My husband and I have been temporarily suspended from eBay. The emails say it is due to trademark/counterfeit issues.
We would like to hear from someone else this has happened to - I hope we are not alone in this!
eBay will not tell us why they believe our items are counterfeit - they just say "there are certain things they look for when determining an ad is selling counterfeit goods". However, they won't tell us what these "things" are!!
Can anyone out there provide some insight? I believe we may be experiencing some sort of sabotage - I do know that ANYONE can write in to eBay, regarding ANY ad they see, and accuse the seller of fraud. eBay will not provide any information as to who is doing this to us!
Thanks, in advance, for any help you can provide!!!
goWholesale Forums » Wholesale Buyers » General Chat » Auctions, eBay, Closeouts/Surplus
eBay Suspension
20 posts
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you are probably selling counterfiet items especially if you bought them from here and they are either ralph lauren , lacoste, abercrombie , etc
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Were you VeRO? I was suspended from eBay because of an outside transaction through PayPal which has nothing to do with eBay. They are suppose to be 2 different companies but don't act like it. PayPal and eBay have the worst customer service and I go around circle with them and get nowhere. Everyone is at their mercy.
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sorry but werent you buyin abercrombie from surespeedy? her items were fake and were proven fake by customs/abercrombie.... so i dont think its really an unwarranted sabotage...
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Yes we did buy A&F from Surespeedy and you are correct that they are counterfeit. They were seized at the border and we got a C&D from A&F themselves, but we interestingly enough were never veroed for A&F. We were told by surespeedy that the A&F was produced at the A&F factory (ala gray market) which we thought would still make it legal to sell. I read in the newspaper that A&F was having difficulty controlloing their overseas suppliers because they'd contnue running the factory "after hours". Well, that's really the price they pay for going for cheap contract labor in a country that has no respect for patents or trademarks, and their problem in my eyes (so I thought). Anyhow, this is all beside the point.
We have been getting ads removed for just about anything else we put out there, and they are not by a VERO member (no e-mail address) - it is from e-bay themselves. Here is their exact verbiage:
"I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Unfortunately,
there were certain indicators in your auction that are common with
known fraudulent listings. Please understand that we at eBay are not
personally in a position to judge the authenticity of items listed on
the site. As a consequence of questionable elements in your listing, we
could not allow your listing(s) to remain on eBay."
We write our own ads, take our own pics, etc. I have no idea what they could be talking about
and they won't tell for "security reasons". -
You might find something useful here -
http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/trademarks.html
If nothing else, it's inspiring the the "little guy"can win with dedication to the cause. -
Well, that's really the price they pay for going for cheap contract labor in a country that has no respect for patents or trademarks, and their problem in my eyes (so I thought).
Did I miss something, or did you buy products made with cheap contract labor and showed no respect for A&F patents or trademarks.
Or is it ok because you are a "Little" guy and they are a major corporation?
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No, BKenn01, you did not miss anything.
Except that I wasn't (intentionally) trying to go around trademarks, etc.
and did not think I was infringing on IP as I thought (and still think?) I'm selling authentic A&F products (more on this below).
I do think A&F may have compromised their US protection in contracting in a country that doesn't value IP.
Basically, I'm not one for breaking the rules ... I will bend them if I think it's legal.
If I I err I take the lumps. But zero tolerance is a tough policy ... with ebay it's always been
guilty until proven innocent.
OK, back to the point:
The fact that A&F chose a partner/country that is apparently shipping authentic product (and this IS the point of contention)
behind their back is the issue. My question is: is this gray market or black market? Is it A&F or not??
A&F says if they didn't "authorize" it it isn't legal. But by virtue of contracting to have their product made
00% in another country and shipped to their retail stores, if they ship it somewhere else ... is it not still A&F?
People at A&F Brand Protection say if you don't get it from their website or a retail store it is not authentic.
Is this true? That means virtually NOTHING on ebay is authentic. I think the key words here are "authentic", "genuine", and the like.
What makes a product such? I'm not being devil's advocate here - I really think this is the heart of the issue
and even after years of studying this !@#$ I still am not sure of what's true.
Artbroker, Pete, any thoughts here?
Anyone? -
Shermpen,
Yes, we did, but until the last few orders her goods seemed OK.
We really didn't believe she dealt in counterfeit until the customs seizure.
(see other post today for explanation of why).
We dealt with A&F's C&D and will sell no more A&F. No problem.
We have plenty of merchandise that I know is not even questionable.
The sabotage I speak of is ebay shut those down too. They kept shutting things
down for no reason until they could justify shutting us down. No explanations
(of course). These were not VEROs... it was ebay themselves (though as my wife
points out any angry customer can sabotage you).
I think ebay did it as a CMA move (cover my !@#$).
A&F may have put pressure on them. Or they may have needed an example.
Bottom line, we did make a mistake. But in 4 years we have never had
any problems (like this) and have tried to do the right thing.
So yes I feel a little betrayed by ebay for hanging us in effigy.
Reflectivelhy, it is a sign of the times. I've never been lied to, cheated by,
charged back, counterfeited to, etc. any other time as much as I have been this year.
It's fairly depressing. If ebay had stock I think I'd short it because it's going
to come to a head soon. I guess I'm lucky I'll be out of it (unlike my foray
into tech stocks just before the big crash ...).
Time to move on I guess ...
Steve -
Pete,
That website is BRILLIANT!
I spent about an hour there.
I particularly like the VERO Commandments.
No help now, but certainly much needed commiseration ...
I'm e-mailing Karen to add a few tall tales.
Thanks!
Steve -
all im gonna say is, the fake abercrombie factories are just as big as the authorized abercrombie factories.... knowing that, i would draw the line on whether your goods were authentic or not, when i compared them to goods bought from an authorized abercrombie store in the mall...
ive read on here people sayin the hoodies they got from surespeedy didnt have the material inside they were supposed to, so if a hoodie you got from her, is made of inferior materials when compared to the real one, i would only assume you werent getting them from factory workers leaving the machines on during after hours in the factory. that is where i would draw the line on an item being grey market and black market... cuz the hoodie isnt the same exact thing as the hoodie in the store... -
Shermpen, I agree with you 100%. We do carefully check what we get. We've even taken items into our local Abercrombie outlet here in Indy and haven't been able to distinguish MOST items. Most of their employess are just kids ANd haven't been much help. But yes, some things are obvious - and then we return them (if they're still around) and terminate dealing with that particular vendor. Sometimes we have to write it off. But we never sell it if we suspect it's fake (black market). But none of this due diligence matters to either ebay or A&F.
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Hi
eBay is monitored by all designers and it is usually at their request that an account is suspended. This can come from a customer complaint to the manufacturer or the manufacturer themselves.
Go into eBay and check under VEro. This will give you some information and maybe give you some clues as to where you should check into eBay policies and rules to learn more about your situation and what you can or should do next.
I really hope that this is of some use to you.
tequila3993
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Thanks tequila.
We've had manufacturer VEROs before for wonderful things we've done (like not usin our own pictures) and they always list an e-mail to contact that manufacturer. These past ones have not, and the letter we got from ebay each time they pulled an ad said THEY did it because "they saw something suspicious in our ad", not at the "reuqest of a VERO participant".
Two reasons they may have targeted us:
1) Some merchandise was seized by customs and given to A&F who told us it was fake and issued a C&D. I'm sure they've pointed us out to ebay and ebay may have decided to get rid of us on their own to save face. We had no idea the merchandise was fake; it was supposed to be factory overruns (grey market).
2) Because this merchandise was seized, we tried to get PayPal to get our money back and they refused stating that the product was shipped and they aren't responsible for "quality of items". So we issued a chargeback via American Express and they have taken it directly from PayPal.
So neither one of htem is very happy with us and the fact that they are one and the same company surely doesn't help.
I've filled out the form, but I sincerely doubt our account will be reinstated. Powerseller, 4000+ feedbacks and 99.5% fb rating down the tubes, I guess.
Steve -
Surely ebay must tell you the exact reasons why they closed you. If you were sighted as selling counterfeit items then plead your innocence and hope for the best.
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All they would say is that our ads "had things in common with ads for counterfeit items". I asked what those might be and they said they couldn't tell us for "security reasons". They reinstated us yesterday nite, but we'll see for how long, because we still don't have the slightest idea what they don't like about our ads. It may just be the final step before our permanent removal for "repeated violations", of which I suppose we will never know!
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SCFieldsy wrote:All they would say is that our ads "had things in common with ads for counterfeit items". I asked what those might be and they said they couldn't tell us for "security reasons". They reinstated us yesterday nite, but we'll see for how long, because we still don't have the slightest idea what they don't like about our ads. It may just be the final step before our permanent removal for "repeated violations", of which I suppose we will never know!
Good Luck!! -
hi, my ebay account is suspended by ebay too.
With the same reason, I email them and reply is need my ID card and proof of the purchase invoice of all my items. -
ebay does tell reasons..
like against copy right.. or sth like dat...
but they don explain to u.... -
One thing because you mentioned before:
Just because your item looks exactly like the one at the store doesnt mean is authentic or overrun.
I dont think customs, paypal and ebay will work together to try to get you, i think you are just looking too hard at this.
Obviously, as far as i know, VERO wont do anything until somebody complaints that you sold fake merchandise. After, that is when your problems start because EBAY or VERO will keep closing your auctions.
From my own experience, the only way to know if the merchadise is really overruns is if you FLY where the factory is or contract an agent in the area. I know this is expensive but see it as an investment. I read in one of your posts you write off some merchandise, so spend some time and money and get a good source.
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