Anyone Reported An Item To eBay & Got Cold Shouldered?

[Henri Gaudier]

I was looking for a pair of studio monitors and came across an old con - a pair of BSS M250 monitors. I know from researching these in the past that they are nothing to do with either of the two famous BSS companies, one English, the other Swedish. I read the auction blurb and sure enough it was the same old "These cost a fortune" etc and so I tried to report it to eBay but they have an infuriating way of doing this where you have to choose from one list that then will bring up another list of options to choose from until, supposedly, it's defined. But it's not a comprehensive list and so I couldn't report it and make sense so I e-mailed them directly. (Why they don't have a box to enter the item number and a brief description why you're reporting it I don't know!?)

Anyway, after a day they wrote and said:-

"We'd like to ask you to resubmit your report via the eBay site. Please
copy this link into a new browser window then select the reasons for
your report. We realise that this process is time consuming and we appreciate your efforts."

Report by the means I told them didn't work and they also made out that I hadn't given them the actual item details. Not true. So essentially they'd blanked my entire e-mail.

I wrote back and said:- "Look, you've got the specifics so why don't you log on and do it? Why do I have to do your job for you? I'm trying to make this a safer environment for people to trade and you give me this cut 'n' paste crap about "appreciating" when the reality is you can't be bothered.

They wrote back:- "We're not in a position to make judgements about whether they are authentic or not ... Although I'm sure you're extremely knowledgeable about these types of items, we can't remove items at the request of third parties whose credentials we can't verify.

If you believe that the item in question breach the intellectual property rights of a third party ("rights owner"), I recommend that you notify the rights owner and encourage them to join our Verified Rights Owners (VeRO) Programme. Many rights owners are already members. Once we've verified them as a rights owner, they can request the removal of any listings that breach their intellectual property rights."

So it stays. Unless one of the BSS companies gets them for copy infringement these con men can get way with it. I've had a couple of problems in the past with my listings where eBay have been so pedantic you can't believe and yet on a big con like this they fight the person reporting the con tooth and nail. Wankers. Has anyone else had problems when they tried to do the right thing? Were they any better with you?

 

[diabolic]

They wrote back:- "We're not in a position to make judgements about whether they are authentic or not ... Although I'm sure you're extremely knowledgeable about these types of items, we can't remove items at the request of third parties whose credentials we can't verify.

I haven't had ebay do this to me, but it's common in software piracy situations. A lot of free storage sites get away with allowing pirated material by saying "if the verified copyright holder contacts us, we will take it down, otherwise we don't know if it really is something pirated."

 

[Swarmlord]

I've reported misrepresented items on eBay and they've always either delisted the item or had the seller modify the description.

 

[0098386]

I tried reporting a slew of pirated games that I was lead to believe were originals. I marked them all down and contacted Nintendo, Sony and eBay as well as other anti-piracy bodies but nobody cared.

In the end it left me out of pocket and I'm trying hard to forget the whole sorry episode.

 

[true777]

I know this is super frustrating, and Ebay is horrible about this. Do the BSS companies have websites? If so, find a customer service email address and tell them about the fake articles on Ebay!

 

[Vuzie]

Dealing with eBay with respect to fraud, stolen items, etc. is extremely problematic, from personal experience. My family's store was broken into a few years ago and thousands of dollars in merchandise stollen. Within days, the items appeared on eBay. We could tell it was our merchandise because the idiots posted photos of the actual items with our company's price markings and in some cases serial numbers visible! eBay was contacted, as well as the Sherriff's deptartment and our insurance company. The item sales were never pulled. Thankfully our company was covered, but the vendor stayed in business for about a year after. The general policy seems to be, we can't help it if people are selling stolen items on our website even if you have proof. There's some convoluted legal language in their disclaimers that apparently gives them an out against "criminal facilitation".

 

[elfin buddy]

In my experience, eBay is pretty apathetic about stuff like this. I emailed them once regarding a clear violation of their selling policies, and they basically told me to get lost. I tend to stay away from them these days, unless there's a particular specialty item I need that can't be had elsewhere.

 

[it5five]

Haven't used ebay in years. It's terrible. Always. All of the items are bad quality, no matter if the description says they aren't, and dealing with the people on there is a headache.