OMG how many of these companies does Ebay allow??? Seriously??
How is this not deceptive commerce?
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I’m no lawyer but I wonder if I could use our warranty to pursue eBay for enabling the fraud? There has to be hundreds of purchases of our products where there is no warranty because the recipient was not the purchaser.
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You can certainly sue the sellers if they were selling in New condition. I think you’d have a hard time suing ebay because you only recently notified them of the issue, and they took the listings down. It’s the brand owner’s responsibility to notify the platform if there’s a problem with a listing. Ebay can’t magically know that they’re misrepresenting the listings unless someone tells them. If you notify them and they refuse to remove then they might have liability.
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Well we do have a lawyer for trademarks, as he is the one who said he didn’t know anything about Amazon arbitration and wouldn’t touch that issue with a 10’ pole.
The bigger issue is…
I believe eBay enables this IP theft and consumer fraud. How many branded items are sold as new on eBay that are drop shipped and therefore used.
eBay can and does know their acceptance of these overseas tracking flippers is deceptive. The reviews show it and the vendors they approve clearly state they do it, along with market and advertise this as a benefit for doing the obfuscation of the origin and location.
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Overseas sellers are a major issue. There really needs to be a crackdown at the federal level restricting how foreign sellers can do business here. (At the minimum, some US citizen needs to be liable for the company’s actions). It’s an issue for almost all marketplace platforms as well as services associated with them. How many Amazon VA/appeal/etc services are there that falsely market, and also do a crap job and get people suspended out there? Granted that’s the seller’s fault for hiring a foreigner they have zero recourse against, but still.
The fake tracking numbers are definitely a case for a consumer fraud class action lawsuit. The misrepresented “new” listings could also be part of that case.
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But eBay even creates that problem… Look at this…
I get a lot of people hate California for a multitude of reasons but San Bernardino is not anywhere near Israel.
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Well, FBM sellers on every platform are usually able to specify the ship from location, since the warehouse location isn’t necessarily where the seller’s located. There are (a small number of) sellers who legitimately use a 3PL service that’s far from their own location.
The only reason I can think of why ebay allows the fake tracking number thing, is because they’re a dead platform and all they got left are dropshippers, knock off sellers, and people selling used junk.
I wouldn’t buy anything from ebay unless I was looking for a deal on something that’s grey market or fake or used. Why people are willing to pay a dropshipper MORE for a grey market item is beyond me.
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Well we are only buying to use it for trademark enforcement. Simply seeing it on the website does not mean anything. I am having fun making money off these clowns, but we do need to document each time we get an Amazon drop shipment.
How many counterfeit items have to change hands before ebay is the facilitator of said transactions?? We have received fake items as well as drop shipped product and INR.
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Yes they are and account for most all of the hacking
and other associated problems for US online sellers.
This is true on Amazon as well.
Agreed.
We have had a different experience and our sales and profits there
continue to grow as the platform offers many advantages over Amazon.
We sell only new goods obtained through wholesale accounts and have
sold on eBay for over 20 years.
It is true that eBay may never outgrow its yard sale reputation but we
continue to find it a more profitable net income stream than Amazon
despite selling more total units on Amazon.
We could not agree more.
When we recognized “sellers” listing on eBay and fulfilling from
our copied Amazon listings at inflated prices, we simply reported them.
There were a dozen or so of them and it took about 30 minutes to
complete the reporting.
30 days later they were all gone… One year later they still are.
No test buys… no hassle.
If only it was so easy on Amazon who of course loves overseas sellers
and the associated overseas dollars flowing into their coffers.
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Did you do this through the Vero method? We tired that years ago, and it was problematic. Once our claim was challenged we had no where to go but court.
Testing a UPC code we imaged to our trade dress yesterday, and ebay listings showed up. Scrapers taking all of our amazon images and text then selling the items. I found one seller that sold one item. Our sell price $34.95, they sold it at $54+.
I put a spreadsheet together of all the sellers, and will be going the Vero route.
I looked at the @VTR method of raising our Amazon price and ordering some. The problem is these are popular products on Amazon, I would rather keep the cashflow going and not have customers walk away.
And yes, I should list them on eBay too. Got help from the SAS a month or so ago on uploading, need to get back to that.
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Well, this makes sense. If they don’t challenge the claim then it’s removed, if they do challenge it, ebay is not a court and they have no real authority to decide who’s right and who’s wrong. Most sellers will back off against an infringement claim, but if they decide to double down, then the brand owner also needs to double down (if they care) and go to court and get their entire account shut down. Filing the first lawsuit is an investment as you need to pay for it to be written. Subsequent lawsuits, if any, are a lot cheaper since it’d be the same lawsuit with the name changed.
Having an authorized ebay seller (which can be yourself) is also another way to kill off the dropshippers since the cheaper offer will make it’s way to the top of the rankings and people won’t order from them. The listing existing by itself isn’t a problem if they’re no longer getting sales.
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Yes, and going to court for one overcharged, used sold as new, copyright infringement sale is not worth the time.
We have been on eBay since 1999. We just got inactive since Amazon and our own websites were doing so well. That will change when I can find a RoundTuit. As in I need to get around to it.
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You might - Otterbox bit down on and would not let go of an Amazon reseller, but they lined their ducks up with great care, and let a lot of infringement go on before filing suit to make sure that they had very clear and undeniable data.
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Exactly why some people will call the bluff. But that is a risky game because if you call the bluff against the wrong company, you can get your account shut down. There’s been a few posts on the seller forums about people who counter-noticed a disney type company copyright claim and were stunned when they got shut down after disney actually filed a lawsuit. But against small companies counter-noticing a copyright claim is almost always the way to go since they’re unlikely to follow through. Some sellers will counter-notice and remove the listing, which is the smartest way to go about it, since counter-noticing removes the violation from your account, but if you continue listing it the RO might find another way to take action in the future.
You could also always partner with a 3P company to handle the ebay channel. They obviously won’t manage it as well as you would, but at the minimum they’ll keep the listings active at the correct price to kill off the rip off dropshipping listings.
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Haha. I just got a scab drop shipper who bought our inflated Amazon price but we only had 2 left but we bought 4 on ebay, tell me openly they only shipped 2 because they believe we will file INR on them and they will ship the other 2 once we confirm receipt.
Still fake tracking, no update on said fake tracking.
I know it is shipping via Amazon because I saw the sale for the last 2 in FBA, so we jacked the price up to $90 for the SF inventory so they are in a pickle.
Also on a funny note, the return window for eBay is 8 days longer than Amazon, so if I want to stick it to them, I can simply ask for a return after the 30 day Amazon window closes and Amazon will not accept returns and they are not in the United States.
These scabs are such lowlifes.
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Another reason ebay’s a joke marketplace. That’s abusive communication with a buyer. You can’t say that to a buyer even if they’re openly and obviously scamming you. The seller has to be professional no matter what
If there’s a suspected problem with a buyer there’s steps that can be done, like requiring a signature even if that pisses off the buyer, but under no circumstances should unprofessional communications be allowed.
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Yup and eBay turns a blind eye.
My credit card was charged for the full amount of 4 items plus tax. And eBay has no customer service number to call or anything.
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If I ever got a message like that from any seller, or any business, I would go out of my way to scam them just for the insulting message. And this is an ebay “top rated seller” based on their star rating.
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Either way they are screwed. They cant buy two more units to ship for less than double what they sold them for, so when the two arrive via drop ship I will state I received them from Amazon, and report them for drop shipping and counterfeit later. Then, if I do not get the other 2 I will wait till after the Amazon return window closes and request a return/refund or simply keep the items knowing I made money off them and got to leave a horrible review and report.
I already reported the buyer order on Amazon as a ebay drop shipper trying to damage our business.
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