Your listings have been ended (Account 3 years old)

[fernendo]

Hi guys

I have had a stealth account since late 2015 without any major problems.

I sell digitally delivered software products on ebay. Please note these are not pirated or counterfeit in any way. It's actually open source / public domain / freeware that I have either improved, modified, added to or provided extra features for. I am certainly not selling dodgy copies or Microsoft office or anything piracy related like that.

Tonight I got the dreaded email

Your listings have been ended

Hello (username)

After reviewing your account, we've had to take the following action:
- Some or all of your listings may have been removed. A list of any removed items will be listed further down in this email.
- We have credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listing(s).

We don't allow replicas, counterfeit items, or unauthorized copies to be listed on eBay. Unauthorized copies may include things that are bootlegged, illegally duplicated, or pirated. These kinds of things may infringe on someone's copyright or trademark. For more information about our replicas, counterfeit items, and unauthorized copies policy, go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/...unterfeit.html

Here are the listing we removed:-
(All 10 of my auctions are listed here)

We appreciate your understanding.

Thanks,

eBay


What is my best bet? To contact ebay and try to resolve?

A few years back on a different account I had a similar problem and to my surprise once I contacted ebay and proved it was legitimate open source they reinstated everything so I guess this is my best bet unless anyone here has any other ideas?

I have noticed that even though they have pulled all my listing my precious selling privileges seem to be untouched.

Thanks for your help

[slokor]

Sounds like the items you are listing are high risk ones. Software always is.
Whatever you do don't just relist those items or the account will be suspended.
Trying to call might work but there are no guarantees in this game.
Are you able to provide them with the proper documentation to prove that the items are legitimate and that you have the permission from the copyright owners to sell the software? be aware that they will more than likely request such documentation.

[fernendo]

Thanks for your reply.

When I had a similar problem on my other account I just pointed the ebay agent to the website that included the open source license agreement. Luckily after being transferred loads of times I had an agent with some sense who agreed that I could relist the item in question.

I guess I will try this again and see what happens.

I wonder if I should admit they are digitally delivered items or claim they are physical items. I know ebay is stricter on digital delivery.

This is a real pity cos I I've just lost my job and this is enough passive income to help me get by talk about bad timing :(

[rsot]

Originally Posted by fernendo

I wonder if I should admit they are digitally delivered items or claim they are physical items. I know ebay is stricter on digital delivery.

This is a real pity cos I I've just lost my job and this is enough passive income to help me get by talk about bad timing :(

These services hit hard when you're down :( lot of us have had that happen

[SaiJin]

Originally Posted by fernendo

Thanks for your reply.

When I had a similar problem on my other account I just pointed the ebay agent to the website that included the open source license agreement. Luckily after being transferred loads of times I had an agent with some sense who agreed that I could relist the item in question.

I guess I will try this again and see what happens.

I wonder if I should admit they are digitally delivered items or claim they are physical items. I know ebay is stricter on digital delivery.

This is a real pity cos I I've just lost my job and this is enough passive income to help me get by talk about bad timing :(

My suggestion is you sell them, but provide a tracking.
So send your clients a card to say thank you and all with a tracking.
If you admit it's digital if eB or PP ask you, they'd most likely just get rid of you.


This way you are covered from INR claims.

[slokor]

I agree with SaiJin. Be sure to declare these are goods with a physical method of delivery and start uploading tracking numbers for all items sold. Small price to pay to keep your business alive.

[nickopedia]

I know some successful sellers of digital items, but they always post them in the mail with a tracking number even though they are also sent by e-mail. This is to cover themselves to prevent what happened to you.

EB/PP generally care a great deal about having some physical item(s) to mail with a tracking # even if it's just a piece of paper with a number written on it.

[quizmaniac]

physically posting something to get a tracking number is a good move.
obviously if the item is very cheap to begin with the cost of tracked postage might make the item not worth selling.

[fernendo]

Originally Posted by slokor

Sounds like the items you are listing are high risk ones. Software always is.
Whatever you do don't just relist those items or the account will be suspended.
Trying to call might work but there are no guarantees in this game.
Are you able to provide them with the proper documentation to prove that the items are legitimate and that you have the permission from the copyright owners to sell the software? be aware that they will more than likely request such documentation.

Hi everyone. Yes I agree it's safer to always send physical tracked however I don't do this on both accounts for 2 reasons. 1) Because the cost of tracked postage would leave almost no profit or in some cases I would lose money. 2) Selling digitally delivered items whilst risky is a great achievement as you gain a true passive income. You can go on holiday, sit on a sunny beach and watch the money come in. To me this is extremely valuable and helps justify the extra risk. Also it allows me to sell the items cheaper and therefore sell more and saves massive amounts of work creating media, printing artwork and address labels then posting etc. If you sell lots of low value items (£3 or so each thats a lot of extra work. Not to mention all the item not received hassle and reposting etc.

I have had this account for about 3 years and been active for about 1 year so it does work. It's also important to note that I still have full selling privilages even though they have removed my listings.

So I have contacted ebay and they have asked me a form to upload proof that I am authorised to resell these items. This is no problem as I can provide a website address of the software, screenshots and the open source license agreements that states anyone is allowed to modify and resell the software.

The only thing I am wondering is should I send them real and genuine proof that I am entitled to sell the products or is it better to get "creative" and send them **** documentation stating that I am authorised to sell this as I am wondering if they will require a specific agreement addressed to me rather than a generic agreement stating anyone may modify and sell this software etc.

Do ebay often take notice of this kind of proof or is this just them wasting peoples time when they have no intention of reinstating the listings.

If anyone has any thoughts or experience with this I would be very grateful.

Kind Regards

[SaiJin]

If your account on ebay reflects the name and info on the authentic proof that you have, then please do give them that.

Do keep in mind that we are dealing with monkeys... not compassionate, logical people here.

[fernendo]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

If your account on ebay reflects the name and info on the authentic proof that you have, then please do give them that.

Do keep in mind that we are dealing with monkeys... not compassionate, logical people here.

There is no name on the authentic proof. As this is open source software the license agreement is public for anyone who wishes to use the software therefore it isn't addressed to a person.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by fernendo

Do ebay often take notice of this kind of proof or is this just them wasting peoples time when they have no intention of reinstating the listings.

It's really hit-or-miss. Can't hurt to try but eb (and pp) for that matter are known to dislike digital delivery sales quite a bit and won't reinstate accounts.

[fernendo]

OK bear in mind my selling privileges aren't revoked. I can still get just cannot relist those items.

[fernendo]

Even though my listing says it's digitally delivered should I say it's physically delivered if they ask?

[fernendo]

Hi I just had a chat with ebay. I got the usual situation of being transferred to about 5 different reps before I was talking to the right person.

They looked at the documents I submitted and said that their final answer was that I couldn't relist any of those items again.

After asking lots of questions they said that I can still list other similar software products but not those exact products. They said that if I do list similar products I must have proof that I have the right to resell / distribute them.

I said well I have that proof for these items. Why is it I cannot relist these but can relist very similar items.

They then said I can list similar items but I should register with VERO first.

I said this is open source software VERO doesn't apply to this

They then said I have checked with my supervisor and you can relist 2 of the items that were taken down but you should use different images in the listings not stock images. (They wern't stock images they were images created by me)

So they have gone from this is our final decision to actually you can relist 2 of them.

They said if I wanted to relist the others I should contact ebay first and they will advise me.

Sounds like they can't make up their mind.

I sell software to covertly spy / track / monitor Windows PCs and Mobile / Cell Phones. To be used for parental monitoring of children etc. They said that this was classed by ebay as "potentially encouraging illegal activity"

It's interesting that you can sell a hardware keylogger no problem at all but if you sell a software keylogger that does exactly the same thing but is software based it's "potentially encouraging illegal activity"

So my plan is to relist the approved items and leave the spy software off for now as I guess this is what's causing their upset.

It's a shame tho as I was the only seller offering that kind of software and it was one of my more profitable products.