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Spurious accusation of policy violation, and no response to appeal.
Summary: rvlizard expressed frustration over eBay removing their listing for a Sun Ultra 10, alleging it contained an offer to sell outside the platform. They claimed this was unfounded and that eBay's response system was ineffective. *vyolla* and tommystrezures pointed out that including links to external sites likely triggered the action due to eBay's strict policy against outside links, as it poses security concerns. They advised removing links or setting up the listing from scratch. john1297576 warned of possible further penalties. rvlizard lamented the lack of support and extended delays from eBay.
Last month (about 13 days ago) I created a listing for a Sun Ultra 10. My listing was hidden shortly afterwards by eBay claiming that I had violated a policy by offering to buy or sell outside eBay. This was an utterly spurious accusation. Nowhere in my listing had I offered to do either. I raised an appeal immediately and am still waiting for a response.
eBay provided no information to identify exactly where this imaginary policy violation was in the listing.
Since I had received no response, I tried listing the item again 7 days later, checking carefully for anything which might be misinterpreted as offering to buy or sell outside eBay. This time the listing was hidden immediately.
Again I raised an appeal and am still waiting for a response,
The automated help system is no use at all, regurgitating the same useless responses over and over again.
Can anyone suggest a way to escape this Kafkaesque nightmare?
john1297576
Mentor1 week agoOutside links are a bad sign, and would be identified by AI even though no intension to sell outside ebay, Ai would not know the difference. You are risking a permanent ban.
rvlizard
OP1 week agoSince eBay is providing no means to revise the listings, that seems like rather a moot point.
But any AI that can't make such a distinction is counterproductive.
*vyolla*
Mentor1 week agoAI correctly removed it because of eBay's Links Policy.
You won't be able to go back in revise/edit the original listing, so I'd recommend setting it up again from scratch.
*vyolla*
Mentor1 week agoDid you add a link to a third party website in your listing description, perhaps to the manufacturer for instructions/details or YouTube?
rvlizard
OP1 week agoYes - a link to the hardware manual on Oracle's web-site and links to the sparc64 documentation on the OpenBSD and NetBSD sites information to prospective buyers to show how this ancient hardware is still very useful. However, there is no way that could be interpreted sanely as an offer to buy or sell outside eBay.
tommystrezures
Mentor1 week agoThat is the reason it was removed then. Unfortunately whilst you are trying to be helpful eBays AI isn't that helpful or clever, and it would be this that meant the listing was removed.
Remove the link perhaps in your description just say to find the manual search for 'XYZ'.
rvlizard
OP1 week agoThanks for the advice. Appreciated. However, eBay won't allow me to revise the listing.
What annoys me most is the delay in responding to my appeal. No reply in almost two weeks.
tommystrezures
Mentor1 week agoCan you sell as similar? (I don't know if this would work)
As for the reply, dont count your chickens on that.... No reply in two weeks probably means no reply at all. I don't mean to be rude, but as helpers we know how systems work.
*vyolla*
Mentor1 week agoIt's a potential security issue. Somebody could place a dodgy link in their listing spoofed to look like a genuine one. That's why eBay don't permit links to third party websites.
To protect our members, listings or products can’t contain links that direct customers to a site other than eBay, even if the link is not clickable.
While there are some exceptions, listings or item descriptions can't contain links that direct customers to any other site.
Taken from this eBay guidance page:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-policies/links-policy?id=4248&st=3&pos=7&query=Links%20...