Is this the reason my combined accounts of over 45,000 feedback were taken out because of a few "potentially infringing" items that cost $1.50 each wholesale that I have been selling the last 9 years??
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE eBay REICH Internet Archive: Details: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE eBay REICH
Reviewer: professor3 - 4 out of 5 stars - May 13, 2008
Subject: Solid essay, well-rsearched
I enjoyed reading this essay and have forwarded it to several friends. What bothers me most about ebay, is that they are now randomly suspending users, foremost sellers, in order to follow a new business model, eliminating the small sellers. It is a crime that ebay does not share this publicly and (knowingly) wastes people's time trying to get reinstated again via fax, postal mail in, etc. Thus, wasting people's time and money, while keeping many seller's positive account balances in fees is the true crime. ebay is a waste of time.
P.S.
"while
keeping many seller's positive account balances in fees is the true crime."
Yah, I noticed that. Ebay has not been in any great rush to refund those positive account balance fees to my paypal account. Yet they were mighty quick on the gun on an alleged "potentially infringing" item.
Apart from referring to itself as “the world’s largest marketplace,” (3) today eBay is “one of the most hostile Internet venues” according to Adams (4). What is more, and that is the focus of this article is that eBay is an illegal corporation. Similar to Nazism and the installation of the totalitarian state under Hitler, eBay operates under the guise of legality, uses propaganda mechanisms, manipulating information, extortion and many other criminal means to disguise its malpractices.
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This paragraph censored by HOE at 8:09AM due to GreenBean
and TMiles2564 objections.
To read what was in this paragraph see link above.
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The consistent violation of civil, corporate and legal law, however is now catching up, as indicated by the individual and class action law suits against them. Enron and Fastow were then, eBay is now! (6)
Lies deception, fraud, slander, artificial auctions creation artificially inflating the total auction listings count, human rights abuses, stock fraud, user “expendability” are all part of this. This list could go on, but significantly it is also a summary of the practices and conduct of the ruler of a totalitarian state, in the case of eBay with parallels to the third Reich under Hitler, that cannot be overlooked: all aspects relate to the “world’s biggest marketplace”, eBay, where you can apparently “shop victoriously.” The following is an overview of the current situation for eBay (as of May 2008) its rules, fees, feedback policy, abuse of its users (buyers and sellers), unwanted new users, financial malpractices, lack of growth potential and alternatives to eBay.
The first, and one of the biggest problems for anyone selling on eBay are its rules and policies. So-called “listing violations” are a continuous problem any seller faces on eBay, i.e. violating one of 's myriad of endless and incomprehensible rules and policies that even eBay doesn't understand. The rules are inconsistent, due to variations, such as
in China, for example, where an eBay seller can list for free (or deeply discounted listings) without fear of having auctions terminated for trademark or copyright violations: a place where the eBay listing rules don't apply because eBay wants to encourage developing markets. Daines maintains that over
75% of all eBay rules and regulations (in addition to the flawed listing rules) do not make sense, causing default seller suspensions, a.k.a. NARU (Not A Registered User) - term for a user who has been suspended by eBay (7). However, this aspect does not really matter since
eBay has now rolled out its random user suspension, in order to reach fixed quota goals.
In addition eBay is a health hazard. Several clinical studies conducted by the Harvard Medical School have shown eBay is a medical danger; on this Becker states: I have had patients of different ages and gender suffering from
psychological turmoil to depression as caused by their experience with eBay. We are not talking about a mere bad feeling in your stomach, but
psychological damage caused by mental trauma, as a result of dealing with the automated eBay system and its inhumane indifference to my patients. (8)
This clinical study will also be published in several medical journals in late 2008, and segments of it are already on file as part of evidence on plaintiffs seeking legal action against eBay. The painstaking documentation was the main challenge to compile, evaluate and format in order to be accepted as a court filing, but was obviously necessary to make a proper medical case against eBay.
Paterson has questioned for years, why eBay does not have an ombudsperson? (10) One reader responded in posing a counter-question: “Why did the Gestapo not have an ombudsperson?”
The worst part of any user experience is having to deal with ’s Trust & Safety Department, which once a user is caught up with, she/he never escapes. According to Weizman ’s Trust & Safety is an exactly replicated mirror of the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) Hitler relied on to control his citizens. What is more, “the mechanisms and techniques used by eBay T & S, are identical to the Nazi’s secret police, namely operating by means of surprise, fear, intimidation and terror.”
The T & S Gestapo works closely with the “VeRO” Program, a program by which owners of intellectual property rights can enforce those rights on eBay, also used as a verb as in, "I've been VeRO'd". A VeRO Takedown is what happens when a VeRO member notifies eBay that someone's auction is infringing. The VeRO member is not required to provide proof of IP ownership, or provide the seller with an explanation of why the listing was removed, or a legal basis for demanding the takedown. No VeRO member has ever been punished for misusing the VeRO Program although one study estimated an abuse rate of about 30%. eBay will not help a seller who has been VeRO'd and will suspend a seller who is repeat "offender" while pointedly ignoring improper and illegal VeRO takedowns. It has been estimated that as high as 50% of VeRO "takedowns" are invalid or unjust. eBay does not "verify" the claimed rights. Norrington’s Memo clearly states, that eBay does not care about what happens to its sellers in such circumstances, since apparently “there are more than enough new idiots, signing up every day.” (14)
Subsequently, eBay T&S fetishism in combination with the faulty VERO system under the guise of protection leads to users being suspended for no reason. So, how does eBay’s Gestapo operate? Once eBay suspends a user they have a meticulous system in place that tracks and analyzes users, their moves, behavior patterns, keystroke analysis moves, behavior patterns, syntax and much more; using a public computer will automatically get you suspended. Thus, “buying” an eBay account from someone else will not work! There are guides out there which suggest tips to get back onto eBay, such as using dial-up, always changing your cpu name, ip blockers, using false names, new credit cards. However, Tim Young, an MIT computer security expert, who knows how eBay works states:
eBay will always track you down, despite having circumvented ALL their tracking mechanisms. eBay WILL GET YOU......The people who should be working in eBay customer support, are working in a HUGE eBay security-tracking department...!!!! The Gestapo of the 21st Century!!! (15)
“The upside of the continuous abuse of human beings on eBay and its Gestapo is a chance for other auction and ecommerce websites to grow.
eBay never has and never will care about people, the nightmare for many is almost over, since eBay has entered a spiral into its own death beyond any point of return.”
As of 2008 eBay has retained an estimated $2,8 billion US dollars from sellers with a positive eBay account balance that were suspended and never reinstated. Any other business that conducts itself in such a way would be reprimanded, penalized and loose any lawsuit filed against it. eBay is not above the law anymore.
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Great, now maybe HOE can join a class action medical suit later this year for the "massive shock and depression" this arcane system of Ebay has caused. Come to think of it my bedroom performance has slid down quite a bit too. That has to be worth at least 4 or 5 million in suffering if not more.
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EBay randomly suspending sellers, in order to follow a new business model? 
Thanks for posting this! I think eBay is just getting too big. They can't pay attention to the individual pieces anymore, only to the whole cake. So if there's a worm in the cake, they rather smash the entire cake than looking through 12 pieces to try and find the worm.
