Feedback Manipulation / Feedback Exchange / Penny Auctions - BAD IDEAS = suspension

[GreenBean]

**MrJosh**Read his story. May well be a best seller! Great plot

[pureas]

GMAIL EMAIL ADDRESS WITH GIGS OF SPACE 1 PENNY HURRY!!!


take a look and get on them soon, this is basicly the new ebooks

[Apathy]

I listed a BIN item How to make money on myspace. Because of the recent neutral=negative rules my feedback had dropped but I had no idea about ebays policy of suspending accounts I am a powerseller or was i dont know over 1500 positive feedback until they removed it now im down to 1100 they removed stuff i bought over a year ago I called they told me any further calls would result in a permanent suspension I wrote to Kip Knight he sent everything to the head of T&S and CS and they wrote me a response

"Dear ************,

Thank you for your response. As stated in the prior email, I understand
it wasn't your intention to violate policy, and that you did not
intentionally inflate your feedback. However, it did occur, and it is in
violation of policy, whether intentional or not.

Please know that I have thoroughly reviewed your account and listing
removals. While you state you were shipping the item on a cd-rom, that
information was not clear within the listing. I found text such as:

"The winning Bidder will get my concise, to-the-point, detail-filled (no
fluff) report delivered immediately by e-mail."

"POSITIVE FEEDBACK WILL BE LEFT ONCE IT IS RECEIVED."

"WE LL LEAVE OUR FEEDBACK AFTER YOURS."

I understand your concern as you state that you did not receive any
information on the changes we made to our Digitally Delivered Goods
policy. Changes to the policy were announced Mar-24-08 by Brian Burke,
and the information was posted on the Announcements Boards. It was also
found in the General eBay Announcement area of every member's My
Messages, below the actual message inbox.

When items are removed from the site we will send members an email
explaining the situation. The email also states that repeat violations
may result in forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings, removal of all
listings, limits on account privileges, and account suspension.

At this time it has been determined that your account will remain
suspended for the 30 day period. Even though you have great feedback and
customer service, I am unable to allow you to bypass these consequences,
and yet enforce them on other members who have violated the same
policies.

When you apply for reinstatement I will review your account information
to see if I am able to put the listings that were removed into your
Unsold items folder.

I understand your frustration regarding this matter and apologize for
the inconvenience it caused you.

Sincerely,

Terri
Office of the President"

I dont know what the hell to do Ive been an honest ebay member I had 1400 items in my store and all that is gone and with a suspension untill july 20th I wont be able to repair my feedback to stay a powerseller I dont wanna do any type of stealth I shouldnt have to I just want to know how the hell they could do that.


Also what the hell is ebay thinking the very definition of neutral in any dictionary means its not positive or negative how could they change the very definition of a word I know im just ranting but what the hell anybody have any other email address at ebay i could forward my case to ebay is my only source of income and I will loose my ass house everything if they continue this suspension and worse if they never give me back my account

[yougotit]

consider yourself lucky that at least the answer they gave is relevant to your question. most of the time their answer has nothing to do with what you asked.

[Apathy]

this reply was after 50+ calls to cs ts and powerseller support and many many many other emails and calls to head execs of ebay

[aspkin]

Apply for reinstatement; keep your head down, follow their rules and you may be able to keep your account going.

[Apathy]

aspkin i have to wait 30 days before I can apply for that then on top of applying all of the items i took over a year listing are deleted what do I do about that

Im about to loose my House and everything I have over this my Light Bill alone is over 398 dollars what am I supposed to do in the meantime this is all i have been doing over a year now

[sparkle]

Make a new account and keep back ups of your listings?

[powerbid]

Originally Posted by Apathy

aspkin i have to wait 30 days before I can apply for that then on top of applying all of the items i took over a year listing are deleted what do I do about that

Im about to loose my House and everything I have over this my Light Bill alone is over 398 dollars what am I supposed to do in the meantime this is all i have been doing over a year now

hey relax i know its not easy but ebay is like that .. consider it a bussiness too risky anyway.. i would also advise you to act on aspkins advice... 2ndly no matter ur account stays or you never got a chance to see it again make backups.. i have been in similar situation before .. like u i m also a full time ebayer.. i have sustained myself now by spreading the listings.. the worst mistake u can do on ebay is to make one and only account .. if u have 1400+ listings.. spread them out on average of 100 per account.. powerseller is not of any benefit.. i m also a powerseller.. but on other accounts i just ignore powerseller invitation.. within 30 days.. make atleast 10 other accounts for now.. i dont see u can sell much within these 30 days as your accounts will be new and u can risk losing them if u list too much or maybe lose them just by listing 10+ items.. u never know its ebay...

from the email they sent u i see light that your account can be restored.. one more thing if u make other accounts make sure it is no way linked to the previous account coz if u get caught making other accounts while original suspension is in place they will never resinstate your actual account...

i really hope that you get good outcome..

WELCOME TO THE CLUB !!

[imjustme]

I had a 0 feedback account, with 0 items sold and 0 items bought, suspended about 4 months ago with the 'Feedback Manipulation' reason. Beat that :D

[aspkin]

People doing this are just asking to be suspended. Buying feedback for nothing is over.

[powerbid]

lolz thats just too much imjustme lolz

[Kleidis]

Lately I've been building feedback by finding charities which
accept donations via the mail, buying items, and having them
sent to the charity's address.
Builds feedback, and good karma..

[namcod]

for those who want to buy "feedback", Ebay -> Everything else -> Other.
There always have "$0.01 cent" auctions. I'm selling in there too. If you see something like "coupon", it's me. I'll leave feedback asa you guys complete the transaction.

[Apathy]

Originally Posted by powerbid

hey relax i know its not easy but ebay is like that .. consider it a bussiness too risky anyway.. i would also advise you to act on aspkins advice... 2ndly no matter ur account stays or you never got a chance to see it again make backups.. i have been in similar situation before .. like u i m also a full time ebayer.. i have sustained myself now by spreading the listings.. the worst mistake u can do on ebay is to make one and only account .. if u have 1400+ listings.. spread them out on average of 100 per account.. powerseller is not of any benefit.. i m also a powerseller.. but on other accounts i just ignore powerseller invitation.. within 30 days.. make atleast 10 other accounts for now.. i dont see u can sell much within these 30 days as your accounts will be new and u can risk losing them if u list too much or maybe lose them just by listing 10+ items.. u never know its ebay...

from the email they sent u i see light that your account can be restored.. one more thing if u make other accounts make sure it is no way linked to the previous account coz if u get caught making other accounts while original suspension is in place they will never resinstate your actual account...

i really hope that you get good outcome..

WELCOME TO THE CLUB !!

Yeah but what ap besides turbo lister allows you to make backups with all your pics and everything that can be reloaded to ebay after a suspension ?

[411guru]

Almost same thing happened to me. How did you not know about the digital delivery ban? Where you really shipping CDs or were you lying and it was digital download, since all it takes is for a buyer to report you to ebay about lying about shippping CD and you get killed.

I made up to 3k from digital items per month and was devastated when they banned digital items and suspended one of my 2 accounts. Consider yourself lucky that you only got killed for 30 days. What I've learned from this is to never rely on 1 source of income, especially ebay since ebay controls your account, not you.

I always copied my listings from html editor and saved it to word just incase.

Wait 30 days and do things right, or if you can't wait make a new ⊗⊗⊗⊗ account. However, make sure you follow the steathbook or your new account will get linked to your old one and you'll never get that old account back.

Good luck

[Apathy]

yeah but copying them to html editor still requires manually relisting 1400 items it took me a year the first time how long do you think that will take plus the extra time listing when after your done copying them to dreamweaver and the like im talking about a simple tool that allows you to download allllllll of your items and then relist them on ebay as if they were never deleted and back all them up daily as sales will take up inventory and you dont want to relist previously sold items

[Apathy]

and yes they were actually on cd i printed labels and used a cd stomper and mailed them with a stamp anywhere in the us

[Apathy]

Also how could I not be making a profit when the listing cost me 3 cents and
I sold 60 of them for 1 dollar add that up and tell me the profit margin

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Hedrick [mailto:magicmikeh@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 4:03 PM
To: 'Office of the President'
Subject: RE: Fw: Ebay Item # 130227908269 (KMM294512175V82535L0KM)

The problem with this is I was not selling an item to inflate my feedback
score I have over 1100 positive feedback from many many items that I sell I
was selling an informational product on a cd-rom that was delivered through
the mail via usps in a padded media envelope I was not violating any policy
and feel this is a bad decision all of these emails will be posted publicly
I will forfeit my account and will never purchase or sell again on ebay if
this is your decision. I make my living on ebay I am not a hobby seller and
for all my work instead of being rewarded I am punished this is a bad
decision on your behalf and I really hope you give me a chance to correct
this. It isn't the 30 day suspension that I care about its that all of the
1400 items I had listed and worked over a year photographing describing and
listing are deleted and will never be returned and none of these were even
in question of violating eBay's policies and that is unfair unjust and wrong
please reconsider this decision I am an honest seller and a good customer
please make this right

-----Original Message-----
From: Office of the President [mailto:csme@ebay.com]
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 2:49 PM
To: Michael Hedrick
Subject: Re: Fw: Ebay Item # 130227908269 (KMM294512175V82535L0KM)

Dear Michael Hedrick,

Thank you for your recent email to Kip Knight in regard to your
apathy5611 account which is currently suspended. He has asked that I
review your email and respond on his behalf.

Please know that I have reviewed your account, listing removals, and
recent correspondence with our Trust and Safety Department. I can verify
that correct action was taken, and would like to explain further.

Your account was suspended on Jun-20-08 for a period of 30 days for
violating the Feedback Manipulation policy. Feedback Manipulation occurs
when Feedback left or received has been artificially inflated, falsely
enhancing a member's reputation rather than providing information on
genuine buying and selling experiences. While I understand that the
policy has only recently changed and become very strict, it has always
been the policy that feedback inflation is not allowed.

[Apathy]

We feel that members selling and buying low-priced, "non-physical" items
(such as eBooks, recipes, and desktop wallpapers) with low or no
shipping and handling charges artificially increases their Feedback
Score. By setting an extremely low Buy It Now price, they have
demonstrated that they are not trying to make a profit from the sale of
the item. Accordingly, we have determined that the purpose of the
listing is to inflate the members Feedback Score artificially. This is a
violation of eBay policy.

Upon review of your account I found that a large number of your feedback
were received from the sale or purchase of intangible, digitally
delivered items priced at $1.00 or lower. I also found that even after
the policy was changed prohibiting the sale of items with digital
delivery, you continued to list in violation of policy.

Feedback received from these sorts of items can be quickly built up and
is usually a precursor to committing fraud on our site. I realize that
was not your intention in selling those items, however the listings
themselves provide a means for other less scrupulous accounts to quickly
establish a seemingly legitimate Feedback record.

As you know, Feedback is the primary method of establishing trust on
eBay. Just as each of our members are protective over their Feedback
records, eBay is protective over the intended functionality of the
system itself. Sellers that inflate their Feedback score by buying or
selling digital ebooks, recipes, wallpapers, etc. create a false
representation to future buyers when the same seller starts to sell
higher dollar physical items. Similarly, sellers that list items that
can be used to inflate Feedback inadvertently enable other accounts to
commit Feedback Manipulation, which harms the overall marketplace.

While this was not the response you were hoping for, I hope this
information has been helpful. Your account will be eligible for
reinstatement after Jul-20-08. For reinstatement information, please
refer to the email that you received alerting you to the suspension.

I would like to ask that you refrain from calling PowerSeller support as
you do not have phone support while suspended. Further calls may
permanently jeopardize your account status.

I understand your frustration regarding this matter and apologize for
the inconvenience it caused you.

Sincerely,

Terri
Office of the President

[imjustme]

Yeah

[411guru]

Dude just leave it alone. They dont' care about your 1400 listings that took you 1 year to list. You can cry all you want, nothing will happen. Do they care that I lost 3k worth of income per month? Just wait the 30 days and pry for reinstatement. If it fails, make ⊗⊗⊗⊗ accounts.