iljewelrygalore.com

Yesterday I wrote about 600 items simply vanishing from my store. Live Help was anything but helpful - for a full transcript of our conversation - see yesterday’s post.
Well, today I found out what happened to my listings (sort of). It should give you an idea of how safe your business is on Ebay.

This morning I called PowerSeller support. A guy by the name of Dean answered. I explained to Dean that all my listings have vanished.

Oh, he says, there is a note on your file that Trust and Safety have cancelled all your listings.
What!? What do you mean they cancelled all my listings?
Well, one of your items was in breach of Ebay policy because it listed “cash” as an accepted Payment.
So I explain to him that
1. The listing had an error - when you have 600 items listed, you can make one mistake once in a while. Anyway, my policy page and my about me page which my listings refer buyers to clearly state that you CAN’T pay cash, unless you pick up the item. The fact that the remaining 599 items DO NOT list cash as a payment method clearly shows that this is an inadvertent error.
2. I had received an email that the particular item was cancelled and that I could not list NEW ITEMS for one day. The email said absolutely nothing about my other items!

For my readers here, let me paste the text of the email received:
“Dear irina3131,

Your account has been restricted from listing new items for approximately one day because of recent breaches of eBay policy. While your account is restricted you still have full access to other account functions such as sending emails, obtaining addresses and leaving feedback. To avoid account suspension, i.e. no access to your account, please comply with eBay policy at all times.

This restriction will be lifted after one day. While the restriction is active you may not register any new accounts.

Regards,

eBay”

This information does not concern Dean one bit. Well, he says, they have cancelled your other items.
Are you telling me that Trust and Safety cancelled 599 items, without telling me, because one item was in technical breach of a policy?
Sure.

I’m still having trouble believing it. Surely not even Ebay can engage in such outrageous behaviour. So I try again:
How could they have sent me an email about one item and then cancelled 599 items without event informing me?  They told me that the “consequence” of the violation was that I can’t list for a day, then they went ahead and did something completely different? Is that what you are saying?
Yes, says Dean, sounding about as concerned as if we were discussing what we had for breakfast. Its the policy, they can do that.
They can pull 599 of items that comply in every way with Ebay policy because 1 item had an innocent error in it?
Yes. The policy has been in place one and a half years and you had an item that was pulled earlier, so they can take harsher actions.

I am determined to try and find some sanity in the conversation
Dean, I say, I list THOUSANDS of items every year. When Ebay changed their policy I had to manually edit over a thousand listings. When that happens, you are bound to make a couple of mistakes. So you are saying that, because in one and a half years, and thousands of items listed, there were a couple of errors that were technically in breach of Ebay policy (although my policy pages ensure that there is no substantive breach anyway), Trust and Safety can cancel 599 listings, just like that, and not even tell me?!
Yes, he says, we have policies that allow them to cancel listings.
Where do I find a copy of this policy please? Can you email me a copy.
No. You can look at the User Agreement.

Needless to say the User Agreement contains nothing about Ebay policies for cancelling 599 items on a whim.
Dean is obviously getting tired of this discussion.

There isn’t anything I can do. You have to contact Trust and Safety.
Well I sent them an email, but they take very long to respond. Could you put me through to the department?
No.
Could you please give me a phone number I can call?
No they can only be contacted by email.
So you are saying that I can’t even talk to the people who decided to disappear 599 of my listings?!
Yes, its for legal reasons.
I am a lawyer and for the life of me I cannot think of any legal reasons why I can’t talk to the people who just cancelled 599 of my listings without telling me.
Everyone is a lawyer on the phone, Dean snarls. Apparently he is finding this all very amusing.

It is all I can do to stop myself from saying “google my name you f-wit and you’ll see that this one is a lawyer on and off the phone!”
Perhaps realising that his conduct has not been quite in the spirit of the “recognised, respected and rewarded” mantra of powerseller support, Dean offers to “bump” my email in the Trust and Safety queue and we terminate our conversation.

I send another email to Trust and Safety detailing the situation and asking for someone to contact me.

At this time, I have had no contact (phone or email) from Trust and Safety, Powerseller support or anyone at Ebay.