So disgusted, I just need to vent....

[gratho12]

Due to a malicious and wrongful withdrawal of one of our listings by eBay just a few days ago, I am now looking at withdrawing all our listings and giving eBay a miss altogether on two sites. This has come as the last straw. Ebay has offered no explanation or apology. A message stated we were trying to evade ebay fees on this particular listing which was utter rubbish. I also got a 3 days suspension from listing! The listing in questrion was for a TAMS WARE part dinner service in which 6 pieces had damage so I excluded these pieces from number of items offered but added if anyone wanted the damaged pieces, they could have them. Somehow eBay wrongly construed this as we were offering the pieces for an extra payment (outside of Ebay) which certainly wasn't the case and I can't even see how they reasoned this. They were free if wanted and if not they would have gone in the bin. It has become a nightmare and I can't reason with eBay. Ironically, I immediately relisted this dinner set on another site and it sold within hours of putting it up and even though it was listed a few dollars cheaper than here, I have came out better off (items were paid for and collected the next day) so I don't know why I'm here any longer. As far as I'm concerned eBay has shot themselves in the foot regarding this. They are going to lose so much more now than their pathetic claim of losing fees which was never the case anyway. I'm still reeling how they could be so bloody minded!

Had to vent, I'm so disgusted with them. 

[zelly888]

It's because you offered the items for free,you can't sell an item for free on Ebay ,Ebay can't charge you a fee for that so to them that's fee evasion

[harley_babes_hoard]

There is no commonsense when it comes to ebay or it's staff.

[gratho12]

The dinner set was listed for sale at $45, the extra pieces which were part of the set anyway, were being offered only if someone actually wanted them...most people wouldn't them which is why I excluded them. However the last time I sold a dinner set I was asked if there were any more pieces even if they were damaged, they would like to have them. That is why the offer was made. I really wasn't bothered either way.

[digital*ghost]

Been there, experienced same kind of nonsensical violation and frustration trying to talk to eBay, still got the desk imprint on my head. 

eBay are very slap-happy with this particular kind of violation - sometimes all it takes is a flagged keyword used completely innocently (eg offer) for an automated violation to be issued, and it's impossible to use the "that's not how I meant it and it's not how anyone else would have understood it" defence, the violation stays. 😞

This is how I dealt with my frustration [link] (cos everything else resulted in the desk-head thing), in case an attempt at humour will help relieve some of the stress.

(Only difference is, I'm still here listing and selling, because the benefits of doing so cancelled out my indignation). 

[gratho12]

Actually I like to know what eBay thought I was going to get for 6 pieces of damaged china anyway? It is worth nothing! 

[zelly888]

I understand what you're saying and what you wanted to do,but because you said that in writing Ebay stopped you from doing this because as I said the bottom line is that you can't sell anything for free or even give it away for free.

[digital*ghost]

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@zelly888 wrote:

I understand what you're saying and what you wanted to do,but because you said that in writing Ebay stopped you from doing this because as I said the bottom line is that you can't sell anything for free or even give it away for free.

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Actually, you can. You just have to word it in a way that's acceptable to eBay. For example, including bonus items for a certain amount of money spent, or in addition to an item that's listed, is expressly allowed, but when it doesn't significantly affect the value of the item listed, there are more restrictions on what you can say in the title and description.

[zelly888]

That's right you have to word it properly,you can't just say say hey if anyone wants blah blah you can have it for nothing

[gratho12]

Well, I'm sorry but it is insanity and it causes stress which I just don't need in my life right now. Other sites don't have this hyperreaction thing and quite frankly I've been going pretty well on some...mainly larger items of furniture which eBay really isn't very good for, not any more. Putting up the dinner set elsewhere was a kneejurk reaction to the situation so I was bowled over by the quick response. Now I'm moving more items there that I wouldn't have considered before. If it wasn't for this recent episode, I would have just continued as before but this has changed my thinking. At the end of the day, I'm only here to sell and clear estate items as quickly as possible so if I can do that elsewhere, quicker and with less stress then here, that's for me. It's that simple. I may still put up odd items here. I don't know yet but eBay are certainly going to lose a fair bit.