FAO Ebay staff - Reporting businesses trading on private accounts

[howmuchtobid]

To whom it may concern.

It's about time it was made easier for Ebay users to be able to report businesses trading on private accounts in a much more straight forward way.  At the moment there is no obvious option when using the report item option, i.e. there is no business trading on a private account option.

I and many other business sellers/Ebay users have spent a lot of time reporting blatant business sellers on private accounts however we are often wasting our time as all we get is a pointless AI response which simply isn't good enough.

This is something that needs to be introduced urgently as it will help legitimate business sellers survive and hopefully flourish, also in many ways it will be of great benefit to Ebay. It will also help Ebay's image as having so many illegal sellers on the platform is not a good look.

Can someone from Ebay please confirm they have seen this, thank you.

[krafty-kreations]

and now eBay have been forced to introduce these measures to mate selling on a private account unattractive if you are a business

On reading these forums it seems to me they are making eBay unattractive to a lot of sellers

By not forcing those using private accounts to run a business to upgrade to a business account will just force some business sellers to leave or sell on a private account.

By not forcing those using private accounts to run a business to upgrade to a business account and making these changes then some private sellers will stop selling here and sell elsewhere 

They stop selling here, they stop buying here.

The simple answer would be to force those sellers using private accounts to run a business to just upgrade their account.

[myretrostore-uk]

I've started reporting private sellers where you can clearly see they manufacture goods and have sold thousands of them, or rather reporting the item as this seems to be the only way to report things.

Report Item / Listing Practices / Avoiding eBay Fees / Other ways of avoiding fees.

Reported a ton of items and eBay might be starting to listen Got a reply on some of the reported items that they have taken then down and contacted the seller. This seems to be a start.

If enough people swamp eBay with reports maybe they will finally start doing something about it.

[gemini-project]

I've been reporting the same group of sellers clearly running a business and all i get back is either nothing/ they can't see a problem with the listing and i'm now on a second warning for reporting them, i have not even done that many reports,  i will probably get totally blocked from reporting anymore soon so reporting loads isn't a great idea.

I think you just got lucky and a real person actually looked at the listings, they probably get thousands of reports a day and look into a couple.

[chrledd]

I have tried reporting on many occasions - mostly sellers who aren't even trying to hide the fact that they are really a business.  All reports I made were completely ignored by ebay apart from one - they said they could find no faults with the listing or seller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[santlache_sales]

It's all about money, if a private seller clearly running a business has it listed for £2 cheaper than a business - I'm buying the private sellers item all day long.

......And so is everyone else.

You try telling ebay this, who are insisting despite all the evidence that Private sellers are NOT in direct competition with business sellers. I told CS as much last week and again this week.

I suggest you all do the same, swamp them with calls and let them know.

Last week the woman on CS told me to open a Private account !!

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

I am told to open a private account literally every time I speak to someone from Ebay.

They will only act on this once it very obviously hits their bottom line......they should have started acting in October (or much earlier) however they will act, it's just a question of when they wake up as their bottom line must be taking a massive hit.

They have turned income off from all private sellers unless they pay for ads, many business sellers have been massively impacted by this, the results are obvious however the obvious doesn't always sink in as quickly as it should.

Ebay will have to sort this all out very quickly after Xmas otherwise it looks very very grim.

[myretrostore-uk]

I reported 10 items last night. This morning eBay have taken down 5 of them. 

They still don't seem to get it and taking then down on a item by item case. But for now I will keep reporting them as I'm having some success.

[lupo-store]

Did you report using the same method stated above?

Report Item / Listing Practices / Avoiding eBay Fees / Other ways of avoiding fees.

If so that is a very quick and good success rate.  I am going to report.  They are clearly a business.  duplicates everywhere.  Will see what happens

[gemini-project]

I have reported the same item, if they are just removing the one item though its not working, its the seller that needs to upgrade account or have it  removed not the item itself.

[the_book_seekers]

It's a great example of the problem facing business sellers - 229 sold of that particular item, all the listings on multi buy and so clearly a business not a private seller. 

[555njp]

I see the mods removed the listing ID but before they did I reported it too.

Just got this back…..

“We looked into your report and didn’t find the listing to be in violation of our policy.  This determination was made by a customer service agent.”

So customer service agents are now complicit with illegal trading?

Is it worth reporting to Trading Standards? Have dealt with them in the past and found them very reluctant to do anything other than state “buyer beware”.

[gemini-project]

I got the same response as well today , just face it eBay is a complete joke regarding this matter, they just don't know how to handle it or just don't want too which is strange because they are loosing money because of it.

[gemini-project]

I think we need an independent forum so we can't be censored  

[555njp]

It’s not ambiguous and it’s not just a viewpoint that could be open to interpretation.

They are clearly trading on a private account, in breach of both eBay’s rules and UK trading laws. EBay are losing out too.

The information given in the weekly chat about reporting such traders is just corporate spin.
Clearly eBay has no intention or interest in removing those cheating the system, even though it’s detrimental to eBay and to all those still trading legally.

Something needs to give otherwise the platform will implode.

[the_book_seekers]

The agent must have decided the seller was disposing of a personal collection of  229 identical brand new food thermometers 😁

[dch2112011]

Indeed ebay have little or no intention to stop traders using private trading accounts - removing individual listings  is a token gesture - with some of these traders having literally thousands of listings it is a futile excercise and they only relist them one way or another.

There must be some explanation - on the face of it allowing traders to sell on private accounts is self destructive and business sellers and genuine private sellers are collateral damge as far as ebay are concerned. 

[lupo-store]

I got the same response also and have sent reference through to concierge to state that there is no way this account should be on a private account

[dch2112011]

If your action brings no joy we know for sure it is a deliberate tolerance - maybe ebay are banking on the buyers fees,, shipping and delayed payment next year from these private account traders  to make more money from them than business account holders - just guessing !

[crg_music]

Ive voted with my feet, for every £100 I earn here I probably only have to earn £60 elsewhere and tbh theres no point selling anything under £8 or so now on ebay, by the time you've paid your fees and promotion, shop fee etc you've been undercut by a private seller charging £4.

I think the problem is they've snook the price up and up which was annoying but just as elsewhere bought in a pro service allowing business sellers on ebay removed fees for private sellers making it even harder for smaller business sellers. Imagine how those legit business sellers might feel especially with such an option being laid out for them on other sites?. So yes ebay has lost my cheap junk to other sites.

As it stands I plan to list high end stuff only on ebay where I wont be undercut and where having experience in a product will be valued. Nobody cares at a fiver, its wort the risk but I think over a tenner people will still pay up. 

Lets see what happens in the new year, as it stands business sellers aka the only ones paying are generally not happy and I believe moving elsewhere. If Ebay believe this is not happening then I guess they know best but we have to look after number 1 and trust ourselves.

[5216elisabeth]

The thing is it would be so so simple for eBay to fix this issue once and for all.  Impose a maximum annual selling limit on all private accounts, a figure above £1500 and under £5000 should do the job. Potentially there could also be a maximum number of items too.  I seem to think there did seem to be some limits years ago but I may be mistaken.