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Sorry for the long post. I need some advice from my favorite scavengers on an eBay action. I’m posting this in two different groups for best coverage. Please provide some advice, if you can, but please no comments slamming eBay or off-topic comments please, as I’m just trying to figure out how to move forward in this situation. My New Year started out with eBay restricting my selling privileges for seven days due to a trademark violation – unauthorized counterfeit item. The item in question is a used Angry Birds t-shirt that’s been sitting for a couple years in my store and on sale for under $10. It’s an official Angry Birds shirt with their tags. This is why eBay has shut off my business for a week and is threatening permanent suspension of my store. I actually had a second Angry Birds shirt in my store which I’ve removed.
I have no problem removing an item and would have just removed it if they had asked first. But my concern is how to avoid future violation and suspension, since all my items, especially the shirts, are all branded and trademarked and used. There must be other companies out there that just report counterfeit on any used products of theirs that are being resold. If a company can report used products being resold, then that makes most of the items on eBay illegal to sell.
Right now, I just want to know if there’s a way to avoid future violations and suspension. Is there a list of problematic brands anywhere as a starting point of what not to list? I can’t find anything like that on eBay, so I’m hoping someone here might have some advice on brands to stay away from. I run a squeaky clean store and go to great lengths to provide great customer service and list responsibly. I don’t want to be gun shy about every item I list in the future. Thanks in advance for any advice given… Rick
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Very strange that they would suspend you right out of the gate. We were suspended once, but that was after a second item was found counterfeit (They warned us on the first and we removed it. I thought the second one was real, but it was just a REALLY good counterfeit.)
There is a VERO list out there of items you should stay away from (not sure where, but I’m sure someone has the link). Other than that, you are really at the mercy of someone reporting you for a VERO violation.
If an item is something you want to sell repeatedly, I would do as much research as possible on how to spot real vs. fake.
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T-Satt: It is not all about just fake items. Some of the companies on the list in the link I just provided is that some companies don’t want anybody reselling there items at all unless they are an “approved vendor-reseller”. 3-M is real bad about it. In the printing business they didn’t want us saying we were selling decals with 3-M adhesive backing unless we would buy 250,00 square feet of material directly from one of the 3-M warehouses. Then after we had spent thousands with them, then they approved us as a re-seller and viola’ we could use the words 3-m and Minnesotta Mining in our collateral material / brochures.
LL Bean is also bad about it because they offer a life time guarantee. Buy any of their rubber duck boots and for the lifetime of the product if it ever gets a hole in it or wears out, call them and give you a replacement free. Well they only like people who buy from them to actually sell them because of the guarantee issue. They figure you are not going to re-sell worn out used shoes.
resell them,…yes you can Call them LL Bean Duck Boots and you are not on their vendor [have bought from them list] and your name is mud.
Some companies police Ebay, Etsy, Amazon constantly, like John Deere and Harley Davidson. Others not as much.It seems to sell used online and not be an actual re-seller is to always be just taking that chance that you will get called out on the carpet. Of course some mad buyers or mean competitors turn people in also. Not to Ebay, but to the actual company who in turn looks it up and then jumps on Ebay.
It has the potential to be viscious.
mike in atl.
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Here ‘ya go. You won’t like it because there are hundreds on the VERO List. Click on any specific brand name and it tales you to their Copy Right statement, infringement rules and Ebay specific info.
As you read it think about what you said in your post. Seems like most of the items on Ebay couldn’t be sold. Well you are not far off if ALL of these companies had their way about it.
http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing/create-effective-listings/vero-program.html#m17-1-tb3
Good luck …
mike at mdc galleries in atlanta
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Wait a minute. Something does not seem right. If you type in Angry Birds in the search bar without even specifying a specific kind of item, you get over 28,000 results. And there are over 7,000 Angry Bird items that have been sold with some having been sold Today!
You mean to tell me that everyone of those sellers is a verified reseller of Anygry Birds products???? I highly doubt it. And if they are not, will ebay be removing multiple other listings for Vero violations? If it was a matter of trademark violation, what did they use to determine your shirt was counterfeit? So, does that mean that everyone else selling Angry Bird products is considered to have a counterfeit product although it has the tags to prove its legitimacy?
I would offer that you get all of your facts and materials together. This would include the listing, the listing number, the pictures, the specific pictures showing the tags verifying what you are selling, the description, and the results you find when you do your own search for other Angry Bird products similar to yours that are being sold on ebay. Have your account up on your computer so you can reference it if needed. Then call ebay as your most professional, calm self and present only the facts of the situation. Once the facts of your particular case/situation have been discussed and flushed out, if they choose not reinstate you, you may want to ask them if they will be pulling down the multiple other listings that are of Angry Bird products. I would offer to remember to stick to just the facts.
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From my understanding, it is not EBay that starts this, it is someone else that reports your listing to EBay. We have had warnings before on items that have thousands of other listings that stay active. Sometimes it is just your turn to be reported.
You can report all the other listings if you want. We have seen that happen before…
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