Ebay horror story

This is all taking place as I write this so this may be an ever changing post.

Here's the events so far. This morning I woke up to find that Ebay had canceled one of my listings and notified the bidders of this fact. Problem is this wasn't a current auction. It had closed, I had been paid and I had shipped the item. I arrive home from work to find a very pointed email from the buyer demanding I refund his money! So now I have to refund a customer who will have the item in a day or so. I'm not only losing my item I'm paying for it.

The reason for the cancellation, ebay claims 'trademark infringement'. I was selling a pair of Heely's I got from Jimmy. They did not tell me any more. They want me to fix it but I don't know what the offending words or pictures are and I don't even know where the listing has gone. I now have a 'poor' rating for my policy compliance. I have emailed the trust and security folks, I'm not holding my breath. Anybody got any suggestions for my next move?

Not a lot more you can do now except wait for them to get in touch so you can start unrabling where all this has gone wrong for you. I would simply email the customer to notify them that I am unable to offer any refund at this time for two reasons.

1. The item has already been shipped
2. You need to wait for clarification from ebay to find out what the
issue is.

Just get an open line of communication established with ebay, and put your customer's mind at ease, they are the only two things you can do.

nowadays, on eBay, you have to be especially careful to make sure to list items correctly and make sure to abide by eBays policies to the letter. veros are all over ebay now, and even if you are selling a genuine item, they can still remove you unless you list the item in the exact right way that the vero requires. it can be very stressful, because sometimes you think youre doing everything right, but you still get in trouble. i know because this has happened to me a couple of times, but i learned my lesson. just make sure that whatever you are listing, be sure to follow the ebay policy and guidelines for listing that item, and of course follow the veros guidelines as well. you can look up the particular vero for your item on ebay.

You have to watch what actual pictures are in the listing. If you are using any of the logos from Heely in the auction they will get you for infringement.

I have not seen your auction but there should be no reason at all why your auction was removed. Your item is legit and originally purchased from a authorized distributer then passed along to a Broker so you have no responsibility to prove anything to them about its authenticity..

Did you follow my guide? Where I state you list your products are a Return or overstock from a Major Retailer?

This generally alleviates any vero concern on a product.

Most likely a competitor falsely reported you to get your auction shut down. So I suggest you fight the matter with Ebay

If they need any info to backup your claim Tell them to contact Me. And I will set them straight

Thanks for the info Jimmy. I mentioned in the listing that it was a store demo. I took the pics myself and I wrote the copy. I didn't use any logos or cut and paste anything. The only thing I can think of is I spelled Heelys two ways, I also spelled it Heelies. Is there another Heelies company that would get upset? There are other listings that have done the same thing. Thanks for the offer of verification of authenticity. If they do need to contact you how should they do so? I haven't heard back from them yet.

Well I got a reply from Ebay, essentially it says contact the folks that complained, and it gives me an email address. Lotta help that was...

^well, yeah, thats the process, and thats what happened to me. ebay gives you the email address or contact info of the VERO that removed your listing. you then would email the vero asking why your listing was removed. the vero will reply back to you with what you can do to prove that your item is authentic or with how you can list that item in such a way that veros wont feel inclined to remove the listing. just make sure that the next time you list the item you follow the guidelines or requirements of the vero to make sure it is listed correctly. remember, whatever item you are listing, before you list the item, you can look up the vero for that brand of that item on ebay. ebay lists all the veros. when you look up a particular vero, you will see their 'about me' page, just be sure to read that page, because it will explain how to list the item in such a way that the listing has very little chance of removal.

So far I have sent three messages to the buyer, all have been ignored. The package was delivered yesterday at 2:30.

I cannot find anywhere the listing they canceled. It's not in my closed items or anywhere I can find it. when I search the listing number I get nothing. How can I fix it if I can't find it?

Yeah ebay sucks. Thats why i use this auction
Link hidden: Login to view worldwide and translates in other languages.

Weird. I never had anything pulled from eBay except a microsoft item which I said was opened. ALl the other MS product I listed was fine because it was sealed and brand new.

Its weird becasue I see a lot of sports team items up for sale which I know for a fact are not licenses, but they are up all the time.
I know for a fact because I know where and how they get them because I get similar items to.

Yes this does sound very stupid. Did you contact the vero rights owner and ask them why they had your auction pulled?

Weird. I never had anything pulled from eBay except a microsoft item which I said was opened. ALl the other MS product I listed was fine because it was sealed and brand new.

planes, is your MS software genuine? do you still sell software? and do you get a good profit?

Yes this does sound very stupid. Did you contact the vero rights owner and ask them why they had your auction pulled?

Yes, I did this and haven't heard back yet.

The buyer of my item has agreed to return it finally but I have to pay postage. I guess that's better than nothing.

I also asked ebay how they can cancel a completed/paid/delivered sale and I haven't heard from them either.

planes, is your MS software genuine? do you still sell software? and do you get a good profit?

Actually, I got a bunch of this stuff from a collectibles shop I was selling for.

I got a bunch of Office type stuff and sold it all.

Yes, I did this and haven't heard back yet.

The buyer of my item has agreed to return it finally but I have to pay postage. I guess that's better than nothing.

I also asked ebay how they can cancel a completed/paid/delivered sale and I haven't heard from them either.

Keep contacting them until they answer. Be polite but ask for specific reasons why this happened.

Well, here is the response I got from the rights holder.

'Your auction was removed due to unlawful and unauthorized use of the trademark HEELYS, HEELIES or infringing variations thereof in connection with roller shoes or related products. Heeling Sports Limited owns these trademark rights. Your continued acts of infringement will subject you and your company to possible removal of your eBay account and/or a lawsuit brought on behalf of the trademark owner. Please cease all unauthorized use of HEELYS, HEELIES or infringing variations thereof. If you as selling authentic HEELYS, the word HEELYS, but NOT HEELIES or other misspellings, may be used in your description. Below is a copy of the listing we requested be removed from eBay for your review. Thank you for your inquiry.'

There you have it... I spelled Heelys a different way and got slammed for it. Anyone else out there selling Jimmy's Heelys beware, they are watching you...

Hello everyone my name is Daphne and I have opened a new auction site myauctionfix.com. I only charge $8.33 a month and you can list all you want to. All you have to do is get verified. you can do everything on my site you can do on Ebay for the same $8.33. The only thing extra is if you feature on main page ($2.00)or catagory feature (1.00) of course these are optional. I don't have the UPC scanner yet but thats coming soon. Not sure when but soon. I have dutch listing, bulk listing, auto relist up to 50 times, upload up to 6 pics. All for the same $8.33. So If Ebay is not treating you right come on over to my site and check me out.
myauctionfix.com See you there. Daphne

Wonder hat would happen if you put 'Heelys NOT Heelies' in your posting. Would you still get slammed by eBay?

Wonder hat would happen if you put 'Heelys NOT Heelies' in your posting. Would you still get slammed by eBay?

You will get jumped on for any breach, and that includes using a name other than the licensed name of the product, as to use any other name may be an infringement of copyright on another product, as well as the product you are selling.

So now how do I get rid of the 'Poor' policy compliance rating. I've emailed trust and security and not gotten a response. Any suggestions?

Try their online support, you might be able to get some assistance to speed up the process.

Failing that, not a lot you can do other than wait or email them again.

Their support is fairly useless, they know little more than you a lot of the time. All you can do really is sit tight and wait, they usually sort themselves out eventually.

Don't you just love eBay sometimes...

Usually, they just keep responding with the 'copy and paste' legalize - mumbo jumbo - that you didn't understand when you read it the first time.

Good Luck!!!!!!

Or they do that :) Is there any update on the situation?

Another perfectly confirmed reason why I stopped dealing with eBay long ago.

Then I left behind the world of official brands because I didn't want to go to court to fight these freaks, even over things sold on iOffer, wasting everyone's time and money.

I just realized how much BS it really was and a waste of my time, waste of the public's time, and pure nonsense so I stopped doing it. eBay can rot for this BS for all I really care.


And I have informed the lawyer of that as well. I only deal with Amazon, Godaddy marketplace and official merchant sites now. And everything sold is always backed up, thank god I'm not dealing with the insanity of eBay or Vero any longer.

Hopefully you've resolved this by now. I had a similiar problem with the sunglasses I sell. It went on for a couple of months & I couldn't get eBay to answer any questions. Forget emailing them. It's a huge waste of time & does nothing but make you angry at them. I finally starting using the live chat. It is the ONLY way to get a 'live' person. Some of the people you get couldn't care less, but keep trying & you finally get someone to give you a real answer. In my case, I had the sunglasses listed in the wrong category. Why couldn't they simply tell me this??? That would be too easy, but when I put it in the correct category, I haven't had a problem since. eBay is extremely impersonal & doesn't care about the small seller, but keep trying & when you get it right, it works... Good Luck!

It might be worth it to just drop the whole thing and move on.
JAN and FEB are the worse time of year to try and sell VERO items as I have found.

The problem is is its a new item. And they probably have strict selling rules with their retailers to protect their pricing structure and their retailers.

Many companies hate eBay because they don't want their items being sold off at to good of a price. Or they want it sold a certain way within a certain selling strategy.

If you are still bent on selling the item, wait until spring. Open a different eBay account, build it up and sell off the item to recoup your losses.