Help My Ebay account has been suspended

planetdannii

Does anyone have any advise on this please.

I just got back from the post office to find my Ebay account suspended, it says for a minimum of 7days.

It states 'Trap' the tradmark group notified them.....the crazy thing is I have been selling these for 6months with no problems and hundreds of other similar items are listed.

They are basically screen prints of rock stars band members...hand printed each one a little dif to each other. I am in no way saying these are genuine merchandise but anyway they have never been produced before.

I don't know my next step, I paid up my fee's so my acc looks in good order....do I just wait 7days?

I have emailed ebay but I am very aware (even though they get over £300 a month from me) they have a shocking customers service/reply email system.....they will most likely be in touch in 17days.

Has anyone had a similar thing happen?

I'm gutted as this is my only income,,,,jsut got to twiddle my thumbs for a week I guess. These tee are about 70% of my income so I have no idea how I will cope in the short term.

Do you think it is safe to use other auction sites for these tee's and use ebay for normal stuff (once account up and running)

Im so scared of loosing my account as I have over 1800 + feedback comments.....I feel like crying.

Any thoughts or advise please

Dannii

frivolous_fay

Are you sure you haven't previously been warned or had listings removed?

Ebay don't normally suspend on a first offence.

Hintza

You might have been lucky. They could have gone straight to court and that would have cost you real money.

Perhaps time to find an alternative line to sell?

MrsJ2008

Hi, I was suspended too (the bar-stewards!!!).

It did take Ebay an age to respond to my email asking what to do next but basically they asked me to send a copy of my passport and a few other bits & bobs that I thought were over the tob. So I didn't do it.

They are now in the process of going through their system to start banning anyone that sells fake whether they are stated as fake or not.

Even if you get re-instated you may get banned again as they will class your items as fakes.

You could always set up another account but loose all your stars, etc., and you'd need a new email address and username.

Could you set up on Amazon instead?

Good luck

planetdannii

It's not happend before but they pulled all my listings 200+ and over 70 of them are the ones which have been reported...so I guess they are taking it as 70 in one go.

Gutted...so many other people sell similar items but I guess two wrongs don't make a right. I didn't know these were not allowed mind, I looked in VERO and they were not there, but this has been pulled by 'Trap' not VERO you see.

I sell other items but like I say they were 70 %....*** and I have stock now left over which I have no idea what to do with.

planetdannii

Thanx MrsJ2008, Never thought of Amazon, maybe the same may happen again, but I guess it's worth a try.

frivolous_fay

I wouldn't risk trying to sell this merchandise, which clearly infringes copyright. The penalties could be worse next time; it could be a court date.

By the way, you should make your ebay user name less easy to find in case you eventually do get your account reinstated.

planetdannii

Im not sure what you mean by 'making ebay user name less easy to find' frivolous_fay..please let me know

Ta

frivolous_fay

I have PMed you.

soolin

I can only really concur with the excellent advice already given. You cannot sell fakes anyway, so this wasn't really just an ebay issue it is a legal issue. You'll run into problems wherever you legitimately try and sell..that's why pirate goods are so often associated with dodgier outlets, or out of cases in markets etc.

It is almost certainly a lucrative business as any legitimate seller will be paying huge amounts for use of copyright etc, so you have had the advantage.

Personally all I can suggest is that stick to the 30% of your stock which doesn't breach laws and try and find something else to fill thegap from these tees.

planetdannii

I have contacted TRAP to see how I go about getting these tee's made legal, I,e Paying to use the copyright if there is one....

3 months ago I searched the net to find out how I go about this,,,,nothing anywhere. My tees are not copys' of anything available but they do include screened (hand made) images of famous people....how can I even begin. I will try again though thats for sure.

Unfortunately ebay customer services makes me so angry I am tempted to stop using them anyway even when/if I can get rights for these tees......all the money they get and not once out of the 10times I have needed some help have they actually replied to them correctly.

Occasions when I have sold legitimate items and they have removed them have sent me crazy...... bring on google bids or whatever rivals are out there soon !!!