Facebook Market place ridiculous blocking of sale for no logical reason

hubb

Why oh why oh why does facebook marketplace suddenly decide to stop you selling an item with a vague reason when the sale is just a pile of old vinyl records ? I have now appealed which is again being reviewed in 48 hours and I have no idea why they have blocked it. Other people are selling vinyl albums as a lot, so why not myself ? All artists are general, harmless pop so there are no Nazi death metal or any other offensive material, Just Cliff Richard etc. It happened a while ago when I was trying to sell a couple of walking frames. It was blocked for no reason AND yet other people had live sales up of the same items. It must be some kind of auto bot unless the people "reviewing" are brain dead.

And another thing, why do I get so many time wasters asking "is this still available ?" who are usually from some far off foreign land ? 

soolin

Facebook have some strange metrics , I’ve heard of records being banned before- apparently some artists are problematic.

As for ‘Is this item still available’, that’s an automated question and is often sent by accident as it is easy to trigger the message whilst just browsing the listing. Anecdotally the more you respond the higher you are pushed up in the rankings, if you ignore questions then the metrics ‘switch you off’. One tip, if you use a buyers name when you reply they seem more likely to buy, so I just say, hi Anna (Fred, John, whatever) yes this item is still available. 

ElefantEd

Are you suggesting that Cliff Richard records aren't offensive? Haven't you ever been subjected to Mistletoe and Wine?

hubb

soolin said:

Facebook have some strange metrics , I’ve heard of records being banned before- apparently some artists are problematic.

As for ‘Is this item still available’, that’s an automated question and is often sent by accident as it is easy to trigger the message whilst just browsing the listing. Anecdotally the more you respond the higher you are pushed up in the rankings, if you ignore questions then the metrics ‘switch you off’. One tip, if you use a buyers name when you reply they seem more likely to buy, so I just say, hi Anna (Fred, John, whatever) yes this item is still available. 

I don't understand what you mean by "problematic" ? So all second hand vinyl shops, including charity shops, record fares etc have artists on their back for legally selling records that were once purchased by the owner from a shop, which the artist would have already had their cut ?

hubb

This gets even more ridiculous, I see they have approved it and let it go live (without notifying me) and I edited the title to make it clearer and again it has been pulled. Tried to appeal and the filed for me to fill in the info won't allow me to input any text. Utterly frustrating!!!

soolin

hubb said:

soolin said:

Facebook have some strange metrics , I’ve heard of records being banned before- apparently some artists are problematic.

As for ‘Is this item still available’, that’s an automated question and is often sent by accident as it is easy to trigger the message whilst just browsing the listing. Anecdotally the more you respond the higher you are pushed up in the rankings, if you ignore questions then the metrics ‘switch you off’. One tip, if you use a buyers name when you reply they seem more likely to buy, so I just say, hi Anna (Fred, John, whatever) yes this item is still available. 

I don't understand what you mean by "problematic" ? So all second hand vinyl shops, including charity shops, record fares etc have artists on their back for legally selling records that were once purchased by the owner from a shop, which the artist would have already had their cut ?

I didn't say that, it is all to do with facebook marketplace metrics which absolutely no one understands. It is the same nonsense that does not allow me to sell a Beswick horse as it goes against their animal policy, or a chain link bracelet - that I couldn't see used any trigger words at all. If selling a lot on facebook it is worth trying to work out (and it is near impossible) what their trigger words are . basically anything that mentions food, drink, animals- anything at all that could be an armament (pens are problematic if you refer to the length of the barrel, anything whatsover that contains part of a brand name they don't like. Just this week I had an old vintage shell from the beach to sell - I couldn't even use the word 'shell' for it and I think it eventually sold as a beach ornament. There is something in an album title, or name of an artist that triggers an issue- you may never find out what it is. Also don't bother with reviews, one of mine waited 3 years for a review even though I sold it on a group as soon as it was listed- at that point I couldn't even remove it as sold from marketplace as the system wouldn't let me, but now that option is available on the app for items in review.

The groups are different though and admin each control their own groups currently, however that is changing as facebook want to control all sales on their platform, it has already started in the US where they run a service more like Shpock that charges a fee but where you can set up a click and buy option and even print your postage. 

pbartlett

Wish Facebook would put as much effort into blocking scammers on their platform selling 'investments'

RFW

pbartlett said:

Wish Facebook would put as much effort into blocking scammers on their platform selling 'investments'

Sadly, they probably do. The 'effort' is to insert a bit of code to spot these things. Chances are they block someone saying they found 50p as an investment scammer!

hubb

Back on topic.
I now have 2 attempted banned duplicate auctions in limbo that I cannot delete or even appeal. If I try and make another, it seems to detect it is the same and bans it again. If I click on appeal, I can't fill out the required information when I click on the box to fill in as it is unresponsive, when I just post "send" without the box being filled in I get a "It looks like you forgot something. Please fill in all of the required information." message
It's c**p

soolin

hubb said:

Back on topic.
I now have 2 attempted banned duplicate auctions in limbo that I cannot delete or even appeal. If I try and make another, it seems to detect it is the same and bans it again. If I click on appeal, I can't fill out the required information when I click on the box to fill in as it is unresponsive, when I just post "send" without the box being filled in I get a "It looks like you forgot something. Please fill in all of the required information." message
It's c**p

As above there is absolutely no point in appealing. I have only recently found out that the only way to delete an 'in appeal' or 'in review' listing is to go through all the steps in the facebook marketplace app, I can't delete from my ipad or PC at all. 

I'm usually very careful with my listings but last week I got another one denied - I listed a vintage charm bracelet and foolishly mentioned a camel charm   luckily the listing did stick in a jewellery selling group and sold the same day so I have just deleted the marketplace listing entirely.