Seller listed an item with a few choices, prices starting low for sample-sized options, rising to realistic prices for a viable quantity. However, they also included a "not for sale" entry at 99p.
This is, in my mind, straight forward search manipulation. I've seen a million times a completely unrelated item at ridiculously low prices in order to get to the top of the list on a low-to-high price ordering but I've never seen someone openly list a non-existent item to manipulate the results [and get away with it].
So I reported the listing, received a "declined" note from the AI and appealed it, only to receive a second "declined" message, supposedly, after a manual review.
The reason for the decline is that "no rules were broken", except this is the very first rule on the User Agreement!
What is the policy?
- Manipulating search results to gain unfair visibility of a listing is not allowed
Is there a way to escalate the complaint further? I have no real skin in the game here, I'm not selling, I'm not a competitor, I didn't buy the non-existent item, but I feel strongly that this is exactly why eBay is going down the drain and why it is no longer my first choice of market place.
Is it even worth trying to user-police the site if they themselves don't care about sellers taking the mickey?
