MC999 eBay Indefinite Selling Restriction

I have been working very hard this year to get a small venture up and running.



Had a small problem on my trial run as the gold marked crashed with out warning.so asked every one who had won gold at stupidly low prices if they would mind me canceling the sale's.

Surprise surprise only one woman agreed(she later rescinded he permission and complained and left neutral feed back).

I upheld the transaction to all but two people who I gave a full refund to.

The first was a miss-listing as I had not noticed the watch T-bar was not hallmarked tho it had been won at auction.(well I had noticed at point of acquisition but forgot by the time I did the listing.)

This meant that I could not sell it as gold due to the Hallmark act and when I tried to explain to the buyer he became very insulting and called me a liar.

The second was a woman in the U.S.A. even tho it was at a loss I tried to post the item but found she had chosen the U.K. postal option so wanted me to pay for the hole transatlantic trip.the cost of P&P was more than the item so I refunded her but still got called a "rip off merchant"

Now ebay has suspended my selling privileges indefinitely.

I am left with stock I bought based on the sale's figures for my ebay account.

I could recoup some of my money by processing them but they are above the level that would make that profitable.

I have to return several lot's a week to ebay from people who are actively trying to defraud people ,I have never been able to get them banned despite my best efforts.

Why have they chosen to ban some one who is letting people have access to gold items for not much more than the spot price of the contained metals.

It is beyond reason,I am licensed by the S.I.A. and have a full security background.my main work is guarding high value assets for local government body's and the court system.

Cant they ask if they have a concern instead of closing down a very important part of a very young business.

I have not even made enough to justify the cost of photographic equipment needed to list things properly.

What am I to Do??

Reguardless of if the market crashed or not you have to honor your sales contract. and i would have left negative feedback to. I can't imagine selling a gold contract for delivery at a future date and then telling my buyer i can't deliver because the price went down and ill lose money. with those ethics you won't be in the gold business long.

There is a thread on how to be on the safe side dealing with gold at alternating spot prices. It is about buying short positions along with buying real gold (which is a kind of long position).

Well I asked politely and then payed out.
It was my first attempt at stepping up to gold.
Funny enough in the silver market thing's where much more gentlemanly.
Even on the auction room floor if a lot has not made a reasonable price the auctioneer will simply say "No Sale" and the floor will say "o Well" and move onto the next lot.
I honored every one except one who wanted free posting and one slight technical error in fifty lot's..
Not really an attempt to defraud any one so why treat it like so.

A contract is a contract is a contract.

How would you feel, if I as a buyer always would make the far highest bid and only stay to my word, if I won the auction at a price I like? Then you sellers would call me a fun bidder.

solar_plasma said:

A contract is a contract is a contract.

Click to expand...

exactly.
The terms allow for the the canceling of sales due to a listing error which was the reason for holding the watch T-Bar
I will not even try to explain why I can't send to the U.S. for £2.
But it is sad that Banks and Stock brokers can cease trading when they run into a crash,then get bailed out by the government but an honest trader is expected to shoulder any burden.
Even though the problem was caused by three or four governments flooding the market with half price gold with out warning

justinhcase said:

Even on the auction room floor if a lot has not made a reasonable price the auctioneer will simply say "No Sale" and the floor will say "o Well" and move onto the next lot.

Click to expand...

If I go to an auction and they have "no reserve" on the items and I'm the highest bidder... regardless of how low the item sells for to me I will be damned if they pass the item with me being the highest bidder... if the auctioneer isn't happy with a price he is getting well that's just tough if they don't state it is a no reserve.

I have ZERO problem standing up in the middle of the auction and asking the auctioneer whats going on and why are you passing on the item when I'm the highest bidder.

I had a run in recently with a consignor bidding his own items up I called it out in the middle of the sale.

Just because the item doesn't sell for what you want it to sell for gives you no right to try to wiggle your way out of selling it. irregardless of if your trying to find some technicality to not sell the items for...

just my 2 cents

The one thing more valuable than gold in this business is a man's word and his reputation. without that their is no business. I have client's that with just my phone call will transfer large amounts of metals or money. Let me fail to keep my word and all that goes away. Not bitching about you just telling you some advice.

Yep. Fleabay at it's finest.

You should have explained everything to the winning bidders and allowed them to decide if they still want the item.
The shipping however is a different story. You should have figured out shipping and sent her the bill. Not just cancel.

B.S.
Get a hold of fleabay police and explain as best as possible each situation and ask them to help you come to an agreement to get your account back.

Well if I had let the miss listed item go I would have been a criminal under the hallmark act.
Because I had neglected to state it was being sold as a watch T-bar and not being sold as gold which it is.
I depend on a spotless record for my security license and could not take the risk as any problems would loos my main income.
I did explain every thing correctly and politely but have to say I do not respond well to being called a liar.
If people are not polite and amicable to a far resolution I proffer not to associate with them at all.
Having worked in conflict resolution for over twenty years my main observation is that it is only a far solution if both side's are disappointed.
My methods are the result of some hard won lessons mediating in places police and government officials would not go by them self's and defending high value assets so I am enjoying the move to the much more docile and low stress environment of Gold trading.
I have to say compared to my last two businesses which are still running this one is by far the easiest to set up and run.once the fine tuning is finished I can not see a problem.
Just the V.A.T. savings on my next set of work shops will be unbelievable compared to the way my sound system business has been treated.
It is a pity eBay is set to an automated set of programed instructions.the people who complained only have two or three purchases to there account and from the way they knew the eBay system I would have to conclude that they where professional buyers who use multiple identity's to bully and control there sellers.
I just have had the one identity for ten years and did not have any of this trouble with silver.
Dishonest bully's are one of my favorite things to eat.

Just finished a phone marathon with eBay.
It turned out that according to them I was selling items at suspiciously low prices with out a proper description.
I explained that I could show sale's receipts for every thing and prove I had sold them for more than the the metal content and the descriptions where very accurate .
The problem had nothing to do with my feed back.
It was made by a team reviewing my sales and coming to the conclusion my sale's model would be open to "miss use" what ever that is meant to mean.
But no appeal ,no way to ever undo it ,just feel free to buy as much as you want but never ever try to sell any thing on ebay ever again.
I am totally speechless.I would have loved to get more money for my kit and made do with a slim profit as I classed it as research.
What a kick in the guts.
There are convicted criminals who only get a ban on trading the item they where convicted of an offense for.
Just go's to show if you start to make any money in this country some one will close you down.

Ian_B said:

I had a run in recently with a consignor bidding his own items up I called it out in the middle of the sale.

Click to expand...

There is nothing wrong with this and if its not stated in the bidding agreement its OK. If they want their item back it sometimes the only way to get it out of the auction without paying a large fee. Sometimes this is the cheaper way to go. if you wanted the item bid what you think its worth and stop. Why would you complain and waste others time by stopping an auction. I would assume this could get your bid not recognized or you ran up just for fun.

As far as the OP if you have your account closed down for this open another one and go on with your business. If people in China can do it why not you. this time only have 24hr sales with no international shopping.

Eric

I know every body else is comfortable using false identity now and again but having worked in a trusted position for so long I am kind of stuck with a mental block.
I want to avoid any thing that would leave my business open to misinterpretation.
With this activity it is not a matter of if the police take an interest but more of when.
I have found that if you have used any thing that is considered deceptive they will find it and it will tar every thing else you are doing with the same very black brush.
I will simply have to employ yet an other person who is untarnished with suspicion and give them a % of an already small pot.
My test run had only identified the items that would give the best return over all and which where best processed.
My next more focused run( which I now have in a box doing nothing) would have given some firm figures as to profitability.
I will just have to process every thing I get and avoid dealing in items as much as possible at least that is completely V.A.T. Exempt
I was having real problems working out a polymorphic stock tracking system which could cope with the tracking needed to run divers lots into different taxing codes.Now I will not have to because every thing will go to bullion.
But when it turn's out I destroyed a historical important piece please remember I did try to set up a direct sale's route LOL.(just thought I should say that is a joke i never get any thing above the junk line)
Much thanks for the advice.
And be very polite and respectful to Auctioneers.Even if they miss your winning bid on a brilliant item.
They will control not just that auction but probably you will run into the same faces again an again as you travel.
They have a duel position of trust they have to weigh getting a good price for the clients who bring them lot's and a far selling floor for the people paying the bills.
Not an easy position to be in but if you give them some space and respect they will eventually reward you when you ask to drop the cost of unwanted lot's.
Having an auctioneer who looks to you before ever closing the bidding is a real help.

Some one has a real scene of humor,now they have sent me a £75 voucher to thank me for my patience.
What am I meant to do with that,buy a rope to hang my self by.
A big warning to any one thinking about putting to much effort into your ebay listings.
Unless you are pretending to be an old granny eBay's requirement do not rely on any particular level of turnover, profit, etc. You can be making a continual loss but will still be considered a Business Seller on eBay, which involves displaying compliant T&C and your contact details.................
Even if you are just one bloke working out of a shed 2m by 2m in your spare time.
Being over successful is not a thing I am use to so am completely face smacked to find out after day's of digging what the problem actually was.
Even if they had just explained it would have saved me several days of grief.
And I would never have invested my time with them at all.

There's an easy way out of this Justin.

Restrict your auctions to the UK.

spaceships said:

There's an easy way out of this Justin.

Restrict your auctions to the UK.

Click to expand...

Agreed, my listings for example are USA Only, does a nice job usually of keeping stress levels down in regards to legalities and shipping charges

Well now I know it is to late.
An automatic life long ban from all selling no notice or questions just bad assumptions based on incomplete data.
just lost the little bonus of being able to sell any thing on ebay for life.
Never even thought I was at a level that would need for me to look into registering as a business.
Only put £500 worth of kit I had acquired and cherry picked from my scrap stream.
Why they would mistake a half headed idiot like myself as a threat I will never know.

Sadly mate that's the way eBay works.

Putting an auction up that says you'll ship anywhere is a hiding to nowhere unless you're prepared to do it come what may.

Create a new E-bay name...?