topic Re: Mis-Categorised Listing in Selling

Mis-Categorised Listing

clarry100 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 07:24:31 GMT

We have a product which is a foot decoration for babies. Could be for boys or girls.

They are commonly known as foot flowers. Also known as barefoot sandals.

They have two loop bands that wrap around the ankle and under the arch of the foot with an embellishment on top.

We have been listing these items in Baby > Baby Shoes for some time now.

There are many sellers predominantly from China who also list the same item types into this category.

They say they should be in Baby > Baby Clothing > Girls > Outfits, Sets. Seems wrong to me. The above seems a better match.

Today we received a policy listing violation notice that says they have ended our listing and threatened to close our account if we continue to list in this category. There are still several more of our items listed in this category as they have been for some time now. So far no messages about those.

There are some 33,000+ listings in this category and possibly many hundreds of these foot flowers.

I find this totally bizarre that we have been singled out while the many other sellers still have their items listed.

This has the potential to crash our already dismal sales because it is pa policy violation.

Is there any recourse for such actions by ebay? They are clearly inconsistent in the application of the rules. Is it because I post in here? Is it because I signed the petition?

Is it any wonder we want to leave ebay when you get treated this way. Seems like just another action that says ebay wants the small time sellers out of here.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

davewil1964 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 07:51:03 GMT

I have had success in getting a policy violation overturned. It took 6 weeks though.

Back then you could email Trust and Safety directly; I'm not sure that this is possible these days. But contacting T&S is the only real avenue you have.

I suspect a competitor reported your listing, but all you can really do is contact T&S, give your side of the story and hope that they see reason.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

*crikey*mate* — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 07:52:02 GMT

my guess clarry - a competitor has reported you

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

davewil1964 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 07:53:50 GMT

Second place. Again

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

*crikey*mate* — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 08:02:03 GMT

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

clarry100 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 08:07:41 GMT

I will call them in the morning about this.

Seems that if they have ended our listing then they have to be consistent and end the 100's of other listings just like ours that are also in this same category.

I have a feeling tho I will have to insist on speaking with a supervisor to get anything other than the trained robot response.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

clarry100 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 08:12:32 GMT

...Either that or we have to spend many hours reporting these 100's of other listings to get them taken down as well.

Might even try reporting one to see if it disappears. Pick on a Chinese seller as they are by far the biggest offender.

If I report it for the same thing it should you would think.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

davewil1964 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 08:19:59 GMT

@clarry100 wrote:
...Either that or we have to spend many hours reporting these 100's of other listings to get them taken down as well.
Might even try reporting one to see if it disappears. Pick on a Chinese seller as they are by far the biggest offender.

If I report it for the same thing it should you would think.

That's the theory.

I regularly report a particular couple of mega booksellers who consistently claim their items are in Australia, when the fine print ALWAYS states they will have to come from the publisher (in the USA). And if they DID have the advertised quantities of all their listings in stock, their warehouse would be visible from the Moon. And there would be no houses in Lane Cove.

Nothing gets done, though. All you can really do is get your decision overturned.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

clarry100 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 08:24:42 GMT

Have just now re-listed the item into the category they have suggested even tho we believe it does not match as well.

OK. Thanks Dave. Will just take a deep breath and sleep on it overnight then do the call tomorrow and try to keep emotion out of it.

For our stuff we don't believe that buyers search by trolling down thru categories anyway. They type in some words they are looking for and click search. So it really could be in any category and the search result would be the same really.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

chameleon54 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 09:52:03 GMT

I have had an account suspended for seven days for the same offence. ( no warning or prior offences either ) The item was a specialist new old stock part for 1920,s stationary engines & vintage tractors. It was listed in stationary engine catagory, but ebay in their wisdom decided it should be in modern car components with Holden and Falcon parts. This would not have been reported as no-one else had the part for sale then or since. I had previously sold three other identical items all in the stationary engine catagory and all going overseas after animated bidding to stationary engine enthusiests. . It was crazy stuff, but no amount of discussion with customer support ( including superviser ) helped. I have not relisted the item since. It has left me a bit concerned about the impact some of ebays "strange" decisions can have on my business and has left me feeling a bit vulnerable. I would tread carefully on this one Clarry. Good Luck.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

clarry100 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 10:19:27 GMT

This is crazy...

We relisted the item earlier into another baby category, which I thought was the same as they had suggested but it was a single sub-level different.

We put it into "hair accessories" as it also has a headband which matches the foot flower shoes. So we thought "hair accessories" would be OK.

They must have followed this same item and removed it once again giving us a 2nd violation on the very same item.

Saying we MUST list it in the sub-categaory they say. "Other".

We are being victimized & harrassed. There are literally hundreds of these similar items listed in both the categories they call out as wrong and that we had them in. Almost all are Chinese sellers.

Why would they be vicitmizing us? We havn't done anything wrong.

We might just close the store and account and go back to a single store and account. This is mad.

This is unfair victimisation.I am livid and I cant type properly.

We need our web site working.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

broncraft — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 10:30:29 GMT

I had 5 of my listings removed today, saying it was a duplication violation. I know for a fact they are not duplicated. I have to wait for a response for 24 hours. And I will fight this.

I had a disgruntled ebay member accuse me that I had copied her test from her personal online store (not even an Ebay Store). She sent very nasty and harrassing messages to me before going here on the public forums calling me a liar and stealing from her. These are the same listings that she claimed I had stollen her text from that ebay removed today. But ebay are claiming they are a duplicate violation. She has admitted that she wouldn't sell on ebay unless she got free listings and said she would be here like a shot to under cut me.

Ebay didn't even give me the benifit if the doubt and contact me before removing the listings. Doesn't matter that I have a 11674, 100% feedback rating and spend a huge amount with them every month. She on the other hand has 788 feedback and hasn't sold anything for 12 months. Ebay does not look after their good sellers that's for sure.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

clarry100 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 11:00:16 GMT

No they do not treat their sellers very well.

And we can't wait to get our web site running so we can leave this BS behind.

Unfortunately they are a huge juganaught. Hard to beat them, so all you can really do is leave.

I'm thinking I might raise a question on this victimisation with the OFT and/or Ombudsman. Not that I really expect it will go very far tho. The ole David & Goliath thingy.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

harley_babes_hoard — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 11:33:27 GMT

I have had plenty of my own listings removed recently. I received a violation but where do those violations show on your account these days? does anyone know.

Ebay is hard work at the moment.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

go-tazz — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 07:54:18 GMT

Sounds like a possible push to get rid of the competition by the Chinese sellers with help from this site,(it's

pointless reporting any Chinese sellers as they are protected)

There are STILL Rainbow Rose seeds listed,(which off course don't exist as a Rainbow Rose is made,(not

grown),

They have the most miss categorized items on this site.

Duplicate listings galore.

When reported they are never ever removed or sanctioned.

This site is a laughing stock in they eyes of those sellers as they believe they can do whatever they please.

Anyone else that breaks those "rules" will be sanctioned,prevented from selling or NARU'd,(that's the type of

fair system this site believes in),

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

clarry100 — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 05:06:54 GMT

I have now wriiten to ebay about this.

I have informed them I intend to seek corporate legal advice as I consider it to be grossly inconsistent and discriminatory.

This is on the grounds that there are literally hundreds of listings of the same item type listed in the same category they pinged me for and they have done nothing about it despite complaints. We have been singled out for some unknown reason for this highly discriminatory action.

Since this event occurred my store has not made a single sale. Go figure! When its running well in the past we usually make 15 or so sales per day on this one ID.

There seems little point now to continue paying store fees when we are clearly being prevented from selling.

Our feedback records are very near perfect across the board. And we are very angry we are being treated this way. 1-single NEG in the past 12-months which was easily neutralised.

I am also considering taking this story to the media on the grounds of a large corporation bullying a small operator trying to make a meagre living in Australia after a redundancy from my primary job.

Thankfully our own independent web site is within a couple of weeks of going live.

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

chameleon54 — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 09:59:11 GMT

Sorry to hear of your problems Clarry. I hope you can get them sorted out somehow. We will miss you if you leave !

Re: Mis-Categorised Listing

thecatspjs — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 05:12:36 GMT

Bump

Clarry did you sort this with eBay