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Customers from Hell

(A Problem of Instant Suspension for eBook Sellers on eBay) Posted by Avril Harper

A few things have happened recently that left me feeling totally disgusted at how incredibly low some people can sink to capture a larger share of the eBay eBook market for whatever they are selling, regardless of how much damage this causes other sellers.  It all had to do with selling eBooks on eBay, and though I thought not to dwell on the subject at the time, events took a sudden turn this morning which made my experience one I thought would benefit my readers, especially any selling eBooks on eBay.

Basically, I bought a fabulous book, with resell rights, showing how to sell eBooks on eBay.  It was written by a top eBay PowerSeller and the book was amazing.  Real top drawer stuff.  I checked out the writer, I even bought more of his work, I was keen to learn from the book myself and also promote it to my own customers.

I won’t reveal names here, there are awful people and good in my case study, but names don’t actually concern us now as much as eBay’s attitude towards a common problem affecting most people selling eBooks on eBay.

In a nutshell, I bought the book a few weeks ago, checked the seller’s eBay account, noticed he really did sell as many eBooks each month as was mentioned in his sales letter.  But what surprised me more than anything was the fact he had so little negative feedback.  Negative feedback is common for eBooks sellers who, sadly, are usually blamed for problems caused by inexperienced individuals attempting to download eBooks without really understanding how the process works.  When problems arise, those people don’t blame themselves, they don’t ask for help, they just blame the seller.  But in this case, the seller had just two negatives from more than 1000 recent entries.  That is good, very good in eBook circles.

I was happy, I entered the eBook into my stock and began selling it about three weeks later, namely yesterday.

Within minutes came several replies, all asking if I knew the author was no longer registered on eBay – a complete shock for them, a great shock for me because I had only just recently bought from him.

Then came Mr. Nasty, who chastised me for selling something written by a person who has been thrown off eBay, has been expelled by eBay as being unfit to trade with decent people, and so on.  The insults continued over several emails.

I checked and yes, my friend’s eBay account did have a mention ‘No longer a registered user’, but wait, unlike Mr. Nasty I know that does not always mean the seller has been expelled from eBay.  It could be because the person is ill, or has retired, he or she may even be dead.  But this nasty individual had assumed ‘No longer a registered user’ means just one thing, namely that the person concerned has been expelled from eBay.  Not so, but wait, my story isn’t finished yet.

The biggest upset, for me, was that the experience reminded me of a time, several years ago, when my good friend and publisher John Wilson died and I popped down to help his wife sort out deliveries for products ordered just before John took ill.  Among a huge pile of letters of sympathy were several complaints about delays and another that said something like: ‘I know John died last week but that shouldn’t stop orders being sent, should it?’

Well yes, I think death can sometimes cause a few delays especially when the deceased was the person responsible for fulfilling orders! 

Back to the future, that experience with John made me wonder whether the author for this new book had also taken ill or worse still had … no let us not dwell too long on that possibility!

Today that person emailed me, thankfully fit and well, and he told me a strange but very true tale that will benefit us all.

It transpired, not for the first time, a competitor had contacted eBay and, without evidence of any kind, reported my friend for selling an eBook he was not authorised to sell. 

In fact he was authorised to sell it, as eBay now knows, and it transpired this same problem had happened to my friend three times already, and each time eBay has closed his account, temporarily, while he proves his entitlement to sell.

In fact, this person is not really suffering at all compared to some other eBay eBook sellers I personally know very well, some of whom have been suspended, temporarily, on double figure occasions, for the exact same reason. 

All were unfairly reported, by a competitor, who does not have to prove his claims, all he has to do is contact eBay, make the complaint, then eBay closes the victim’s account.  As I say, temporarily.

eBay does not check the evidence fully before closing the account, they close it and ask questions later.  I actually have a slight semblance of sympathy with them because they bear the brunt of any genuine copyright breaches and trademark disputes on their site.   What I do find hard to accept is that eBay can make the victim wait several weeks before reinstating their account, during which time the victim loses money and the rival who complained now has a larger share of the eBook market on eBay.

I also consider it a tad wrong that eBay does not seemingly expel or even contradict the person making the complaint, even where that person does so several times a day over extended periods, as for example, an individual who complained about me selling eBooks without permission.  That was very strange in itself because I actually wrote the books he complained about, I am sole copyright owner for those books. 

In my case, eBay did not close my account, even for a minute, but they did send an email giving the nature of the complaint and stating exactly who had made it.  The reason I was not suspended had to do with just one line of text at the very top of every listing for every eBook I sell on eBay.  It goes like this:

‘WE ARE THE WRITERS AND SOLE COPYRIGHT OWNERS OF THIS BOOK.  This book is not available from any other source.  Please report anyone else selling this book on or outside of eBay to: (a special email address).’

The fact is, eBay do check – briefly - the listing affected and, though they may not read the listing in its entirety, it seems they do take notice of any mention about the seller’s entitlement to sell a particular item.

Which brings me to the part of this article where you get to benefit from other sellers’ misfortunes, the bit where I help you prove your entitlement to sell.  Next paragraph shows how to stop despicable rival sellers spoiling your day.

You may not write your own products, so a mention like mine may not be appropriate, but there’s an easy way to prove your entitlement to sell items you may have bought with Resell or PLR Rights.  The best way is to mention your rights at the top of your listing and also link through to some extra proof of your entitlement to sell, such as a copy of the resell rights certificate for the product which you can upload to a site outside eBay.  Alternatively, paste a copy of the certificate in your ‘About Me’ page.  Or simply say something like:

‘We are authorised resellers of this product.  Please email me for a copy of our license agreement or view it inside our ‘About Me’ page.’

There are other ways to safeguard your interests, such as signing up to eBay’s VERO section which among other things helps authors and copyright owners protect their individual copyrights.  It’s a little more complicated than the technique mentioned earlier but it is worth checking out and you can do that at: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/vero/index.html

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