keeping your ebay account in good standing

                eBay can be pretty particular about their policies and standards.  One of the main problems with eBay, and the reason people are founding or switching to other sites, is because the restriction of items and selling practices gets worse every quarter.  Also, their seller satisfaction ratings are rather warped, and less and less power and recourse is being given to the seller to counter problems they might have.

 

 

 
Email informing a user of their eBay account suspension, a dreaded consequence.  Once this happens, there generally aren't any legitimate ways to get it back.

Policy Violations: What you Can do

         Back in 1995 when eBay was created as AuctionWeb, a seller had the freedom to list pretty much anything.  The following is a partial, condensed list of certain items that aren’t allowed on eBay.  Unfortunately, this list gets longer and the restrictions get more complicated all the time.

eBay banned alcohol in 1999.  This policy has only been slightly moderated in the U.S. since that time. 

·         Alcohol

·         Most animals and wildlife and items such as ivory and mounted specimens

·         Some art

·         Artifacts, cave formations, and grave-related objects

·         Some catalytic converters and test pipes

·         Charity or fundraiser items unless you use their MissionFish service

·         Some types of used clothing

·         Replica currency

·         Items that interfere with current contracts

·         Used cosmetics

·         Drugs and drug paraphernalia (which could include anything; I had an auction ended for listing a coupon for $10 off a prescription drug).

·         Credit cards that are less than 10 years old

·         Any item that compares itself to drugs

·         Radar and laser jammers (including legal laser jamming equipment)

·         Radio scanners

·         Traffic light control equipment (also known as MIRT devices)

·         Satellite and TV cable descramblers

·         Low-powered radio transmitting equipment

·         Extended coverage high-frequency transceivers

·         CB amplifiers

·         Some cordless telephones

·         Odometer modification devices

·         Some electronic surveillance equipment

·         Any type of firearm

·         Any replica firearm that doesn’t have the orange tip

·         Parts or accessories for replica firearms that are based on real firearms

·         Paintball guns that look real

·         Paintball cannons

·         Silencers for replica firearms

·         Silencers for real firearms

·         Blank ammunition

·         Bullets, buck shot, or lead shot

·         Cartridges, casings, shells, or hulls

·         Dummy ammunition

·         Gunpowder or primers

·         Live ammo rounds

·         Inert ammo

·         Any assault weapons

·         Bayonets to be fixed to assault weapons

·         An specifications of assault weapons

·         Flash suppressors

·         Grenade launchers

·         Instructions on how to convert a gun to fully automatic

·         Listings for gun parts that don’t specify what gun they are for

·         BB guns, pellet guns, or air rifles or pistols

·         Atomic or nuclear weapons

·         Explosives or grenades of any kind

·         Land mines, missiles, or rocket launchers

·         Nerve gas

·         Collectible firearms

·         Firearm kits

·         Flash suppressors

·         Almost any gun parts

·         Spear guns

·         Pretty much any type of gun

·         Brass knuckles

·         Knives with knuckle guards

·         Leaded canes or sticks

·         Any type of nightstick

·         Nunchucks

·         Three-section staffs

·         Clubs or blackjacks

·         Automatic, balisong, butterfly, dual-action, gravity, hidden, switchblade, paratrooper, push, or shruiken knives. 

·         Replica or imitation switchblades

·         Sword canes, throwing stars, or wolverine claws

·         Blow guns, dart guns, flare guns or flares, potato guns, tear gas

·         Disguised stun guns, stun batons, tasers

·         Some food items

·         More than one gift card at a time

·         Any type of novelty ID’s

·         Any government uniforms and some documents

·         Hazardous and perishable items

·         Human parts and remains

·         Any information that encourages illegal activity

·         Lottery tickets

·         Any lists of personal or mailing information

·         No more than 20 coupons for a particular item or 100 total.  No more than 2 ‘free item’ coupons in a single listing

·         Contact lenses and prescription eyewear

·         EMS units, TENS units, oxygen concentrators, pacemakers, etc.

·         Any information regarding multi-level marketing, matrix, pyramid, or Ponzi schemes

·         Offensive material, including memorabilia or collectibles from Nazi, KKK, Aryan Nation, neo-Nazi groups.  Also, glorification of natural disaster, human tragedy, terrorism and racially or ethnically offensive items.  Specific items include holocaust denial books; items that bear symbols of the Nazis, SS, KKK; music or materials that promote racial superiority; crime scene photos; morgue shots; any materials from notorious murders; electric chairs and capital punishment related items.

·         Any lockpicking or locksmith instruments

·         Some pesticides

·         Any real or authentic-looking material from law enforcement agencies

·         Some political reproductions

·         Postage meters

·         Prescription drugs and many related materials, including coupons

·         Prohibited services: virtual relationships, services involving physical contact, dating or escort service, prostitution, etc.

·         Some slot machines

·         Stocks or securities

·         Stolen property or property with serial numbers removed

·         Blueprints of transit facilities

·         Teacher’s edition textbooks

·         Tobacco items, including coupons

·         It’s very hard to sell travel

·         Some weeds and seeds

         This list, which is partial, is quite long and expands all of the time.  Obviously, some of these items are clearly inappropriate or illegal to sell, but some of these items could be relaxed or removed.  There are several websites, albeit it less popular ones, that offer many less restrictions.

 

 

        Additionally, eBay requires sellers to maintain certain standards.  In recent times, it has become basically an unwritten rule that a seller’s feedback must be maintained at around 97, 98, and 99 percent or higher.  When I first started using eBay, many users had low 90’s and upper 80’s feedback that were in good standing. 

A particularly bad feedback rating for a seller, circa 2005.  Because of problems like this, eBay has significantly altered its feedback and payment policies. 

 

         One of the newest catch-points is the Detailed Seller Ratings, which must be kept very high.  The trick is that buyers are anonymous when they leave these ratings; there have already been cases where buyers have left positive feedback but purposefully left low DSR’s in order to hurt the seller.  You have to maintain a minimum DSR rating per category (the categories are shipping time, shipping charges, communication, and item as described) in order to be able to continue to list more items.  The minimum currently is a 4.1, and it must be maintained continuously every 30 days.  You get a warning when any category falls below 4.5.

The Detailed Seller Ratings from one of eBay's top 100 sellers.  Despite the high marks, two categories are only rated as middle 50% statistically by DSRWatch.com (http://www.dsrwatch.com).  

 

         Also, sellers’ are no longer able to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers; this has been a source of much controversy, and websites have been created to allow sellers to leave feedback on their custom sites.  I have had buyers leave me negative and neutral feedback without communicating or trying to resolve the situation at all because there are no checks and balances.  In short, you need to be very aware as a seller that it isn’t hard for you at all to be restricted or banned from eBay, especially if you are a new user and don’t know the ropes.

A negative rating on eBuyer Feedback (http://www.ebuyer-feedback.com).  Some sites have been created to attempt to rebalance the feedback system for sellers.  

 

         Most of the problems I have personally had involve shipping problems.  Although you aren’t technically responsible for what happens to a package once it is shipped, you can be sure that the customer won’t know or care about that provision.  Generally you should maintain some sort of proof that you shipped an item.  I suggest not using just stamps and receiving a receipt for every shipment purchase.

         It is always good to keep an extra eBay seller account active just in case something was to happen to your original one.  Especially for a new member, policy violations can be easy to accrue, and eBay will seldom listen to any explanations you might have or give you a second chance.  Make sure you create your second account around the same time you create your first one.  If you try to create a new one after your account has already been limited or suspended, they will generally detect this and ban it also.

 

 

 

 

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