Listing Discrimination

[promotions_by_design]

Several months ago I received an email from eBay stating that one of my listings had been removed due to the fact that it was contravening a rule regarding Duplicate Listings. I was also warned that if I had any other similar listings, or did it again, I would be sanctioned in several ways. After investigating the rules, I found they were correct, so I accepted the decision and moved on.

Over the next few days, I then noticed that there were several other listings within my sales category that were also contravening this rule, exactly the same way in which my items were listed. So rightfully I brought it to eBays attention using the Report an Item link, only to notice that eBay does not seem as eager to remove another seller’s listing as quick as they did mine. I have resent this Report several times over the following months and to date, nothing has been done to this person.

I have also noticed that with Sponsored Listings, eBay not only allows, but supports these sellers to do exact what I was doing, and make multiple listings of the same item, yet when it came to my item, I was warned not to do it or all sorts of penalties would be applied to me. With respect to Sponsored Sellers, eBay do not allow you to report this issue by blocking your 'Report an Item' access.

So why am I being discriminated against? And, how can eBay allow some Sellers to operate against the rules and, openly support Sponsored Sellers to do what they threaten me not do?

As another Seller stated in a previous post on another claimed discrimination issue, am I able claim Compensation for the loss of sales I have incurred whilst other sellers use the duplicate listings to dominate this particular category and push me down the 'Best Match' rankings?

[okiseeu]

Compensation? I don't think ebay know what that means.

To get around duplicate listings what I do is put a symbol at the end of the title for example blah blah. and then blah blah..

Only a dot in the first title and then 2 dots in the second and you can do this with any symbol and that stops it from being a duplicate listing.

[promotions_by_design]

It's actually easy to list the item by changing the Title, thats how it was listed in the first place. The issue is for duplicate listings is that if the items, and this is directly from their rules page, "if the items have no significant difference between them, even if your listings have some material difference, they will be considered duplicate if they appear to be the same item in search results for Fixed-Price listings".

Under this ruling, similar items maybe subject to being removed by eBay if someone decides to report your item. What I beleive happened to my listing is that the person who now has the duplicate listings in my category, actually was the person who reported me and eBay is not applying the same rules to him as they did to me.

[lyndal1838]

Is the other seller Chinese by any chance?

You can report a Chinese seller to ebay Au but all they can do is hand the report to Ebay China....and they do precisely nothing.

Chinese sellers are a protected species.

[okiseeu]

Well I must be one of the lucky ones then because I am selling the exact same item,same images.

Have you mentioned the material difference in the section that describes the condition of the item that should work?

[brerrabbit585]

Lots of Aussies do it too. Ebay don't have time to check all the reports they get but it seems some people get away with more than others.

[enigmabear]

Exactly my first thought when I saw the topic heading

Then the OP mentioned the sponsored listings, which, in stuff I've searched for at least are 95% from sellers registered in China 

[promotions_by_design]

To be honest, I'm not worried about my two listings. I have changed the quantity number, and that has worked some what for me anyway. The issue I have is how I can be santioned yet the other guy, another Australian seller, is able to dominate the category with multiple listings. His tactic is to constantly change his pricings on one or both listings to enable himself to monopolise the category and totally dry up my sales and keep himself at the top of the Best Match listing.

All I ask for is a fair go and be able to operate under the same rules.

[brerrabbit585]

I gave up selling one product because a competitor had about ten listings for each of their items, all with minor variations in the title - a flagrant breach of the duplicate listings policy. What they don't realise is that buyers get sick of seeing multiple listings for the same item and it can backfire.

If you post an item number a few others might report the item/s, which should mean a much better chance of some action being taken.

[chameleon54]

I have a similar problem, in that the items I sell are genuine, original copyright items, but other sellers including in Australia are selling unauthorised fakes. Some of the listings even state that they are copies of an original item in the listing. It used to bug me and I reported the fakes, but ebay did exactly diddly squat.

Now I just dont worry about it ( or any of the other shinanigans that happen on ebay ). I run the best business I can, provide the best service I can and just get on with it. If you keep stressing about ebay quirks, it changes absolutely nothing and just makes ebay an unpleasant place to work.