eBay is facing pressure from the big designer handbag companies to restrict listings that promote replicas as authentic and violate trademark rights. Ebay’s reaction to this pressure was the seemingly arbitrary removal of any handbag listing that remotely looked like it might be illegal. As a result of the handbag listing removal process, many legitimate designer handbag auctions were removed along with some sellers being suspended.
After some good research, I finally found a legitimate dealer of designer handbags, which I believed met eBay's standards. I was a Power Seller with a high feedback rating and a good percentage. Believing all was well, I listed some Fendi and Prada handbags only to find that my account had been suspended and all auctions removed for violating eBay policy.
Now I do not fault eBay for attempting to deal with all the misrepresentation and scamming that goes on in its auctions, especially with such popular name designer handbags. I do however question their methods, which seemingly punish the true blue honest seller. I had no intent of selling replicas or fake designer handbags.
As I poured through the popular designer handbag forums reading some of the handbag sellers thoughts, questions and concerns as to what to do next, I came to the conclusion that many of them were as confused as I am. I believe that eBay owes some loyalty to those legitimate and honest designer handbag sellers who have worked very hard to maintain good- to- excellent customer feedback and who have probably paid eBay thousands of dollars in listing fees, a chance to be fairly heard. eBay needs to be specific about what it is they want in their listings so the honest sellers can adapt to eBay’s guidelines, not shoot first and ask questions later.
So it seems this is the response after the LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior companies file a lawsuit against eBay, saying that almost 90 percent of the designer handbags listed were fakes. eBay suggests its up to the trademark companies to point this out. Now after the lawsuit, several legitimate eBay designer handbag sellers along with who knows how many replica listings were removed. I am all for the fact of having these replica listings removed. Suspending honest hard working people without giving them a chance to defend or explain themselves is hardly beneficial to either eBay or the designer handbag retailers involved. If eBay is willing to change is stance and truly listen to us honest sellers and allow us to adapt to their policies and rules all again would be rosy in the eBay world.
So where do we go from here? If we are to rectify this situation, I believe we should contact eBay and continue to ask for specific reasons as to why our designer handbag listings were removed and also ask what we can do as sellers to avoid this type of occurrence in the future. There is weight in numbers
It leaves me thinking where does the designer handbag community go, there are not really any other mediums that deliver the true sales power of eBay. Classified ad sites like Craigslist seem to come at a far second compared to the auction giant. For years I relied on this auction listing process like many others to provide a good marketing medium to my customers and to provide myself with a full-time income suddenly to be washed away by the big designer handbag tidal wave.
» left by Anonymous (1 year 188 days ago.)
no kidding we all need to rally!!!! People jobs are at stake! Respond to this comment
» left by Anonymous (1 year 97 days ago.)
I wonder, if you could get the designer store to authenticate your bags (say on their letter head and signed by some high ranking official from their company), shouldn't they be the one to thank you, 'cos afterall, if you are buying their handbags (no matter where you obtain them as long as they are authentically manufactured by the original designers) and marketing them to your group of buyers, shouldn't they be happy with your performance?? This way, your customer will feel more at ease in purchasing from you if they have the assurance that the items are indeed original and not high grade knockoffs. Respond to this comment
» left by Angela from San Francisco (186 days 1 hour ago.)
I just got ripped off by Ebay c/o of a Seller that had good feedback except when I researched into feedback 3 years ago I found a similiar complaint. Problem is that once purchased from buyer on Ebay it can be hard to turn it around without spending more money and time to prove that you were ripped off. My beef was the dimensions of the handbag it was a smaller handbag and it had threads coming from the seams and it was supposed to be New and New with tags, wrong, not when I received it. Yikes...its scary, I might have to eat $360.00 and the buyer is telling me that I created these stories to try to get my monies back. If one is not aware buyers will continue to purchase riplica authentic designers items. Its better to purchase from the store now I am finding out. Thanks for your article. I hope Ebay could get a handle on this too.
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