Wrongly removed listing

[wandergers]

I have had a listing removed from eBay and surprisingly lost the appeal.

I sell football programmes that were issued online but we turn them into a printed item for programme collectors. We have been doing this for about 3 years on eBay but today I got this email about one of our items 

We had to remove one or more of your listings for not following our Electronically delivered items policy. We understand that this must be frustrating. But don’t worry — we’re here to help!

What happened

Electronically delivered goods can only be listed by eBay approved sellers and must follow our policy.

We appreciate your selection for listing this item on eBay; however, any software offered with digital download should be listed in category :- Everything Else> Sub category. Also listing format should be classified AD. You may relist this item with appropriate changes. If you do not follow this policy in the future, this may result in the removal of your listings and the suspension of your account.”

My item isn’t electronically delivered and it is a physical product so I expected to win the appeal but I lost that. I can relist but I have read eBay do not like that and can suspend the account.

The title of the listing is Woking v Carlisle Printed Programme so I think it’s pretty clear.

Thanks in advance for any advice

[plpmr]

at a guess what was picked up by the bots were the words - pdf, website, download etc

[wandergers]

Thanks for coming back to me. That would make sense but I would have expected to win the appeal? I’m happy to not relist that particular programme and my other items haven’t been removed. I’m not sure what my options are going forward if they do decide to start automatically removing my listings. 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

When you appealed, was it an AI generated decision or were you able to speak to someone?  If you haven't spoken to someone already, try to contact ebay first thing in the morning when you are most likely to get somebody sensible in Ireland.

[vinylscot]

When eBay informs sellers that listings have been removed, they very rarely provide the actual reason for the removal. Perhaps they have a limited set of multiple choice reasons they can give.

In your case, I would imagine that one of the football clubs who actually own copyright to their programmes, will have complained about you selling something they own.

It seems pretty plain to me, and, if I were you, I'd find some alternative way to make money.

[wandergers]

Thanks for the replies. I’m pretty sure it was an AI generated reply to the appeal so I will try and find a number to call them.

eBay did give a reason of it being a digital product (which it isn’t) with no mention of copyright so I don’t think that would be the reason. 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

You can't ring them direct but you can request a call-back, see here:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid

AI probably chooses from a list of reasons, and copyright may not have been one of them.  Copyright infringement could be a feasible reason, and it only takes one club to complain for ebay to be alerted to all of the listings.  A real ebay person could hopefully clarify.