Come on Everybody! Let's Clean Up eBay!
It's the Official Clean Up the World Weekend So, eBayers, Let's Do Our Bit!
Because hundreds of items a second get listed on the auction site it is impossible for eBay to check every one. Therefore they rely on you and me, the eBay Community, to police their site by reporting rule breakers to them. Unfortunately users rarely spend the time necessary to report a rogue sellers listing and therefore they often make it through to the end when a new or inexperienced eBay user can fall victim.
So why not all make a commitment this weekend to actively seek out these bad listings and help clean the site up for the benefit of us all? If you are on the US eBay.com website it is very easy to report a bad listing. At the bottom of every item listing, under the heading 'What else can you do?', there is a simple 'report this item' link. Follow that link and in a couple of steps, which help you identify the problem correctly, you can make eBay's Customer Services aware at the click of a mouse.
eBay will check the report and take appropriate action. This may mean putting an immediate end to the listing you report. They may choose to email the seller asking for the listing to be revised or perhaps they will overlook the report. Whatever the result, you will have helped eBay clean up it's site and potentially saved a vulnerable user from falling for another trap.
So what listings should you report? Fee avoidance is a hot topic at the moment at eBay. The most common fee avoidance scam is to make the sale price of the item very cheap but inflate the shipping cost dramatically. eBay doesn't charge their sale commission on the shipping charge meaning rogue sellers can compete unfairly against other users of the site. These listings are easy to spot. Simply type in a common search term, say 'MP3', and look at the very cheap offers that come up. We all know an MP3 weighs next to nothing so, no matter where it comes from, it shouldn't justify more than a few dollars to ship it. If you see an outrageous shipping fee then go find that report link.
If you see anything offensive in nature that is obviously a good reason to report. I must confess I worry about all the cashing in on celebrity deaths on eBay. I fear many users find that offensive, and you may choose to report such items, but eBay itself determines offensive listings as being of, for example, a hate related or pornographic nature.
Keyword spamming is another serious listing violation. Ever wondered why a seller makes his listing go on and on talking around in circles about the virtues of his product? The chances are he is deliberately building in every 'hot' keyword or search term he can to make his item show up in almost every search. Again these are easily found. Do a search for something obvious and see what unrelated listings come up. Check them out and if it seems they are spamming hit that report link!
For more information on what banned items and listing rules you should report check out eBays own help section which is packed with detailed advice.
The official Clean Up the World event that inspired this piece is held in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme. The event brings together more than 35 million volunteers from more than 110 countries annually to clean up, fix up and conserve their local environment.
Let's show we care about the eBay environment too!
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- Because hundreds of items a second get listed on the auction site it is impossible for eBay to check
- Let's show we care about the eBay environment too!
25 Comments
Post a CommentUnless we speak up and not let this happen e-bay will continue not to care because they are makng money meanwhile we are still going to get ripped off by these ebay sellers like frsvegas who has a store on ebay called the Sultan of Sports. Unfortunately my stupidity, I read the feedbacks after I made the purchase and I complained to the seller and to ebay and nothing was done as a matter of fact he is still selling and they have him as a power seller to boot. If Ebay doesnt listen maybe they will if we stop making purchases. If large corporations can go out of business so can they
My business partners and I quit using ebay after their last price hike. Their greed is getting out of hand
Ebay lets the bogus shipping prices continue along with fakes and scams. They don't have the time to clean up the sight they would rather their employees remain busy worrying about cleaning up message boards (cause they cant take the heat) rather than solve problems. They are also busy killing ebay accounts that are harmless nonetheless without obligation to give any explantion and when they do they may as well be speaking greek.
I have reported many excessive shipping items on ebay but they never take any of them down so why bother?
I think the e-Bay strike is an excellent thing and I support it wholeheartedly!
Unfortunately, for e-Bay, they are now finding that their philosophy is no longer going to work. People will only be pushed so far before they rebel and say "No more!"
I have three shops. All will close in mid November, when the stock I have listed there runs out. From those I have talked to, I am not alone.
Ny Mid November, I shall have my own Website shop and will no longer need e-Bay. If I am typical, and I believe I am, then e-Bay will experience a huge down-turn in their profits come the end of November.
If e-Bay is wise, they will realise that they have made a very unwise move and will retract their new fee charges. Somehow, I do not think they will and by the time they realise that they should have, it will be too late.
E-bay seemed to have buried their heads in the sand. If they think that this is going to go away, they can think again.
I have been buying and selling on e-Bay for several years now and I have never seen so many disgruntled sellers as I am seeing now. People have had enough of their corporate greed and their absolute failure to listen to those people who make e-Bay what it is.
E-bay has put forward many fee hikes, made many changes, and done some things that have not been popular with the buyers and sellers. Always there have been those who were unhappy with those changes. In the past, e-Bay has learned that if they just ignore the complatins it will eventually go away. This has encouraged them to become totalitarian in their outlook with the knowledge that they are too big to take notice of the 'little' seller.
I agree with the strike. Ebay seems to be out of control.
The failure of eBay to police its own site is an absolute disgrace. To hide behind 'we are just a venue' frankly is just not good enough. There are no checks whatsoever in setting up an account, and whilst requiring a valid credit card and verified address would not be foolproof, it would certainly substantially reduce the number of scammers. The recent massive escalation in fees is a crude attempt to boost its income and bolster its flagging share price, investors are obviously unhappy, and with good reason as the income from listings are falling through the floor following massive desertions to eBid, Yahoo, Wagglepop etc. It is only by tolerating the ripoffs that it can sustain the income levels, so eBay is in a cleft stick. If it deals effectively with the scammers and fraudsters it will lose fee income, if it does not it will eventually lose everything. It must take the loss now, by removing scams, and try to entice its lost reliable sellers back to replace the fraudulant listing
Hi, very good article, I am so please that so many people are coming together to clean up ebay, and get it back on the right path to what it once was. I do hope they sit up and take notice of the damage they have done with the new fee hike and come to their sences soon before all the sellers dissapear to ebid as they have been doing, It's getting to the stage now where as its best to check ebid first as most of the sellers have moved on to there.