Was I too Harsh in My Reply to eBay?

gemint

After receiving a notice warning me to stop with my duplicate listings or I could have my account cancelled, I fired this back to the customer service team. Was I out of line?

Why am I receiving this message? The only thing in common with my listings is that they are for 1971 Topps baseball cards. There are no duplicate cards being sold. The card number, player name and grade for each individual card are clearly referenced in the title of my auctions. If a potential buyer doesn't know the difference between a 1971 PSA 8 #350 Billy Williams and a 1971 PSA 9 #316 Fred Schermann, then they should not be trying to buy expensive graded sportscards.

It's bad enough that my DSR's got dinged and I lost my preferred seller status for charging lower shipping rates than the high volume sellers of similar get away with. Now I need to get harassed with this. Why don't you just kick all the small sellers off your site so the remaining 100 or so high volume sellers can have eBay all to themselves?

John

Sean1125

I don't know if you guys haven't realised it yet, but the customer service (outsourced, not the US phone based one)... Are a bunch of yes men, it doesn't matter what you say to them they will tell you "I understand" in their stupid accent when they actually have no idea what you are talking about... And even when you tell them they don't understand they are talking about a completely different thing... They still think they understand...

So... don't waste your breath... Your response went on deaf ears.... Also I'm kind of tired about hearing about them.

gemint

I'm not sure what number you're dialing but I get US customer service people. That doesn't mean they are helpful but they are local.

cpamike

Hey John,

I have a feeling they've gotten worse. Nothing like having computer programs run things.

hhmag70

<< <i>I don't know if you guys haven't realised it yet, but the customer service (outsourced, not the US phone based one)... Are a bunch of yes men, it doesn't matter what you say to them they will tell you "I understand" in their stupid accent when they actually have no idea what you are talking about... And even when you tell them they don't understand they are talking about a completely different thing... They still think they understand...

So... don't waste your breath... Your response went on deaf ears.... Also I'm kind of tired about hearing about them. >>



So don't read about them stupid.

epatmythes

<< <i>I'm not sure what number you're dialing but I get US customer service people. That doesn't mean they are helpful but they are local. >>



Just because he says her name is Peggy... doens't mean they're local

thedutymon

<< <i>After receiving a notice warning me to stop with my duplicate listings or I could have my account cancelled, I fired this back to the customer service team. Was I out of line?

Why am I receiving this message? The only thing in common with my listings is that they are for 1971 Topps baseball cards. There are no duplicate cards being sold. The card number, player name and grade for each individual card are clearly referenced in the title of my auctions. If a potential buyer doesn't know the difference between a 1971 PSA 8 #350 Billy Williams and a 1971 PSA 9 #316 Fred Schermann, then they should not be trying to buy expensive graded sportscards.

It's bad enough that my DSR's got dinged and I lost my preferred seller status for charging lower shipping rates than the high volume sellers of similar get away with. Now I need to get harassed with this. Why don't you just kick all the small sellers off your site so the remaining 100 or so high volume sellers can have eBay all to themselves?

John >>



John,

I feel your pain and I am afraid I don't know the answer to this problem, The Problem being that Nobody who you speak to at E-Bay Can or Will understand that We are not offering duplicate listings. My days are numbered right now, I have 13 years, 100% Positive Feedback with 20K transactions and have done $330,000.00+ in sales for E-Bay and am now on Double Probation until Mid May beacuse of a handfull of listings out of 1700 that they deemed to be Dups even when they weren't. And after two hours and 5 escalations last time, got absolutly, and I mean 100% nowhere.

I feel your pain!!

Neil

gemint

Sorry to hear that Neil and I do remember the saga you posted about a few weeks back. I just don't understand what is motivating them. Most businesses reward and go out of their way to encourage their loyal customers to keep doing business with them. eBay arrogantly thinks that since they are the top dog with the majority of the online market share, there will forever be an endless number of people doing business with them. I bet Kodak thought that 25 years ago.

gemint

By the way, I bet DSL and 4SC won't get put on probation even if they do sell 25 of the same card in identical listings and have a less than 30% sell through rate.

tribeman

there is no way around this. Unless you have a long history of high sales on Ebay, you will not be able to list every card of a set in fixed price listings. For instance, you will not be able to list all 787 1972 topps cards individually. This does not apply to the high volume sellers like NewEnglandSportscards. They can not only list all cards in a given set, they are able to list multiple examples of the SAME EXACT card #. Ebay is now preventing anyone who is not a high volume, high sell thru seller from doing this. If you are listing multiple cards from a given set individually, your listings will be cancelled if they haven't been already. The 90% tracking number thing will also not apply to the large sellers. NESC will keep their TRS status even though nearly every one of their shipments go out in PWE without tracking. It is pointless to try to sell on ebay at this time unless ebay makes some common sense tweaks to the duplicate listing policy.

bbuckner22

I think Ebay did the right thing. I was really having trouble figuring out the difference from one of your listings to another. The only thing that is distinguishable is the card number, player name, grade, and the picture in the listing. Yep, they all look the same to me. This kind of crap will eventually catch up with them

vladguerrero

What if you added the team name? ..not saying it's not annoying that you should have to, but it would solve it no?

Mickey71

Yes....you should apologize. Just kidding.

Alfonz24

<< <i>

<< <i>I'm not sure what number you're dialing but I get US customer service people. That doesn't mean they are helpful but they are local. >>



Just because he says her name is Peggy... doens't mean they're local >>



You inspire me. Three weeks!

tribeman

as far as I know adding the team name, condition etc will not be enough to solve the problem. If you list 100's of 1975 topps for instance enough of them are going to be the same condtion (nm-mt, psa 8, psa 9, nm, mint etc) that it isn't going to matter that they all have a different picture or that they all have a different card #, a different name, team etc....all they see is 500 listings or 150 listings or whatever of 1975 topps or even worse yet, 100's of listings that say 1975 topps nm-mt or 1975 topps psa 9....in that case forget it, you will be warned and then cancelled. A small handful of sellers will still be allowed to do it but most will not. Ebay doesn't care in the least about sports collectibles on their site, especially the small sellers. Your only choice is to list in auction format or perhaps leave the part referencing the set off the title. In that case good luck having anyone ever finding your listing.

Probstein123

ebay once ended 3000 of my auctions for dupes and NONE were actually dupes...welcome to my world

72skywalker

am now on Double Probation until Mid May beacuse of a handfull of listings out of 1700 that they deemed to be Dups even when they weren't.

It doesn't get bad until you are on Double Secret Probation. You can always get them back during the next local parade.

thedutymon

<< <i>What if you added the team name? ..not saying it's not annoying that you should have to, but it would solve it no? >>



Morning,

No this wouldn't, because they can't even play by the same rules on any given day. The time before my most recent problem of dup listings, when they previously removed a dozen listings for being dups I spent and hour on the phone with them and was told your item has to have 3 different descriptive words in the Listing title or it was potentially in violation, so when I pointed out that half of the ones they removed HAD three different descriptors, the A$$wipe told me "Oh Well" Then I asked for their advice as to how to prevent this from happening and asked, "What about putting Inventory Numbers like 4SC does?" and the Clown said that was good idea and would help out my cause, a month later they removed another dozen listings all WITH Different Inventory numbers and at least three descriptors!

Neil

onebamafan

I didn't read anything but your title......but ebay cust service sucks, you can never be to harsh to them IMO.

gemint

Will opening a store get around this problem? What's everyone's opinions about running an eBay store? I'm in the process of submitting a bunch of pack fresh 70s commons. Many will be worth $5-$10 graded but I wouldn't want to list them with a 0.99 starting bid because often cards can slip through with a 0.99 winning bid even though the card usually sells for $5 or more.

thedutymon

<< <i>Will opening a store get around this problem? What's everyone's opinions about running an eBay store? I'm in the process of submitting a bunch of pack fresh 70s commons. Many will be worth $5-$10 graded but I wouldn't want to list them with a 0.99 starting bid because often cards can slip through with a 0.99 winning bid even though the card usually sells for $5 or more. >>



No, I've had more of my Policy issues since I opened my Store (3 Yaers Now) (Of Course we've had oodles of New Rules in that time), then in the previous 10 years of Auctions, so opening a Store doesn't help, in Fact counterintuitively, they seem to be F@Cking with their Core Customer Base of Store Owners more than anybody else, according to thier own Chatboards!

Neil

NickM

If chalk outlines and yellow tape are not involved, your reply was not too harsh.

Nick

gemint

<< <i>

<< <i>Will opening a store get around this problem? What's everyone's opinions about running an eBay store? I'm in the process of submitting a bunch of pack fresh 70s commons. Many will be worth $5-$10 graded but I wouldn't want to list them with a 0.99 starting bid because often cards can slip through with a 0.99 winning bid even though the card usually sells for $5 or more. >>



No, I've had more of my Policy issues since I opened my Store (3 Yaers Now) (Of Course we've had oodles of New Rules in that time), then in the previous 10 years of Auctions, so opening a Store doesn't help, in Fact counterintuitively, they seem to be F@Cking with their Core Customer Base of Store Owners more than anybody else, according to thier own Chatboards!

Neil >>



It's too bad eBay had to go and ruin a good thing. It'll be interesting to see how long I can go before I get booted. Maybe mixing up auctions for different years and price levels and throwing in enough 0.99 cent minimum bid auctions will prevent my 12 year old account from getting shut down. If I only sold resealed wax all day long to unsuspecting buyers, I'd be in great standing with eBay.

stown

<< <i>Are a bunch of yes men, it doesn't matter what you say to them they will tell you "I understand" in their stupid accent when they actually have no idea what you are talking about... >>



ACCENTIST!

Aric

Just thinking out loud here...

These "duplicates" are probably being found by a computer program. It probably bases the matches on "percentage similar" not just different number of words in the title. Since it thinks that 1971 Topps PSA 8 Pete Rose equals a 1971 PSA 9 Rod Carew, then it probably does not look at the entire title maybe only the first 15 characters? Try putting the different words at the beginning something like this.....

Pete Rose 1971 Topps PSA 8

KbKards

Try explaining your problem in terms the Ebay customer service person will understand. Ask them what they collect, or what their hobby is. Then using the collectible they're familiar with show them how ridiculous the duplicate listing policy can be when it's not applied properly.

To the collectors of these items each item is completely different and warrants a separate listing. Baseball cards are the same with each card different and bought and sold on its own.

1921-P Morgan Dollar MS65
1921-D Morgan Dollar MS65
1921-S Morgan Dollar MS65
1922-P Morgan Dollar MS65
1922-D Morgan Dollar MS65
1922-S Morgan Dollar MS65

Ty Beanie Baby Larry
Ty Beanie Baby Moe
Ty Beanie Baby Curly
Ty Beanie Baby Shemp

1984 Archie Comics Volume 1 Number 1
1984 Archie Comics Volume 1 Number 2
1984 Archie Comics Volume 1 Number 3
1984 Archie Comics Volume 1 Number 4
1984 Archie Comics Volume 1 Number 5

prthd

<< <i>Just thinking out loud here...

These "duplicates" are probably being found by a computer program. It probably bases the matches on "percentage similar" not just different number of words in the title. Since it thinks that 1971 Topps PSA 8 Pete Rose equals a 1971 PSA 9 Rod Carew, then it probably does not look at the entire title maybe only the first 15 characters? Try putting the different words at the beginning something like this.....

Pete Rose 1971 Topps PSA 8 >>



He shouldn't have to. Ebay employs how many I.T. people?

thedutymon

<< <i>Just thinking out loud here...

These "duplicates" are probably being found by a computer program. It probably bases the matches on "percentage similar" not just different number of words in the title. Since it thinks that 1971 Topps PSA 8 Pete Rose equals a 1971 PSA 9 Rod Carew, then it probably does not look at the entire title maybe only the first 15 characters? Try putting the different words at the beginning something like this.....

Pete Rose 1971 Topps PSA 8 >>



This could be on the right track........................

The followup problem with the whole scenario is that even when you do speak to somebody in the E-Bay US after the fact (Listings Removed), they will Never and I mean Never acknowledge that the listings were removed in Error. It doesn't matter when you read to them listings:

Listing #1 1975 Topps Basketball Card #1 Point Leaders With Jabbar, Frazier, Havlicek Nice
Listing #2 1975 Topps Basketball Card #2 Assists Leaders With McAdoo, Tomjanovich, Blarney Nice

They insist that your listings are two Similar to be OK, but when you give them back their own guideline of 3 Distinct differences in the Title, (The above examples have 5/6) they just go Oh Well !!!

So there no way to even have an intelligent conversation when they won't even listen. I have a feeling that if They want to make one of your listings Dups, wouldn't matter if one was for a Digitalisis Machine and the other for a 66 Ford Skylark, they could spin it that you have a Dup listing!

Neil

tribeman

It is hopeless trying to reason with them. As it was explained to me, they are going to end the ability to list multiple single cards from any given set. They suggest that you group your singles to form lots and sell them that way. If you have 500 1973 topps or 260 1961 topps, and wish to sell at fixed price, you will need to sell them as a lot not singles. Selling as singles is going to be reserved to sellers with a long established history, high volume and high sell thru rates. Everyone else is going to have to sell as lots, sets, or one listing for example for 1961 topps and then listing all the available cards in that one listing. The obvious problem with that is they would all have to be the same price, not to mention no seperate scans and the fact that nobody shops or buys cards that way. This was explained to me by someone at ebay who I am quite sure has never even seen a baseball card. This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as them cancelling listing and suspending accounts. Personally i think they want all the card sellers to dissappear except for a select few. Maybe someone else can get higher up the chain at ebay to find out exactly what their plans are for the baseball card categories and how or if people are supposed to list their card within their guidelines. It is maddening when they obviously are currently letting some very large sellers not only list all cards in a set, but often time many multiples of the same card. Obviously sellers as large as Probstein are not immune so based on that and how it was explained to me by the moron at ebay, we won't even recognize the baseball card categories by the end of 2012. My guess is that if you want buy single common cards, you will only have a very small handful of sellers to choose from and prices will be much higher.

trex

Folks who sleep with dogs...get fleas!