I only had two items which I had bought for myself but ended up not using. I had to cancel the first sale. The issue only arose after the buyer had paid for it so I couldn't then ask them to pay for more expensive age verified postage, so I had to refund them. I complained, and appealed when the complaint was rejected. They just kept repeating that it was a 'bladed item' and against their policy... even though it wasn't. I quoted their policy to them. Then tey told me it was because of UK legislation, and I also quoted the legislation, which has a very specific definition of a bladed item, that doesn't include grinding bits. They still wouldn't budge. I had to remove the second item because by now I, and the item, was on their radar for possible rule violations and there was no way to sell it on Ebay without doing that - as they had already categorically deemed it to be 'bladed'..
As far as I can tell, but Googling not from anything they have told me, its because they have signed up to a voluntary code of conduct around selling blades. I can understand why AI might make a mistake. But what riles me is that having complained, and then appealed, and having had the listing looked at by human beings (allegedly) , and escalated to the upper echelons of Ebays decision making (allegedly), they still insist that it's a "bladed" item.
I have quite a few things listed on Ebay and I couldn't quite bring myself to cancel all the listings and re-list elsewhere. But I don't see so much on there now. I use other platforms if I can. And yes, there is a huge issue with buyers not being able to find things if sellers can't use industry standard words to describe them. I did point all of this out to them on multiple occasions, qUite forcefully. They didn't listen.
Its a shame. We do need laws and rules on selling bladed items, but stupidity like this just trains people to ignore those rules and laws, and then in among the excessive rule breaking the actual blades fall through the cracks. 😞
