Falsely Accused of selling fake items on eBay

Martyn16pnefc

Hi All!

Longshot but hope you can help me.
I've had a clearcut recently and decided to sell some items on eBay. I usually use Facebook marketplace but thought eBay would be better after seeing their recent advertising campaign.
I've opened a eBay account and listed 4 items. 1 x Adidas trainers which were purchased from JD Sports. 1 x Nike trainers which were purchased from a Nike Factory store. 1x Preston North End football shirt which was purchased from the the Preston North End club shop and 1x Aberdeen football shirt which was purchased from the Aberdeen club shop.
I listed all 4 items and one by one they all sold. Perfect!
I woke up the other morning to a email from eBay informing me that my account had been suspended due to selling counterfeit products. I knew there had been some misunderstanding so I got in touch with eBay customer service to sort it out.
I was told that I was not able to appeal the decision, I was not able to find out any specifics about which item was deemed counterfeit or why this happened. Then I was told that all my money earned would come to me in 2-2 and a half months time!
I've tried getting a telephone number but there doesn't seem to be anything about.

I'm quite upset about this because I feel like I've been treated like some dodgy criminal selling counterfeit products!!
I'm assuming one of my buyers have received one of my items sold and have thought it was a fake or something and complained. But surely as a seller I should have the right to defend myself or discuss this with the buyer or eBay themselves?
It just seems a little strange that this has happened so quickly and cut throat.

Whenever I talk to someone at eBay about this they don't entertain any conversation whatsoever. Its done through a webchat but they will write a message back and then write 'Are we still connected' quickly trying to find an excuse to end the conversation.

soolin

Did the suspension notice mention VERO at all, as that is often a device they use and they don't actually mean 'fakes;.

Martyn16pnefc

soolin said:

Did the suspension notice mention VERO at all, as that is often a device they use and they don't actually mean 'fakes;.

Hi Soolin,

No nothing mentioned about VERO products.

If I've sold something by accident that is a VERO or Fake etc then fair enough but it seems incredibly strict when I've not done anything wrong.

fenwick458

well i've just googled VeRO to see what it's all about, came across this video of a guy explaining how he got banned, according to him you have to get in trouble for the same thing 4 times before you actually get banned from ebay...

Martyn16pnefc

As an update I've got in touch with eBay via social media and not got anywhere.
I decided to email eBay with an explanation of my whole story using eBay including as much detail as possible.

I had a politely written email back from them explaining that they still couldn't give me any details about why the action taken against me was done. They did mention that it was a listing that I put on which raised several flags to be deemed a fake item and they acknowledged that it might have been done by mistake but noted that nothing could be done to reverse the decision.

Still seems awfully strict and cut-throat. If I had multiple items lined up which were all suspected to be fake then that would make sense however it seems it was just one item which automatically suspends you. 
Really strange and don't think I can do anything else about this.

molerat

There are a few companies that Ebay are scared off with regard to trademark infringement and the mere mention of one of those brands in a listing risks the item being pulled and a new seller listing these brands makes them doubly cautious.  There is no logic, sense or arguing allowed so you need to sit and wait for the money to be made available, the time delay being for the purchaser to raise a SNAD on the grounds of being fake.

NSG666

Have your buyers left feedback? positive or otherwise? If three are +ve and 1-ve it narrows it down.

mimi1234

molerat said:

There are a few companies that Ebay are scared off with regard to trademark infringement and the mere mention of one of those brands in a listing risks the item being pulled and a new seller listing these brands makes them doubly cautious.  There is no logic, sense or arguing allowed so you need to sit and wait for the money to be made available, the time delay being for the purchaser to raise a SNAD on the grounds of being fake.

Clarins is one of them. I had a few bits and pieces like creams and lotions and soaps so did a job lot listing with Sanctuary, Boots, Clarins and various others.

ebay took down all my items and deleted all my sold ones including second hand clothes! 

I never understand the Vera thing. If you go onto ebay and search for Clarins, there's loads of listings so how come they can sell but not me?

Martyn16pnefc

NSG666 said:

Have your buyers left feedback? positive or otherwise? If three are +ve and 1-ve it narrows it down.

No nothing yet, I was awaiting my first batch of feedbacks in the days prior to being suspended.

fenwick458

Martyn16pnefc said:

Still seems awfully strict and cut-throat. If I had multiple items lined up which were all suspected to be fake then that would make sense however it seems it was just one item which automatically suspends you. 
Really strange and don't think I can do anything else about this.

I don't know if you watched that video I linked to but it seemed to clear a lot of things up for me, ebay is just very badly run, I don't know how they are getting away with it.
watch from here
I have had several problems as a seller on eBay and when you call them, it just seems like the person you are talking to barely understands the script they are supposed to be reading from. they are just like robots, or even worse infact.
this week I spoke to eBay on the phone about one of my listings where the buyer had been flagged as suspicious, about 2-3 times in the call the guy I was speaking to (american-aisan accent, said umm an awful lot) constantly kept saying "no let eBay sort this out, you don't ned to worry, get them to deal with it,  I MEAN US, we'll deal wit it, you don't need to worry" 
and to this day nobody has sorted that problem... and I'm not surprised