bladed items!

[tonytools]

Bladed items policy has gone bananas!

I'm trying to sell a saw set and it comes up as a bladed item

It is so obviously not - what to do?

[Anonymous]

appears you cant sell scissors, grinder wheel, saw blade, saw etc.   bet you can sell a semi automatic in the USA though!!  ebay bending over for any rules whether uk or eu.  

[tonytools]

Add hand fork and garden trowel to your list!

[hugothetonk]

Just had this weapon removed...What a Joke... High Quality Vintage Rosewood Handled Decorators Wall Paper/Paint Stripper Tool

Image

[tonytools]

And I have has this banned!

What can we do to get ebay to address these nonsenses?

Vintage Wallpaper Tool, Trimmer, Seam Edger, by the Ridgely Trimmer Co, Ohio USA

[owendrum]

Same problem with a diamond hole cutter - I had to cancel the sale and take a second item off my listings.  I've spoken to them about is several times on the phone and no one has tried to tell me that it's actually a blade. They keep telling me they're passing it on for review and I'll hear back in a few days - but two weeks and counting.

I can understand that their AI picks it up as it had the word 'cutter' in the description, but when I 'appealed' I expected it to be looked at by a human with a brain, not another AI system that made the same mistake.

The item isn't high enough value for customers to be willing to pay the extra postage and deal with the additional faff, and why would they when they can just buy it from Az or somewhere else. 

Most of my items aren't tools so I'm thinking of trying another site like Vinted perhaps. The trouble is, if we change the descriptions it means the items won't come up in searches.

[owendrum]

Yep me too, hole cutter. Still waiting for them to get back to me but I had to cancel a sale because it only came up after it had been sold and I was about to post it. The crazy thing is that, before they realised it had already been sold, their people on the phone just told me to change the description to get around it. So if that gets out as a fix, what is that going to mean for actual knife sales?

[owendrum]

Not to mention a child's puzzle! I did a search on the word  'cutter' (which was my offending word) and the fist 5 listings were for plastic pastry cutters.

[jonatjonatjonat]

I tend to find (and eBay aren’t alone in this) that irregardless of it going to a human for review, all 90% of the agents do is refer to the already generated check.

Amazon are particularly bad. Had a video rejected due to ‘medical claims’ which I knew wasn’t true as it was a silver necklace chain. But clearly the automated check had picked up something. So you ask for an agent to advise what has actually flagged the issue. They can’t tell you, because all THEIR screen tells them is there is some medical claims on the video. They know no more than you do and aren’t paid enough to do further research.

for those interested - the medical claim was the use of the recycling logo.

[owendrum]

I purchased my diamond hole cutters from Amazon with no problems, but I ended up using a different size so I had two to sell. I didn't have to sign for the delivery of wither with Amazon. Perhaps different AI and different issues.

What rankles me is that after and appeal, and a further review, they still say it's a 'bladed item'.

[hugothetonk]

Had the same with a wallpaper scraper. Appealed and got nowhere



Sent from my Galaxy

[magpi2462]

Its pathetic, had so much hassle trying to buy a table saw, ended up buying from amazon.

Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[magpi2462]

Its pathetic, tend to buy saws etc from amazon now, less hassle.


Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[owendrum]

I thought it would be useful to post some links and quote re the UK legislation on this.

This is a quote from, and a link to, the UK legislation from 1988 that defines what a 'bladed item' is. It's fairly unequivocal and concise.

"Subject to subsection (3) below, this section applies to—

(a)any knife, knife blade or razor blade,

(b)any axe, and

(c)any other article which has a blade or which is sharply pointed and which is made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person."

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/33/section/141A/england+wales/2022-04-06/data.xht?view=sni...

Some of the items discussed  here maybe do fall under this, but many, such as a grinding bit, don't.

There was another tier to this law that was introduced via the 2018 Offensive Weapons Act. Most of this was about things specifically designed to be weapons, but it included a section that introduced tighter rules around selling 'bladed items' as defined in the 1988 act (quoted above).  This is the one that introduced tight rules on age verification. There is a list of retailers who have signed up to it at the bottom of the page in the link below (which includes both Ebay and Amazon). But as far as I can tell there is nothing in this agreement that would prompt retailers to start asking for age verification for the non-bladed items that people are having problems with.  

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sale-of-knives-voluntary-agreement-by-retailers/sale-of-k...

Ultimately a company like Ebay can do what they want as long as it doesn't brake any laws - if they want to overreach they can. But I would have thought that they are going to lose a lot of trade over it. Ebay told me today that my diamond hole cutter was a 'bladed item' and falls under the legislation... even though it  has no pointy or bladed bits and clearly doesn't.

[wizzard.liquidated.stock.sales]

If it's any help I add this note re postage to my listing

Price includes free postage. Please ignore the age verification on the postage details as I had to select this as eBay thinks this is a bladed item!! Postage will be standard 48hr tracked. You will have to buy postage outside of ebay though

This way you can have the "naughty" words in your listing

[j.eby.ac]

I have just had this rejected as a bladed item, it's all plastic and doesn't contain any type of blade.   I was on chat to someone but the system just wouldn't let it be added, he even said if I try to list it again I could have my account suspended.   Thing is there are currently at least 29 other listing's for this type of item and some of them actually contain razor blades.  It's completely ridiculous.

[j.eby.ac]

Sorry the image doesn't seem to show, it's a vintage Nymph safety razor.  I am guessing it's that word razor, so why are others able to list theirs with that title?

[tonytools]

All I can suggest it that you try talking to ebay

They are usually quite helpful  -  good luck!

ebay - Call me back . . . .  https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/eua?id=5275&mkevt=1&mkpid 

[owendrum]

I did this - several times. Yes they are, but not in this case. They kept promising a call back from another department which never came. When I did eventually get a reply from the mythical other department it just reiterated that it was a bladed item as per their policy, and they also blamed it on UK law, even though it very clearly isn't. It's bonkers. I even read out the relevant clause from the UK legislation, which has a very specific description of what a 'blade' is.  But they set their policies and if they decide rotary cutting tools are all 'blades' irrespective of whether they have a blade there is not much I can do.

Its a shame. Apart from being extremely annoying, it is exactly this kind of ridiculousness that leads to people breaking the rules/ laws en-mass, often when it does actually matter.

[blinkin-bonkers]

I sell a wooden pick axe handle (just the handle) and buyers have to prove they are 18 because it has the word axe in the title. It is absolutely moronic, they don't have a clue what they are doing.

[tonytools]

Maybe have to be a bit creative? Call it a Pick handle?