are a lot of sellers that get away with it, and it's galling to see competitors listings that are similar still showing, but that's the way of it, I'm afraid.

If I were you, I'd make five or six listings, each with a different colour or size, and add text to the effect that:

"Other colour/size options are available"

Then you'd get people contacting you to see if you have those other colour/size combinations in stock.

HTH

Baff

nightswimmer

windswept wrote:

I am totally convinced it was him now, he has huge advertisements for his own website and guess what? He is selling them for more than we were!!!!:mad: and his link from ebay is to a page with things for sale!( not allowed , AGAIN).

gah! :mad: :mad: :mad:

When you have a listing pulled, do ebay check the rest of your listings , shop front etc. I am concerned now incase anything else could be construed in the same manner, I have checked and I don't think so, but you never know, if he is a nasty git he could be ripping my shop to bits right now!

I think they only check what gets reported. I had a few listings pulled a couple months ago because I still had in the listing an option for people to send me cash payment. they only pulled a few auctions I had just listed, but didn't do a thing about the 100+ other auctions I already had up at the time with the same wording.

dora37

baffcat wrote:

I think it's more likely your listing was pulled because you were giving buyers options of colours & sizes. Ebay frown upon it. They want you to list each size in each colour, separately.

Yup, I know that's a lot of listings (60ish, you said), and so do ebay, which is why they want sellers to do it. By giving the option, you are circumventing fees.

There are a lot of sellers that get away with it, and it's galling to see competitors listings that are similar still showing, but that's the way of it, I'm afraid.

If I were you, I'd make five or six listings, each with a different colour or size, and add text to the effect that:

"Other colour/size options are available"

Then you'd get people contacting you to see if you have those other colour/size combinations in stock.

HTH

Baff

You are quite correct, see this link:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-choice.html

blue_monkey_2

Baff is right. You can only list the items you have specifically. I have a friend who had all her listings pulled for this reason as the were bras ans she noted a style and added D to G cup, you can't do this as you have to specify. eBay want's to screw as much money out of us as possible remember!! They only pull the listings if they are reported by someone (always competitors) so you can have 100 listings the same but only one will get pulled if just one is reported.

It drives me nuts - I had someone get my listings pulled upcoming each promotional day to try and get me suspended so I could not list - and on one occassion they managed it, all because I had used another 'keyword' in the listing. I am not talking one listing either, there was a good few but time being what it was I never got time to sort through and amend them. they would only have had to be deleted anyway so they did me a favour as I got my money back that way (LOL) but I guess I had about 150 listings pulled in the space of 6 weeks.

That being said, if your competitor has the time to sit and sift through and report your listings then he is obviously not working and selling. I find my competitors keyword spam all over the place, to report them all would take me weeks and although it riles me what is the point - I realy have better things to do with my time.

Maybe it is better to do it this way. List one on BIN in the main eBay body but without stating the colour and size available and then set the rest up as a Shop Inventory Format listings in your shop. In your description you could add that this listing is (not knowing about cycling helmets, just an example) for the blue in size Medium but to check for other colours or sizes listed in my eBay store. You could type these in (ie) red, black, white and sizes small, medium, large and then add a hyperlink into each of the words for a search of those items in your store. You can do this by when creating the text open another window, do a search of your store and use the http address in your hyperlink (you find this on the text creator page like an 8 on it's side and it'll underline it for you. Make it in bold and change the colour so it stands out - if you still don't know how to do it PM me and I'll try and explain but at least this way you are not 'circumventing fees' and if something sells elsewhere you can just cancel the shop listing and lose 7p or whatever it costs to list in your shop. Don't waste money in the shop on subtitles and gallery, save your money and just use them so people find them when searching through the links in your description. It also means that the customer will be able to see what else you have in stock at that minute and you are not breaking any rules. If you do not have a shop then open one. Hope this helps somewhat - you have to beat them all at their own game these days!!

LewisC_2

Personally, I'd just list them as helmets, detailing the sizes and colours, and say "Please state which colour and size you would like with your order". Seen similar things to that hundreds of times with no problems

frivolous_fay

LewisC wrote:

Personally, I'd just list them as helmets, detailing the sizes and colours, and say "Please state which colour and size you would like with your order". Seen similar things to that hundreds of times with no problems

No no no no no. That's still a CHOICE auction. If you've seen people with 'no problems' it means they haven't been reported.

If OP falls foul of the rules again they'll probably cop a suspension.

windswept

I have just discovered that my suspected reporter is also selling an expensive bike that we sell, I am going to have to re-word that too, as there are 2 colour choices:eek:
Don't want to wake up to a suspension in the morning, it must have been reported in the early hours of this morning originally.
He perhaps hasn't noticed us before as we only have the bike on SIF. (so does he) , I have gone through his listings with a fine tooth comb, does that make me sad, mad or both? :rotfl:
I can't believe a massive power seller would stoop so low after a tiny bit of competition! :mad: especially when he is so blatantly touting for off-ebay sales. I will be getting a powerseller friend of ours to report him when I can get in touch with him. I will not be beaten by this bully!

windswept

Excuse my ignorance, but what is keyword scamming?