topic Re: Listing Discrimination in Selling

Listing Discrimination

promotions_by_design — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 21:32:25 GMT

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?

Re: Listing Discrimination

okiseeu — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 21:38:49 GMT

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.

Re: Listing Discrimination

promotions_by_design — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 21:54:53 GMT

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.

Re: Listing Discrimination

lyndal1838 — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 22:01:39 GMT

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.

Re: Listing Discrimination

okiseeu — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 22:10:16 GMT

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?

Re: Listing Discrimination

brerrabbit585 — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 22:11:21 GMT

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.

Re: Listing Discrimination

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 22:13:25 GMT

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

Re: Listing Discrimination

promotions_by_design — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 22:20:34 GMT

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.

Re: Listing Discrimination

brerrabbit585 — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 22:45:32 GMT

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.

Re: Listing Discrimination

chameleon54 — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 22:48:29 GMT

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.

Re: Listing Discrimination

padi*0409 — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 23:14:56 GMT

You might have better luck if you report the seller rather than the listing (unless it's an Asian seller, as lyndal mentioned)

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/buying/resolving-issues-sellers/report-issue-seller?id=4022

Re: Listing Discrimination

promotions_by_design — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 00:10:28 GMT

padi, thanks for your post, I have called eBay by phone and reported the Seller directly, and supplied them with the item numbers; the consultant has said she will reply within 24hrs to let me know what has happened.

While I was on the phone to her, I also brought up the issue of the Sponsored Items where they are given preferential treatment with repect to have certain policies waivered i.e. allowed to have Duplicate Listings, and she was quite understanding that the action of allowing them to have Duplicate Listings, under the eBay policy, is essentialy preferential treatment whilst giving them the ability to push everyone else out of the market.

She said she would pass-on the feedback to management; hopefully something will be done to make eBay a fairer place to work.

Re: Listing Discrimination

padi*0409 — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 00:33:33 GMT

Here's just one example of that rort by Asian (read "untouchable") sellers...............

Item number:- 123486919642

Advanced search :-

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=Car+Japanese+Flag+Metal+Waterproof+Emblem+Badge+Sticker+Decal+Shield+Shape&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=0&_udlo=&_udhi=&_ftrt=901&_ftrv=1&_sabdlo=&_sabdhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=6255&_sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&_salic=15&_sop=10&_dmd=1&_ipg=200&_fosrp=1

Re: Listing Discrimination

imastawka — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 01:54:03 GMT

The bots aren't picking those up because they have different numbers (codes?)

in the title

Re: Listing Discrimination

padi*0409 — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 02:24:51 GMT

@imastawka wrote:
The bots aren't picking those up because they have different numbers (codes?)
in the title

Yep I realise that Stawks, but even reporting them does nothing because of the "Asian Untouchable Aspect" of the listings.

All I can do is filter out those sellers with the -xxxx(seller) in my search - but then another seller (or sellers) pops up doing the exact same thing.....

Ah well, life goes on splendidly down in the bush here regardless.

Re: Listing Discrimination

promotions_by_design — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 03:03:40 GMT

So, happy to report that the Seller (Aussie Seller) with multiple items in my category has already been removed; the phone call did the trick. Of course though, nothing has been done about the Sponsored Pages - one step at time I guess. Thanks for your assistance.

Re: Listing Discrimination

lyndal1838 — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 03:11:07 GMT

Ebay is unlikely to do anything about Sponsored Listings. The seller pays for those so ebay is happy to let them run and rake in the money.

Re: Listing Discrimination

lm-entertainment — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 10:31:58 GMT

i had a similar issue recently which infuriated me.

i was selling a number of items of the same type, the "Coles Little Shop Mini Collectables" with a multi-variation listing. on the variations, i had all of the 30 collectables listed so that people could select which one they wanted to buy, or buy multiple. my listing was appearing near the top of the first page of results of thousands of results and i was making a decent amount of sales.

i was told by ebay this contravened their "Choice Policy" which states that multi-variation listings must be of the same item type, varying only in colour or size and not totally different items. they removed my listing.

although it annoyed me, i was fine with it as i looked up the policy and sure enough, my listing was violating it. what frustrated me more though was that there were hundreds of other sellers doing the exact same thing, some selling 100-200 items a day on the first page of the search results and their listings were not affected. they were also australian sellers. in spite, i reported a few listings, and ebay said they'd look into it - i even provided them the item numbers.. but no other listings were removed and they remained in place for a further 5 weeks. some of those listings sold thousands of items over that period, falling into the tens of thousands of dollars.

i pestered ebay every few days asking what was being done and they said they had either found they weren't violating the policy, or were still "looking into it."

there is discrimination, even amongst australian sellers and i can't figure out for the life of me what the difference is or who makes the determinations and why.