Are Clothes Hanger are by buyers as DRESS HANGER/SUIT HANGER Please advice

[jazzybazzar]

We had a listing on eBay Australia, selling Clothes Hangers, with also the word Dress and Suit, to cover buyers who search for Hangers using the Term "Dress Hangers" or "Suit Hangers". And yes our Hanger can be used to hand both a SUIT, as well as a DRESS.

Our listing was removed by eBay stating we are Keyword spamming, where as eBay Australia has over 285 results for Dress Hangers, with 80% majority of listing having Clothes Hangers , and if you search in eBay US on eBay.com , one will get over 2400 listings. And when we highlight this Fact to eBay Australia Trust & Safety team, they say no we are Keyword spamming, because we cannot use "DRESS Hangers" or "SUIT Hangers". Further eBay.com may allow sellers to sell using the term "DRESS Hangers" or "SUIT Hangers", but here in eBay AUSTRALIA we are different and we will NOT ALLOW. Honest this is what was stated by the Trust & safety team.

So as a Buyer or a Seller , we would like to know your Opinion on that is a Hanger a Suit Hanger or a DRESS Hanger or not, and would or May a buyer search for a term/word called as Suit Hanger or Dress Hangers.

[digital*ghost]

Any logical, reasonable-minded person could see that isn't keyword spamming, but when you're talking to eBay.... 😞

Sometimes it's just the way you word the title and qualifying words help (eg Cothes hanger for suits and dresses), but I can't guarantee the same thing won't happen again as sometimes it seems like eBay (or a competitor) decide they're going to pick on you and fault is found with things that have been fine for years, and/or are seemingly fine to use for everyone else.

Maybe eBay need to be reminded that's what their category refinements are for, and that anyone looking for one type of item is perfectly capable of filtering out categories they're not interested in - it's ridiculous when you can't even call something by its name just because it shares a word with a different kind of item. 

Sorry I can't really be of more help, but hopefully someone else can be. 

[chuk_77]

i would search for coat hangers, not clothes or suit hangers

[belindabargainhunter]

I have to say I search clothes hangers and if I was buying them for a certain piece of clothing like a dress I would type dress hanger first then move to clothes hanger if I couldn't find what I was looking for

[i-once-was-bump]

I call everything a coat hanger unless it is one of those metal clippy things which I call a skirt hanger.

I would never have thought of searching for clothes, dress or suit hanger.

A suit hanger to me is a large waterproof nylon bag with a hanger inside that my father would use to carry a suit when going anywhere by plane.

One of the clothing shops up the road from me occasionally puts out a huge cardboard carton with the sign help yourself to the coat hangers and that shop does not sell many coats but sell a hell of a lot of tops, t-shirts, blouses, shirts, knitwear, cardigans, jumpers and so on.

As for keyword spamming, I think you will find that where you grew up in Australia can have a big influence on names people use for some items.

Try telling Trust and Safety that it is all to do with the vernacular therefore cannot no be keyword spamming in Australia

[lynnie3024]

i would search for coat hangers, not clothes or suit hangers

Same here...and every person I asked yesterday said the same thing.

[lane-ends]

Dress or suit hangers are not common words for them, in Aus anyway, unless specifically designed as single purpose hanging. No one would search for dress hangers. However many people search for dresses and dont want hangers showing up.

Not sure there is any advantage adding those words are for attracting buyers looking for hangers. All it is achieving is showing in results for people looking for dresses and suits.

I recently bought some off Ebay and only considered searching as coat hangers

[tonalidesigns]

There does seem to have been some kind of shift in the interpretation of key word spamming lately.

Last weekend we listed a bumper sticker on our other ID

We got an initial policy violation because we had "Bumper sticker: car, bike, wall, fridge, window" (the list is all places these can be and are - stuck) with the advice that if the item is for the words mentioned then a compatability phrase such as "for" should be used. We were a bit surprised but amended that to read "Bumper sticker for car or home" - we had it listed in two categories - vehicle decals and wall decals.

We also replaced a similar phrase in the detail to read: "these can be used on your car, on your motorbike or around the home" and we also included the words "They will stick to almost any smooth clean surface."

Now - the ebay policy states that the use of keywords is OK as long as they are directly related to the product for sale. I would have thought that suggesting ways in which the product can and actually is used was directly related to the product.

I was flabbergasted to almost instantly get a SECOND policy violation issued stating: you included, "on your car, on your motorbike or around the home", a phrase that is not directly related to the item you are selling.

They went on to say

You should only state this "They will stick to almost any smooth clean surface." since your item sticks everywhere.

So we are basically left with a description with no keywords whatsoever.

Someone who is - for example - looking for a sticker for their motorbike - now won't find ours anymore unless they know to look for "stickers for smooth clean surface". We can't list in more than two categories and we are not allowed to have duplicate listings either!

I've sought clarification from eBay - but so far have heard nothing, but it does seem that someone is interpreting the use of ANY keywords as keyword spamming. 

We're really nervous about doing any listings at the moment.

[digital*ghost]

Not sure there is any advantage adding those words are for attracting buyers looking for hangers. All it is achieving is showing in results for people looking for dresses and suits.

That was the jist of my point about category refinements. If I look for a black dress purely by keywords, heaps of items show up that aren't dresses - dress shoes, dress pants etc. They may not be relevant to my actual search, but I'm perfectly capable of filtering them out by refining the category to women's dresses. 

When someone types the words office suit, I'm pretty sure they're not looking for a big room with a desk in it, yet it seems by eBay's current standards, that'd be keyword spamming.