I
was already angry with eBay for their ridiculous decision to not allow
the teaching editions of homeschooling curriculum to be sold, and I
should have just stopped the day I found out about that and never gone
to that site again. But I have some non-homeschooling items I
wanted to sell and I started listing them yesterday. Today I
received notice that one of my DVD sets was removed as it was an
"illegal copy." Do WHAT? I know eBay has zero proof of this
because I know my DVDs aren't illegal copies. Yet not only did
they yank my auction, they apparently let the bidders know this.
I see this as nothing short of slander. I've been accused of
trying to sell bootleg material and that's a crime, and because eBay
told my bidders, they've wrongly damaged my reputation. I
contacted Live Help as soon as I got this notice and that proved to be
a joke.
Here's basically how our conversation went: (I actually copied
and pasted the entire conversation, but since I'm not sure of the
legalities about posting the actual chat, I'm summarizing instead.)
EBAY: How can I help you?
ME: I had a listing pulled for supposedly being illegal.
It's not. (I then linked to the "ebay alert" I was sent.)
EBAY: I need the auction number.
ME: *posted number*
EBAY: I can't help you with this. You need to e-mail Trust and Security.
ME: All right. How long does that take to get a response?
EBAY: Usually only 24 - 48 hours. They will get to it as soon as possible. (Whatever that means.)
ME: Can you tell me what exactly I need to put in my e-mail to prove this is a false accusation?
EBAY: (This is a direct quote now.) "I'm sorry but there are
certain procedures that only Trust and Safety know and we are not
allowed to disclose any information about this matter."
How helpful is that? It went on a few more minutes with the same,
"You have to e-mail Trust and Safety." and then ended with, I kid you
not, "Have a good day!!"
Excuse me? Your company has falsely accused me of commiting a
crime, you've been no help whatsoever and you wish me a 'good
day'? Give me a break!
So I am done with this company. As soon as my current auctions
end, I'm going to delete my account. I'll just have to sell my
things elsewhere. But boy, do I now understand why so many people
complain about eBay! I'm not totally stupid. I'm sure I
know what happened here. Someone else selling the same DVDs as I
was "reported" me and got me knocked out of the competition while he
sells his copies. And I'm willing to bet even if eBay were to
admit their mistake here, they'd do nothing more than tell me I'm
welcome to go through all the work of relisting my item. I'm also
willing to bet they won't do a thing about notifying my bidders that
they were the ones to mess up here, not me.
I guess I learned my lesson. The hard way.
