Looks like my listing has ben reported by competitors. Any advice?

[grach]

Hi guys.

So here is the short story. I have a many years old account selling thousands of items, some of those items are VeRo items. Recently I started to receive temporary restriction on my account like every week for random listings which never happened before. I received like dozens VeRo complaints over years, but this time it looks like my competitors report my listings without even buying those and just click report item as counterfeit. As a result Ebay bot restrict my listings in search results for 3,7,10 days and as soon as I recover I receive another ban few days later for another 10 days. I've been reported like this like 10 times over past 2.5 months.

It is really hard to find the exact competitor, since there is a lot of them and all of them sell same kind of items and could be reported for counterfeit as well. I assume this competitor have a bunch of stealth accounts, since I don't think reporting my listing from a single account will trigger a restriction. So I want to ask our community:

1) Any idea how to fight against this? Is it something new to Ebay or this exist on Ebay for a long time? Ebay usually just remove listings after VeRo complaints and that is it, no search restrictions or something like that.

2) Do you think calling Ebay and telling them that I've been hit by competitor is a bad idea? They will take a look on my account with dozens of VeRo complaints and ban me again or they don't really care and understand that majority of Ebay sellers are like me?

3) Thank you guys for all your answers. I hope to find a solution.

[HurricaneHuntr]

Is it a vero removal with a vero email address.. or just a generic ebay removal. If generic ebay removal. likely competitors. If vero it will have the vero email address.. In either case, nothing you can do. Once your account is flagged, it becomes easier and easier for competitors to report listings, and then they get removed, often it just takes 1 report when the account is flagged.

[agent006140]

too many strikes and you are out,dont cry if you keep selling Vero items.

[bytor3k]

"I assume this competitor have a bunch of stealth accounts, since I don't think reporting my listing from a single account will trigger a restriction."

Wrong, all it takes is one report.


Just went through this exact situation except there were only two others on eBay selling the exact same item as me. So we had 3 sellers selling the exact same item for almost a year with no problems between us. Suddenly my listing gets pulled, competitor A's listing gets pulled but competitor B's is still up, hmm? I wait a few days and put my listing back up under another account, it lasts a day and gets pulled. I check and competitor B's listing is still up (competitor A has never put his listing back up, guess he was spooked.)

You can probably guess where this is going, I started repeatedly reporting Comp B's listings over and over again and was a little vindictive about it and scrolled through all his other listings and reported everything that I could. I would also Out Of Stock my own listing for a day or two after I reported his so that if he checked for my listing, he wouldn't see it and it wouldn't be obvious that I was the one reporting him.

He kept relisting, I kept reporting until he got his 7-day suspension after which he stopped listing the items I was reporting and I now have a monopoly on seller the item.

[SaiJin]

Originally Posted by bytor3k

"I assume this competitor have a bunch of stealth accounts, since I don't think reporting my listing from a single account will trigger a restriction."

Wrong, all it takes is one report.


Just went through this exact situation except there were only two others on eBay selling the exact same item as me. So we had 3 sellers selling the exact same item for almost a year with no problems between us. Suddenly my listing gets pulled, competitor A's listing gets pulled but competitor B's is still up, hmm? I wait a few days and put my listing back up under another account, it lasts a day and gets pulled. I check and competitor B's listing is still up (competitor A has never put his listing back up, guess he was spooked.)

You can probably guess where this is going, I started repeatedly reporting Comp B's listings over and over again and was a little vindictive about it and scrolled through all his other listings and reported everything that I could. I would also Out Of Stock my own listing for a day or two after I reported his so that if he checked for my listing, he wouldn't see it and it wouldn't be obvious that I was the one reporting him.

He kept relisting, I kept reporting until he got his 7-day suspension after which he stopped listing the items I was reporting and I now have a monopoly on seller the item.

ooooooooh, so you're one of those eh.... have you heard of my good friend?
Her first name is Karma, middle initial I and last name Beotch.

[SaiJin]

Originally Posted by grach

Hi guys.

So here is the short story. I have a many years old account selling thousands of items, some of those items are VeRo items. Recently I started to receive temporary restriction on my account like every week for random listings which never happened before. I received like dozens VeRo complaints over years, but this time it looks like my competitors report my listings without even buying those and just click report item as counterfeit. As a result Ebay bot restrict my listings in search results for 3,7,10 days and as soon as I recover I receive another ban few days later for another 10 days. I've been reported like this like 10 times over past 2.5 months.

It is really hard to find the exact competitor, since there is a lot of them and all of them sell same kind of items and could be reported for counterfeit as well. I assume this competitor have a bunch of stealth accounts, since I don't think reporting my listing from a single account will trigger a restriction. So I want to ask our community:

1) Any idea how to fight against this? Is it something new to Ebay or this exist on Ebay for a long time? Ebay usually just remove listings after VeRo complaints and that is it, no search restrictions or something like that.

2) Do you think calling Ebay and telling them that I've been hit by competitor is a bad idea? They will take a look on my account with dozens of VeRo complaints and ban me again or they don't really care and understand that majority of Ebay sellers are like me?

3) Thank you guys for all your answers. I hope to find a solution.

You can try calling and telling eBay that but frankly the community has become even more toxic and people who just report others even for no reason has risen in volume.

BUT if you're offering phake stuff well.... you need to stop.

[grach]

I made a research today and see that one out of two listings that were deleted by Ebay has been listed 12 hours or so before the suspension letter arrived. I think that listing wasn't reported by competitor, It is not possible I think. Maybe Ebay just flagged the account and manually check it every time I list or doing some kind of activity on it. We listed about 100 listings during the last 2 days and maybe that is the reason. It is very interesting and unusual. I have a feeling that I need to not to list new items for a couple of months or something like that. Just freeze activity and see what is going to happen. Overall all this harms a holiday season anyway. Black Friday\Cyber Monday is gone(((

[bytor3k]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

ooooooooh, so you're one of those eh.... have you heard of my good friend?
Her first name is Karma, middle initial I and last name Beotch.

I know her very well. As I am NOT the one who started the battle, she was on MY side in this instance.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by grach

=

So here is the short story. I have a many years old account selling thousands of items, some of those items are VeRo items. Recently I started to receive temporary restriction on my account like every week for random listings which never happened before. I received like dozens VeRo complaints over years...

Oh man - looks like eb finally caught up on you hard and you kept at it :(

2) I don't think eb is going to understand this reasoning, sadly

[basslinebargains]

Originally Posted by bytor3k

I know her very well. As I am NOT the one who started the battle, she was on MY side in this instance.

Basically you've shot yourself in the foot by being so childish!

[bytor3k]

Originally Posted by basslinebargains

Basically you've shot yourself in the foot by being so childish!

*Pauses filling my daily orders, looks up, says "Um, ok, whatever", returns to filling all my orders.*

[grach]

Thank you guys for all your replies.

[grach]

Thank you guys for all your replies!

[grach]

Thank you guys for all your replies..

[grach]

Thank you guys for all your replies...