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Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

Need help from the experts on the forum. Please read and input.

I've been selling under one eBay/Paypal account for about 10 years. I have over 5000 feedback. I've received Vero warnings 1-2 times here and there over the years. But never so close together. We sell liquidated/overstock items...so our items are never the same.

Just this past month, I don't know if eBay has ramped up Vero or what...but I received 2-3 violations from Dec-Jan. All different item listings and brands. This caused a restriction on our account on Jan 21 (3-day restriction). So we revamped how we listed, avoiding listing any Vero brands, and removed listings just to be safe.

One of these listings I manually closed in January was just flagged on February 5th as Vero as well (which caused my account to get a 7-day restriction). Unbelievable. I tried to explain this to the eBay team...but they told me that only eBay's Vero team could fix.

--First Question: does eBay's Vero email group respond? It's been 24 hours and nothing so far. Is there a different route to appeal other than vero@ebay.com?

Trying to be proactive here. I really don't want to move to stealth accounts since I do about $150K in sales on eBay every year. That seems like it would be a nightmare to manage and try to keep under the 20K limit on 8 accounts?!?

--Second Question: is there a certain period I need to lay low so this can blow over if the appeal is denied? I believe I still have the 10-day and 30-day warnings left. But who knows when the eBay's bot will strike! Especially when there is no official list of Vero brands to avoid!

--Third Question: for someone doing $150K in sales...is there any easy way to do stealth accounts? Just thinking of the worst case scenario option.

--Fourth Question: can eBay's Vero team remove a violation completely from my account if it was applied in error?

Bottom line...I want to keep this account for the long term and will sacrifice my sales right now to do so. I sincerely appreciate your insight and input. Thank you for your help.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

No idea - I've never tried to appeal. I usually just wait a few months and then list the item back up, slightly differently, in order to liquidate.

The people trying to stay under $20k generally aren't serious high volume sellers, and they're just trying to avoid paying taxes. The smart thing to do would be to add an EIN after a few weeks (once you're sure the account isn't going to be randomly shut down after the first sales, which DOES happen sometimes), then gradually ramp up sales until you're at the pace you want to be at.

To tell you the truth, it's something you should do now while your primary account is still active. Even if your primary account never goes down, you could potentially double your annual sales by having another active account. And if your primary account ever does go down, you have a fallback account you can immediately shift your focus to. You'd just need to get an EIN, form an LLC with your state, and then viola!, you have a new legal selling identity.

This is far from being set in stone as there's lots of variables involved. When an account goes down because of VeRO violations it's because the account got a bunch within a short period of time. If you get a lot of sales in between your violations, your account can last forever. Say you just got a 7-day restriction due to the VeRO violation you mentioned. If your next VeRO violation is 9 months from now and you've had a few thousand happy customers since your last violation, they may not even restrict your account. It's all about how frequently you are getting violations, really.

$150k/yr is nothing for a properly setup account. Not stealth though, because you'd have to make the account official in order to do more than 200 sales/yr. The way I've setup all of my high volume accounts has been: 1) buy an account here, 2) get an EIN, 3) upgrade the Paypal to a business LLC account. Then you can sell as much as you want on what was formerly a "stealth account" as long as you grow gradually and avoid any sales spikes. I've exceeded $500k in annual sales on a single account several times, and all of my accounts are either "fully stealth" (no tax ID) or "former stealth upgraded to business" (tax ID on file via EIN). I don't have any in my real name anymore.

Yes I would imagine so, but it would be easier to just pad your account with tons of low-risk sales over the next few months. If your VeRO violations are separated by a few hundred or thousand successful sales, you can go on indefinitely without losing your account. I've had over 20 on my biggest account, but it has over 70k sales in its lifetime.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

Incredibly helpful phaz0rz. A couple clarifying questions...

1. What's the $ number and amount of time to "gradually grow sales" to where an account is safe?
2. Can Vero account restriction ever go back to 1-day restriction warning if enough time has passed? Or does it always move up the chain no matter the timing or amount of sales in between?

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

1) There's really no set pace that you should follow. The important thing is to (as much as possible) make yourself look like a new seller who is slowly increasing sales as your profits increase and you're able to acquire more inventory.

The way I sell is probably a bit different than you since you're selling liquidation stuff and your inventory is presumably always changing. What I'll do is make 1 listing (something I know will sell) the first month and set the quantity relatively low, like 10, and let it slowly sell out. The next month I'll increase the available quantity of that item slightly higher, to something like 25, and I'll also add a 2nd listing with an available quantity of 25. The third month I'll usually add 3 or 4 more new listings while also restocking the first two listings, then after the 3rd month I keep gradually increasing my listing pace until I have everything listed that I want listed. Even if you sell all unique items, you could do something similar. Just keep a steady pace while the account is new.

2) Yes, definitely. The consequences of VeRO violations are rather arbitrary and depend on your overall account performance. I used to post a screenshot from my gmail account showing 20+ VeRO violations over an 18 month period, but they're buried so deep in my email now that it's not worth the trouble. My point was that a good seller can survive dozens of listing takedowns.

Chances are if you can survive your next 1k sales without another listing takedown, your next VeRO takedown (if there is one) would not result in an account restriction of any time period. At a certain point (# of sales) it resets, and I can say that as a fact from personal experience.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

One last thing. I assume you never use stock photos then? Majority of these violations were for a copyrighted image. It was super easy for me to have a 3rd party software create eBay listings from Amazon product description pages...but I may have to abandon that after all these years and take pictures for EVERY LISTING, right?

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

Nah, I've never used them for exactly that reason.

For me it's not much of an obstacle since I only sell about 100 products and I keep things in stock/listed for years at a time. I can see how it would be a hassle for somebody with your business model. :/

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

Preaching to the choir! For years I've had no trouble with Vero...despite selling thousands of DIFFERENT items. And then boom, it all hits so close together and I have to reexamine my whole approach. And eBay threatens to close me down. WOW.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

Both AMZN,ETSY,EBAY are now stepping up their efforts on ⊗⊗⊗⊗,counterfeit as they will soon to be held liable for such.
US govt is stepping efforts,take AMZN and others which provide FBA,or even FBS,they are held responsible if they accept such and US customs could move in and destroy such items and slap fine on these outfits. for not being diligent in checking .
FBA are now referred to as 'ultimate consignee' of goods before they are sold to customers.
So if you are selling overstock and returns,you have a higher chance of knowingly or not knowingly selling counterfeits,⊗⊗⊗⊗,they will be watching you closely.
Then there is this Paypal AUP,they can hold your money .
Where do your returns come from-WMT,COSTCO,SEARS,BBY,TARGET?

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

VERO for a stock photo? I had no idea they'd do that! :eek:

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

Once I bought a replicate and did not like it,so I copied stock photo and list it on EBAY,it was taken down by Vero.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

What does eBay have to do with the Vero hits? Your enemy is the rights owner and not eBay.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

read what OP said-
One last thing. I assume you never use stock photos then? Majority of these violations were for a copyrighted image. It was super easy for me to have a 3rd party software create eBay listings from Amazon product description pages...but I may have to abandon that after all these years and take pictures for EVERY LISTING, right?
-------------
She is selling overstocks and returns and yet she is using AMZN stock photos,

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

I've been selling under one eBay/Paypal account for about 10 years. I have over 5000 feedback. I've received Vero warnings 1-2 times here and there over the years. But never so close together. We sell liquidated/overstock items...so our items are never the same.
---------------------------------------------
use your own pictures,you can reuse your own pictures.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

You suck at comprehending the english language. That just doesn't even deserve a written out response, sorry.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

If I were you, I’d make at least two stealth accounts,because vero stacks up, and they suspend you indefinitely after accumulated vero strikes.

My advice to you, if you like that 150k income save some stress and start building up sales.
If you try to make a account after you get suspended, it’ll be 2-3 months before you can sell quite a bit.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

you suck too!

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

Veros are active,very active on Ebay.
Vero strikes make a seller look bad on Ebay.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

never mind how I comprenhend English,facts are facts,keep using stock photos,AMZN stock photos are all over Ebay site.

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

OP used a third party software to transfer AMZN photos to her Ebay listings?
Is she really selling returns and overstocks OR is she arbitraging between AMZN and EBay,there is a difference,you know.
Returns and overstocks could be missing parts,box open and taped back,missing instruction sheets,dirty,worn,used,beat up,smelly,etc,so using stock photo is misleading !
Feel free to pick on my English,all are welcome !

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

Spamming the board now. How do you make a living if you just post on here all day?

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

I make a very good living not by selling on internet.
While I work ,I browse different forums,this one is different,to say the least.
How did you guys get suspended?do you ever read rules ?or you just dont care .

Re: Veteran eBay Seller Hit with 2 Vero Violations (HELP)
 

Originally Posted by agent006140 View Post
OP used a third party software to transfer AMZN photos to her Ebay listings?
Is she really selling returns and overstocks OR is she arbitraging between AMZN and EBay,there is a difference,you know.
Returns and overstocks could be missing parts,box open and taped back,missing instruction sheets,dirty,worn,used,beat up,smelly,etc,so using stock photo is misleading !
Feel free to pick on my English,all are welcome !
Spamming the board now. How do you make a living if you just post on here all day?
---------------------
I would not call this spamming,returns are no longer in Mint in box condition,OP should take her own pictures to show buyers what they are getting to avoid INR.
She said she used third party software to transfer pictures from AMZN to her Ebay listings?Do you expect the software to pick those which most reasembled her returns and overstocks?
Veros are very aggressive these days.