Expert: Russell Smiley - 2/13/2008

Question
My account was recently suspended by eBay.  I sell DVDs on eBay that are 100% legit and from the manufacturer.  Sealed and brand new.  The description and picture used with the auctions are mine and mine alone.  My items are genuine.  That said, how can eBay legally do this to me?  I have done the VeRO tutorial and made sure my listings comply with it, and then this unexpected turn of events.  I see that sellers are starting to fight back with lawsuits.  Please comment.  Thanks.

Answer
My account was suspended once before because of the VeRO policy. The product I was selling was a DVD Burner and it got pulled because the Safty & trusty team said that it allowed users to duplicate copyright CD's/DVD's. I wrote to them many times before they admitted they made a mistake. I gave them the facts. I explained how a DVD burner by itself does not allow people to burn copyrighted CD/DVD's. I also explained that the item was though a drop shipper. I also brought to ebay's attention that their were over 3,000 CD/DVD burners up for auction. It took me months of writing to them before they agreed to lifted my suspension. Then when they did lift my suspension, my account was still suspended. I had to email them 4 times explaining that its bad enough to have my account wrongfully suspended, but its even worse to still be suspended. I think that eBAy uses software people sell counterfeit software, so its not an actual person. They make a split decision right their without even looking at the whole listing. Im not sure about the legality of the whole issue with lawsuits. Believe me, its a headache to get your account reinstated. If you would like I can assist you with getting your account reinstated.