Online Auction Discrimination

[Pete1960's]

What is the name of your state?Hello all,

I live in Ohio, and have a question regarding ebay.

After doing some research for an item marked 'not for resale' and seeing that other auctions were completed and closed, I decided to post the same material for auction. Within 72 hours, my auction was cancelled by ebay for infringments.

Again, I looked at closed auction history and noticed that people had sold the same item, collected the money, and ebay made the standard comisison from that sale.

At this point, I changed the auction to sell a different item, with the winner getting this 'not for resale' item for free. I noticed that another person was doing the same. However, once again, ebay cancelled my auction after the close of the auction, again for infingment of copyrights. The other auction that was selling an item with the winner getting the 'not for resale' item for free was completed, the money collected, and ebay fees paid.

Also, there have been more auctions for the identical item since my auction was closed by ebay.

Does this constitue discrimination? If so, how would I go about bringing a law suit against such a massive company?

Any information would be a wonderful help.

Pete in Ohio.

 

[racer72]

The secret is the stuff sold prior to your attempts was sold before the auctions could be cancelled. Any attempts to sell those items now will likely result in a cancelled auction, even by those that were previously successful. You have no cause for action.

 

[Pete1960's]

Ohio:

Since this posting started, at least 5 items of exact same nature have been sold, and the auctions not cancelled. I am baffled by ebay and this indifferance to users with a higher feedback rate vs. the people who have been cancelled with a lower feedback rate.

 

[kat1963]

E-bay doesn’t approve every auction. They rely on the community to report violations. That said, doesn’t it appear to you the competition is reporting your auctions? YUP.
You can find more interesting information by reading the e-bay seller board listed under *communities* (top the page).



KAT

 

[motophonecases]

Looking for Ebay discrimination

I am looking for enough people that has documented emails and ended auctions due to this discrimination. And when they have reported the other "competitors" listing as violations and due to their power seller status those listings were never harmed or anything done to.

Here is what happened to me:

in the past 2 months, Ebay has pulled my listing quoting that i violated their "link" policy by having my email displaying on my page. I know it was reported by my competitors and to have my listing pulled means their products will be the only thing avaiable. Since I had bids on my listing, that income was obviously lost.

I started to do my own research of listings that have the same on it, for instance, listing of their website address and their email address on the auction. Same thing that I have. I then reported these lstings to Ebay. Those listings were never pulled at all.

In fact, I believe due to their "powerseller" status, their listings were giving the "special" treatment vs. my "seller" without the power status. I believe this to be an unfair practice of Ebay to make exceptions on their policy and affected my income. Just recently I reported again the same "power seller" for the 3rd time, i even had my friend report this guy;'s auction for blatantly listing his website of "cellularproducts4less.net" on his auction. Ebay has done nothing the guy's listing stays on. While i have to resort to a simple "EMAIL ME" with the link encoded into the email me and not able to display my email address for fear of being discriminated against by Ebay.

A simple search on the web under "ebay discrimination" will return many results. Now, I am looking for more people to stand up and see if any attorney is willing to take on the case of discrimination and sue the pants out of Ebay. may be, they will then stop their discriminating attitudes.

Email me if you are one of the victims or an attorney interested.

 

[1frustrated2]

Documentation of Discrimination

I realize that this topic will be up for many attacks by those ebayers who don't believe others should have a store or business on ebay. Believe me, I've witnessed the attacks on the forums when the questions are not of the "POPULAR" beliefs. Be that as it may, there are many odd businesses out there that are quality businesses and deserve the right to also sell their wares online. If they pay their bill and supply the item they offer, why should they be attacked?

I've been a buyer for many years on ebay, so I've seen a lot of things go on over the years. But, I decided to try selling my items as well.

I'm sick and tired of the unscrupulous DISCRIMINATION by ebay. I've seen it over and over again. I've seen victims to 10s of thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent purchases while the perp actually skates and signs up with a new ID simply to attack the victims again. Ebay does NOTHING! Now let's take a look at the other side of this issue. New sellers trying to establish feedback, in order to list an item as a Buy It Now. Just try to get feedback when you are new. So, the newbie tries to copy what the "POWER SELLERS" do and ends up NARU'd. Why does the POWER SELLER get away with it, but the new seller gets banned? Didn't you know that if an item is listed at a low price, this is supposed FEEDBACK SOLICITATION? But Power Sellers can do this all day long and never get a slap whatsoever. Talk about discrimiation!

You do realize that ebay makes the rules up as they go along. I have proof that ebay has actually REMOVED thousands of feedbacks, MONTHS retroactively, for low priced items on a seller. But according to ebay, they cannot remove feedback or feedback scores without a court order. Don't get me wrong, the many many pages of feedback comments were still there, but the score went from over 3000 to under 300. I don't believe the seller, that I am talking about, ever received any form of notification from a court. Just an email from ebay that he violated rules (that ebay never explained when questioned) and the feedback scores were removed. That seller ended up so disgusted, he gave up and left ebay. The attacks on his listings were ongoing, regardless of what he sold. Anyone else could list choice auctions to AVOID FEES, but if he tried to list a few items with choice of anything, he was shut down and sent a nasty email from ebay.

I defy you to do a search...any day of the week...and not find POWER SELLERS, selling $.01 items with free shipping. Check it out any time in the stores listings. Most of these items are resell items (digital downloads not created by the seller)(total ebay violations) and they are allowed to continue to sell them. Now my own "ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHY" items were actually higher priced than that, but I still was banned for "ABUSING EBAY". No explanation, no rule quoted or violation, simply suspended. Oh, they state, "Abusing eBay" of the eBay User Agreement states, in part:

"...we may limit, suspend, or terminate our service and user accounts, prohibit access to our website, remove hosted content, and take technical and legal steps to keep users off the Site if we think that they are creating problems, possible legal liabilities, or acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of our policies."

In what way am I causing legal liabilities, problems or acting inconsistently, by selling MY OWN FLIPPIN ART WORK???


How about those sellers that are blatantly committing fee avoidance? We're talking THOUSANDS of $.01 items with shipping of $10.00 for an item that would cost $1.00 to ship! But hey, they are paying ebay the big bucks, so they are allowed to avoid fees. It's the newbie that has to pick up the pieces and pay the insertion fees to keep ebay afloat! If ebay would crack down on a few thousand of the fee avoiding b*****ds, we just might not need the fee increases every year. After all, ebay is showing everyone how everything is on the rise, so why the increases? STOP THE FEE AVOIDERS!!!!!!!!! Just 'cause they are big sellers, that should NOT mean they are "ABOVE THE EBAY LAW"! I'm ready to let ebay have their BLASTED site and I'll pick up my marbles and go home!

Anyway, I'm ONE FRUSTRATED AND ANGRY SELLER!!!!!

 

[cubanitatb]

Does Ebay discriminate!

I am looking for enough people that has documented emails and ended auctions due to this discrimination. And when they have reported the other "competitors" listing as violations and due to their power seller status those listings were never harmed or anything done to.

Here is what happened to me:

in the past 2 months, Ebay has pulled my listing quoting that i violated their "link" policy by having my email displaying on my page. I know it was reported by my competitors and to have my listing pulled means their products will be the only thing avaiable. Since I had bids on my listing, that income was obviously lost.

I started to do my own research of listings that have the same on it, for instance, listing of their website address and their email address on the auction. Same thing that I have. I then reported these lstings to Ebay. Those listings were never pulled at all.

In fact, I believe due to their "powerseller" status, their listings were giving the "special" treatment vs. my "seller" without the power status. I believe this to be an unfair practice of Ebay to make exceptions on their policy and affected my income. Just recently I reported again the same "power seller" for the 3rd time, i even had my friend report this guy;'s auction for blatantly listing his website of "cellularproducts4less.net" on his auction. Ebay has done nothing the guy's listing stays on. While i have to resort to a simple "EMAIL ME" with the link encoded into the email me and not able to display my email address for fear of being discriminated against by Ebay.

A simple search on the web under "ebay discrimination" will return many results. Now, I am looking for more people to stand up and see if any attorney is willing to take on the case of discrimination and sue the pants out of Ebay. may be, they will then stop their discriminating attitudes.

Email me if you are one of the victims or an attorney interested.

YES THEY DO..

 

[Zigner]

YES THEY DO..

And, it's just as legal now as it was 2 years ago!

 

[LeeHarveyBlotto]

eBay (or any other company) has nearly no legal obligation to treat all customers equally.

 

[njjean]

eBay (or any other company) has nearly no legal obligation to treat all customers equally.

I am fascinated by all the advice given on this site. Is anyone actually a lawyer? I have asked that question several times and noone answers. So, are YOU a lawyer? And can you quote the law that backs up your response?

 

[seniorjudge]

Question:

I am fascinated by all the advice given on this site. Is anyone actually a lawyer? I have asked that question several times and noone answers. So, are YOU a lawyer? And can you quote the law that backs up your response?

Answer:

The Constitution of the United States.

 

[Zigner]

Perhaps you missed this:



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[LeeHarveyBlotto]

I am fascinated by all the advice given on this site. Is anyone actually a lawyer? I have asked that question several times and noone answers. So, are YOU a lawyer? And can you quote the law that backs up your response?

That's not how the law works. There is no law that allows a company not to treat customers unequally, it's the absence of a law against it that allows it. There are certain forms of discrimination that are illegal, but in the overwheming majority of contexts, discrimination is perfectly legal.

 

[VeronicaLodge]

YES THEY DO..

so? not all discrimination is illegal.

 

[ErinGoBragh]

OOOO.. wow.... HOLY NECROPOST BATMAN!

haha