Reporting listings in violation of policy

[cobwebcottage]

Has anyone had any success with reporting listings which breach the rules? 

Is it even worth the time and effort as everyone comes back with 
'We looked into your report and didn’t find the listing to be in violation of our policy. This determination was made using automation or artificial intelligence.'

Recently tried the report for partial bottles of perfume selling for around  £100 a bottle and 14  'items coming soon' all duplicate titles and no descriptions (obviously to use the recent promo).

After receiving  'we looked in to your report' messages for all of these, I thought I would see what happened when you appeal the decision and guess what? Error page, We looked everywhere. The link is broken.

It feels like Ebay doesn't want anyone to report any listings so why bother?

[tommystrezures]

Personally I would approach it slightly differently. Not sure it would work but why not as the question just list the item number with the question why does this not breach policy xyz?

[exponential_developments]

Had one removed yesterday, first one in 14 years, the company still has about 20 others though so will report those gradually.

[shopping-ferret]

This is one of my many gripes about the way Ebay is managed.  Over the years, I have reported listings so many times that clearly are breaking Ebay's policies yet I have never known of a single one removed.  I have reported things like used cosmetics.  I repeatedly reported these listings (all from the same seller who was selling scruffy looking used testers) to see if Ebay kept on ignoring the reports... which they did.   Then, recently I came across a seller who was selling some unbranded clothing and used descriptions and keyword spamming that they were 'like' and then mentioned a well known brand.   Surely, there was no way Ebay could deny this!!  It was in the title and in the photos and you could not miss the fact items were not as described!

This time I got a reply from Ebay saying:

Thanks again for reporting the listing(s) you found. 

'What happened:
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.'

...Well I was so sick of it and this only confirmed to me they ignore such reports.  Without going into full detail, I had an agent from escalations email me about another matter I had escalated and when I replied he actually responded.  Following my determination to not accept Ebay's nonsense, he had been instrumental in resolving 2 outstanding issues I had.  I thought I would ask him to help with the above seller and my failed reporting of policy violation.  He replied to me saying it had been passed to the relevant team and guess what?  This time, it was agreed there WAS a policy violation and all the listings were hence removed!!

So what does that say about either Ebay's practice on how they handle reports, or the intelligence and fit for purposefulness of the staff who deal with these reports?  I reckon they have so many, they cannot process them, so routinely just send an automated response like the one above.  I assume they cherry pick and probably only deal with reports like VERO or sales of knives etc, as they don't want any legal action against them!   Yet, I recently got a listing of mine removed and nobody at Ebay could tell me why.  I was furious.  Again I had to complain, appeal and then escalate and only then was I was told it could be relisted, but it had lost all the sales history I had built up with it, with hundreds of sales.  I had a couple hundred Watchers... all gone.  Since then, sales of that item have dropped dramatically.

Why have strict policies that are allowed to be violated... even when they are reported?   

[shopping-ferret]

Wow, I cannot believe Ebay permit this when it is so widespread too!  How on earth can they not be aware of it?  You are not permitted to advertise things for sale you don't stock but you have explained why they do this.  Thankfully this kind of practice will soon die down with the new law about Ebay sending reports to HMRC, so private sellers who are traders need to be careful!  Hopefully it will weed some of these specimens away, although all digital platforms have to do the same.

I have also noticed a lot of listings with items like a single £2 pen being advertised for £50!  I have even asked Ebay why but got some disinterested agent who was unable to give me an answer.   For a different reason to you, I am aware of this pretend private seller with about 400 items listed (defiitely trading) and all decent values - she sells one of the same products that originally I was the only one on Ebay selling.   When doing a search, I found that every time I do something different, say put up a new listing for the aforementioned product - she copies me.  She was literally stal king my shop!!!  She also undercuts me, which has impacted massively on my sales.  She even copied some of my photos I had taken myself and when I messaged her politely asking her to remove them... simply ignored me.  Of course Ebay were not remotely interested.  

I totally get how you feel.  I am looking to wind down also but have to keep going for another couple of years.

[andrewjbrownuk]

I do not report items with the intent of being vindictive to the seller rather, as duty of care to buyers on this platform and other sellers whose good reputation is undermined by the presence of substandard listings. 

Recently, I did manage to get a scam listing taken down, but I suspect only because the zero feedback seller had described their mobile phone number and, the listing was reviewed by a customer services agent. Which I think is a euphemism for real human? Had they shown their mobile number as a photo, they would still be active as it seems the AI automation cannot read images. 

[sitchos]

In the past year, since AI makes the decisions, even the most obvious abuses of policy are ignored.

So many 'misuse of brand name' and 'item condition' that would have been removed a year ago are now not recognised as a problem 

[misfit_mike]

I can only mirror the frustration in these comments.

I have highlighted numerous occasions of policy violation (misrepresentation of item location). This breach means that Chinese sellers can masquerade as sellers in other countries. Its really easy to work as the sellers details may say "Item location: London" but at the bottom of listing is an address in China!

9/10 its bootlegged goods.

Reporting these sellers achieves nothing. Its a blatant breach of eBay policy which they wont enforce.

Why? because China is big business and they make millions from their listings, you dont bite the hand that feeds you.

But the bigger picture is that this has the potential to flood countries with strict goods licences, especially on electrical products, with fake/unsafe items.

I understand British Trading Standards cant uphold the law in China, but they can uphold the law to companies that operate in the UK. Both eBay and Trading standards are being negligent of their duties.

[milly*fiory]

What puzzles me is the listings that have in their title DO NOT BUY - you can do a search for this.  I reported a couple but AI said there was no violation. 

[sml192]

'Its really easy to work as the sellers details may say "Item location: London" but at the bottom of listing is an address in China!' 

Item location and seller location can be different.  It is perfectly acceptable for an overseas seller to hold stock in the UK so it isn't, generally speaking, possible to identify 'Item location misrepresentation' just from looking at the listing, although there may be some clues in the feedback. 

[shopping-ferret]

AI is as intelligent as the people who programme how it responds!   It makes me so mad. 

I got some of my listings removed.  I rang Ebay about something else but was put through to an agent who was on the appeals team, so I brought up the subject of my so-called policy violations.  OK, when explained, I understood the technicalities for a couple of the listings.  He said he would send the appeals, however did naff all!  I did this myself and appealed two and one was reinstated.  The second I was told by that agent that it was removed as it did not have photos showing an orignal container.  Now after I argued that I DID include those photos, he admitted the photos were corrupted and therefore could not be seen.  It was only Ebay who corrupted this - they were all fine and present for months!  I explained all this in the appeal, saying I would relist and retake the necessary photos they - EBAY - had damaged.  So when the appealed was denied, the reason given was it could not be relisted due to not having the previously mentioned photos.  

Sometimes I cannot tell if it is AI or another employed by Ebay...

By the way, where are these Ebay employees who are supposed to be monitoring the complaints here and responding and reporting to Ebay??  I suppose the couple of agents they have on the job is simply inadequate because there is so much wrong with Ebay!!

[*knight-rider*]

`Has anyone had any success with reporting listings which breach the rules? `

i`ve reported 5 listings in the last week or so, for putting their phone numbers in the description and everyone was removed within an hour.

i think alot of reports are down to what your reporting, what for and how many others are reporting them, but i do think if it`s a clear and obvious violation, they will do something.

[btr.style]

Where did you report that?

There's a seller who has £1 listings of almost every Barbour jacket name. In the description is their phone number, shop address, website and email. The thing really being advertised is a service to have jackets repaired. Buyers go to the website or phone them up to do it off eBay, or if they do buy the listing, the amount paid is knocked off the price they pay off eBay to have their jacket repaired. It couldn't be a clearer breach of eBay's listing policy. 

Totally against eBay's rules, multiple breaches. I've reported them several times and each time a CS agent declines it as no breach of terms and listings aren't removed. 

Even this morning after seeing your post I reported one of their listings again and just had the email back saying no breach of terms found. 

[cobwebcottage]

Oh my giddy Aunt! They have 197 duplicate listings, just tweeked the title and picture.

[zoomingmouse]

---

@cobwebcottage wrote:

Has anyone had any success with reporting listings which breach the rules? 

Yes,  last year I reported a listing where the seller was giving their WhatsApp for contact with an obvious fake listing only there to get contact details & no doubt  scam people out of their money.

Was removed very quickly.

[shopping-ferret]

Yes I've had successes but only through being persistent and I also had an email to contact on a resolutions team so that agent personally responded and took action.

I reported multiple sellers who were clearly connected or the same seller with different accounts for advertising their email address in a photo, yet they were initially all denied as breaching.

Eventually they were all removed but why so much effort on my part? It's off putting for the great majority of reporters and they'd just give up, yet are doing a great service to eBay and the community.



Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Hmm, that's not one I've come across and I'm struggling to find it.

Buy it now I presume?

Just found it.  140 listings, all with phone number and website adress in the details.

What did you actually report them for?

[cobwebcottage]

Cleaning and re waxing service - £1

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Yep, edited about a minute before you posted.  🙂

[btr.style]

A variety of things over a year or so. 

They've started selling jackets and have 3 duplicate jackets (exact one, same sizes), reported, not removed. 

Search and browse manipulation (spamming jacket names so it comes up in search results for the cleaning service). That's how I found out about their listings. I was looking for the going rate of a jacket I had to list. No violation when reported. 

I tried the off eBay sales report reason, avoiding eBay fees. Contact details in listing. No violation. 

All report outcomes were decided by CS agent. 

[zoomingmouse]

In the one I reported the contact detail was just written in the listing - a one line description if I remember correctly. 

I was actually ripped off by a buyer a few years ago, who I later tracked down selling an engine. They had thier details in a photo. I reported it over & over, but nothing ever happened.

I wonder if a picture has to be looked at by a human, whereas text can be directed to AI?