Wow, WOW! EBAY's getting out of control !!

TermedPS · #1 07-01-2009

Friend = powerseller, pre 2007, 30k + FB's - Non-Vero, 99.7% DSR's all > 4.7.

He's a GREAT photographer and takes excellent pictures.
He just got BANNED for "copying the manufacturer's pictures" !!!
He said "No WAY!!! I have the original pictures!"

Long story short, Fbay wouldn't have it.

He's so pissed right now. He's considering a lawsuit, but we all know how $$$ that can be.

Reinstatement chances? ZERO as per Fbay.

WTF is wrong is eBay? Nevermind, it was rhetorical.

Just another sad sad F'd up story.

PS: He just lost a $30K/month business he built for over 8 years.
PSS: John, if you're here reading, sorry to write about you, I just felt this board needed to know your story.

**aspkin** · #2 07-01-2009

That's why you never put all yours eggs in eBay.

Too bad really, hopefully this will be a learning experience for the guy.

philly387 · #3 07-01-2009

Well just make sure he knows about this forum! Also, he could make his own site and aspkin's Webmaster Blueprint book is a great way to start one!

**SaiJin** · #4 07-01-2009

that's practically what happened to me as well.

sdot10 · #5 07-01-2009

seems to me if he was pulling in 30k a month and has the original prints that its pretty open and shut. If i were him i would file in smalls claims court for the maximum. That usually gets their attention and when the lawyers/mediators call him then explain to them and let them know a bigger lawsuit is coming unless something is done.

gurusgrafx · #6 07-01-2009

If he was pulling 30K a month the cost of a lawsuit really isn't that bad.

nobody999 · #7 07-01-2009

30K is that gross or net? if gross, it's not that much, it's the net is the bottom line.
but file a report with BBB, and see what that takes him.

idiotbay · #8 07-01-2009

wow, even the big sellers go down, i would of thought ebay would want these kind of sellers to keep selling

#9 07-01-2009

I think they forgot to send the bots to Sesame Street. Mentally chew on that.

ebay · #10 07-01-2009

when your a powerseller you can ring them up and sort most problems out
in the uk they are alright

gibsonton · #11 07-01-2009

There isnt nothing Ebay can do if a copyright owner says something is Vero than they have to pull it or risk a lawsuit themselfs ...There is a semi-popular singer who died years back and his mother will not allow hardly anything as far as shirts to be sold ,now you can bring a suit vs her and the estate but who is going to over a $20 shirt .
I am curious who turned your friend in ?

TermedPS · #12 07-02-2009

I've been talking to my friend about this for the last 24 hours.

The problem with a lawsuit, small claims or not, doesn't solve his immediate cashflow problems. Sure he has a little saved up, but when you have a family of 4, there's not much left over even at 30k (gross - I believe his margins are somewhere around 50% after expenses).

When he originally got the dreaded email from eBay, he immediately called his PS hotline and got the usual, "we;ll look into it...". He was hopeful, but then the emails stopped from the PS dept and only got emails from T&S after that first email.

From talking to him, I believe as one of you did, that this might have been a complaint by a non-vero manufacturer, or a competitor through a diff acct (perhaps more than one). I remember when my brother (me too, for that matter), got banned, our FB, DSR's etc...were all great. No significant complaints nor chargebacks, PP claims, etc...same with him.

Just another "BAM" out of no where.

Yes, he's considering a lawsuit, but frankly, my advice to him was to join this board or at least read it. If you folks recalll, I tried for 2 months trying to get my PS acct back to no avail. So that's exactly what I told him..."Would you rather waste time, or get back to selling?"

He's just so depressed right now, I'm really not forcing the issue on him.
He's also considering leaving eBay all together and starting his own website, but once again, we all know how long that takes to start generating $$$.

Termed

gibsonton · #13 07-02-2009

What was he selling photos of famous people ? I am just saying he could contact the Vero company , i have done that on 2 occasions and got the vero removed but if he is in the wrong than it will not do anygood .

JamesYaBaoy · #14 07-02-2009

They might give in to a BBB complaint.

adventmma · #15 07-02-2009

It's strange that since he's been moderately successful for this many years that he never went all out with his own website. Could have kept selling on ebay all along, too, and it's much easier to hook up a merchant account to your own website, too, which means savings. One has many more options by way of design, options and opportunities when running one's own website. Could have used the ebay outlet to attract customers to his website, too. He can still start his own website fast and just bulk email his repeat ebay customers to come to his website. Tell his story in the email to the customers. It wouldn't come off as a sob scam story because they've already bought from him, and people that are even somewhat passionate about art would have enough cause to support his enterprise by continuing to buy from him. Explore all the other suggestions mentioned before me, too. If his photographs fall into a certain distinguishable category that makes them very noticeable, then even if he somehow got reinstated on ebay, someone could dump on him anonymously again and again, which could have easily been the case in this story. Ebay is a robot, they do first and think never.

biglouis999 · #16 07-03-2009

Sometimes its surprising what cooperation or information you can get out of eBay if you catch them on the right day. I contribute a lot to the powersellers discussion forum on ebay UK and this grasser (aka sneak) keeps reporting my posts and getting me warnings for "hate speech" or "adult language". Meanwhile on the same thread there will be other people using swear words or having real vicious arguments. They never get reported. It got like I was reluctant to use the forum.

Anyway I rang up and insisted to speak to a supervisor and made a complaint of malicious reporting. I pushed the disabled card (yes I really am disabled) and argued that this person was making it difficult for me to use a facility that eBay provide for all powersellers and therefore interfearing with my ability to run my business. I referred to all the pulled posts and asked "was it XXX". The supervisor said "well I cant confirm or deny it but looks like someone really has got it in for you." So now I more or less know who the sneak is.

The superviser said they can flag the ID and watch to see if he appears to be making "malicious reports" and then in the first instance issue a formal warning. Yeah and then he will know it was me. This is a dude who already has a lot of enemies on that forum because hes always trolling and flaming folks. I told the supervisor "no dont bother on my account."

I stopped using that forum and just use the business forum now under a posting ID. But I believe that "revenge is sweet" and also a dish best served cold. So in 3-6 months I will be getting my own back on this sneak. Hell, I have got people who wronged me in the past and I am still making their lives a misery 7 years later.

biglouis999 · #17 07-03-2009

#33 Anyone who does not have their own webby and other platforms or outlets is crazy anyway in the current climate!

I started my own website just under a year ago and its starting to now outperform eBay. Hell, we havnt even fully optimised it yet! I also sell privately to a number of US and European wholesalers and am crrently looking at 2 other platforms. I sell "collectables" so although eBay would appear to be the "one and only" outlet thats not true. There are a number of alternatives (albeit smaller) in the UK and USA and with a much better class of clientelle.

What you find with a website is that you get a better class of customer who spends more and makes far less trouble. Whereas on eBay you get the bottom feeders and the scammers.

You do need to develop multiple income streams (especially in these hard times) in case one gets pulled.

The story you quote does not surprise me. One of the UK powersellers who sold branded cosmetics takes her own photographs of the products and they are of very high quality. She hit a similar problem with "vero" even though she could prove they were her own photos and she was an "approved" seller. I never found out how she got on but being a smaller seller she had no recourse to legal action.

inverser · #18 07-03-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by TermedPS

Friend = powerseller, pre 2007, 30k + FB's - Non-Vero, 99.7% DSR's all > 4.7.

He's a GREAT photographer and takes excellent pictures.
He just got BANNED for "copying the manufacturer's pictures" !!!
He said "No WAY!!! I have the original pictures!"

Long story short, Fbay wouldn't have it.

He's so pissed right now. He's considering a lawsuit, but we all know how $$$ that can be.

Reinstatement chances? ZERO as per Fbay.

WTF is wrong is eBay? Nevermind, it was rhetorical.

Just another sad sad F'd up story.

PS: He just lost a $30K/month business he built for over 8 years.
PSS: John, if you're here reading, sorry to write about you, I just felt this board needed to know your story.

I would have your friend talk to someone from a local news station, or maybe try to contact someone that has a very popular blog, and tell the story of how a talented photographer turned entrepreneur was wrongly suspended by big bad eBay.

It's amazing what a little bit of bad press can do. eBay certainly won't change its ways, but your friend may get his account back.

gibsonton · #19 07-03-2009

Its pretty simple he was either correct or incorrect - also why did he not join Vero himself if he had the rights to the items .A friend of mine sold photos for 6 years on ebay and had over 10,000 fb untill they caught him but he was wrong as he did not have the rights to sell the images but skated by for that long .If your friend had the rights he should be able to contact the vero member and get it corrected or pay a attorney a small fee to just make a phone call to the vero memeber if he is correct -you dont have to bring a lawsuit many attorneys will do this for $300-$1000 and if he was making $30k a month cant see how he can not afford at least a consultation with a attorney to see if he has a case.

TermedPS · #20 07-03-2009

Good morning all,

A few more details/facts.

1- He does NOT sell photographs.
2- He has submitted to eBay ALL the original photos, pictures of his studio, and other info that PROVES the pictures were indeed his own.
3- He has still NOT been told who/what/where/when this violation/report came from.
4- All the emails from ebay T&S as been the dreaded canned emails.

All good suggestions on what he COULD do, file BBB report, talk to the media, etc... BUT, realistically, the time/energy he will spend trying to get his account back will most likely be a waste anyway (as many of us know). He IS talking to a lawyer about it (prelim chats), but he's been told that it will take time, $$$, and no guarantee of victory.

He is lurking around the forums (still depressed) and trying to figure out his next move. As I can't speak for him, I don't know what he will do. He has no knowledge of building his own website and all he knows is eBay.

To make matters worse, he is almost 50 years old, and a man of high integrity. When I spoke to him about stealth accounts, he looked at me as if to say, "you're suggesting that I create @@@ acct's? I can't do that."

Honestly, I don't know what he'll do. I am trying to convince him that a website is the way to go if he can't bring himself to go stealth.

adventmma · #21 07-03-2009

As the world changes around the man, the man must change around the world in order to survive. Food and shelter come first. He can get knighted to go off slaying dragons later. :-)

gibsonton · #22 07-03-2009

without having an idea what he was selling i dont think anyone can really help as far as past experience.