Irresponsible Seller + unhelpful ebay = Loss of business + Headache

[cobracable-india]

Hi Everybody,

I am writing here for the first time. I used to read other sellers' posts and used to thank god that I had not faced most of the problems mentioned by them. Its not that I haven't faced any problems at all during my four year selling experience on ebay but they were very few and not worth mentioning. There were all kinds of problems - unreasonable buyer demands, non-paying buyers, lack of support from ebay, chargebacks, etc. but today, I am facing a problem that is different from all of these.

A seller, memory-tiger, http://myworld.ebay.in/memory-tiger/ has copied 150 of my listings word to word alongwith my original pictures and listed them very cleverly at Re.1 to Rs.5 less than my prices. I complained to ebay and they asked me to report the items that were being copied. I started reporting but the process of reporting is so slow that it would take me forever to report all of them. I asked ebay again for help but all they could do was to advice me to contact the seller directly. It is interesting that the same ebay had marked a violation in my account when I copied a picture from a seller on ebay.com. Anyways, I did as told. The seller was prompt in making an excuse that he was not actively monitoring the ebay shop. May be the staff had copied my listings and he would remove them all within 3-4 days. It was fair enough. But, even after 15 days that seller is still using my listings as it is. Here I would like to mention that out of these 150 listings atleast 50 are for such products that can not be found in the market at all. The others may be available but may not be the same shape, design and brand as mine. SO, I am surprised at his carelessness. Where from will he get those products if they are sold? He has blindly copied everything even the products that bear my brand logo. I am loosing a lot of business because of this nuisance seller. Has any of my fellow seller's experienced anything like this before? If yes, can anyone suggest me the ways to handle this matter. I am really disturbed and feel all alone. 😞

Regards,

Anil
Cables Etc.
http://stores.ebay.in/Cables-etcetra

[rg_diamonds]

Hi Anil,
We faced a similar situation last year, though our products are loose diamonds & jewellery. Though same products are available in marktet, yet none of the genuine or old sellers copy the same title/description or list it for Re.1/- or Rs.5/- less.

The seller who harassed us was new at that time, though a powerseller now (will not like to mention his seller id, though if he'll be reading this will certainly know), he copied the title, the whole description & listed the items for Re.1/- or Rs.5/- less, we lost a lot of business, because with 800+ listings, we just couldn't revise or keep a track for such a small difference. We ran from pillar to post, TnS, account manager, category manager, but no help. Finally though tedious, but we did the same thing as that seller & finally a lesson was learnt by him. As he was a new seller & we were 500+ feedback powerseller with 100% ratings, thus his sells not only dropped but stopped.

He finally had to start thinking & apply his minds. Well, he is doing great now & no issues. Hope this can be of some help to you.

Best Regards,
MJDiamond1

[snrama]

Hi,

This is the known case. We cannot help. There are sellers (including powersellers) who doesn't have creativity. We cannot blame them, but need to blame ourselves.

Example:

My Listing:
Item No: 270428809722

Other Seller Listings:
Item No: 110415176116, 25047060133

The issue is, if you check the picture link of the other sellers listing, it shows my name as the pictures are used from my photobucket links.

Ebay cannot look over this issue even if I report as they just check the listing time and not the other details. ---------------
With Regards,
Navaneeth (snrama) 😉

[cobracable-india]

Thanks Navaneeth and mjdiamonds for sparing time to read my long message and replying. Though this is not a solution to my problem but still I feel a relief that this is not a unique problem I am having. mjdiamond, you have gone through a similar situation and have even handled it suceessfully. I think I also should try your technique. May be that seller will give up some day. But, this is very unfortunate that we are left all on our own and ebay doesn't help even in such straight forward cases where a powerseller, giving them regular business for so many years, is harrassed by a new seller. They dont even have a combined form to report multiple violations together. If any ebay officials are reading this post, kindly comment.

Regards,

Anil

[rajelectroniks]

A very simple solution to your problem is to WATERMARK all your images with the title "Always buy from cables-etc on ebay".

This will deter the copiers and even if they copy the buyers will come to know that images have been copied from cables-etc seller.

I have used this method and no one copies my images now.

******************************* Regards.
Raj Electronics.

[blackberry.stores]

Our listings and images are always copied as well. We work really hard on listings but even powersellers with thousands feedback do the same.

Its shame.

:)

[krishnaindia]

Whilst copying is the best form of flattery but it scrapes the profit when it is done on eBay.

Watermark as Raj mentioned .

Start using warning phrases like beware of sellers selling second-grade goods, etc etc.

Send a polite mail to the other seller asking him not to copy and actually welcome him aboard ebay with original photos and content.

Use this link:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/vero-image-text-theft.html Use the report link given there.